Well, we finally pulled into the driveway a little after 4pm. It takes a while to get dismissed when being treated by two teams who need to confer with other before the discharge process can get underway and then one has to deal with the pharmacy team. But finally a little after 2:30pm Nathan was able to drive up to the front of the hospital and whisk us off.
The first picture shows what the cellulitis on his leg looked like just before the ortho associate put a half-leg splint on his leg that is to be non-weight bearing. So he is just hobbling...or perhaps I should say "hopping" along with the aid of his walker. After putting their heads together the ortho team and the infectious disease team, decided that it would be good to immobilize his leg for the next week and see if that aided in the clearing up of the infection. There has always been a question as to where the infection came from and it could have come from within and in that case it could be caused by the broken screws, fractured plate, etc. in the area where Dr. Holt "remade" the bone structure in that part of his leg. Cause and kind of infection is still in question as the cultures did not grow anything. So they are using a broad spectrum antibiotic oral antibiotic that is almost the same antibiotic as they have been giving him intravenously this week. He will take that for 12 days. He goes back to see Dr. Holt sometime next week when they will check to see how things are doing under the splint. Till then he isn't supposed to put any weight on that leg and keep it elevated above his heart as much as possible. He is having to retrain himself to use the walker with only one leg as he did when he had his knee surgery. Getting into the house was a bit of a struggle. I'm glad that Nathan was there to guide him in and all I had to do was unlock the door! What he dislikes the most about this splint is that he can't drive!
It's good to be home!
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