Latest **long as usual** update from Maisybo:
I went home July 7th w/spacers in my leg & it was extremely difficult to walk even a few steps. My leg felt as if it was being bent backwards as far as it would go all the time & I was in really bad pain just walking a few steps with my walker.
I had PT & wound care at home from July 7 to September 10. The giant hole in my knee was covered with the tendon graft & skin graft by Dr Jejurikar, the plastic surgeon & it actually completely healed! I couldn’t believe it!
Of course my leg is ugly & forever deformed where the tendon graft & skin graft was done & there’s a big sunken in scar from the giant hole in my knee, but I have my leg, so I can deal with it.
I could not, however, deal with the spacers in my leg. I had told Dr Abbasschian when I was released from that hellish nursing home in July that I was just going to live the rest of my life with only spacers in my leg because I didn’t want to go thru all the Hell I had been thru again.
But I couldn’t stand the pain & discomfort of the spacers & having to keep my leg stretched out straight in front of me all the time; it was unbearable if I tried to bend it.
Dr Abbasschian did surgery (my 9th on this knee in 4 years) September 10 at Medical Center Plano & put new hardware in. The brand is called “LINK”. He didn’t remove my patella nor did he resurface it.
The difference in how easily I can bend my leg & how much LESS this replacement hurt was astonishing. I could walk with ease from the first day; it feels much more fluid, if that’s the right word than my Conformist knee felt. The only “bad” thing after the surgery was my hemoglobin went down to 4.9 despite Dr Abbasschian saying I didn’t have excessive blood loss. My Crohn’s causes me to have chronic anemia, & since my diagnosis & bowel resection in 2012 I’ve gotten regular iron infusions. Despite the iron infusions my hemoglobin stays at an 8 or rarely a 9. So I received 4 units of blood & 6 iron infusions. My hemoglobin went from 4.9 to 8 & has stayed there. The doctors were OK with that since that’s where it seems to stay. I get tired really easily & feel extremely fatigued pretty much all the time.
Now the complications.....of course nothing can be easy for me....
Dr Abbasschian cut around the middle of my kneecap for the surgery to install the new hardware because of the past grafts & my skin being so thin therefore . I had a big black scab over my incision, & the skin in the center of the scab above my kneecap died. Dr Abbasschian said he wasn’t surprised because it was so thin & the skin was grafted skin. But he was very optimistic that the skin underneath the big scab would grow enough to close the area of dead skin. I had several days of Vancomycin & another IV antibiotic & took a couple weeks of oral antibiotics called Cefdinir at home.
I was ecstatic to be home; I can’t explain how happy I was —I cried tears of joy!
I saw my local wound care doctor last week & he communicated with Dr Abbasschian’s PA & they decided my wound needed to be debrided. The nurse put numbing gel on the wound for a few minutes & then Dr Martin cut some of the black scab away. Sutures are still in place. Everything seemed to be OK until I went back to Dr Martin, Lufkin wound care doctor yesterday (Monday) for more debridement of the wound. The nurse told me my wound culture came back positive for “Klebsiella pneumonia”.
So a little more debridement was done, & the doctor became very concerned about the hole underneath the black scab & the yellowish fluid coming from the wound. I texted pictures of everything to the PA, & after talking to him & Dr Abbasschian by phone, they told me I’ll need to be taken into the OR at Medical Center Plano for further debridement & Dr Jejurikar will be there also to do another, bigger skin graft, which terrifies me because I know how painful it’s going to be.
Dr Abbasschian wants to do it Wednesday Oct 31 & his surgery coordinator will call me today to advise if they can get an OR.
I feel so disappointed but more scared than anything. I’ve been alone except for the day of surgery for most of my surgeries, & I was alone for some of them. I live 4 1/2 hours away from Plano, & my only support is my 2 sisters. They have to work, which I understand, but I’ll be scared & alone with no one to advocate for me. I know I’m a grown woman, but with all the previous surgeries & just being all alone day after day in the hospital, I’ve just laid there in the bed and cried all day. There have been so many surgeries & hospital stays that I feel like I’ve been in a time warp or like I’m the guy in the movie “Groundhog Day”. I’m past being tired of it all. I have lost my temper & talked rudely to the nurses when they wake me up to check my vitals or draw blood. I usually just don’t say anything, even when something happens or someone really does something that makes me furious, but not anymore. I complain to the charge nurse, & it actually helped because she told the nurses not to wake me up, etc! All my friends live in the Houston area — I lived in Houston almost 25 years until 2014 when I became too sick to work from the Crohn’s after my bowel resection & I was having to use a wheelchair because my knees were so painful. I was fired & lost my house & nearly everything I owned & had to move to Lufkin so I wouldn’t be homeless . So I rarely if ever see all my friends & former co-workers from the Houston area anymore.
I seriously feel all the stress of this for so long has changed my personality. I’m at my wits end....but I don’t want to lose my leg, so I have to just deal with it I guess...I feel very scared...
Thanks for reading — Maisybo
New ZealandI am also trying very hard to keep the other knee out of the OR. I really can't put into words how happy I am these days. If I am having an off day I just remember where I was 1,2 or 3 years ago. Now I get to dance to Sesame Street with my grandson and play with cars on the floor with him. I really want to show that there is light at the end of the tunnel and good outcomes. Sometimes it just takes a little longer.
I don’t have any knowledge to advise you but I wanted to say hi. I can understand that you just want to go home, I would feel the same way. You are in my prayers. 
