Surgery Odyssey

Here’s the saga of our accident from the perspective of 2 months later.

Peggy and I and our puppy, Katie, were just 30 miles into Montana on I-90 about 2:00 p.m. Dec. 27. It was a lovely day but cold. The road was snow packed, but seemed good. Suddenly the trailer started skidding on the ice. I felt it, took my foot of the gas, didn’t touch the brake, and steered to the left. It felt like we were about to come out of it, but the trailer (stack of 3 flatbeds) tipped and pulled the truck onto the driver’s side. My elbow hit the ground through the broken window. The bone was sheered (not broken) where the triceps tendons are attached. Peggy & Katie were shook up but okay. I was in the hospital in Billings (70 miles NW of site) Thu night thru Sat afternoon. The wound was cleaned in surgery on Thu & Sat. Peggy ran errands on Fri to collect the violin and other essentials from the towing company. She took the pup to the vet, and she bought us a ‘95 GMC pickup to get home. It cost $3600, rather than renting something too small, one-way, for $2500. We had a lot of equipment and ‘stuff’ to pull out of the truck.

We drove to Omaha on New Years Eve and New Years Day, arriving about 9:00 p.m. at Ray’s house. Jason was home from Corpus Christi (Navy base.) Mom was there. Andy & Jeanne, Matthias, Alexis & Chelsea had waited for us but then had to drive 3 hours home to Kearney. Jan. 2 we hung around most of the day and spent a long time at the phone store to replace our lost cell phones. When we finally left in late afternoon, we stopped in Parkville, MO to visit Peggy’s Uncle Jack & Aunt Pat. They hadn’t heard about our accident because we couldn’t reach them. It was pretty late when we left, but we wanted to get home. We rolled in about 5:00 a.m. Thurs to our house on the Lake of Egypt.

I had a wound-VAC machine attached to my open wound for about 12 days from Billings till the first meeting with Dr. John Wood at Southern IL Orthopedic Center. He performed surgery for 1:42 min on Wed. Jan 15. He was very optimistic, but 9 days after surgery I tripped while entering our antique mall and fell hard on my bad arm, which was in a plaster splint (half cast.) Magnificent pain… The wound burst open, so it bled a lot. By phone, Dr. Wood seemed to think it would be okay. I saw Dr. Wood next day; he just changed the dressing. Feb. 4 he had me in surgery to close the wound I thought, but he didn’t like the look. He referred me to specialists in St. Louis.

I saw Dr. Keener the following Monday, Feb. 11. He had ordered an MRI. That was awful, 35+ min. inside a tube with my bad arm stretched over my head, not allowed to move at all. It was torture. I prayed & prayed and quoted Bible verses. Finally it was over, and I got my pictures to take to Dr. Keener at the Center for Advanced Medicine / Washington U. He explained that he would do a bone graft with tendon attached, taken from a cadaver. He arranged for a plastic surgeon to be there to close the wound afterwards. I met her, Dr. Fox, on Fri. Feb. 15. She explained what she would be doing - much more involved than I had expected. She has to provide a padding of flesh over the bone, taken from below the wrist. A flap of flesh will be folded around to the elbow, with blood supply intact. So my arm will be rather ugly in two places instead of one, but that’s fine, just so it works. I’m hoping to get back to playing violin asap. Finally Dr. Fox will close the wounds with skin from the groin. Surgery is tomorrow - Fri, Feb. 22. I’m told I will stay overnight and be released on Saturday, and Dr. Keener will see me again on Mon, March. 3.

Peggy has been out on our new ‘97 Volvo truck since Feb. 8. She is now on her way from Pittsburgh, PA/Columbus, OH. I’m waiting at a truck stop outside St. Louis - just 9 miles from the hospital. Peggy has had a tough couple weeks on Old Blue’s maiden voyage. She (not Peggy - the truck) is old and has many bugs to work out. We paid only $11,000., which came out of the $29,000. settlement from our old truck - we have no truck payments. Any truck will have issues. Peggy has had five repairs this first trip. The truck is getting better. Tonight we’ll sleep in the truck and take the car to the hospital in the morning. Then later in the day Peggy has to deliver her trailer 45 miles further south.

We have traded places for the time being. Peggy is driving; I’m tending the antique mall. I had no intention of getting too involved in the Marion Antique Mall. I want to drive, drive, drive, until the mall becomes profitable enough to support us. It will get there little by little. We bought the building Dec. 1. It had been an antique mall for over 10 years and was quite successful. The former owners have divorced and in the process the business went down until they finally closed Nov 1, 2007. We bought the building - not the business, so it was relatively cheap. Now we have to build again. Peggy is very enthusiastic and immersed in it at every level. It has grown on me since we’ve traded places. I’ve enjoyed being there, talking with many good people - venders and customers. It’s kindo’ fun, but I’m not pouring myself into it quite as much as Peggy does. It’s really her baby.

Last week we had the worst ice storm in the history of southern IL. It began on the day I returned from my first meeting with Dr. Keener in St. Louis, Mon, Feb. 11. I turned off the Tunnel Hill Blacktop onto Deer Ridge Rd, 3 miles from our house. After ¼ mile the pickup bogged down in the snow and would not move forward or backward, even with help from a ‘pusher.’ No-one gets around in our neighborhood at such times without 4-wheel drive. I walked back to a house of folks we know and sat with them for 3 hours waiting for a tow. (I enjoyed their Jack Russell puppy and big screen cable TV on the Hallmark channel.) The tow truck never came; I got a ride home from a county sheriff. That night the power went out. Tues morning I stayed under the covers till noon waiting for the power to come on. Finally I got dressed and walked across the road to Leroy & Nancy’s house. Another neighbor, Rick, was already there. Leroy has a propane heater. I sat with them for 3 hours. Then Leroy offered to take me to Floyd & Paula’s - 10 miles away. That’s where I wanted to be to wait for the power to come back. Paula’s a great cook! They heat with wood. They live in a big converted barn and have tons of space. They have 4 dogs, one of which is the ‘twin’ of our puppy (not the same litter, but close relatives - Katie is a couple weeks older than Peetie.) Actually the puppies are named P.D. (Paula’s dog) and K.D. (Ken’s dog.) Peggy got our Yorkie puppy from Floyd as my Christmas gift. Peetie acts and looks like Katie, so it was great having her to play with since Peggy took Katie with her on the truck. Floyd was out on his truck. Other refugees came and went - their son Raymond‘s family, Floyd’s sister Bertie. We had no power there either, but we had the wood burning stove and great piles of wood. Tues eve the power came on at Paula’s house, but my neighborhood didn’t get power till Wed. I kept in touch with a neighbor to know when I could go home. I was with Paula for 2 full days. It was fun. I played games, worked a puzzle and watched a couple videos with the grandkids. Paula put me in the master bedroom which is on the 3rd floor - a king-size bed with big wagon wheel head- & footboards from Texas. She slept by the fire to tend it. One of the dogs is a boxer, Dingpod. He is wonderful, full of energy and affection. It’s great fun to watch big Dingpod (6 mo. old) and tiny Peetie playing. He is gentle with her as she climbs all over his head & back and chews on his ears. The other two dogs are Chihuahuas. They have a few years seniority and are not happy with the intrusion of the two puppies - especially Dingpod. It was great riding out the storm with Paula and her family. Raymond took me home on Thurs about noon. I got off at my pickup, still where I’d left it on Monday, and drove it home.

Next day I had to be in St. Louis to meet the plastic surgeon, Dr. Fox. She rammed me through a quick meeting with a physical therapist for instruction about getting my arm & hand moving before surgery. Then I had a pre-op screening appointment. Total time at hospital = 3 hours. I got home from St. Louis after dark. Our yard is full of broken limbs & branches. The driveway was still a sheet of ice. The yard was frozen over. I parked at the bottom of the driveway and carefully walked up the slope. By the flagpole I slipped and fell on my bad arm, breaking the wound open so it bled more than usual. By morning it had stopped bleeding. Now I’m spooked about the ice! I wanted to go to the antique mall in the morning, so I stood at the top of the driveway and tried to plan the safest route to the pickup at the bottom of the hill. Finally I gave up. The mall was iced in all week anyway and was unsafe to open. A nurse came to the house to change my dressing. I watched how she got up & down the hill. I followed her steps after she left, and got safely to my truck. I’d planned to go to a funeral that afternoon but couldn’t make it up the hill out of our subdivision on the slush. Sunday morning was in the 40’s and all the ice was gone. I went to church.

Now it’s the following Thurs. This morning I was not sure I’d be able to get to St. Louis for tomorrow’s surgery. Another ice storm started early this morning. I could not trust my pickup. I called a neighbor, J.J. He quickly offered to take me to Carbondale where our car has been in the shop for a couple weeks. It was finished days ago, but I couldn’t pick it up without Peggy being here to drive both vehicles home. J.J. drove me to my car, and I drove onward to St. Louis. The roads were bad, but not as bad as I imagined. Now I’m at the Pilot Truck Stop, just 9 miles from the hospital, waiting for Peggy and Katie to arrive.

Your prayers would be appreciated. Dr. Keener only does elbows and shoulders. I trust him and Dr. Fox, but God is the healer. I want to be able to play violin again. It is in God’s hands.