2008 has been a very difficult year for our 31 year-old son Andy. The year started with him watching TV one evening after work and suddenly having excruciating pain in his back and chest. He called the paramedics and found that his heart was okay but upon going to the doctor’s office and getting x-rays, it was discovered that he had 2 compression fractures in the vertebrae in his mid-back. Perhaps he suffered a seizure causing the fractures; he remembers nothing but the pain. The first doctor he saw said that having fractures like that without a serious fall indicated that Andy could either have bone cancer or some type of degenerative bone disease.
Throughout the following weeks and months, Andy visited several specialists: orthopedic doctors, a rheumatologist, endocrinologist, neurologists and pain management doctors. It was discovered that Andy has very weak bones, bordering on osteoporosis, and while the specific cause is unknown, genetics could definitely play a factor as Andy’s uncle (Joe’s brother) suffers from the same condition. We had hoped early on that Andy might be a candidate for a type of surgery that could possibly get the compressed bones back to their original shape but that didn’t happen, so the 2 fractured vertebrae grew back wedge-shaped, as opposed to the square-shaped normal backbones, causing Andy’s back to be stooped over. The misshapen vertebrae have caused muscle spasms and a tremendous amount of pain, and Andy has been unable to stand for long periods of time or lift anything heavier than about 10-15 pounds. He’s had 2 different kinds of back braces and lots of physical therapy sessions. He takes Fosamax (which is what older women like me take for osteoporosis), megadoses of vitamin D and testosterone injections to try to strengthen his bones. Needless to say, he has been unable to return to his job as server/bartender at a Chili’s restaurant. He moved back home with us in March and began attending classes at ITT Technical College in the fall for a degree in computer networking and had a 100% average in the classes he was taking.
Around noon on November 10, Andy called me as he driving home from a doctor’s appointment. We were talking when he suddenly became unresponsive and began making strange moaning noises. I knew he was having a seizure and then I heard a crash. I totally lost it and was screaming into the phone. I heard other voices say, “You’re hurt. We’ve called for help.” Nobody heard my screams, so it took us a while to find out where Andy had been taken, which was thankfully to UAB’s (University of Alabama Birmingham) Trauma Unit. Besides scrapes and cuts, he suffered a crushed left ankle (which was an open fracture), a crushed tibial plateau on the right leg (which is the lower part of his knee joint) and 2 broken bones in his lower back. One of these bones was what they call a burst fracture, meaning that the pieces of vertebrae shatter and go in all directions and some of these bone chips were pressing into Andy’s spinal canal.
Thank heavens he was in a huge hospital complex, which is also a medical school and has some of the best doctors and surgeons in this part of the country. His injuries required 4 separate surgeries by 3 different surgeons. I won’t go into all of the details but his right leg had to have rods sticking into the bones of his thigh and lower leg and then protruding through the skin and attached to this huge metal “external fixation device” for 4 days so that the bones could be correctly positioned for the knee surgery to take place. Andy also had to have a fasciotomy, resulting in two 14 inch long open incisions with drain and suction tubes on his right calf. A fasciotomy is a surgical procedure where the fascia is cut to relieve tension or pressure (resulting in loss of circulation to an area of tissue or muscle). Without this emergency procedure, the tissues would have died and he would have lost his lower right leg. Fortunately, these incisions were able to be closed during his knee surgery and skin grafts were not needed. Andy’s back surgery, which took bone grafts from his hip and fused 5 of his lower vertebrae, took place last, 8 days after the wreck occurred. Numerous MRIs, CAT scans and X-rays had to be taken, and every time Andy was moved, it was painful just to watch his agony. During this time, Andy was hospitalized in UAB’s Acute Trauma Care Unit, then the Orthopedic Unit and finally the Spain Rehabilitation Unit of the hospital and treated by teams of excellent trauma doctors and orthopedic surgeons, for which we are all eternally thankful.
Andy came home in a wheelchair on Thanksgiving Day, after 17 days in the hospital. Our den has been converted to a hospital room and one of us (Joe, Andy’s sister Laura or I) has been here to care for him. Laura and our 9 year old granddaughter, Paris, have moved in to help and to be close by. Andy is totally non-weight-bearing on both legs and will be wheelchair-bound for some time. Physical therapists and nurses have begun visiting him at home. He faces more surgeries to repair ligament damage in his ankle and knee and months of rehabilitation and physical therapy, but his doctors believe that he will walk again. Because of the many prayers we have received, we know he will walk again. Andy has never been diagnosed with seizure disorder, but because he has now suffered 3 seizures within the past year, this issue will definitely need to be examined and treated as well. We have all miraculously remained very positive and upbeat, and if one of us gets down, someone else is here to step in and be the cheerleader. (Paris is best at this job. She prays often and always has a smile or a hug to cheer us up.) I, who used to faint at the site of blood, have been able to do things I never dreamed possible. We have all, especially Andy, felt everyone’s prayers and good wishes. We are keeping Mel Fisher’s “Today’s the Day” optimistic and ‘anything is possible’ attitude, and we are willing to do whatever it takes to get Andy well. Please keep those prayers and good wishes coming our way, for which I have inadequate words to express my heartfelt and eternal gratitude.
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