Update on the knee and wrist...

Good morning!  Well, Heather has been a champ.  Her spirit and morale has been that in which I admire and have the utmost respect.  Her pain in her wrist has been really good and she has gained more mobility in her fingers each day.  The knee?  So, we were originally told that there were no breaks in the leg area when initial x-rays were done at EPMC on Sunday right after the accident.  On Tuesday, I received a call from the radiologist in Estes Park telling me that there indeed was a fracture to the tibia.  That was not the news we wanted to hear.  But, we communicated that info to Dr. Baer.  The OCR here in Fort Collins had already called for the x-rays to be sent down here even though they were negative...or so we thought:(  Well, after waiting for 3 days (they must have sent the x-rays on a snail), the x-rays finally arrived in Dr. Baer's hands yesterday (Thursday).  When he called me, he informed me that he was not a "happy doctor" at the moment and was quite frustrated how they missed seeing this fracture.  Unfortunately, it is a significant fracture to the upper part of the tibia just below the knee joint.  Dr. Baer stated that if she wasn't pregnant he would do surgery.  But, he plans to x-ray it again next Wednesday morning and will evaluate what the next step is in terms of immobilizing it, casting it, etc.  Why are we having to wait until next Wednesday (that will be 10 days since the accident) you might be asking?  Dr. Baer's nurse told me that he has to wait an appropriate period of time to do second x-rays to see how the bone is calcifying.  If he got us in today or Monday, it wouldn't have allowed enough time to progress the way he wants it to.  The other question I had was, "What is the long-term outcome between surgery and no surgery?"  The nurse said the purpose of doing surgery is for stability purposes in the recovery time.  She may have to be more careful and laid up a bit longer etc.  With all this being said, we are getting a second opinion from another doctor at the OCR today and are still not ruling out the possibility of surgery.  All in all, she's doing well and still has her beautiful smile each day!  Please pray that we will have clarity to know what to do in regards to the details of teaching this year and all the future decisions around that in the weeks to come!  

Love you all!

D