the saga continues...

i am speaking of the saga known as my husband's shoulder. yes, we are still dealing with this. we really thought that after his surgeon refused to take out the hardware about 6 weeks ago, that he was on the road to recovery. if the dr didn't want the hardware out...then he must think his shoulder is on the right path, right?!?

 not so much.

dan has two incisions on his left shoulder. the bottom one healed up beautifully. the one on top hasn't looked right since the last surgery. we just kept treating it like they told us too and waited for it to close up on it's own. over the last 2 weeks it started to "weep" a little more than usual. on sunday at a 4th of july party dan had a good family friend (who also happens to be a very well respected surgeon here in town) take a look at it. he said what dan had been thinking all along...that it still looks infected. of course this sent dan's head spinning. he barely slept on sunday and woke up monday morning and went straight into the ER. he knew if he went there they could do some tests and know fairly quickly what they were dealing with.

so off to the ER he went around 8:30am. thankfully it was a holiday and wasn't too crowded so he got right into a room. two more doctors looked at him (they took some blood cultures from the wound) but just by sight both said it was definitely still infected. it was determined he needed to stay in the hospital to get antibiotics through an iv and get on the books to get the hardware taken out asap. the hardware that's keeping his shoulder together is also what the staph is clinging onto. this nasty infection cannot be killed off with antibiotics if it's attached to a foreign body...so after all this...it had to come out.

dan discussed this with another family friend (who is another well respected orthopedic surgeon...man it's good to know such great people) and they decided he would be the one to perform the operation and get that bacteria covered hardware out! so back under the knife dan went yesterday morning. they were able to successfully get the hardware out. dr johnson explained to me afterwards that the top incision would have never closed up on it's own. he said there was a stitch that was visible and the area around the wound is just too superficial for dan's body to heal itself over that stitch. so although it was a very hard decision for dan to go through surgery yet again...after hearing that...i knew it was definitely the right decision.

however, this means that he will have to go through another round with his old friend, the pickline. antibiotics administered through the pickline 3 times/day for 6 weeks. that was a little hard for dan to swallow...but at the same time we are very confident that this will be the end. afterall, there is nothing more in his body for the staph to cling too so we should be able to kill it once and for all!

the only good thing that has come out of his original surgeon refusing to do what was done yesterday...was that it gave dan's body more time to heal itself. dr. johnson said that the tissue around dan shoulder looks really good and he doesn't think dan will have to go back and have the original surgery done again. finally...some good news!

this has been an extremely hard experience for dan. for someone who is as active as him, to be stuck in a hospital bed is torture. i'm sure he is driving his nurses crazy! right now, the girls and i are waiting patiently at home for the call to go pick him up and bring him home. we are very tired of seeing him in a hospital...we want him home with us and back to his crazy a.d.d self!

i cannot express in words how much appreciate all your thoughts & prayers throghout this whole journey. i keep telling dan that everything happens for a reason. i'm not quite sure what God is trying to tell us with all of this mess...but we should be thankful he is telling us now, rather than in december when we'll have a newborn around here!