Story about Blake's accident

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10/5: From BQ

Hi everybody it's Dr. Nick!

Ok, it's actually just Blake, couldn't resist the Simpson's reference though. Well it's been a week now since my surgery. I'm at home and doing quite a bit better. I'm sleeping better every night, and the pain gets just a little bit better every day. I have realized a couple really cool and exciting things since I've been home also. One is that fall is definitely upon us! Dang it's getting chilly huh?

But since they cut each of my bones flat to put against one another my left leg is about an inch and a half shorter than the right. The good thing about this is that once I am able to start walking again I won’t have to throw my body and swing my leg like I had been. I'll be able to just bring it straight forward and will barely have any limp to my gait at all. You might also be aware that I had lost almost all control of my left foot; I could press down with it, but just slightly. I also had lots of spots on it where I had no feeling at all, but used to get a lot of sudden stabbing nerve pains throughout my foot.

Well just a couple days after my surgery, while still in the hospital even, I noticed that all the weird nerve pains that I'd had for over a year now had stopped. Days later, once I had returned home, I was wiggling my toes when I witnessed my foot make an upward movement. I looked at it more closely and repeated it. It only actually moved about a quarter of an inch, but it did indeed make an upward movement, something that I also haven't been able to do for over a year now! So I called my dad in to watch and then asked him to help me check around my foot. It was then that I suddenly realized that some of the feeling had started coming back also. Now I haven't been able to tell or show my doctor this so we can only speculate as to why and how this could be happening. None the less this is exciting news. It's hard to say what this may mean, or how far it may allow me to recover but I of course will keep everyone posted on this new development.

I go to see my surgeon, Dr. French, on the 19th. At that time he will remove all my staples, and stitches, take new x-rays, and decide what else I am to do from there. He had originally said that then he will advise whether or not to start physical therapy again, which for many reasons I will certainly and firmly request. I'm also supposed to keep all my weight off of my leg for eight weeks, so I'd really like therapy’s help learning how to put weight on it and walk again.

I think that's pretty much all the news I have for now. I would like to thank Lori once again for stepping up and helping keep everybody stay in the know. And as always thanks to all of you for all your prayers and thoughts.

Until next time, catch ya on the flip.
BadBlake

9/30: 5:55pm

Blake did not have any blood clots, so he came home this afternoon as planned. He's still dealing with alot of pain & needs to rest for the next several weeks.

9/30: 7:34am

Blake didn't sleep much. His hip is swollen and pain is increased. He vomited this morning when bandages were changed. Doctor is checking for blood clots.

9/29: 9:56am

Blake has successfully made bed to wheelchair transfers on his own & walked a lap down the hallway using crutches. He said its incredibly painful & slow.

9/29: 9:18am

Blake's temperature has finally returned to normal and he slept 6 straight hours last night. Physical therapist is going to have him try crutches this morning.

9/28: 2:41pm

Blake is feeling much better compared to yesterday; good enough to order Salisbury steak for lunch! Physical Therapy came in this morning and had him sitting at the edge of the bed with his left leg lowered toward the floor. The therapist remembered working with him last summer (it was actually his name that she remembered!). He is getting a couple of units of blood today to replace that lost during yesterday's surgery. And he's still running a temperature of 101.1, but his vital signs are all good.

9/28: Knee Fusion Information

Interested in what's been done to Blake's left leg?
Check out this link: Knee Fusion Nail

Knee fusion is also done for failed knee replacements and severe arthritis. Blake's case is different, but the article gives a good idea of the procedure.

9/28: 9:10am

Good news! Blake's pain meds dosage has been increased and he's feeling better already. He'll also be getting his catheter out and getting some breakfast soon.

9/28: 7:42am

Blake didn't have a good night. Pain is so intense that he couldn't sleep. Said it feels like his leg is being crushed. Heart rate is high and has a fever of 101.1.

9/27: 5:31pm

Blake's resting now. He's in a tremendous amount of pain and has relief meds administered via pain pump. He's ordered a light dinner, but not sure he'll enjoy it.

9/27: Surgery #12 continued...

Steve & Katie just met with the orthopedic surgeon. Blake's surgery went very well. He has a vertical incision on the left knee and at the hip. He will be in the hospital for several days.
Blake's left leg will be slightly shorter than his right. That will actually help him walk more normally. He won't need to swing his leg to the side as he has been doing.

9/27: Surgery #12

Blake went into surgery today to fuse his knee at 7:30 this morning. The operation is expected to take 2 1/2 hours. He is in good spirits & joking with the medical staff. I will update when I hear from Steve.

3/5: From BQ

Hey there, hi there, hoe there come and limp and gimp with me. Yes it's that time again, time to fill in those who have cared and prayed for me for these last 7 months. Well I'm still going to physical therapy twice a week. I can actually feel a difference as the weeks go by and my leg muscles get stronger. The electronic stimulation still has not produced any improvement however. I did have to switch my primary physician this month also. I was about to run out of my pain medicine and called his office everyday leaving messages and he apparently didn't feel the need to call back. Needless to say I found another doctor. This one is also through the Ohio Health system and is located in the same building as my physical therapy. I also had to go see an endocrinologist, because blood work that was done while I was at rehab showed my calcium levels were spiking. Well a few days later I got a call from them. They told me that while I was immobile my body needed calcium so it pretty much sucked it out of my bones, but that those levels would become normal themselves now that I was active. However they found I had an extreme vitamin d deficiency due to an extreme lack of sunlight for so long. So now I take this vit. D pill only once a week. It has 50,000 mg of vit. D. and I finally got in to see pain mgt. the other day; they switched a couple things with my meds but not much. Other than that I did learn how to knit last week and began my first scarf. It should probably be done by next winter at this rate.
That’s about all for now. So see you real soon, m-o-u-s-eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.


God bless- Bad Blake



p.s. Go see Crazy Heart with Jeff Bridges and think of me while you watch it.

2/7: From BQ

Its been a little over three weeks since I gotten out of the big house, and things have been going well. Now that I'm home of course, I'm on my feet much more out of necessity. This at times leaves me in a lot more pain than I had gotten used to, with rest and medication its bearable though. I'm not doing much these days other than my ten tons of Dr.'s appointments, and equally as much paperwork we've been filling out to keep my medical insurance. That part has been such a joy, I assure you. I did start my outpatient physical therapy last week and it actually was great. The facility and equipment are amazing, and my therapist really knows his shit.
Well that just about covers it for now. I'll try and post new blogs every couple weeks. Life's just not exciting enough right now to update you more often.

Deuces,
Blake

1/14/2010

We’re so sorry we haven’t updated Blake’s blog for several weeks. We got so tied up with all of the holiday preparations and celebrations that it got away from us. We had a wonderful Christmas and New Years and hope that you did too.

We also want to apologize for any misunderstanding we may have caused regarding Blake’s condition and progress. The video footage Steve shot from his camera when Blake first began using his walker had to be converted to a different file format to upload to this blog. This change caused the action to speed up and it looked as though Blake was walking at a fairly normal gait. He actually walks MUCH slower than that. However, that was the first available footage we had and we were so excited about it that we used it anyway.

Blake’s subsequent blog entries about his Thanksgiving escapades may also have given some of you the impression that he traveled easy; just not able to drive. The fact is we take all necessary precautions to get him into and out of our vehicle and it takes several minutes just to get him into the seat and arranged comfortably.

The good news is that we were able to take him out to celebrate Christmas with family. Blake’s brother, Dusty, and his wife, Chesha, came in from Hawaii. Blake enjoyed being able to spend time with all his brothers and his son, Tresden. And we made a trip to church one Sunday, too. We even got to take Blake out to Spaghetti Warehouse for New Year’s Day dinner.

The better news is that Blake will be discharged from Columbus Rehabilitation & Subacute Institute on Monday, January 18th. At this time we plan to have him stay at his grandparent’s home. Although Blake is able to care for himself in some respects, we don’t want him left alone in case he should fall or otherwise need help. He will still be participating in physical therapy sessions and will need regular doctor’s visits, clinical visits, blood draws, and the like.

It’s been a long 6 months and Blake’s ordeal is far from over. However, this marks a turning point in his recovery. We are so very happy to be bringing him home. But, he’ll need a period of adjustment. We need to get him “de-institutionalized”.