Anthony Versus SUV, Part 2

From the last post, we left off with Anthony being scheduled for surgery the following day.

So on July 20, 2010, the day after I talked to the nurse, we arrive at 7 AM and sat in the waiting room for about an hour and a half before they finally took him back to prep him for surgery and I'm booted out. I head home to wait it out then head back later in the afternoon where I sat with him for about 45 minutes before I had to head across the street to my usual doctor's appointment (remember, currently 6 months pregnant). I tell the doctor what's happening with Anthony and that my blood pressure is probably high and sure enough, it was significantly higher than my usual readings. The doc agreed to wait until my next appointment before subjecting me to all sorts of tests.

I head back to Anthony and tried to feed him some food but after having a tube down his throat everything felt dry and rough. I stay with him late into the night until visitors were being booted out. Poor guy barely slept, due to the pain and discomfort but also because there was a hysterical female patient a few beds down. She started being loud even while I was there and was apparently on the phone most of the night. In short, she was wailing and cursing about her boyfriend not showing up to visit her in the hospital and not even bringing anything like flowers or chocolate to console her. She kept ranting about how he doesn't care, blah blah blah. Seriously, if she was that active (walking around, yelling into her phone, crying excessively) they should have released her from their care.

The day after the surgery I get back to the hospital as early as they would allow visitors. Anthony is, of course, awake courtesy of the squawking woman, who was still yapping away with the same complaints as I walked past her bed but this time it was to what looks like one of the nurses. Poor lady.

We waited around until Anthony could be visited by the various medical teams and cleared by them. The Anaesthesia and Pain Management team came by first and after some discussions, cleared him after some pain medication explanations. The hospital still has the 3 day pain medication limit so we were advised to go see a General Practitioner for more medication. I understand the limit is to prevent people from going to the hospital for drugs but really, after such an invasive surgery you think they would have made an exception.

After a couple more hours the Physiotherapist (or as we know them as Physical Therapists) came by, attempted to show Anthony some movements to do at home to prevent the muscle from stiffening but of course there wasn't much Anthony could do at the time but grimace in pain with every movement. He said he'd have a physio script mailed to us. (We've noticed anything medically related has been done by snail mail here, very annoying.)

A couple more hours and Anthony was wheeled off for x-rays. I followed along and when we got to the x-ray department and Anthony was wheeled thru some doors, I thought to follow but was quickly bombarded by various people stopping me from following. I'm guessing the bulging belly on me had something to do with such a reaction.

We get back to Anthony's bed and after another hour or so the Orthopaedic Surgeon that performed Anthony's surgery came for his required review. He said the surgery went well and he was pleased with the results. He then produced a print out of the x-ray.




You can see the collarbone (clavicle) is now flush with the acromion (the bone to the left of the plate) because it's being held down by a titanium plate and 4 screws. There's also the metal hook that goes from the plate and hooks into the rotator cuff. The pieces floating above the plate are the 18 metal stitches holding the incision close.

  

Here's a drawing from Wikipedia that shows what the AC Joint (dislocated on Anthony) should look like with the collarbone flush with the acromion.

The surgeon clears Anthony to go home and goes on his way. The nurse comes after a bit with the medication script and says he can leave when he's ready. We ask when the bandage can come off and she says to wait for the follow up appointment with the Orthopaedic Outpatient Clinic (located in the hospital) and what they referred to as the Fracture Clinic (lovely name). As usual, we're to wait for the letter that will come by snail mail with the follow up appointment, which should be in about 2 weeks.

So that was it. No paperwork, no offer of a wheelchair to take him out, no instructions whatsoever. Anthony was feeling woozy so he rests a little then we get him dressed and we walk down to the parking garage. Yup, just got up and walked out.

A few days before the 2 week follow up appointment, we opted to take the bandage off ourselves. It was looking pretty rank and wasn't smelling so swell either. So we got to see the stitches for the first time.


18 metal stitches, about 12 days after the surgery.

Frankenstein anyone?

At the 2 week follow up appointment an Orthopaedic Surgeon pops out the metal stitches with this little plastic contraption. We were expecting something really painful but Anthony said he only felt a few painful pinches. Just like all the other medical professionals we have met during this whole process, the doctor doesn't ask much question and doesn't provide much information. It was up to us to ask all the questions like "is such and such pain normal?" "how much can he lift?" "is the incision healing well?" "what's the next step?" If we hadn't asked any questions, I don't think the doctor would have spoken more than 10 words to us.

We did learn that it's best that he leaves the plate & hook in for up to 6 months but not much longer than that otherwise the rotator cuff will sustain long term or permanent damage. So in up to 6 months, they'll redo the entire surgery, yup, slicing through the muscle and all. This is in hopes that it will have given the ligament time to have repair. We weren't ready to hear the doctor mention the chance that when the plate comes out the collarbone will pop right back out. He didn't really discuss what would happen if that occurred but I think we were too shocked to think straight at that point.

Anthony still hadn't received any physiotherapy information at that point so the doctor got us in to see their on staff physio when he was done with us. She wrote us a script to take to any physiotherapy and sent Anthony home with a few more at home exercises.

After another 6 weeks, Anthony went in for another set of x-rays and another follow up appointment with a different Ortho but at the same Fracture Clinic. Last time we waited two hours and this time we waited an hour and a half. I had to go out and feed more money into the parking meter. Unfortunately, this doctor was not nearly as nice as the previous one. He was cold and his remarks/answers almost bordered on being rude.

We asked him about Anthony's risk of doing any damages if he returned to cycling at this point and instead of answering the question the doctor immediately shot him down with "if you want me to tell you not to ride, I won't but if you fall you'll do worse damage. So if I were you I wouldn't ride." Okay, so we get that. It doesn't take a genius to know that any trauma to Anthony's shoulder especially with titanium plates in it will most likely do further damage. So we tried to ask him again as to whether the riding itself would inhibit the healing process, cause tears/damages, or just in general undo any of the healing. The doc still didn't get it and said "like I said, if you fall, you'll do worse damage." We gave up. The doctor was obviously trying to rush through the appointment and I don't think he cracked a single smile during the short 10 minute appointment. Waited an hour and a half (with a designated appointment time in hand) for a 10 minute appointment with a doctor that couldn't bother to listen to the patient. He's definitely due for a refresher Bedside Manner 101.

So here we are today. Anthony still has a lot of muscle soreness, limited range of motion, unable to bear much weight in his right arm, and still can't turn to sleep on his right side. We joke that to others he must look like an awful husband because his pregnant wife was having to do some of the lifting on large bulky items when we're out and about.

We're only in the middle of the whole story. Still waiting to have his second surgery then to redo all the physio and regain all the improvement he has already built up. Definitely a long road, lengthened even more by the fact that we'll be welcoming our first born within a matter of weeks or even days. However, in the end, Anthony is still with us and in one piece and on the mend, regardless of how long it will take him.

Until the next big development.....

- julie