Update on Jarrad.

    My skills include:
    1.  Changing sheets while someone is in the bed.
    2.  Knowing how to change a wound vac.
    3.  Being able to flush a PICC Line.
    4.  Knowing how to handle a pressure wound.
    5.  Dressing changes
    6.  Multiple ways for taking care of constipation.
     What my skills do NOT include is a medical degree.  But if we keep going at this rate, I just might be able to pass my boards.  I feel like if it could happen to a spinal cord injury, it has happened to us.
1.  Roughly 60% of wheelchair users get carpel tunnel - guess who had carpel tunnel syndrome?
2.  About 20% of SCI patients have hetertopic ossification. And guess what? Yep.
3.  Osteoporosis and broken bones? That's right!
    Jarrad and I were talking and we came to the conclusion that the initial injury is still ongoing BECAUSE of the complications that come as a result of a spinal cord injury.  That makes it hard to say, ok, we got this now.

A new strap and new glasses

    Recently, we had a scare.  I was looking at his leg and one of his smaller incision spots was red and warm.  Not hot, and it blanched but after the last time, we were just scared.  It was nothing and I did some research and took a course of action AND made a doctor visit.  We were so afraid (paranoid) that the doctor was going to send us back to the hospital.  I don't think that Jarrad would have been able to go through the doors.  It would have been too much.  Fortunately, it was a surface infection and we did the right thing but that weekend was rough.
   Now, he no longer has the top of his right femur.  The shattering of the bone due to the unsuccessful surgery and subsequent infections has caused it to be non existent.  The consequence is that he is sitting crooked in his seat.  He is missing bone, after all in one hip, and has too much in the other.  We have tried to remedy this by putting a wedge under the one hip and "tying" him to his chair to help hold him straight but . . . He still leaning and that puts pressure on his spine.  WHICH contributes to his pain. 
    And there is nothing that I can do about it.

    The more I learn about the human body the more I learn that humanity is pitifully ignorant about the human body. 
     At least it isn't just me!  (Always have to find a positive).
    There is so much to learn and I have learned to be wary of doctors who think that all bodies are alike.  Each body is as unique as the soul that inhabits it.  In fact, I don't think that we should discount the soul in diagnosing the body.  I think it plays a large part in the why some things work for some folks but not for others.  But it is hard to study and hard to put into numbers.  Why, WHY do we persist in the idea of uniformity? 
    Sigh.