I'm back. Sort of.
I don't know how long it will take me to work through a month's e-mail and board posts so I will say here thanks for all that time's prayers and expressions of sympathy right up through benefit matches complete with real money!
That squad 20 looks like a tough bunch, it would have been a challenge keeping up with them. Fun, though.
Surgical repair of fractured pelvis and inpatient physical therapy rounded out the month of February.
Monday I was released into the care of my friend Dawn who spirited me off to Tampa, FL. Warmer but not necessarily sunny. The worst part of the trip was the layover in Atlanta in a thinly padded industrial wheelchair. The plane rides were fine although those "aisle chairs" made to get wheelchair patients on board are pretty rough.
Today, 3/2, I met a local orthopedist and scheduled outpatient physical therapy. Ugh, groan.
This will run some number of weeks until I am back walking; the bad leg is at present "non-weightbearing" although the orthopod is agreeable to soon moving it up to "tolerated weight bearing" with the understanding that the tolerated weight will start out small.
Every source says a fractured pelvis is a slow injury to get over but I will be working with the therapists and doctors to push the program along.
At least they did a "bikini cut" to install my front plate so I can wear a Speedo to the beach. The side incision to screw the bone back together may still show, though. (Ever see the cartoon of the guy with his butt held on by a large screw? That's me now.)
My current understanding of the event is as follows, with background in brackets.
Around midnight Friday 29-Saturday 20 Jan, I was awakened in my upstairs bed by an impact that literally shook the house. I got up, put on my glasses (only possession to follow me, thank God.) and slippers, then felt the house jar to an actual explosion at plus 25 sec or so.
[Drunk driver had run off the street and hit my gas meter and/or furnace causing a gas explosion and fire.]
Burglar alarm and fire alarm went off and I started smelling smoke. The stairwell was soon full of smoke and it was clear there was no exit there. So I opened the front dormer window, punched out the screen, and clambered out onto the front porch roof, Surefire in hand.
A neighbor had called 911 and stood by to watch. I flashed my light at him and he called "Hold on, I will get a ladder." But the roof was icy and my body heat melted it so I slid off the porch roof slope in best ski jump style; sticking the landing on my feet 14 ft down. I could not have made it to the edge of the roof for a conventional ladder anyhow, it would have taken a bucket truck to retrieve me. Fire and police arrived very soon [I live practically downtown and they recorded a 1:28 response time.]
My next recollection is of a policeman, a friend who happened to be on duty at the time, asking me if I was OK. I said that I was NOT OK, I had just fallen off the roof. He told everybody that he then knew I was doing pretty well, completely in character.
I remember hearing a radio turned up loud: "Occupant is on roof." immediately followed by "Correction, occupant is on ground." And a fireman asking me urgently if there were other occupants. There were none... except the friend's pet I was dog-sitting. and which was sunk from the outset, being in a kennel immediately inside the point of impact.
The paramedics slid a backboard under me in case of spine injury, loaded me in their ambulance and hauled me off to the local ER.
[An early report that the driver had gone home, cleaned up, and returned to the scene to watch the firemen, where he was noticed, questioned, and apprehended, turns out to be the case. Reports of a passenger are unconfirmed, nobody identified. The owner of the truck says the driver did not have permission to use it, but that may be one of those things like the gun that goes off when cleaned; weak CYA.]
Numerous x-rays later, they concluded to send me to Huntsville (Alabama) Hospital for treatment by an orthopedic practice well regarded in pelvic injuries throughout the region. That got me a 70 mile ambulance ride, me not being considered critical enough to crank up the helicopter.
A spell in that ER followed, with a new set of x-rays to confirm the original diagnosis and let the orthopedic surgeons plan treatment. A few days in Intensive Care provided for blood clot filter installation, colonoscopy to clear the ileus of a stunned digestive tract, and surgical repair of the breaks. That included a plate or chain across the front to replace the torn pubic symphysis and a big (7mm x 5 in) screw to hold the pelvis bone proper together. A stay in Intensive Care and then a private room let them see everything was done right with no complications.
I then moved across the street to the Southern Health Rehabilitation Hospital for a couple of weeks of Physical Therapy (to the injured hip and leg) and Occupational Therapy (to arms and torso. These involved simple exercises, some with light weights or machines, some just moving the legs, and stuff like a hopping gait on a walker.
Released to my friend's care on Monday, 3/1, we made the airline journey to Tampa. That had its unpleasant moments, like a long layover in the infamous Atlanta airport, but was not unbearable.
I am now set up with a local Orthopedist and will start outpatient physical therapy on Thursday at a center near my friend's house.
If you have sat through this shaggy dog story, let me repeat my thanks for your prayers and thoughts. Special thanks to the board members who sent snail mail cards.
