Chapter 3 The next steps

I was sent home from the hospital on January 18, 2006 barely taking baby steps behind a walker. I couldn’t eat and had a pump that fed a liquid food through a hole in my abdomen into my small intestine. I had a trach tube in my throat and would have that until a few more facial surgeries are complete. The nurse who walked me in the wheelchair down to the car cried and gave me a big hug before I got in the car.

My first set of outpatient doctor’s visits came with positives but also some bittersweet news. My leg is healing well and the wonderful orthopedic surgeon that operated on it told me that in thirty days he will be scheduling the removal of the screws and plates that are in my leg. He let me know that by the end summer I will be able to water ski again not that it would be possible with a tracheotomy, but it’s the thought that counts.

At the early stage of recovery I still had a tracheotomy tube in my neck and a feeding tube that goes directly to my small intestine so water skiing won’t be an option that summer. I couldn’t eat or drink due to the fact that it all goes into my airway and I could die from simply drinking water. I also had a huge hole in my chin that has exposed bone and metal plates showing. So everything leaked directly out of that hole.

The plastic surgeon that is charged with putting my face back together didn’t provide me with as much good news as the orthopedic surgeon. He let me know that I will be dealing with at least a five year reconstructive process and at least a half dozen surgeries to get close to what I used to look like.

The first step in the reconstruction process was the removal of a large portion of my right fibula to recreate a jaw, and then the grafting of several inches skin from my arm and leg will be used to create a chin. Due to the impact of the accident, my face healed flat as a pancake and at least an inch wider. I am also missing a lot of bone structure in my face. The next major step will be to peel my face off starting from the hairline down and re-breaking all the bones in my face grafting bones from my hip and ribs to bring the bones in realign them back to a workable structure that will be followed by breaking and remaking my nose. They will also use tissue expanders to stretch my cheeks back to a chin that resembles the skin on the rest of my face. Then the daunting task of trying to recreate a lip with some sort of muscular structure that allows me to actually use it as a lip. After each surgery I will have to wait for all the swelling to subside before he will be able to perform the next surgery.

Based on what I’ve experienced so far I think the worst is over.

The most recent surgeries happened in April 2006. I went through the first 2 major surgeries. It was actually only supposed to be one surgery but it turned into two-12+ hour surgeries.

The doctors began by opening my right leg in a diamond shape just below the knee and above the ankle. Mind you; that is my only good leg. They cut ten centimeters from my fibula and took a large portion of the skin in a diamond shape and used that skin and bone as a jaw and chin. They also removed one of the arteries to connect to the jugular so there would be blood flow to the chin. They then proceeded to reshape the bone into a lower jaw and attached it using metal plates to create and hold the shape.

The following week they sent me home from the hospital. Within two days the skin that they put on as the interior of my mouth and chin began to decay. “I cannot describe the awful taste and smell of decaying skin in your mouth. “”Putrid””. As a result of The skin that died in my mouth and they had to rush me into another surgery to remove the dead skin and replace it with skin, artery and a tendon from my left arm.

Fortunately that particular surgery took and the skin graft healed well.

I came home from the hospital from that surgery near the end of May. I went in the hospital on April12 for what was supposed to be a 10 day visit and spent over a month.

When I arrived home I still couldn’t eat and had a feeding tube and strict orders for the next 6 weeks to consume neither food nor water.

At the end of June beginning of July my feeding tube site on my abdomen developed a severe infection which pain again I cannot describe. The infection left me paralyzed with pain. I went to the emergency room and they admitted me that day and decided that the feeding tube must come out. I have to say: I did not want to be in that hospital but I could live with being there for at least another day or so until the infection went down.

I was stuck there on an IV antibiotic for 10 days. The worst part is that when the feeding tube is removed all that you eat exits the small intestine and leaks out of the feeding tube hole. It was miserable having that acid leak out and burn the skin around the opening. It took until mid July for that hole to completely heal.

As soon as the hole healed my little brother took me over to the Driving range at out local executive golf course and made me try to hit some golf balls. I had only played golf 3 times in my life prior to the accident so I was terrible at it. Having these injuries didn’t help my ball striking capabilities.

He took me on the course for a short game and I hobbled around struggling to get up and down the tee box and greens. I managed to hit the ball and got pretty excited about the game. I was thrilled that there was actually a sport I could participate in my condition. I began playing once or twice a week with my friend Rob and began really loving being out on the course.

I was invited by my maxi facial Surgeon who has been a saint to me for a game of golf late July 2006. I happily took him up on it his offer. I was overjoyed to be playing golf with the person that put my face back together the night of the accident. I will let him tell you in his own words what he had to say about the whole situation.

I arrived home from the golf game with Dr. Boland and my wife was sitting on the couch in tears. I had a difficult time getting any words out of her but she informed me that in no uncertain terms my youngest little child Jacob had just been diagnosed with Legg-Calve Perthes. I will elaborate on the significance of this in the next chapter.

I was heartbroken. As much for my wife as I was for Jacob because it was a devastating blow to her, among numerous other devastating blows. All I could do was reassure her that God only deals us what we can handle and that what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. It wasn’t much comfort but it was all we had to go on. How much more could we take?

A blessed amazing thing did happened in August 2006. I had a doctor’s visit with the surgeon that had dealt with my airway. She is the one who told me that I should not have survived let alone talk and not be on a respirator for life. She not only cleared me to go up to Maine for a visit with my dad but was really looking forward to taking the tube out of my throat very soon. She never expected that. The only reason she didn’t remove it at that point is the plastic surgeon performing the reconstructive process wanted to leave it in so as to make it possible intubate me during the upcoming surgeries. You see I have a very smashed up facial structure. There is not much to my nasal passages so the will have a difficult time running the hoses for anesthesia and oxygen until it is rebuilt.

After the appointment with her I walked across the street to Bayfront Medical Center where I was hospitalized and for the first time since I left the hospital I went to the ICU unit to try to meet the nurses that worked on me for eight weeks. When I walked into the ICU unit one of the nurses at the desk smiled at me and said "oh.....my .......God.. Mr. Main? Not 2 minutes ago we were speaking about you and the malacia of the trach that you had so severely. All the doctors and a few of the nurses were preparing to throw in the towel on you so many times because your body just kept trying to die." She told me she pushed the doctors not to give up hope because she knew my mind was still in there. She then directed my attention to a gentleman lying in the bed directly behind me who was being worked on by no less than 6 people at one time. She informed me that he was suffering the same airway condition as I had while there and the doctors and nurses had also begun to give up hope on him. She insisted they keep working on him and reminded the doctors of my case.

Moments later the doctor came out of the room and said hello to me. He remembered working on me many times like he just worked on that man. A few of the nurses came up to me and gave me a big hug. They were really glad to see me in the shape I am in now. They all doted over the reconstructive surgery that has been under way on me. It just seemed amazing to me that the moment I walked into ICU the very same nurses who were working on me for a particular condition they were ready to give up on, were working on someone else and discussing the same outcome.

Susan did tell me that it brought them a lot of hope when they see someone come back to visit them. If you ever get hurt remember to go back and thank the people that took care of you. You have no idea how much that means to someone in that position. If you think about how litigious our society has become you will understand just how important is to show some gratefulness to people that saved your life. I have to say thank you Bayfront staff, so much for the love that poured through your hearts to your hands.