02 July 2010 at 2020

Hello Again

Well, today was full of surprises again. Remember when this whole thing started and the surgeon told us that these wounds sometimes take up to 4 or 5 weeks to present itself? Well, it's been almost 6 weeks and there's a new twist. David was having an extreme amount of pain today. The pain would start in his left leg and just jolt him to the core and then go away. It would happen every 10 to 15 seconds. That would happen frequently so he got some extra pain medication. We looked closely at the wound dressings and saw a little fluid that was a bit concerning so we called in the surgical team.

They respond very quickly to this young men. We were told that it was one of two things: (1) it could be HO or Hypertrophic Ossification, that happens when the leg starts growing an extra bone in the muscle or tissue. This can sometimes happen because when microscopic fragments of bone get blown in the tissues of the leg and, if the bone is still alive, simply speaking, it knows it's suppose to be a bone and so it continues to grow. That growth takes on the appearance of a piece of coral and can be extremely painful - sometimes it grows around nerves and around blood vessels and arteries. David asked how they got rid of it and Dr. Fleming asked if would really like to know the answer. He said yes so Dr. Fleming told him - he said they open up the leg and go in with a hammer and a chisel and just whack it. He said that when the bone has formed around a nerve, they use a smaller hammer and a smaller chisel and they don't whack it as hard, and (2) it could be the fact that his nerves are regenerating.
It is all extremely interesting.

Just a side note, the young soldier that I spoke of that was just hanging on - he's still hanging on. It is just amazing, he lost most of one arm, all of one leg into the hip, the other arm just short of the elbow, and the other leg, I think, just above the knee. There are two living quad amputees in the world and they are both here right now. They are in the process of closing his wounds but the fungus is still in his abdomen but is not getting worse. He is now in the process of providing valuable information to learn all they can learn about this fungus. I guess that is one good thing that comes of war - many incredible medical strides are made.

David is really looking forward to going to Walter Reed but feels a little bad that he can't go there and immediately get fitted for his robot legs (as Ethen calls them). He wants to be up and going.

I asked him what he wanted to say to everyone and he wanted me to Thank all of you for all of your help in this process and that he's doing everything possible to get up and back out there.

Even though there are many surprises to deal with, it's all part of the process. We saw another soldier in the lunch room what had been through this process over a year ago and he had the HO which required surgery. That happened over a year and a half after he was injured, so this is a long long long process.

After inspecting David's legs, they completely cleaned and re-dressed his legs. Re-dressing his legs is no small process and it is quite painful, as you can guess.

All-in-all, it was a great day for eating, sleeping, and even understanding the pain creates an understanding that makes it much easier to deal with.

We love you all very much and appreciate your tender thoughts.

Gordon