An Update on Benjamin

 

Benjamin (left), Tricia and Russ

I haven't given an update on Benjamin lately, so here goes.  He's back at work full time and living on his own in Lake Charles.  We had two appointments in Lafayette the other day.  One with his neurosurgeon and another with his orthopedic surgeon.  The neurosurgeon released him from care, saying, "You only have to come back to see us if you need us."  He can bend, twist, and turn until his body tells him he can't.  That's remarkable since he has two titanium rods in his back scaffolding his spine.  Praise God!

In the afternoon, we went to see his orthopedic surgeon.  The news there was not bad, but not as good as the previous appointment.  According to the surgeon, he still has a non-union to the tibia/fibula breaks in his right leg.  There was bone loss there and, despite using the bone stimulator, it hasn't properly joined and healed like his left leg tib/fib breaks did.  He wants to give it more time to heal on its own, but if it doesn't, a surgery would be performed in which the hardware would be removed, bones reset, dyed cement put in.  A second surgery would take bone tissue from the femur and put it in place around the non-union and then hardware put back in.  I may have some of that stated incorrectly.  I want to believe that it's not going to be required, but if it's needed, we'll do it.

Benjamin has a limp on the right leg - the leg with the non-union.  But the limp is 90% caused by his toes.  Since the surgery, his big toe has curled sideways, along with the next three toes.  This hurts him to walk, resulting in a limp.  The orthopedic surgeon recommended Benjamin see a surgeon that specializes in foot/ankle issues to correct the problem while we give the bones in his legs more time to heal.

On the way out of the office, I looked up the surgeon on my phone.  I couldn't believe it!  As it turns out, we know the doctor and his wife.  We get Christmas cards from them every year.  The surgeon's wife is a friend of mine from high school/college.  She grew up in the small town where our family farm is located.  What a small world.  More than two decades ago, when the surgeon was at Tulane in New Orleans, he and his wife were kind enough to have Laura Lee spend the night with them one night when we were at Children's Hospital in New Orleans with Russ.

Tricia, Benjamin and I met at a coffee shop and visited with the surgeon's wife.  (To protect privacy, I'm not using names to protect privacy.)  It was a great visit, catching up on kids and what's been going on in each other's lives.  We then went to the appointment and he must have spent an hour with us, looking at x-rays, observing Benjamin walk, looking at his toes and talking to us.  So knowledgeable.  So kind and caring.  Bottom-line, he is very optimistic that he can help Benjamin out through surgery, but first wants to look at an MRI and also have Benjamin do a nerve conduction study to confirm his suspicions of what's going on with Benjamin's foot/toes.  The damage could be from muscle death from the swelling/trauma and/or nerve damage from related trauma.  Nerves heal very slowly, but there are some things that he can do with the toes in surgery.

We set up the appointments for the MRI and nerve conduction studies and we will return to the surgeon's office in a month once we have the film and the results from the nerve conduction study.  Then we will plan the next steps (pardon the pun).  As always, we appreciate your prayers.  If God doesn't do anything else for us, He's already done more than we deserve.