The Past--and so the Saga Began

The family was having a mini family reunion--just Mom, Pop & sister Mari. Mom, Dad and I started in Gadualjara Mexico on February 14th while we waited for Mari to catch up with us (she had major delays because of snow storms out East). We ventured onto a lovely little town an hour outside of Colima called Comala. It is at the base of one of the two volcanoes--whitewashed villas with cobblestone streets. How pretty and quaint, or so I thought! While getting ready for bed on our second night I slipped coming out of the bathroom on wet tile. The slipping wasn't so bad--the hitting the edge of the step and the very bad landing was what really did me in! I ended up breaking both the tibia and the fibula of my right leg on February 16th, 2007. To complicate matters it was a compound fracture--very messy! Mom and Mari were great and held my leg together while we waited over an hour for the EMTs to haul me away. Dad was great too in running to the police station to get help (Dad isn't one to run unless being chased). Unfortunately, the floor I laid upon was not sterile and I picked up two nasty staph infections--MRSA and another exotic water born one. However, we did not realize this until it was almost too late. The thing that astonishes me is that while I fully admit to being a klutz I really had never hurt myself too badly--mostly just really bad bruises. In previous situations I seemed to bounce a lot better! I am really talented and managed to slip on wet tile coming out of the bathroom. Thus I laid on the floor for over an hour waiting for the EMTs. There are some funny stories that go along w/that too--funny now but not so funny then. I had excellent medical care where a rod and four pins were put in to hold everything together.

When I got back stateside I was still in pain and it was getting worse so when I saw an orthopedist as a follow up he took one look at the wound and said welcome to the hospital. I spent all of March in the hospital trying to get the infections under control. The break in itself was awful and made worse by the infections! I found out that metal is a good conductor of infection which meant that the nasty bugs traveled the length of my lower leg. Consequently the docs had a hard time getting control of the infections. So, the medical big wigs decided, I had a whole team of doctors on my case at this time decide that the rod had to be removed or the leg would not be viable. So, thanks to some new technology--Wound V.A.C. (Vacuum Assisted Closure--also known as "the sucker machine") and a Taylor Spacial Frame I still have my leg! The Taylor Spacial Frame is what is holding my leg together--think "halo" for people who have had a spinal cord injury. It has earned the name of "The Bird Cage."

It has been a long haul but I have my leg. I was on IV anti-biotics for 17 weeks and the nasty bugs have been killed off (I have to the end of August to go to make it official to say they are gone).