Danny's Surgery

I suppose if we were to look for the bright side to all the money we've spent on Luke's medical bills, it's that we met our out-of-pocket maximum for the year by about July.  That meant no more medical expenses for us!  Danny's shoulder had been bothering him for over a year, and it was starting to keep him from sleeping at night.  We had no idea what our future held with Luke, but we decided that it was the wisest financial decision to have Danny's shoulder fixed while we didn't have to pay for the surgery or the many physical therapy appointments that would be needed for his recovery.  Danny had surgery on this same shoulder when he was about 16, for a torn labrum.  He met with a new (and highly recommended) orthopedic surgeon named Dr. Jon Donigan.  He took a look at Danny's shoulder and determined there was another tear to the labrum, but on the other side than the previous tear.  Surgery was the only fix.  So, on September 9th, Danny went under the knife. 

Danny's surgery was scheduled for 3:00 pm, which made a for a long day of no food or drink for Danny.  We planned for the kids to have a sleepover at Grandma and Papa's so that Danny would be able to rest when he got home, and I'd be free to attend to his every need. :)  But everything in a hospital runs on "hospital time"...so we were waiting a LONG time for Danny to go back.  We made the best of it.  Danny was feeling silly wearing his gown and tights, and I was able to get evidence of his best girly pose.  He hates this picture.  I love this picture! :)

Danny was able to watch a little TV, on the coolest retro TV ever!  Both of us were shocked they even still had these in a hospital!  

We played "Spaceteam" on our phones for a while, and talked about how crazy our life is.  But it's our life, and we're grateful for it.  I have to admit, I wasn't excited to have Danny under anesthesia.  He's my rock, and I didn't like the idea of my rock being...well...not available.  But if the last year has taught me anything, it's how to put on my brave face and fake it 'til I make it!

Finally, three hours later, they finally came back to get Danny.  The surgery was going to take approximately two hours.  I kissed my husband goodnight, and told that anesthesiologist to take good care of my man!  I really, REALLY hated watching them wheel him away where I couldn't follow.  I'm such a baby.

I waited in the waiting room, all by my lonesome, for two long hours.  I tried blogging, and playing games on my phone.  But I was pretty anxious.  Finally, Dr. Donigan came to talk to me.  I couldn't believe how my anxiety when through the roof when he asked if he could sit and talk for a minute.  He assured me that Danny was just fine, and handled the surgery well.  Then he told me that Danny's shoulder was much worse than he expected it to be.  He showed me the images of his labrum, which was not only torn but completely separated and twisted about 45 degrees from where it was supposed to be.  No wonder he was in so much pain!  But there was more than that.  Danny had advanced arthritis, bursitis, bone spurs, and a tear in his rotator cuff.  Dr. Donigan was able to clean up the arthritis and bursitis, and cleaned up the tissue around the tear in the rotator cuff, but left that to heal on its own.  Then he showed me images of Danny's collar bone, which he said looked the the collar bone of a sixty-year-old, not a thirty-year-old!  Danny's been telling me the entire time I've known him that he has the body of a sixty-year-old.  Well, it's been verified by an expert!  Poor guy.  That's what a love of football will do to you!  Even though it was pretty nasty in that shoulder, Dr. Donigan was confident he had it all fixed up, and anticipated a good recovery.  After he left, it took a few more minutes before they called me back to see Danny.

Again, I really don't like Danny being incapacitated!  I think this is my first experience with that.  When I saw him, he was still very much asleep.  But more concerning to me was how pale he looked.  His lips had no color!  Luckily for me, I could read all the monitors (thank you, Luke!), so I knew his vitals were okay.  But he didn't look okay!  The nurse said that Danny had said he didn't feel nauseous, but I told them to get him some IV Zofran.  With how pale he looked, I didn't want to risk him getting sick.  Then I tried to let Danny know I was there.  This process took about an hour. :)  He kept re-asking questions as I tried to force some crackers and apple juice down him.  He slowly woke up, and kept asking me how long I had been there. :) Finally we got him sitting up a bit, eating, and drinking.  And I could tell he was finally lucid.  Which was good...it was after 10:00 pm at this point!  They gave us the go-ahead to take him home, and handed me a prescription for his pain meds.

And then we wheeled him out to the car! :)

I was reminded as we left that it was important to get Danny's prescription for Percoset filled as soon as possible.  Unfortunately, because it was so late, we needed a 24 hour pharmacy, and there was only one in town.  The reason it was so important to make sure Danny had his meds was because he received a block in his shoulder before surgery, so at the moment he wasn't feeling anything.  It was supposed to last about 24 hours, but there was no way to know that it would.  And if it wore off before Danny had some Percoset on board, he was going to be hurting.  So we made our way to the pharmacy.  When I got there, I was told they were out of Percoset, but I could go all the way to South Salt Lake if I needed it then.  Seriously?!  How can you be out of Percoset?  I asked if they could call the hospital to get a different script, but they said it couldn't be authorized over the phone.  I went back to the hospital, my poor husband in tow, and asked the nurse at the ER desk what in the world I was supposed to do!  She said I had to call the doctor on call with Dr. Donigan's office.  So I did.  And that doctor totally thought I was shopping around for drugs!  I got a little angry, and finally the doctor agreed to call in a script for Loritab.  I wouldn't be as good as the Percoset, but it would keep him from dying if that block wore off.  I dropped Danny off at home and got him in bed, then went back out to get the Loritab.  I was 12:30 am before I got home!  But Danny had what he needed, the kids were thankfully taken care of, so I was free to totally crash!  Until my alarm went off in the wee hours of the morning when it was time to give Danny his meds again.  There's nothing I won't do for that man!

Danny slept well, and thankfully his block didn't wear off for the better part of 24 hours.  Getting the block was by far the most traumatic part of the surgery for Danny.  They had to stick a needle in his neck while he was awake and wait for his arm to start twitching like crazy to know they'd reached the right nerve.  Not cool!  But totally worth it.  Danny actually had very little pain even after the block wore off.  The worse part of the recovery period was how unbelievably tired Danny was.  Finally, after a year of not enough sleep, his body was rebelling.  So he spent many days and nights sleeping, which was okay because Luke also got more sleep than he usually did.  These two are joined at the hip, I tell you. :)

It was a rough couple of weeks after surgery, but Danny got back to his old self in no time.  He had to wear his sling for four full weeks, morning and night.  It was irritating, but Danny mostly followed doctor's orders.  He started physical therapy right away, and has healed fantastically.  It's nice not to see him in pain anymore!  And while it was definitely one more thing, we're glad we did the surgery when we did.  And hopefully it's his last for a very, VERY long time!