Well, for better or for worse, Pam is coming home on Saturday (tomorrow morning). She’s been in the hospital for twelve days, so I’m glad she is coming home. I think it will be good for her mentally. She’ll be in more familiar surroundings, and Max will be good for her soul! I’ve got a wheelchair for her, so we’ll wheel her out into the back yard and she can watch the flowers.

I think she’s a bit worried about the pain meds, and not having medical staff close at hand, but I’ll do what I can, and if we need some home care help, we’ll call them in.

I was quite surprised when they talked about making her leave, as I really didn’t think she was ready, but her family doctor said to us, “From the minute you get out of surgery, they start making plans to get you out of the hospital.” They told her she had the choice of moving to the hallway, or moving home, so home she’s coming!

They took off her main bandage yesterday, and she has two long incisions. One is about 12 inches long, running six inches below the knee to six inches above the knee, on the outside of her knee. There is a smaller eight or nine inch incision on the inside of her knee. She didn’t have any complications with them, like an infection or anything, so that’s a blessing. There is a massive amount of bruising, as you’d expect, and her leg is still swollen, but that has gone down somewhat since surgery day.

Anyway, she should be home by noon tomorrow. She’s used up all her minutes on her cell, so she’ll be glad to be back to a phone she can use! haha

Pam walked 5 meters today, so that’s a big accomplishment. She’d only been able to take a few steps before today so this is good for her progress in returning home. It’s been five days post-op so they are moving forward with trying to get her home. I’ve been given a list of items to get for the home – wheelchair, walker, safety bars etc – and they’ve talked about things I need to do to make it safe for her on the walker.

She still needs regular pain meds, and her leg is still quite swollen. It’s not as bad as it was a couple days ago, but it is still quite swollen. I can’t really be positive about things, but at least she has not gotten infections, or other complications from the surgery. She has trouble getting her leg comfortable, and part of that is the swelling, but it’s also the brace is not exactly comfortable! She has some irritation under her leg, too. I think it’s awfully tough laying only on her back. She can’t really lay on her side yet, but maybe in the next few days she will be able to give that a try.

I’ve taken her a number of things to help her, like lotion and shampoo and her toothbrush, hairbrush, her e-reader, some writing material. She’s still quite down, mentally. It’s been tough being separated and knowing she faces such a long haul.

They do have an email service of sorts – if you want to email Pam, you can send an email to youvegotmail.smh@fraserhealth.ca and if it arrives before 2 PM they will print it off and hand deliver it to her that day. Include her name (Pamela Ormon) and the ward/room combo – 3 South, Room 327. I don’t think they do replies tho!

It was a sunny Sunday here in Surrey, at long last. But not so much for Pam. She had a pretty bad day. It started out ok – she was able to do a couple of hops with the walker. She is not allowed to put any weight on her left leg, so she’s having to learn how to hop! They put her up in a chair, but there was no support for her leg. Unfortunately she was up in the chair too long and her foot got badly swollen.

I thought her leg was quite swollen yesterday, but man, it was really bad today. Her pain levels were quite high, and she just couldn’t get comfortable. It was tough to see.

It’s going to be a long haul. There will be better days, I’m sure.

On the positive side, she had a couple of nice visits with friends and that raised her spirits somewhat! Hoping tomorrow will be a better day.

I met today with the attending surgeon, and got the straight goods on what took place. Number one is the repair of the tibia. They inserted a plate and screws to hold the bone together. The dislocated knee was put back in the proper place. There was no major damage to the femur. They did repair the PCL (the rear ligament) which was torn. They repaired the meniscus cartilage. There is damage to the MCL but they did not repair it, and it might not need to be repaired, depending on how stable the knee is after the bones heal. The ACL looks good. The doctor had to move some nerves so there is concern about losing mobility in her ankles, but things look fine as of right now.

She is in a fairly large metal knee brace that reaches from about four inches above the ankle reaching basically to the groin. Her leg is wrapped in a tensor bandage under the brace.

They got her out of bed, and she took three small hops using a walker. She was able to sit up in a wheel chair and chat with me today. She looked a bit more alert, and not so drugged up. She now has control over her own pain medication, but the nurses said she is using very little.

They have requested a transfer for her back to Surrey Memorial, which will make it easier for me to get to her. Royal Colombian is close to an hour each way for me, but Surrey Memorial is only ten minutes away. They aren’t sure when that will take place, but it might not occur til late in the night. Last time they transferred her at midnight.

So all in all, she looks better, but still is in a lot of pain. Her leg is swollen quite severely, about twice the size of her other leg. I’m not sure how she will do at home here, but hopefully they will keep for a few more days til the pain subsides somewhat.

On a side note: I’m rather surprised and disappointed that Home Depot has not bothered to even make a phone call to inquire about how she is doing. I’m fairly certain that they don’t often have shoppers removed in an ambulance, and you’d think they’d make an effort to see how she’s doing!

I just received a call from the Recovery Room Nurse. Pam is out of surgery, but is not going to be going back to her room tonight. She has a problem with sleep apnea, and they don’t want to take a chance with her having problems in the night due to the anesthesia. She is FINE. Nothing to worry about, it’s merely a precaution. I spoke with her for a few moments and she is kind of out of it, so best she sleep.

I would only be allowed to go in the recovery room for 5 minutes, so I’m not making the hour and half drive tonight. I will go tomorrow early and spend the morning with her.

The nurse did not know what the doctor did in the operating room. I’m not sure if they pinned her leg, did ligaments, or the extent of damage to the femur. The doctor will be back to see Pam early in the AM so I’ll be there for that and see what is going on.

UPDATE: Pam called at 8:30 – she had not remembered we spoke earlier! haha She said that she is doing fine. She thinks they did some ligament repair too, but she doesn’t really remember much. They have told her she must get her sleep apnea looked at, and they’ll send her to a study later. Anyway – she seems in good spirits. They have given her control over her pain meds, so she doesn’t have to request any, she just has to press a button.

When I arrived at the hospital this morning, the surgeon, Dr. Lempke was consulting with Pam. He is going to be performing the surgery today, and she should be in the operating room as I’m typing this. (Scheduled for 12:00 noon.) The surgery should take one and a half to three hours, depending on the damage, plus 2-3 hours in the recovery room. (UPDATE: the phone just rang, before I posted this message, and they said Pam has just now gone down for surgery – it’s 12:50 PM.)

He told us that he studied the MRI (something the Surrey doctors had not been able to do) and told us that the damage to her ligaments was not as severe as first thought. The MCL seems to be fine. He said that when you get this kind of knee injury the MCL is rarely hurt; it would get hurt by impacting the knee, not hyperextending it as Pam did.

The other ligaments are stretched badly, the PCL the worst. But apparently, if you’re going to have a bad ligament, the PCL is the “best” one to have damaged. That’s the best news – the MCL/ACL tears are the worst, most painful injuries, and toughest in terms of rehab, so it seems she’s avoided that at least.

He will pin the broken tibia back together (that’s the bone below the knee), repair any damage to the femur (the bone above the knee) and reposition the knee. If any ligament damage is very severe, he will repair that. But he said that usually they want the bones to heal first, then worry about the ligaments later. He felt that the knee itself was not nearly as shattered as the Surrey doctors felt. Pam will be put in a metal knee brace, not a cast. She will not be allowed to “weight bear” on the leg for six weeks, but can use it to balance.

He said she will be in the hospital 3-7 days post surgery, depending on how well she recovers. She should be able to get up and move around as soon as she can deal with the pain, in just a few days.

She should be back in her room around 5 or 6 this evening. I’ll be heading back to the hospital when she awakens, and I’ll post an update around 9 this evening to let you know how the surgery went.

It’s nice she is in an actual room, not warehoused along a wall, like she was in the Surrey Emergency room. I’m still a little concerned about the bruising along the back of her damaged leg, but hopefully the surgery will let us address that better. She has a compression bandage on her right leg, to prevent blood clots.

She was a bit woozy today, but in pretty good spirits. Knowledge is power, as they say, and it’s a great relief to know that the injury, while severe, is not as bad as first thought. Dr. Lempke is a younger man, and very upbeat. He was very communicative and answered all the questions we posed to him. It was nice to be able to talk about things when you have all the information, instead of guessing!