More surgery tomorrow...

Dad has another surgery tomorrow for cleaning out the leg and looking at it to see if it is ready to close. Last surgery they weren't able to close yet because of infection. He is apparently down to one infection now. But that changes daily.
Dad had to get a blood transfusion the other day after the amputation because his counts were low. It was his first transfusion throughout this whole process. Dad joked to me the other day and said, "Mandy, make sure to put on the blog that I know who's blood I got. I definitely got blood from a Greeninger relative because now I have really bad gas." He started laughing and wanted to make sure I put it on the blog so his brothers and sisters could read it :)
Grandma came by today to visit dad. He said she didn't talk much and had really big eyes when she saw his new leg. She is still slowly putting things together. This has truly set her back many steps mentally and physically.
After tomorrows surgery, they are hoping the cultures look good over the next few days and try to close it Wednesday. So we are really praying and hoping infections are gone! I will update later this week.

First Physical Therapy with leg

Dad had his first PT with his leg and it went well. Tomorrow they are going to look at leg and see if it is ok to close up. They doubt the infection is all the way gone so they might not but they want to get a better look at how it looks.

Recovery

Dad is in his room and still in a lot of pain. He said he feels like a train hit him. He sleeps a lot and we think it is because of his pain meds. The infection doctor came in and said there is still a little bacteria from the infection from before growing on the cultures. But he sounded positive because it is very little. He is going to keep dad on antibiotics for 6 weeks to make sure everything is cleared out. He also said he would be fine if they closed the wound Thursday or if they waited till next week. He said it is up to ortho to decide depending on how they think the wound looks. So I have a feeling that they will still try to close it on Thursday. Dad received a pretty plant from Montgomery Gentry and the whole music family that Jeff works with. We were able to hang out with some of Jeff's work people this weekend at the lake in Nashville and they were so kind and worried about dad. Troy and Angie heard about the amputation and felt awful for dad and sent their prayers to our parents. Jeff is very lucky to work with such amazing people and friends. Dad is in good spirits just very tired and in more pain than he has been through this whole process.

Grandma went home Thursday last week and has a nurse with her from 7:30am-7:30 pm I believe. She is slow mentally and physically so they are trying to get her back to where she can try to function better. Thank you for all the support!!!

Out of surgery and he has a Stump :)

Dr. Cannada just came out to talk with us. She said he did well. She was able to save it 12 cm below the knee...great news. Everything looks great but since he had a ton of scare tissue and such, she said it wasn't going to ever be pretty plastics wise. He lost less than a soda can of blood and should be up on crutches in the next few days. The wound is still open and has a wound vac on it but if the cultures they took today come back negative with no infection, then Dr. Cannada will close it on Thursday. She is hoping for this because she is out of town the next few weeks. If she can't close it in the next few days, she has his leg completely prepped for closing by Dr. Jackmann, his first doctor. Thanks for the prayers! Keep them coming that the cultures come back negative.

Amputation

Sorry I haven't blogged about dad, we were out of town this weekend in Nashville and I didn't have my computer. After looking at dad's leg on Thursday, Dr. Cannada discovered there is too much damage to the bone and it would be best to amputate. She said she could save the leg but that would bring with it 5 or 6 more surgeries and dad's body wouldn't be able to handle that. Along with the multiple, high risk surgeries, there is a high chance of him becoming addicted to pain meds. She said to save the bone would be too risky for him and it is best to amputate. She said she would help us find a second opinion if we wanted but all of his doctors that have worked with him all suggest the amputation. Dad is going in for a below the knee amputation tomorrow at 7:30 AM. They are taking him in for prep at 6:00. Jeff, Dave, and I were all in Nashville this weekend and we all came back home and are here tomorrow with mom for the surgery. His MRSA infection is gone but he still has a staff infection so they are going to amputate and then leave the skin flap open with a wound vac in it until the infection is gone. Once all infection is clear, they will close up the leg and he should be coming home in a few weeks. Since he won't get a prosthetic for a few months, he doesn't need rehab until he can learn how to use a new leg. I will update you guys tomorrow! All our love, The Greeninger's

Dad's leg...

Dr. Cannada came in and answered our list of questions about big surgery vs. amputation. She told dad that there is a 40% chance the big surgery will work. So hearing that, dad wasn't excited. He hasn't been excited about the stomach surgery at all because there is a long recovery time, not great odds it would work, and he keeps saying, "Nothing is wrong with my stomach, I don't want something to be wrong with my stomach!" Cannada is going to do surgery on Thursday to get a better idea of where, if he decides to go this way, they would amputate. She thinks the bone is infected and wants to take a closer look at that. I am sure the bone is infected because you can literally see it when his leg is unwrapped. After the surgery on Thursday, and if he decides to go with the amputation, she would amputate on Monday and he could be home by Friday. She told dad if he wants to get a second opinion she would help him do that. But this whole time, we have been told over and over that she is amazing and dad feels 100% confident with her. The infection disease doctor came in today as well and told dad the best solution would be to amputate. The next few days are huge for dad and deciding what he wants to do. Please say prayers!

It's MRSA

Dad has a bad infection called MRSA. It stands for something official, but that is what the easier term is. This means we have to wear gowns and gloves while we are in his room. This infection is difficult to control but he is on new antibiotic to hopefully clear the infection in a few weeks. They went in and cleaned out the wound and it is basically back to where it was 2 months ago. So this has set him back pretty far. They are still weighing the options of either the large surgery or amputation once the infection is cleared. We will have more answers to our questions next week and start making a decision. In the meantime, dad is disappointed to be back in the hospital but we are trying to keep his spirits up. I will let you know what the doctors say Monday.

Well.....

Doctor just came out and told us that the infection didn't spread as much as he thought it was but it still isn't good. Dad's leg is basically back to where it was 2 months ago. Smock had to take some of the hardware out, the cement piece that was holding the space where the missing bone was, and it has left dad with a leg that has a large hole in it again. He has to talk with ortho and now the infection specialist to see what the next steps are. Dad will be in the hospital until we either have the big surgery or amputation. Then he will go to rehab so the doctor thinks about 3 months till he is home and done. The worry with the big surgery where they take muscle from the stomach is that his lungs still aren't great and this would create room for  complications and not sure if he could even walk on the leg. But with amputation, there is no guarantee of walking either. If it is below the knee, dad has a better chance of walking again. Right now there really are a thousand questions and few answers. We just pray that dad will walk again and get on with his life.

Surgery today

Dad has surgery today at 11:00 to clean out his leg. We still have yet to talk to the main doctor who has once again not come in/canceled on dad. We hear he is the best but yet we do not like his communication with other doctors and patients. Very frustrating. We are not sure yet what type of infection he has but we should know today because his cultures should be up today. I will let you know how surgery goes today.

Back to St. John's

Dad is back in the hospital. His leg has an infection and the doctor admitted him this afternoon. The infection has cause a hole under the skin. Mom noticed two days ago while she was changing the dressing on his leg that you could see the actual hardware, or rod, coming out. So that was not a good sign. And then the leg started to have a bad odor to it. We took him to his normal doctors appointment with the plastic surgeon today and he looked at it and said it is infected. He advised us to admit him into the hospital today. We sat for 5 hours with no doctors orders and finally they came in with what they were going to do. So far, he is not on antibiotics because they are taking blood work to figure out what type of infection it is. The plastic surgeon said that once we get rid of infection there are two options. Option 1: to complete a more intense surgery that takes about 8 hours and will create a new skin flap over the wound. They would have to take muscle from dad's stomach and then in a few months ortho can go in and start to rebuild bone. But plastics will only do that if ortho truly thinks they can rebuild the bone successfully. He didn't sound confident because the surgery comes with a long recovery time and possible complications. Option 2: get rid of infection and amputate. Dad was finally open to realizing this process is taking a long time and it might be safer and better to amputate. He said if they can save his knee and then amputate, he would rather do that. Dad said if they have to amputate above the knee, he wants to keep trying surgeries. He says this because when it all first happened, they said the best amputation would be below the knee. Dad is in good spirits and is amazing as he gets told negative thing after negative thing. I am very proud of him and how positive he is staying.  We are starting to think that amputation would be the best and safest thing for dad to do so he will have less recovery and less chance of complications. Thank you for your support and as always, prayers are welcomed and appreciated! I will post tomorrow once we know what type of infection he has.

Happy Sunday!

Sorry there hasn't been that many updates but there really isn't much news. Dad is starting to cough more so we are going to make sure he doesn't have pneumonia again. He goes to the plastics Tuesday so I will hopefully know a lot more after that. We are thinking they will scrape off more of the dead skin and hopefully this time they will give him a numbing shot because last time they didn't and it was PAINFUL!!! He seems a bit frustrated with everything right now because we are at a stand still. We are praying for good news on Tuesday's meeting so say some more prayers! Grandma is expected to go home in a few weeks. She is having trouble mentally and understanding what is going on around her. She still is not able to walk or get up out of a chair or bed on her own. Hope you guys had a wonderful weekend!

Warning: These pics are intense....

Dad is finally ready to show the pictures of his leg. His leg is really starting to take on new skin. He is able to touch part of it now and it moves like normal skin. The skin still is a lot thinner and lower than his regular skin so it looks like part of his leg is still dug out but it is healing like it should. The following pictures are not very pretty! I will not post the original picture after the first surgery the night of the accident. That is a really gross one and you can basically see into his leg. Thinking back to that picture, his leg has come VERY far!

This is a picture of his leg after a few weeks and having his first skin graph.

These following pictures are once he got stitches out and about 3 weeks after the previous pictures. The doctors took off the black part of the skin and still have more to take off that died.

This is dad saying it looks a lot better but still looks gross. Sorry he doesn't have a shirt on....the AC decided to not work this week so they are waiting on a part to fix it. The basement luckily is a lot cooler than the rest of the house. He is glad he picked the basement to be in.