More Surgeries

Now I know that I haven't written in a while and that I have some catching up to do. Here is what is now going on:

Almost 2 weeks ago some swelling began in the crook of my right elbow. Now this is an area plagued with problems, including two breaks and a ton of extra bone growth in the area. Any of you who have seen the new bone (heterotopic ossification to be precise) know that it's big and it impedes the movement of the rest of my arm. To say the least, more problems with this arm are not suprising.

The swelling continued until it was a large fluid filled sack. I saw my orthopedic surgeon about it, but he advised it be left alone. He was concerned about the risk of more surgery; if the fluid was infected and that infection spread to the rest of the bone and hardware, extensive surgery and treatment would be necessary. So we left the giant bulge in my arm to wait, with instructions to go to the emergency room for antibiotics if it popped.

Early last week the skin started to dry out and crack. As the week wore on it even started to peel. It wasn't until friday that the seal was finally broken. In PT the large bump started oozing droplets of clear yellow fluid. We told the doctors and they had a whole bunch of tests done (this is a long story, will blog about it later). At the end of a very long weekend I finally got told by another round of doctors to wait and see, that they would be able to have the orthopedic team look at me on Wednesday.

Once my dad heard all the excitement that was going on, he drove up Sunday night, in order to see me to my spine surgeon and get some real answers. He highly encouraged me to hunt down my spine surgeon on Monday which we ended up doing. After seeing the state of the abscess on my arm, he recommended surgery on Wednesday (the soonest he could fit us in). His verdict was that now that it was open, the wound needed to drained and cleaned and the bone that was irritating the joint needed to be shaved down. He noted that additional surgery will be necessary if the infection has spread.

So here I am on the night before another surgery. Though hopefully less intensive then the recent round, it is still surgery. Here's hoping for a swift recovery and that my arm won't be out of commission for too long.