Dad Update

My Dad is still immobile. His leg was left to heal for awhile, hopefully with the encouragement of an external bone growth stimulator, which he wears every night, but that didn't work.

His orthopedic surgeon decided to try an invasive procedure that required removing blood cells from his hip, combining them with calcium phosphate and strontium, and delivering this to the site of the breakage. We waited for weeks to see if this, combined with the continued use of external stimulator would would work, but there was still no growth. During this time, he started working again, from home, which was really important to him.

After the first procedure didn't show any signs of success, the doctor moved onto the last resort - a permanent internal fixture. In order for this to happen, my Dad had to first undergo an outpatient surgery during which his external fixator was removed, and then the entry points were given time to heal. Yesterday he had the second part of the surgery, which was much more intense. Here is an e-mail update I got from him this morning:

I had the surgery on my leg yesterday, and I can tell you this much, it is bloody painful. The pain is around the 3 incision areas - at the bottom of my kneecap where they inserted the pin - at the bottom of my shin bone where it joins my ankle, as they put screws in there to stop downward progression of the bar, and at my hip where I have a huge scar from the bone marrow transplant.

The physiotherapists attacked me this morning, after a sleepless night and I can honestly say it was agony to try and straighten and bend my leg around the knee. I have a cast on my leg again.
I expect to be in here for a few days recovering and trying to walk on one leg again. The physio people are very tough and uncompromising but I guess that is their job.

The doctor was a no-show today or yesterday but his backup said it went well.

Love to you all
Gaz
xxxx

So now he has to go through another round of physical therapy in order to be able to move around as much as he was before. Once that has been accomplished, he will slowly learn how to use his right leg again. It's hard to believe that this all started almost 7 months ago.