Good evening to all. I realize it’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve done an update. There really hasn’t been much to talk about. Sarah has had a relatively quiet few weeks until this week, with one exception. A few days after I did my last post two weeks ago, Sarah drove home by herself for the first time since the wreck. Was I a complete basket case while she was on the road? No doubt about it. Lauren wasn’t much better. She was pacing the floor at her house in Owensboro. I wasn’t pacing . . . I was vacuuming. That’s what I do when I get stressed or anxious or nervous. Yes, I vacuum. And I mop. And I clean things that don’t need to be cleaned. Reed thinks I’m a complete nutcase since I like to vacuum. Oh, well, whatever it takes. But the good news is that Sarah made it home safely and she made it back to Evansville safely on Sunday evening. Other than that trip home for the weekend, Sarah has been busy in Evansville with classes, school work, and physical therapy. Her sleep patterns are still completely out of whack. Once again, Lisa Miller has shown her brilliance and discovered that Sarah has a Vitamin B-12 deficiency. This causes fatigue, numbness, neuropathy, anxiety, depression, the need to sleep all the time. Sarah has all of these symptoms. So now we’re figuring out a schedule for Sarah to have shots every day for 7 days then every week for 4 weeks then every other week over the next 4 weeks then every month forever. Once we get through the first 7 days, we’ll be OK. I don’t care what it takes to get her a shot every day; if it will make her feel better, we’ll figure out a way to get it done. Sarah can’t give the shots to herself because it would need to go in her thigh and she’s experienced too much trauma to her legs. We’re optimistic that once her B12 level gets to a normal level, she’ll have more energy and won’t want to sleep all the time, that things will get better. So, on to this busy week . . . on Monday morning I went to Evansville to pick Sarah up to take her to an appointment with Dr. O’Neill at Tri-State Orthopaedics. Dr. O’Neill was very pleased with the progress Sarah has made since he saw her three months ago. He was pleased with the dorsi-flexion she has in her left foot. Going into the appointment, I fully expected Dr. O’Neill to order an EMG then for Sarah to be scheduled to have surgery for a tendon transfer over Christmas Break. However, Dr. O’Neill was so pleased with the movement in her foot that he wants to continue to monitor it for another year. We will see him again in January. In the meantime, we have to figure out what is causing so much pain in her foot when she doesn’t have the walking boot or a brace on. We don’t know if it’s nerve pain or if it’s because of muscle weakness from not being used for nearly a year. It might be because of the B-12 deficiency. All we know is it’s extremely uncomfortable. She can walk really well without the boot; her gait is near perfect. It’s just not good for her to wear the boot all of the time. It’s throwing off the alignment of her hips and spine and putting extra pressure on her left knee. We’re going to have a new orthotic made; hopefully it will fit inside her regular shoes and be more comfortable for her. If you saw Sarah walking down the street without the boot on, you would have no idea that less than a year ago (it will be 50 weeks this Friday) we were questioning whether she would live then questioning whether she would ever walk again. It is truly remarkable to see her get around. It was overwhelming to see her walk without the boot on. She’s a medical miracle. After Sarah’s appointment in Evansville, we headed to Tell City for an appointment with Lisa. Lisa is so kind and caring. She took a lot of time with us to talk about any concerns we have, in particular about the CYP450 metabolic disorder. This disorder is serious business. It doesn’t just relate to pain medications. Every single drug Sarah takes, whether prescription or over the counter, no matter if it’s for pain management, an infection, whatever, has to be checked to see if she can metabolize it. That means every doctor Sarah sees for the rest of her life has to not only know that she has this disorder but also has to understand what it is (apparently this is a fairly new medical discovery). Just one more thing! I do know this . . . Lisa Miller is brilliant. I don’t know what we would have done without her throughout this whole process. After Sarah’s appointment with Lisa, we headed to Cincinnati. We got there in time to make a stop at her favorite store and eat at her favorite Cincinnati restaurant. Sarah had an appointment with Dr. Noyes on Tuesday morning. She hadn’t seen him for two months. He was very pleased with her progress. He gave her a gold star! He was very happy to see that her flexion and extension were really good. She went in cold with her extension at 4 degrees and her flexion at 123 degrees. With some work, she can get to 0 degrees extension and 126 degrees flexion. Think back to when Sarah first saw Dr. Noyes in early February; her extension was 10 degrees and her flexion was around 60 degrees. She’s made tremendous progress. Sarah talked to Dr. Noyes about the only place she is having pain in her knee. It’s a spot right above her knee cap. Dr. Noyes thinks it’s because of the very large sutures he had to use to hold her quadricep together when he did the Z plasty surgery. The next time we go to Cincinnati, which will be in mid-December, we’ll again go the night before because Sarah will be scheduled for an MRI early the next morning. The MRI should show whether it is the sutures causing the pain. If that’s the case, Dr. Noyes said it’s a simple procedure to take the sutures out. If Dr. Noyes is fairly sure removing the sutures will help with the pain, we’ll likely get that done over Christmas Break. Dr. Noyes was pleased with Sarah’s quad strength (4 on a 0 to 5 scale). He wants her to continue with physical therapy in Evansville and continue with her quad strengthening exercises. The greater her quad strength, the more functional flexion and extension she’ll gain then maintain. Sarah asked about her ACL and PCL, the original reason we went to see Dr. Noyes back in February. Dr. Noyes examined her ACL and PCL and said they are intact, stable, moving well, and being held in place with scar tissue. It’s likely she won’t have to have surgery for ACL and PCL repair. Sarah continues to work hard in her classes and is getting ready to pick up 6 more credit hours to finish her last two classes from last fall. With that and physical therapy, she’s staying busy. Her two beautiful cats are keeping her company. Since my last update, the Tell City boys cross country team has won the Pocket Athletic Conference meet and the Sectional. They will be running at the Regional meet at Crawford County on Saturday. It was a beautiful drive to Evansville then to Cincinnati and back on Monday and Tuesday. The trees are starting to turn to their beautiful fall colors. The weather was nasty but it was, thankfully, an uneventful trip. Sarah slept most of the way there and all of the way home, so I listened to music, thought way more than I should have, looked at the trees, the fields of corn and beans, the beautiful landscape of the Midwest. What a perfect place to live. Sarah and I traveled no more than 3 hours from home and saw 3 of the best medical professionals you can find. We’re so close to some of the best medical care in the country. And we live in this great community, a community that has loved us, supported us, cried with us, cheered with us throughout the last 50 weeks. We couldn’t ask for better, couldn’t ask for more. And we couldn’t be more thankful. Reed was confirmed on Sunday. It was a beautiful service. One of the songs we sang was “How Can I Keep from Singing.” There is a verse that really hit home with me . . . “no storm can shake my inmost calm while to that rock I’m clinging.” I have to admit that the storm we’ve been living through this last year has tested me in many ways. I’ve learned what I’m capable of, what I’m not capable of, how strong I am, and how weak I am. But every single day I think of the miracle our sassy little Sarah is, what she’s overcome. She still has a long way to go, more emotionally than physically, but she’ll get there. It seems like every day brings a new discovery, a new challenge, a new hurdle. And every day she and we find a way to fight the battle, to make it over that hurdle. And every single day I think about the rocks that I cling to . . . Chris, the kids, our families, and those special friends, the friends who know what a simple text of encouragement, a simple phone call, can do. And every single day I’m thankful. In the grand scheme of things, life is good. I will probably only do updates every other week or so from now on. There just isn’t that much to report right now. Hopefully the next time I do an update the B-12 shots will have given Sarah a huge boost. With love from the Goffinets – Darla, Chris, Lauren, Sarah and Reed
Posted on: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 03:35:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015