Update

Sunday, June 07, 2009

Update Current mood: tested So Curt's surgery was on June 1st. We got to the hospital at about 730 and they took him down to the OR about 915. What was supposed to be a 30-45 min surgery turned into 5 hrs. The Doc said his knee was worse than he thought so he a lot of shaving down of the bone to do to fit the implants. But the doc was happy with the results and said that he got Curt's knees pretty much porportioned to each other which is great. He said Curt (once he heals of course) will notice a tremendous difference! Hopefully that will be true. This was the biggest, major surgery to date yet for us!! About six that night I got to go in to the recovery room to see him. He looked horrible. He was throwing up and just in soooo much pain. The worse I have ever seen him. It was awful to see him like that. It broke my heart. Here's our gripe with Bethesda. They would not control his pain. They didn't listen to Curt and what works for him. They seriously would only give him tylenol and point 2 of dilauded for the pain! Seriously it was ridiculous. For someone who has been on heavy narcotics for over two years, the regular plan of treatment for a TKR will not work and did not work for Curt. He was literally crying he was in soooo much pain. He actually got into it with an anestheologist on the 2nd day. So much so both Curt and this doc were cussing at each other! It was unacceptable. These docs have no clue what these soldiers who have been thru so much need. Its ridiculous! It got to the point where anyone who is anyone was involved. They would just NOT listen to him. Curt was getting so frustrated and MAD. Finally the head anestheologist Dr. Brown came and agreed with everything Curt was saying. This doc who got into it with Curt will prob be repremended for talking to Curt the way he did. Dr. Brown said they need to listen to the patient because patient knows best. So they came up with a plan for Curt which got underway on the 3rd day. They put in two nerve blocks on the front and back of him and upped his dilauded dose to 1mg every hour. FINALLY got his pain under control after two frikin days. Let me say all of us were livid. Even the admiral is investigating this and how the doctors were treating Curt. They said Curt's case will be used in many staff meetings to come! I guess you would have to be there to truley understand how bad this got. Let me say it was so bad the Admiral already notified both Congress and the President about this!!! No joke.. Since then his care has gotten better. We're not thrilled with his level of care. We much prefer Walter Reed. We NEVER had a problem like this there!! Ugh...so frustrating. Anyway, Curt SHOULD have been home on Thursday. But since we had this big drama and took sooo long to get his pain under control he is still in the hospital. They took off the nerve blocks today and hopefully he will be discharged tomorrow. He also has had 4 blood transfusions while there. He lost alot of blood during surgery and his blood levels kept dropped. One of the bloods he had a reaction to which was pretty scary! They had to stop it and people were running all around and the doc came in. I hate that. His temp had skyrocketed and his heart rate went way up. Other than that. He's doing good in physical therapy. He walked down the hall for the past two days with his walker and did some stairs and today he rode the bike. So his healing is coming along nicely! The surgeons are very pleased with their work and even Curt has said he is already starting to notice a difference. I've just been so tired and drained from all this stress and hospital drama. I can't wait to settle back in home and not have to go all the way up there. The drive is horrible on weekdays. It has been a breeze all weekend. Got there in 25 minutes each day. During the week no matter what time it always took at least an hour and a half to get home. No fun! I hate hate hate hate the traffic here. I got a ticket yesterday for improper use of a lane. I drove on the shoulder to get to the exit instead of sitting in the traffic lol. Stupid me! Anway on a lighter note I ordered our whole nursery decor and bedding this week for Brandon. I can't wait to decorate it all now!! I've bought some clothes and diapers, wipes, and burp rags too. I'm so frikin excited to be having a BOY. I wish I could find out or remember who that psychic was so I could tell her she was right on! :)