Patelectomy
Arie fell in the garage shortly after dropping of the last bunch at the airport. Fortunately, I was near the garage and I heard him yell! He had fallen and messed up his knee. He could not stand but we were finally able to get him on a small cart that was in the garage and wheeled him into the house and onto the couch. Many ice packs later we decide to go on a hunt for a knee brace and a cane. He could not stand on the leg unless he locked the knee in a backward position.
What a circus! Thankfully, there are no videos!!
Using the chair and the crutches we were able to navigate the airport, security and the plane trip from Phoenix to Minneapolis. I thought I could easily wheel him and our carry-on baggage to our next gate until I realized that the airport is not nearly as level as I had thought and pushing him all the way was not going to happen! We flagged down one of those golf cart type vehicles and away we went. It was fortunate that we did because the gate we were heading to was located way on the other side of the airport! Everyone was very helpful!
Arie was able to bend his leg just enough to sit and so survived the trip.
It took 10 days to get in to see an orthopedic surgeon! 10 days!! I couldn't believe it! Absolutely crazy! I was going to take him to an emergency walk-in clinic the day he finally got the call back to set up an appointment 5 days later and Arie was fine with that! I would have been screaming BUT since he had no pain, absolutely none, Arie went with it!
The appointment with the surgeon was Tuesday and surgery was on Friday! The surgeon had to clean away the cracked up pieces of the patella and reattach the tendon underneath it. Surgery went well and he was allowed to walk as much as he wanted...but he could not bend the knee. His leg was put into a cast from his butt to his ankle. Again... no pain.
Two weeks later the cast came off, 18 stitches came out and another brace went on. This one looks a bit bionic. It's locked in the straight position because he has 6 weeks total of not bending the knee, it will eventually be unlocked a bit a time to allow for slowly bending the leg.
A shower with the cast was a challenge but the brace comes off and he can shower and scratch to his heart's content as long as he does not bend the leg. It's been a long few weeks but things are going well! We have even been on a few car rides and he sits like royalty, leg stretched out in the back seat!
Although there was no knee pain, this blister on his ankle at the bottom of the cast did drive him crazy. It was nasty but healed up quickly after the cast was off.
What a saga.
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