Epilogue

Every once and a while I look back on this blog to sort of re-visit this time in our lives (now more than 4 years ago). And every time I tell myself I need to close it out, as the story is left hanging after the surgery. If this story is new to you, please scroll all the way down to the first post and work your way up.

 All done? OK, here we go:

 Karen recovered from the ACL surgery (suffering through the agony of the CPM machine as required) and slowly resumed normal activities. The other injuries (most notably the cracked ribs and cracked vertebrae) have healed well and have not been an issue. She was back playing hockey about 1(?) year after the accident (she'll correct me on this after she reads). But her knee did NOT let her resume jogging until she found the right type of shoes and adjusted her stride.  She's been running regularly for the last year, completing several half marathons (more on that later).

She'll probably have to deal with knee issues for the rest of her life due to this, and some recent hip issues have been attributed to the accident by our orthopedist Dr Rollins, so physically, there will always be little reminders. 

 We returned to Maui in November 2010 for the sentencing of the man that hit her. He had pled guilty and we were told that, as a repeat offender, he was going to get a year. But the defense attorney threatened to pull the guilty plea and take it to trial (which would have meant we would have to make another trip back there who knows when for a trial). The DA left it up to us. This 61 year old man was really a bit of a pathetic person, not worth our trouble, and we knew something was going to be happening for us in about 8 months (see below).  So we said OK to the six month sentence to allow us to move on.  Karen gave a very strong-willed and emotional victim's statement, with a nice little ad-libbed jab at the defense atty for his little trick.  Story here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/72983740/maui%20news%20article.pdf

This trip for the sentencing was supposed to be a bit of a make-up for the vacation a year previous that got ruined.  We were there for a week - the sentencing took up one day, and the rest of the time (seemingly) it rained. Hard. 

Suffice to say: Maui owes us.


 A bit over a year and a half after the accident this happened:

Oliver came along to complete our family about a year later than hoped due to the accident, but it's worked out well. Riley is a great big brother and the boys get along beautifully.

Riley says he doesn't remember our Maui "vacation" (he was just 2 at the time). Perhaps that's a good thing...



So.  Remember up there where I said "more later" about her running regularly for the last year? Here's the more (and the impetus for finally closing out this blog). The new shoes and stride are working out pretty darn well because today this happened:

 That's her crossing the finishing line at the California International Marathon in Sacramento (center with arms raised).   Of course it took more than the right shoes.  It not easy to find the time to put in the training necessary to do this, while working and raising two boys.  I took care of the boys when I could (like during long weekend runs), but it also involved many early morning and late night runs during the week, or just having the dedication to fit a workout in somewhere. 

The chances that this could happen seemed so remote 4 years ago, but persistence and dedication can do wonders.  I couldn't be more proud to be her husband.

So that's it.  I'm not sure how many will read this last entry, as the accident is somewhat ancient history now, 4+ years removed from when it happened, but for those many friends (and strangers, in some cases) that helped us through this, I'd like to say thanks one more time.

Surgery Day

I'll be live-blogging today's orthroscopic knee surgery, so watch this space for updates. Unless they let me and my iphone into the OR, there might not be a whole lot to report, but we'll see....

9:15: Riley's at preschool and we don't have to be at the surgical center until noon, so we'll be hanging out here at home for the morning. Karen's making cranberry relish for Saturday's Moms group Thanksgiving dinner (can be made up to a week ahead of time and prob won't feel much like working in the kitchen for the next couple days), and I'm just chilling and redding up a bit (that means tidying up to any non-Pittsburghese speakers out there).

9:20: As I'm typing the above post, we get a call from the surgical center that the appointment's been moved up an hour.

11:18: At the surgical center. They just took Karen back to get things started. Once she's all set, they say I can go back and wait with her until they can start the big show.

12:25: Ok, she's off to the OR. The anesthesiologist was delayed by a previous procedure, so there was about a 30 minute delay after Karen was all ready to go.
I'm off to lunch and to pick up her crutches, which I left at work (grrr).

2pm: Surgery's all done. Just talked with Dr Rollins. Everything went fine. Her ACL was completely torn, but the replacement for that went fine. The miniscus is better than expected, hardly any damage at all, but the PCL (Posterior crutiate ligament) has a partial tear. However, like the MCL, that just requires time to heal.
Dr says the prognosis is excellent. Yea!!!!

3:30: The nurse is getting Karen ready to go home. I've been directed to go wait with the car.

4:30: Home and resting comfortably-ish on the couch. A bottle vitamin V at the ready.

This concludes our programming day. Thanks for watching. ;-)

The knee, cont'd

Saw the ortho again on Monday to discuss the right knee MRI (which was a story in itself, see below). Results are: Torn ACL, grade III sprain of the MCL, and torn meniscus. Surgery is scheduled for a week from today (Nov 19th).
Also this week, had an MRI of the left knee (also causing a bit of pain). That MRI shows a grade I sprain of the MCL, but that just requires rest.
As for the other injuries, the ribs and back are still nagging, but not as bad as the knee. The ribs make it hard to sleep on her side, and once in a while a cough, sneeze, etc is an adventure. As Karen says: Sneezing is not as fun as it used to be.
Now about that right knee MRI: she also had some xrays that were suppossed to taken prior to the MRI that day. After waiting for an hour, she went up to the desk and asked what the hold up was. "oh, the xray is down, sorry". Great. Thanks for telling us. So then into the MRI. Now, one side effect of the injury is that she can't straighten her right knee without significant pain. So what do they do for the MRI? Force her leg straight and wedge it in place! 30 minutes of this. So when the MRI is over she says to the tech through clenched teeth: "Release my leg, please"
"What?"
"Release my leg?"
"Huh?"
"RELEASE MY LEG!!!!!"
Fortunately, the left MRI was much easier.

Somewhat off topic: did anyone out there send a package to our house in San Jose while we were in Maui? We have a note from the mailman that he left a package at the front door, but no one that was taking care of our house saw anything. We're afraid it might have been swiped off our front porch.

The knee

Saw the orthopedist on Monday. Preliminary diagnosis is torn ACL and a miniscus tear. An MRI is scheduled for Thursday to confirm. Surgery will be required for repairs, date TBD.

Home

Flights were uneventful. We upgraded two of our seats to first class so Karen would have more room to stretch out. Riley and I sat back in coach and did fine (key items: car seat, books, a few favorite toys, and portable DVD player).
Karen's brother Daniel picked us up at the airport and her Dad met us at home (with a rose from his garden for Karen :-)
We were greeted at home by our two cats, a restocked fridge, and a big bowl of matzo ball soup (thanks Barb!)
So good to be home.

Heading home

We leave tomorrow at 10:45. Maui to Honolulu, then Honolulu to Oakland, arriving at 8:50pm.
This time tomorrow, should be getting ready for sleep in our own beds :-)

Liveblog: 2 1/2 week followup

Thought I'd take a shot at doing a live blog for our trip into Wailuku for a CT scan, 2 Dr appointments and (possibly) a meeting with the prosecutor.

9:25am HST: waiting in Radiology for the CT scan. We got here quite a bit early, as traffic was not as bad as I had feared. Filling out some forms for the CT. Just scored some paper clips from the techs, so I can start to organize the reams of paper we've collected in the past 2 weeks (police report, medical file, her disability stuff, my FMLA leave stuff, etc).

9:41am: They just took her back for the scan. I can't go. Our original appt time was 10am; nice to see they could take her earlier.

10:41am: still waiting...

11am: Apparently they're having trouble with the IV for the contrast dye. Now they had to take another patient ahead of her. Good thing our next appointment isn't until 1:30. But she wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything since midnight, so we'll need to find some food STAT when this is done.

11:20am: Tech just told me scan is being done now.

11:53am. Scan done. Took 5 tries to get the IV in :-(
Now we're waiting (after a quick trip to the snack shop) for them to make a CD of all her xrays, scans, etc so we can have something to show the dr back home.

12:51pm: Lunch at Wei-Wei BBQ & Noodle, conveiniently located in the same building as the Drs office.
Karen feeling a bit too much like a pincushion.






1:41pm: Clearance to fly!!!!
The chest surgeon says the lungs look good, we're ok to fly! Yeah!!!
This Dr and his assistant Terry have been great. If you need a thorastic surgeon next time you're in Maui, look up Dr Pat Cochran.

2:20pm: Saw the attending Dr for our last followup. He took out the stitches in the hand, which revealed that the pain she felt in the web of her fingers must have been caused by the stitches themselves. Yeah again! Still a bit tender, but better.

3:30pm: Last entry for today.
We're back at the condo. Never were able to hook up with the DA. However, he's going to come back out to our place tomorrow for a short meeting. Should be interesting.

Weds - Fri 10/21-23

Still here stuck in Maui. Wednesday's followup with the Dr went well. Although the stiches in her hand were not ready to come out, the dressing came off the site of the chest tube incision, which was declared healed enough (after some gentle pleading) to go swimming! So the four of us spent a few hours by (and in) the pool that afternoon. Then that night was the weekly Kahana Village Mai Tai party, which was fun. We met a family from Seattle with a 2 1/2 year old (Carson) who just checked in and is staying a week and a half. So Riley finally had a little playmate, though it remains to be seen how often we can get them together.
Yesterday saw some beach time for Riley (there's a nice toddler-friendly beach by the park), and a dinner out in Lahaina for the four of us at Cheeseburger in Paradise.
This morning Grammy went into town to go yarn shopping while Karen and I took Riley to the pool to play with Carson and some other bigger kids. This afternoon Grammy took Riley to the park while Karen and myself get some quiet time by the pool. As I write, we're sitting at the pool watching the sun setting over the ocean between the islands of Molokai and Lanai.
Still it's tough to be away from home for so long under these circumstances. When the Dr gives us clearance to fly (hopefully on the 28th he'll say it's ok to leave as currently scheduled on the 31st), we will be more than ready.

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday 10/18-20

Sorry for the lack of updates, but not alot to write about since discharge on Saturday. Karen's doing a good job gingerly getting around on the cane, but too much walking or standing increases the swelling in her right leg and increases the pain. So she has to walk a fine line between maintaining and increasing her mobility and keeping a lid on the pain. She has pills for the pain, but they only do so much.
Riley has been becoming more of a handful since late last week, throwing tantrums whenever he doesn't get what he wants Right Now. I suppose that's typical 2 year old behavior, but it's happening more often and the effect on his parents and Grammy are magnified being so far away from home and our usual routines. I guess we need to try to form some new routines for him. There's a nice park about 2 miles down the road that we've been hitting in the mornings before naptime, and he enjoys that as there's usually kids his age there. Other than that, he seems most at ease and under control in front of the TV (Noddy, Caillou, and Thomas), which is suboptimal, but any port in a storm I suppose.
Daniel left yesterday evening and Riley and I saw him off at the airport. Riley got to see the plane land, unload, load, and take off so that was a treat. It's a regular flight, so I can see us doing that a few more times.
Today we had to go into the hospital for an xray, and tomorrow we see the attending Dr for a followup. There's a chest CT and followup with the chest surgeon scheduled for the 28th and that's when we expect to get a clearer picture of when we can leave.

Kahana Village

A few words about Kahana Village, the place we've been staying, and the people that run it:
It's located in Kahana, between Ka'anapali and Kapalua on Maui. We had reserved a two bedroom upstairs unit (unit 35, pics and virtual tour here: http://kahanavillage.com/beachhouses/index.htm#map) for the week ended yesterday. It's a small condo development, privately run by on-site management. The property manager Vicky and her husband Mike live in a unit above the management office, so this is their home as well as place of work, and the condition of the property and especially the gardens reflect this.
When Vicky heard about Karen's accident she called Carol (I was on my way to the hospital) and immediately offered any help (shopping, babysitting, rides, etc) we needed. She also offered to work with us if we needed to extend our stay.
At one point last week, Riley had developed a diaper rash and Carol had the car at the hospital. Mike went to the store for me and got the diaper rash cream, some diapers and a few other things. When he brought them to our unit, he said "no charge"
When the extent of Karen's injuries, and the path going forward became clear (painful recovery, mobility issues, and air travel restriction), Vicky offered to move us to a downstairs unit (#42, see link to map above), which are three bedroom and significantly more expensive. However, she gave us an extremely reasonable rate, which allows us to stay here and not break the bank (although eventually insurance SHOULD pick up
the tab).
So suffice to say, without the help of Vicky, Mike, and the staff here, we would have had an even harder time dealing with our situation.
So if you ever visit Maui, as a personal favor to Karen, Carol, and myself, please consider a stay at Kahana Village (just don't try for the "Hit by a truck on the first day of your vacation" rate ;-)

Bruises

Just some (this is the right side of her back):

"Home" at last!!

After being informed by the Dr around 11am that Karen could be discharged, we... waited some more. Apparently there's quite a bit of paperwork involved.
We (Karen, Daniel, and I) left the hospital around 1pm. After a stop at the BK drive thru, we headed back to Kahana and our temporary home. After relaxing and getting settled in, Carol made a nice chicken dinner and we toasted Karen's return.
We have to see the Dr next week for a followup, and get a CT scan in 7-10 days. Other than that, we wait for clearance to fly home (2 to 3 weeks from this past Thursday).

Discharged!!!

Just found out ~15 minutes after the last post. Woo-hoo!

Waiting

Just hanging out in the room, waiting/hoping for the doctor to come by.
Things move a little slower on the weekends.

Friday 10/16

The day started bad with the news that there'd be no discharge today, and only a "maybe" for Monday. But it actually ended up as another day of progress. After doing a good job with the walker (specially equipted to deal with the bum right hand and shoulder) she moved on to trying a cane. Did so well she took a couple trips down the hall. Made a trip outside even (in a wheelchair).
Took a shower for the first time in days. As she was coming out of the bathroom and finishing up, the occupational therapist came in, saw this and said "ok, I can see I'm not needed here."
The chest surgeon has given an all clear for release (need to go back in 7-10 days for a CT), so seems the last person to convince is the general surgeon.
Karen's brother Daniel arrived today for a much appreciated visit, and will stay for a couple of days.

My fault....

... for even THINKING about discharge last night. Dr was in this morning and said "maybe" Monday (!!!!!!!). They want to make sure the chest is clear and that she is more ambulatory, I guess.
Damn.

Rest of the day, Thurs 10/15

After a whirlwind morning, things were much slowed down the rest of the day. One big milestone: no more tubes. The morphine iv was removed today. She had not used the button since being asked this morning to try and keep off it (need to be able to be off it to be discharged). So she kept off it and is now on pills.
She's getting closer to being able to get out of bed unassisted (also somewhat of a prereq for discharge).
Don't go thinking there's no pain, though. Just a tough Karen, fighting through it.
Today also saw a second visit from Mr "Had-his-Grammy-pulling-her-hair-out-all-morning" (I had my first morning shift today at the hospital today). This went a little better than yesterday, but he still was running around like a Tasmanian devil. This time instead of taking him to the room, we got Karen in a wheelchair and went down to the waiting room, which has a great view of Wailuku Harbor, but no buttons, cords, tubes, etc. Best part was when he gave Mommy a kiss on her injured knee.
The staff has been better since we had that bad night I blogged about earlier. Perhaps we caught them on a bad night.
Tomorrow: dare we use the d-word? Stay tuned!

What a morning

Here's all that's happened before noon today (it's 12:10 as I begin to write):

- Spinal block removed.
- Got a visit from an orthopedist who confirmed probable ligament damage in the right knee (she's unable to put ANY weight on it).
- Chest tube removed.
- Got up and sat in a chair for a sponge bath.
- Had a visit from a physical therapist and used a walker (10 steps total).

Whew!! All good stuff. The nurse did say they saw a little spot of air outside the lung in the post-tube-removal xray, so that makes our optimism "guarded"

Resting now. Riley coming by in about a half hour.

Frankenhand

Wednesday 10/14

A couple of milestones today. The catheder was removed this morning, so now she has to get up to take care of business, and she had yet to do that before today. The other milestone: she got up from bed to take care of business. Was extremely difficult pain-wise, but the job got done, so yea!!
There was talk of removing the chest tube today, but it's getting pretty late and no word, so probably not coming out today.
I brought Riley in this afternoon after his nap and lunch. He had been fussy and generally high maintenance all day, and unfortunately that continued into his visit at the hospital. He was way too interested in all the things in the room he was to supposed to stay away from. But right before Grammy took him "home", Mommy got a nice kiss and a blown kiss as he left the room. Maybe tomorrow will be better since it will be less "new".

Mahalo

Steerage...

...is what a regular room seems like after a couple nights in ICU (ie: First Class).
In First Class, when you ring the call button, someone comes within 30 seconds, ready to help. In steerage, we're lucky if they come at all and when they do they make it clear that it's a bother. A bit trying, because you don't want to be a PITA, but at the same time it's not like you can address the alarm that the IV machine is making. Crazy.
Seriously though, it IS a sign of progress to be out of of ICU, but can't they spread the empathetic nurses out a little better?
Bit of a rough night sleeping last night. No so much from the pain or physical discomfort, but from constant interuptions. Two of the three IV machines were very high maintenance. Add to that nurses and nurses aides that may may not come down in answer to your request or help, and you have a recipe for a very long night.
I'll take Riley in for his visit after his nap. Post on that tonight if able.

First day on the floor

Moved to a private room this afternoon (Tuesday 10/13) (please note the correction in the previous post re: the room number). Good things: tied up to fewer things beeping and buzzing, a view of the mountains, easier comings and goings for visitors, allowed flowers, etc. Bad things: surly nurses (except for the aide tonight, she's cool), and no sleepovers for Joel. Actually, they're letting me stay tonight, but that's it - after tomorrow we're out of here at 8pm :-(
Physically, still hurts to breathe, but sticking religiously to the 15 sucks per hour on the little floating thing. She sat up in bed and dangled her legs over the side for a while, but got some dizzyness. Not surprising when you've been lying down for over 48 hours. She's off the oxygen but O2 sats are still good, so that's great to see. Still on the push button morphine and the spinal block.
Tomorrow will see a visit from Riley, who is calling for Mommy more and more. We didn't want to bring him into the ICU (not even sure we would've been allowed), what with all the tubes and beepy and buzzy dohickies around. Since it's a 50 minute drive one way to the hospital, were going to get a second rental car for a few days so one of us can be here always, and the other bring in Riley for short visits.
It's so cliche, but the food really sucks. Mom went out for McDonalds this afternoon, it's that bad. I got a look a tonights dinner - some sort of baked ziti thing left over from the local high school cafeteria last week I think. Yikes. It's like they do this stuff on purpose just to make sure you work on getting better just so you can get the heck out of here.

Out of ICU... (corrected)

And into room 3309. Here's the address:

Maui Memorial Medical Center
Room 3309
221 Mahalani St
Wailuku, HI 96793

Note: I had the room number not quite right before. It's 3309, not 309, which is maternity

Tuesday morning

Pretty quiet night. Managed to get a couple good blocks of sleep. The breathing pain has creeped up a bit, perhaps from doing her breathing exercises as prescribed. Sounds like that thing really exercises those broken ribs.
Spoke to the surgeon (the "cowboy" - more on that in a later post ;-). He's happy with her progress and is going to move her to a private room today. I'll post the hospital info and room number after she's moved.
Thanks again (oops, I mean "mahalo") for the well wishes, etc. If it was emailed to me, her, or posted on FB, she saw it or heard it.
More later....

Monday evening

First some clarification/corrections on my last post:
She says it's six cracked ribs, not five, and it's the right hand with the nine stitches, not the left (I knew that, just wasn't thinking). And it wasn't an epidural she got this morning, but a spinal block. No idea what the difference is.
Today was a good day. The spinal block helped with the breathing pain quite a bit, although it seems to have lost a bit of it's mojo since then, as the pain has increased a bit in the last hour or so. She still has the morphine to help with the pain in other areas.
She finally got to eat solid food today and that's a big happy milestone.
This will be night #2 in the ICU. Hopefully tomorrow more good news.

1st Post

Hi everybody. Thought I'd try out a blog as a means of information dissemination about Karen and the aftermath of her accident. Please leave well wishes, suggestions, notes of good cheer, etc in the comments. Call it a one stop shop for Karen support.

For anyone that hasn't heard the details here we go:

We arrived in Maui saturday afternoon and checked into our condo, did some shopping and generally chilled for the evening and then went to bed about 8pm. We all got up early the next morning (Sunday) and had breakfast. After breakfast Karen decided to go for a run and her Mom and I went to the pool with Riley. After a while at the pool, a police officer came by and asked for me, and told me there had been an accident....

The road she went for a run on was a two lane road, narrow at points, that runs in front of our resort. She had turned around and was almost back to the resort when she came upon a spot in the road where the sidewalk ended. She was trying to get over to the left as far as she could when she saw an SUV coming at her behaving a bit erratically. So she tried to get even further over to the left. The SUV swerved to miss her, but the Nissan Frontier pickup that was tailgating him did not. She was hit by the right front bumper of the pickup and thrown quite a few feet. The vehicle continued on, but was pursued by witnesses and apprehended soon after. The driver was arrested and charged with DUI (3x legal limit) and hit & run.

Karen was transported to Maui Memorial Medical Center on the other side of the island (50 min drive from where we're staying). Here's the rundown of her injuries. Forgive me if I miss any, there's quite a few:
5 cracked ribs (non-displaced fractures, right side)
Punctured lung
Some cracked vertebra (on the spinal process, a non-threatening area from what we're told)
9 stitches in her left hand
A fracture on the tip of the right shoulder blade
Undetermined knee damage (nothing visible on an xray, but hurts like heck)

The most important thing (outside of the obvious of still being on the right side of the dirt) is that she's still Karen. Notice nothing up there about any head injuries. To the best of my knowledge she never lost consciousness and still remembers everything.

They had to insert a chest tube to reinflate the collapsed area of her lung and the Dr tells me she shouldn't fly for 2 weeks after it comes out. So we'll be here longer than the 7 days we had planned.

As I write this post at 1:26 in the afternoon on Monday, she's in the ICU. I spent the night with her there and probably will tonight as well if she's still there. Her pain is being managed OK it seems. She had one of those button thingys to press for more morphine and this morning she got an epidural to help with the pain from breathing (don't know if she still has the morphine, I'm on Riley duty at the moment) They say she'll have to stay in the hospital for a few days, so maybe Wednesday for discharge?

A word to all you who have sent well wishes via email, text, phone, etc:

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

This means the world to all of us. I have read all your messages to her or shown her to read herself. Thanks also for your offers of help. Believe me, I'll be contacting you if we need anything.

I'll update as the situation warrants, more often if I can get blogger to work on my iPhone.

Love,
Karen, Riley, Carol, and Joel