Been awhile.........
I'll say that progress is
slow but, there's progress but not without a lot of pain. I'm not sure but, I think she now realizes just how bad an accident this was. She's still in a wheelchair or using a walker. One or the other still 100% of the time.
She has two PT's, one occupational and one physical. Both are excellent. However, there's an awful lot of screaming and crying during PT. They work her knee. She may scream and cry but, she still continues. Three weeks ago we had to make a trip down Beaumont hospital for another procedure by the surgeon. What happened was that the therapists could not, in any way, get her knee to bend beyond 90°. So the procedure down below was what's called a "manual manipulation". Sedatives in the operating room and the surgeon manipulated her knee and broke up the scar tissue. While she was in recovery, he came out and told me that he got it to 143°. They did additional x-rays to be positive there was no damage. There was none.
It set her back considerably both physically and mentally. Afterwards, that knee was quite painful. The surgeon set it up so that she'd have PT every day for 2wks.
We have to make a post procedure visit this Thursday. I have a bad feeling and I hope like hell I'm totally wrong but, it would not surprise me if she doesn't have to have additional surgery. The PT can not get that knee to bend beyond 97°. The wife's pain at that point is so severe that she's crying hard. The therapist is concerned that there's severe nerve damage, which is what's causing her so much pain. The nerve damage can be easily fixed. They just cut the nerve but, it is far from a preferred treatment. The surgeon could decide that a more invasive surgery is required to remove the scar tissue and or both the tissue and cut the nerve. We'll know more after talking with the surgeon.
Speaking of the surgeon, because they're having issue with bending the knee, he ordered another new brace for her. We pick that up Wednesday. Its not going to be comfortable for her but, it will force her knee to bend and.... she'll have control. I'm hoping that now that she FINALLY has this new brace, they'll make her use it for a couple weeks prior to making any other decision/s.
I will say getting this brace has been a pain in my ask. This is the second brace as the first one we went to get last week, was 180° WRONG. It was made for extension, not flexion. DAH???
They fixed the issue and expedited the new one. I was on his ask about making sure that that brace made it here before the first of the year. Yeah, co-pay kicks back in.
This has been an "experience" for both of us. I will say I'm getting pretty damn good at grocery shopping. The wife does her required therapy here at home and actually does 2x or 3x what the therapists asked.
She's not slacking. She's figured out how to do different things and does NOT want help. She's tackled and conquered the laundry
We have a LONG road yet ahead.
Check out this new brace she'll be using. I'm going to see if the damn thing has wi-fi.