Update

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

Well, it is back to the OR tomorrow for more surgery. They will be doing the

first of the skin/muscle transplant. They are doing several small

transplants instead of one big one. The reason behind this is that each

transplant will have it's own form of blood supply established and working

before they do another transplant. So this could take quite some time or

could just be the one surgery. None of the surgeons can agree on this. The

hole on the knee cap is getting bigger and now has holes of it it's own on

it. What a mess. There are still two rather big possibilities at this

time.. I could still possibly lose my leg or my life due to the extent of

the infection. Doctors are not dwelling too much on this possibility. I

have now been here officially 2 weeks and am not a very happy camper. They

have me on 24/7 morphine for the pain and then double the amount for

breakdown pain. I sure do hope that this e-mail makes sense. I got out of

the room today by my daughters using the wheel chair and pushing me thru the

halls.

Well, the plastic surgeon was just here and he now explains yet a different

plan. He really won't know what he is going to use until he gets in there

tomorrow. I will be the first case, so the morning is all his. My ortho

surgeon will also be there as the first attending surgeon. I will probably

have another week in the hospital and then go home to silll wait until the

infection is gone and they can put the TKR back. I still have a long way to

go with many bumps and hills ahead of me. I am still pretty scared but am

told that this is normal! I am no longer looking for the light at the end of

the tunnel!

At least I should need no more than 2 more surgeries after this one. This is

still all so confusing. The only other surgery that could be attempted is

by going thru the back which is a very dangerous operation. So it will just

be left the way the surgery is done now. I have been trying to explain this

all to Ron with no avail!

Hope this helps but I don't give any guarantees! Gonna go and spend time

with the family.

Talk to you all soon.

Debs

od