The Dr. mentioned that he might need surgery in the future but that we won’t worry about that now because if he get the surgery now he won’t be able to get around because as it is he’s having to use a walker with a nifty little arm support since he can’t use crutches. If he were to do the surgery now he would be pretty much completely immobile.
On another note, we’re having the bike picked up tomorrow morning and taken over to the dealership to have the insurance company do the estimate (aka…probably total it).
The occupational therapist came over to the house yesterday afternoon and took one look at Monte’s shoulder and said she wouldn’t even touch him until he had his shoulder looked at by a Dr.
The Dr. in the ER in College Station pretty much just repaired his femur and sent him on his way. He told us that since Monte isn’t a paid athlete that insurance wouldn’t pay to repair his shoulder. Not only that, but as it turns out, the Dr. didn’t even put down in the paperwork that Monte tore a ligament in his shoulder. When the initial physical therapist came into the room the day after surgery, he came in with a pair of crutches and tried to get Monte to use them. Monte took one look at the crutches and one look at the physical therapist and told him it wasn’t going to work because of his shoulder. The physical therapist told him that there wasn’t anything in the paperwork about a problem with his shoulder.
You can look at his shoulder and see his collar bone sticking up about a half an inch towards the edge of his shoulder. He has about 90 degrees of should flexion and 90 degrees of should abduction and absolutely no rotation.
The occupational therapist also mentioned that she thought that since it’s his right shoulder and he has such limited mobility, and that he’s right handed, that there’s no reason that insurance wouldn’t pay to have it repaired, especially considering how long it’s going to take it to repair its self. She also mentioned that by leaving it to repair its self, it would actually never fully repair its self; it would do so by creating scar tissue and would never be fully functional.
I must say, the more we go past the accident, the more unhappy I am with the way things went in the hospital room. Monte was too out of it to remember anything, but the nurses and both Dr.’s pretty much instantly gave us an attitude about it being a motorcycle accident. Which I find incredibly hypocritical since I could smell cigarette smoke on some of the nurses from about 10 feet away.
Who are we to judge others for their chosen form of recreation? Just because we choose to ride motorcycles and explore the faster paced lifestyle does not mean that those in the medical profession can ignore their Hippocratic Oath to provide the best in medical care that they are capable of.
However, this may have ended up as a blessing in disguise. If they had taken care of his shoulder in the hospital, we would have had even more trouble getting an Orthopedic Surgeon to take on Monte as a new patient. As it turns out, Orthopedic Surgeons don’t like to take on other Orthopedic Surgeons work. When they do, they assume responsibility for the others work.
Monte had managed to get an appointment with an Ortho, but it wasn’t going to be until July 10th, which was just too long to wait. We really wanted to find another Dr. that could get Monte in earlier. My mom had found an Ortho down in Plano right next to the Presbyterian Hospital in Plano. We called over there this morning and were actually able to get in today! So we’re headed over there this afternoon. I’ll update more when I have it.
Not much new here (which is a good thing). Monte is progressing very well. He’s actually taking a day off from what little physical therapy we’re able to do together.
For the first time since the accident, I was able to get a full 8 hours of sleep…how amazing it was!
One very nice thing that’s happened for me is that my company has allowed me to work from home for the next week to keep an eye on Monte. Since he’s not able to really do much on his own, it makes things pretty difficult on me to keep up with all of the normal daily things for myself, but for him as well, not to mention the normal daily household functions. Things as simple as going to the bathroom are very difficult for Monte. Sometimes he has the energy to get up and go to the bathroom, sometimes, he has to use the little jug that the hospital let him bring home…which means I have to be right there to empty it.
It’s the little things like this that most people don’t think of when thinking of an incident like this.
Preparing food, cutting food, getting water, letting the dog out, doing all of the chores around the house, helping him get dressed/undressed, etc. It can be quite a lot on top of trying to leave and maintain a job. So just being able to do my job from home has releaved a TON of stress, not to mention is means that Monte has company while he’s confined to a bed pretty much 24/7 for the next week at least.
I want to extend a special thanks to Stacy & Shawn for coming over and taking care of a few things around the house for us. It was a HUGE help. Also to Monte’s parents for coming over the day we got home to help me get Monte set up in the living room. All a great help and I can’t thank you enough.
Monte is doing amazingly well! Much to my dismay, he just showered all on his own. Yes, I was here in the house with him. He told me he was going to the bathroom…which, mind you, can be something that he would do for an hour thanks to the pain meds (lots of pain meds will make it difficult to evacuate the system). I was back in the office taking care of filing some paperwork for the hospital stay and what not. When I came back into the living room I didn’t hear the shower going or anything so I didn’t have anything to worry about. He came back into the living room with a towel wrapped around him….WHAT!?
UGH!!! But he’s ok. He even shaved. At least he’s getting up and around on his own ok, but I still don’t want to leave him here on his own.
As promised, I’ve attached a before and after of the broken femur…pins and all included.
Sorry for the lapse in communication folks, yesterday was a long one. The good news is that we’re HOME! Yippee!
On Wednesday, Monte walked a total of about 550 feet with the walker. That’s a lot considering he was in surgery Sunday afternoon.
We have the home healthcare nurse coming over this morning to go over the basics with us as of now.
I also have a CD of X-Rays, including the after surgery X-Rays with the pins in his femur, but those will have to wait a bit before I can get them uploaded, so many other things to take care of first.
Needless to say, the cats are really happy to see us. For now we have the full size bed in the living room for him so that he’s not in the back bedroom all by himself and so that the home health people can work with him.
As of just a moment ago, he was able to get out of bed, go to the rest room, and then get back in bed, 100% on his own for the first time. Now that’s progress!
Really great news this morning! The Dr. came in at around 7:30 and told us that given his progress, we should be able to go home around 7 am tomorrow morning! Whoop!
Some more good news…he made it up and out of bed and down the hall and back into the room and into the chair for a total of about 175 feet. Considering he only did about 50 feet yesterday, that’s AWESOME! He did it this morning with a lot less effort, and didn’t break a sweat until getting ready to sit back down.
The Dr. has also changed his orders to say that he can now put some weight into his toes on his right foot, which sure makes moving around on the walker a lot easier.
Today, he and I will be working a good deal to keep up the mobility and the flexibility. He’s liking being able to bend his right knee every now and then for sure.
They also came in and took an X-Ray of the hip one last time and told us that they would be giving us a CD of all of his images, so we should have some good images to post up later.
The nurse came in and changed the dressing on Monte’s incision and said that everything looked really good.
The Dr. came in and talked with Monte and said that if everything progresses the way it has been then we should be out of here by Thursday.
And most importantly, he made it up and out of bed 3 times today! The first time was this morning to the chair right beside the bed with the help of the physical therapist; the second time was out the door of the room, then right back around, to the other side of the bed and back in bed, again with the help of the physical therapist. Then tonight, he and I worked together to get him out of bed, mostly on his own, and to the bathroom for the first time in 3 days. I’m so proud of him! I know the pain is unreal, but he owns it and he’s not letting it take control. If progress like this continues he’ll be up and around in the blink of an eye.
Thanks again for all of the well wishes and the continued thoughts! He really likes knowing everyone is rooting for him!
