Robert's Surgery

 January 25, 2022

Robert had surgery this Thursday (01/20/20222), so he and I drove to KC on Wednesday night so we'd be ready for his 8:00am surgery call. His procedure lasted five hours, then he had a two hour recovery. When the surgeon, Dr. Fox, came to talk to me about it, I had him draw what he built, and am including it below.

The bone, in black, is still broken, but is being held together by a plate (the blue oval) that is screwed into the bone. The blue rectangle is cadaver bone that is cinched to Robert's humerus with metal bands in the hopes that his diminished bone would meld with and be strengthened by it. Dr. Fox had to remove both previous implants and replace them with new ones, though he had hoped to reuse the socket implant. 

When I was able to see Robert in his room, he complained about not being able to feel the bottoms of his feet. At first, we thought that was temporary (and it was) as a result of his upright positioning for the surgery, but as it went on, it impeded his ability to stand and walk. Finally, by Saturday, he began to have some feeling in his feet and was able to stand and shuffle a few steps to the chair nearby so that he could sit upright for a bit. 

I went home Saturday evening and drove back Sunday to visit, leaving in the afternoon. Meanwhile, Robert's social worker was preparing to find him a rehabilitation facility (at the recommendation of his PT/OT team) so that he could gain confidence in walking and moving before coming home. The social worker has been calling places since yesterday (Monday, 01/24/2022) and is having some difficulty because she needs to find a place that will accept bariatric patients. So, he's still in the hospital. The house is very quiet without his cheerful laugh and dad jokes. I miss him. 

So, here we are in the future . . .

January 11, 2022

Well, here we are in the future. It’s mostly the same as the past but we all got older. Profound no, but I’m finding life is rarely Insta-worthy. Ethan is still sick, skinny, hurting all the time. He went to see his internist today and while I hoped for miracles, I can’t see how he found any in a 25 minute visit. I look forward to hearing what happened tonight. Cathleen was gracious enough to take the day off to drive him to his appointment as I have very few days off earned as of yet. I’m still two days away from my three month mark, and I’ve been using my sick/vacation days as fast as they are earned. Next year will probably be better that way—at least I hope so. 

Cathleen’s boss did a “gotcha” observation yesterday, right at the end of school during a transition from an activity to math. She came home mad, of course, but calmed down after she had a chance to vent. Honestly, I’m not sure how some people get to be supervisors! She is getting great feedback from her students, their parents and the community, so I think her job is safe. She says several teachers are thinking about leaving, no surprise after the sh*tshow this school year has been. 

Robert’s work has finally hired a new payroll clerk—hope this one works out better. It certainly a relief to him and his co-workers as it more equitably divides the work load. Nation-wide, employers have struggled to fill positions as employees are stressed out, overworked and underpaid. Many places are still just distributing the extra work left behind by departing employees to the existing ones. Which of course, results in more stressed out workers and more employees quitting. 

The global pandemic is still rolling along with China locking down cities and hospitals all over America (and in other nations) overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients. Many of them are children who can’t be immunized or adults who won’t get immunized, but some have been both immunized and boosted. Over nine billion vaccines/boosters have been given out all told and the world stands at 5,499,769 deaths from this buggerly thing that just won’t go away. Source, as always, Johns Hopkins.