Good luck, Carla!

[βαθμιαίος]

Update from Jim:

The Camelot Journal entries for the next few days may be a little late due to the fact that Carla is now spending a few days in Norton’s Hospital having successfully come through her back surgery, and I will be spending most of my time down there too. Surgeries tend to alter one’s schedules, being very inconvenient in the short run but, hopefully, very helpful in the long run.

We got out of bed just a little after 4 am so we could be at the hospital by 5:30 am for an 8:30 am operation. Everything went as well as we could hope for. Since we were first in line for the day the procedure began on time and by 11:30 am the surgery was complete.

I got a chance to talk to both surgeons. Dr. Harpring, the neurosurgeon said that the pieces of the ruptured disc came out well and there was no problem left as far as he could see. I also talked with Dr. McCurry, the plastic surgeon who was in charge of closing Carla’s wound for the first time in a year and a half with what he called a “butterfly skin graft” using the skin right around the wound. He said that the wound looked much better than the last time that he had seen it about two months ago, but it had some questionable scar tissue around its perimeter which had to come off, so Carla has a pretty good sized wound on her back presently.

Dr. McCurry put in two JP drains to drain away bodily fluids from the wound and help it heal. In the past only one drain was used in 2011 during each of the seven debridement’s that were needed to scrape away the infections that developed so often that summer. Our great hope now is that the two drains along with two antibiotics, cipro and vancomycin, will fend off all possible infections.

Carla will be in the hospital at least three days and perhaps more. There is some talk between the two surgeons of discharging her to a rehabilitation center rather than going home right away. We will do our best to convince them that we can give her good care at home, but if there is an overriding reason to go the rehabilitation route we will have to consider that.

When Carla first came out of recovery and was wheeled into her room on her hospital bed she was in a world of pain not only from the surgery but from sciatic pain that is generated when she has to lie flat for very long on a hospital bed and from the necessity for a day or two for her to lie on her side while the wound begins to heal. She never lies on her side because the arthritis in her shoulders screams at her when she does. After a few hours the pain meds began to kick in and she felt much more like herself. She was even able to eat solid food for her first meal.

Carla and I want to thank all of you, her dear and loving friends, for your prayers and your good wishes for her speedy recovery. She is sensitive enough to be able to feel your love and she and I cannot thank you enough for sending your love to her.