Hi everyone,

I posted a thank you to everyone on the posting from Cat and Mouse, but I wanted to start a new thread to update all of you. I'm sitting here in the library at Presb/St Lukes waiting for my husband to get out of recovery. The surgery just finished (3.5 hours) and I spoke with the doctor. He said he found exactly what he expected in terms of new bone growth. The CT scan done in August laid it all out for him, so he just had to go in and find the bones (refer to my original post where I explain the problem if you don't follow this). He said the tricky part was detaching the nerve endings from the bone growth. He also said in terms of scar tissue, it doesn't get much worse than what he saw in there. The anterior stump (the portion of the rib left in) has been rubbing up against anything and everything for the last year or so creating a lot of havoc. He also said he found that my husband had had pneumonia at one time and the lungs had some scarring on them which attached them to the chest cavity - so he removed that also and freed up the lungs.

Now it's time and religiously doing his PT which will tell us whether this is going to work or not. We spoke to the physical therapist yesterday and Ray is supposed to start today in doing his nerve glides which will keep nerves from getting caught up again.

So keep us in your thoughts and I'll keep you all posted on his recovery process.

Hi Erin, Will be keeping you both in my thought & prayers....praying for a speedy recovery and that the pain will be gone for good now!

Hugs,
Nolina

We are sending prayers (and a little poem) to you both.

'Twas the week before Christmas
When thru the hospital halls
Not a noise was heard, not even cell calls.
The patient was quiet, his wife there with care
In hopes that Dr. Brantigan would soon be there.

The patient was all snug in his gurney bed
While visions of marcaine and morphine danced in his head.
Dr. Brantigan in his scrubs and hat
Entered pre-op for his pre-surgery chat.
When out of his mouth came words that mattered
Let’s ease your pain, was what he chattered.

The wife in her concern
Arose from her chair as the doc turned.
Thanks Dr. B she said lively and quick
May your magical hands do the trick.

After looking at gift shop flowers
And after waiting for many hours,
To the patient’s wife Dr. Brantigan said
Bone and nerves were cleaned from the scar bed.

The surgery was very hard
Many areas were very marred.
The operation was not fun
Buy now my part is done.
Only time will tell
If he is freed from his painful hell.

Now Erin rest,
God knows you have done your best.



Original poem authored by Clemet Moore

Bravo! Bravo!

:Girl(angel-flying)

I'm so glad it went well- good luck with the PT -they're wasting no time with that! Great poem cat

So thankful!!!

And on an aside, this shows HOW DIFFERENT EACH TOSER IS, as I've had Dr. B's viewing and he could see nothing, and here, Erin's husband has such visual abnormalities both before surgery and during.

We must never judge eachother when such differences exist under the umbrella of "TOS" in my mind. No amount of P/T would have reduced that bone or stopped or cut off the nerves that had adhered. In my opinion, surgery was it. (And maybe the time for PT is now...)

So fellow TOSers, we all, including me, should keep an open mind to others' paths of recovery, and never say for instance "BS!" to someone else's path, or engage in that silly argument about who's doctor is best - just DON'T criticze (message to self here) and it shouldn't happen...

Inner fighting is the easiest game "the dark side" has for destroying fine unions, and we have a GREAT group of TOSers here and everywhere. We MUST stick together, help eachother - which almost all of us do - and keep it loving.

My BESTEST thoughts to Erin and spouse. What a nice holiday outcome, and thank God Dr. B saw what he saw and had the skills to take action.

Erin - I hope the recovery and rehab is going well. It looks like around denver is getting whalloped with snow - hopefully that won't affect you guys too much - take care, and heal up nicely!

Erin, I'm so glad your husband is doing better!

Stay doing what he is doing, and NO, do not go out and help shovel snow in Denver! Doc B would be very unhappy!

Rest for now, do the PT ordered and keep that arm moving to help in healing. I'm sure Paula's office has told you all that.

Snuggle up in the warm room, call for room service and wait it out. The funny thing about the snow there, it will be gone an a few days! Even this huge amount!

Take care!

Best wishes in your husbands healing!

Hi Erin,
How's your husband doing today-2nd day
post-op? How's his pain situation?

And............
what's the situation with the snow? Are you able
to get around town at all? My mom is supposed
to fly to Denver on Saturday but I don't know...
it's not looking very promising. Cat.

Hi everyone,

Wow, that was some blizzard! But other than being stuck in the hotel with no computer, and co-stranded with about 500 long-distance truckers and disgruntled travelers who couldn't get out at the airport, it was fine. It could have been much, much worse. For instance, the hospital cancelled all surgeries for Wednesday and Thursday, the day after my husband's surgery. Or we could have been unable to fly in if we came a day later, so I got nothing to complain about.

Ray will be discharged tomorrow. He's doing quite well. He already reports feeling less pain on a particularly sensitive part of his chest (probably where a mass of scar tissue was) Of course, this may be the dilaudid speaking, but we take hope where we can get it.

Tshadow, I want to add to something you said. I'm glad you said something about Dr. Brantigan's diagnostic tool of the spiral CT. I think I gushed about it in an earlier post, something to the effect of 'everyone should have one and it's the answer to everything, etc. etc.' Well, you're right and I was wrong. It makes things very clear for some people (like my husband) but depending upon one's problem, it may not tell a thing. I spoke to Dr. Brantigan today and he said the same thing. Oops, sorry for my unbridled and misplaced enthusiasm.

Thank you all for your continued concern and best wishes. I close with one final question. The timing for nerve glides. The PT said start right away and let pain be your guide. The doc said to not quite do them yet. So my question is how much, when, etc. We don't see the PT until next Wednesday which will be day 9 so I want to have some ideas before then.

Erin