Ashtonator
Well-known member
Welcome home and glad to hear youre staying strong and positive brother!
Hope your surgery was smooth and successful!
Hope your surgery was smooth and successful!
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Oomis - One of Our Own.
- Thread starter BigEvilDoer
- Start date
BigEvilDoer
Well-known member
Went to see Omar on the way home from Shannonville on Tuesday...
The surgery on his hip went well.. he's looking a bit better, but his face is still drawn and he's tired. Having the body trying to heal so many places at once must be incredibly taxing on the system.
Things are looking good for the missing bone in his leg - they have a synthetic bone in place right now for stabilization purposes. Apparently the body will build some sort of membrane around it given time. Once the membrane is solid enough, they can cut it open and fill it with the bone from other parts of his body. Pretty amazing stuff.
He will likely be moved from the Sunnybrook Trauma ward in the next couple of weeks into their rehab facility. It would be pointless to keep him in the trauma bed when he is stable, and they're waiting for the membrane etc to build and let his body heal a bit.
At least he's managed to keep his sense of humour... his Facebook status yesterday was "Suppositories and Explosive Bed Sh*ts. This is my day. #FTW"
That's about it for now.
The surgery on his hip went well.. he's looking a bit better, but his face is still drawn and he's tired. Having the body trying to heal so many places at once must be incredibly taxing on the system.
Things are looking good for the missing bone in his leg - they have a synthetic bone in place right now for stabilization purposes. Apparently the body will build some sort of membrane around it given time. Once the membrane is solid enough, they can cut it open and fill it with the bone from other parts of his body. Pretty amazing stuff.
He will likely be moved from the Sunnybrook Trauma ward in the next couple of weeks into their rehab facility. It would be pointless to keep him in the trauma bed when he is stable, and they're waiting for the membrane etc to build and let his body heal a bit.
At least he's managed to keep his sense of humour... his Facebook status yesterday was "Suppositories and Explosive Bed Sh*ts. This is my day. #FTW"
That's about it for now.
Thanks again for the update. If only we could all be that positive when life sh*ts on us.
BigEvilDoer
Well-known member
Hey guys...
Rode to see Omar today - played dodge the downpour both ways. Bit of rain in the last 1km before Sunnybrook, and about 2km of heavy rain just after I got back on the 401 again.... got lucky!
Omar's doing well - was in his chair, opposed to being in his bed. Good to see that! His face was much less drawn, and more relaxed. Seems to be making progress with his pain management, but that's just my opinion from what I saw. His crazy viking billy goat beard has been removed (somewhat to my dismay - it was a rather.. umm.. interesting look).
Otherwise, he's thinking he'll be moved to a rehabilitation facility sometime near the end of next week, but nothing is written in stone, of course.
That's about it for now!
Rode to see Omar today - played dodge the downpour both ways. Bit of rain in the last 1km before Sunnybrook, and about 2km of heavy rain just after I got back on the 401 again.... got lucky!
Omar's doing well - was in his chair, opposed to being in his bed. Good to see that! His face was much less drawn, and more relaxed. Seems to be making progress with his pain management, but that's just my opinion from what I saw. His crazy viking billy goat beard has been removed (somewhat to my dismay - it was a rather.. umm.. interesting look).
Otherwise, he's thinking he'll be moved to a rehabilitation facility sometime near the end of next week, but nothing is written in stone, of course.
That's about it for now!
Can't sleep. Thought I'd check in and say hello.
I can type. My recovery has been nothing short of amazing to experience. For example, my left elbow, which was broken into 4 big pieces (easier to repair than many little ones) was out of a cast in 2 weeks and now I'm gaining strength and mobility every day.
My right leg (broken ankle) is strong and mobile. I wear a boot (sort of like a removeable cast) during the day but take it off at night. No pain in my ankle.
My left leg is the complicated one. I had a lot of skin grafting done on this leg and so now the immediate focus is on getting the skin grafts to heal. Before moving on to the next step, the leg needs to be covered in one piece of skin. Skin keeps out infection, which is key. I get an infection in the leg and we start talking about losing it again. We don't want that. Anyway, it's possible that mid to late next week they may start calling to rehab hospitals. I'm told that because I'm down 3 limbs there are only 2 facilities in Toronto that are equipped to take me. Toronto Rehab is one and I think the other is St. John's, but don't quote me. I'll be happy to move to the next phase of things because milestones are important.
Losing my wife - I have no words. I just have none. I'm working on her eulogy now, as her service is in 2 weeks. We decided to wait until I was better able to travel...I would have been devastated to have missed it because I couldn't travel, and everyone else agreed. So grateful.
Maybe I should try and sleep. I hear sleep is helpful for recovery.
I can type. My recovery has been nothing short of amazing to experience. For example, my left elbow, which was broken into 4 big pieces (easier to repair than many little ones) was out of a cast in 2 weeks and now I'm gaining strength and mobility every day.
My right leg (broken ankle) is strong and mobile. I wear a boot (sort of like a removeable cast) during the day but take it off at night. No pain in my ankle.
My left leg is the complicated one. I had a lot of skin grafting done on this leg and so now the immediate focus is on getting the skin grafts to heal. Before moving on to the next step, the leg needs to be covered in one piece of skin. Skin keeps out infection, which is key. I get an infection in the leg and we start talking about losing it again. We don't want that. Anyway, it's possible that mid to late next week they may start calling to rehab hospitals. I'm told that because I'm down 3 limbs there are only 2 facilities in Toronto that are equipped to take me. Toronto Rehab is one and I think the other is St. John's, but don't quote me. I'll be happy to move to the next phase of things because milestones are important.
Losing my wife - I have no words. I just have none. I'm working on her eulogy now, as her service is in 2 weeks. We decided to wait until I was better able to travel...I would have been devastated to have missed it because I couldn't travel, and everyone else agreed. So grateful.
Maybe I should try and sleep. I hear sleep is helpful for recovery.
Thanks for sharing.
I hope it gets easier for you.
I hope it gets easier for you.
Riceburner
Well-known member
Wishing you the best in your recovery...in all areas physical and mental.
Thanks for the update Omar, really glad to hear from you. Please keep us in the loop. Again, I can't imagine the loss you are experiencing but witnessing your resilience is inspiring. Wishing you all the best, especially with your wife's soon approaching service.
BigEvilDoer
Well-known member
Hello Everyone,
Update on Omar... he's been moved to a rehabilitation hospital, and is no longer in Sunnybrook. His right ankle is healing well, and he is to start applying some weight to it. His left arm is gaining a larger range of motion, and is relatively functional and showing great promise.
The area of concern is still his left leg. It's been stabilized and he's doing "dangles" several times a day to ensure that the stitches and blood flow all hold together. It's still missing 4" of bone in his thigh, but the doctors have put bone cement in place to keep it somewhat together, and assuming to prevent too much muscle contraction and shortening.
On the grim side of things, the funeral for Linda, his wife, is this Saturday.
Update on Omar... he's been moved to a rehabilitation hospital, and is no longer in Sunnybrook. His right ankle is healing well, and he is to start applying some weight to it. His left arm is gaining a larger range of motion, and is relatively functional and showing great promise.
The area of concern is still his left leg. It's been stabilized and he's doing "dangles" several times a day to ensure that the stitches and blood flow all hold together. It's still missing 4" of bone in his thigh, but the doctors have put bone cement in place to keep it somewhat together, and assuming to prevent too much muscle contraction and shortening.
On the grim side of things, the funeral for Linda, his wife, is this Saturday.
Thanks for the update BED. I was thinking about him this morning.
Continuing to send good vibes your way Omar.
Dunno if I should keep reviving this thread or not, but an update.
I was transferred to St. John's Rehab, where I'm focussing on rehabilitation for the foreseeable future. Right now I don't have a discharge date, but I'm hoping that will change with my next visit with my surgeons next week and the week after.
Healing is going well. My elbow (broken in 4 places, repaired with screws) is coming back well. I can weight bear on my forearm (I can lean on things) but I can't yet weight bear on my hand (pushing, pulling and gripping). I can bear weight on my right leg with a splint (broken ankle) which means I can transfer from bed to chair fairly independently. The skin grafting on my left leg is healing very, very well and is almost fully closed. I am working hard to gain flexibility in my left ankle, so that I can bear more and more weight on my left leg. I didn't think I would be able to bear weight on this leg because of the bone cement, but as it turns out there's also a rod spanning the gap where there's no bone yet, so it can take some weight.
When next I go to see orthopaedics, they're going to xray my right femur to verify that it's a candidate for a donor site for the bone graft when they go in and remove the cement and the rod and re-grow the bone to close the gap.
I recently was able to attend my wife's funeral service. I have no words for this piece of things.
I have good days and bad days. Overall my perspective is good. One of the benefits of being in a rehab facilities is that I get to meet a lot of people who have a lot of different injuries. Amputees, burn victims... seeing these guys and hearing their stories is inspirational and motivational and it keeps me going.
I have a ways to go still, and so I'll keep going.
O
I was transferred to St. John's Rehab, where I'm focussing on rehabilitation for the foreseeable future. Right now I don't have a discharge date, but I'm hoping that will change with my next visit with my surgeons next week and the week after.
Healing is going well. My elbow (broken in 4 places, repaired with screws) is coming back well. I can weight bear on my forearm (I can lean on things) but I can't yet weight bear on my hand (pushing, pulling and gripping). I can bear weight on my right leg with a splint (broken ankle) which means I can transfer from bed to chair fairly independently. The skin grafting on my left leg is healing very, very well and is almost fully closed. I am working hard to gain flexibility in my left ankle, so that I can bear more and more weight on my left leg. I didn't think I would be able to bear weight on this leg because of the bone cement, but as it turns out there's also a rod spanning the gap where there's no bone yet, so it can take some weight.
When next I go to see orthopaedics, they're going to xray my right femur to verify that it's a candidate for a donor site for the bone graft when they go in and remove the cement and the rod and re-grow the bone to close the gap.
I recently was able to attend my wife's funeral service. I have no words for this piece of things.
I have good days and bad days. Overall my perspective is good. One of the benefits of being in a rehab facilities is that I get to meet a lot of people who have a lot of different injuries. Amputees, burn victims... seeing these guys and hearing their stories is inspirational and motivational and it keeps me going.
I have a ways to go still, and so I'll keep going.
O
Absolutely keep updating!
Thanks for the update. Keep up the good work, your positive attitude is something we should all strive for.
My MIL had a bone cement hip for months and was able to walk unsupported on it. Apparently, in the old days, they would just leave the gap and your leg would contract inches and then they would try to stretch it out again after months of healing. The new way sounds much better.
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