November 7, 2006

Yesterday Jesse had surgery on his right heel.

Idaho Elks Rehab asked us if we had an orthopeadic doctor here to look after Jesse. We told them no and so they found a good one for us. He basically told us that, after looking at Jesse's x-rays from Arrowhead and taking a new cat-scan of his foot, he didn't want Jesse to have to put up with a foot that could be repaired. Jesse was a good candidate and so he went in and put back the heel bone into the shape it was supposed to be. The operation lasted about 3 1/2 hours. I was very glad to hear Jesse's voice when he finally came up to his room. Jesse is at St. Alphonsus, which is about a 15 minute drive from Elks Rehab. Hopefully he'll go back to Elks this afternoon.

This doctor is more aggresive/proactive than the doctors in California. A couple of other things came up as he was examining Jesse and talking with me about his treatment at Arrowhead. One concerned Jesse's elbow. He wanted to take the brace off so that Jesse could move his elbow and wrist as much as possible. The other concerned Jesse's knee. The brace that Jesse had been wearing for lateral stability apparantly has done its job, because there was no lateral instability in Jesse's knee now. It does appear that Jesse has PCL damage to his knee though and the doctor is concerned about general damage to the joint (sorry that I can't remember exactly what it was he told me...). He ordered an MRI of Jesse's knee to that he could evaluate the soft tissue damage. The Doc told me that he looked at a film of Jesse's femur while in surgery and he thought it was looking good. He told me that brain injury patients often make bone quicker than otherwise. He is considering letting Jesse put some weight on his left leg. Not that he can walk yet, he is still non-weight bearing on his left arm and right foot, but so that it would be easier for him to transfer into and out of a wheel chair.

I'll write more as soon as I can. Debbie and I (Jesse's mom and dad) have an appointment today with the Rehab team. I think that this is where they'll talk to us about their evaluation of him and their treatment plan.

We continue to give glory to our God for the wonderful gift of Jesse to us. He is not ours to keep. We know that. He is really merely on loan to us from God. We do bless the Lord for what He is doing. God is so good...and He doesn't have to be you know. We don't deserve any of his blessings, but we are truly grateful. Praise the Lord.