Saw the family doctor on Tuesday and the ortho surgeon today (Wednesday). The family doctor has been away and was well behind the times in what she knew had happened. She told me that in her role as a general practioner, with a family practice, she wants and expects to walk this road with me, holding my hand. She is available at all times, and will help me find other resources as we need them. It was a wonderful feeling to know that she cared and wanted to be involved. That said, she updated my file, and I am to call her, or see her, as needed. She suggested a check in every couple weeks. She also feels strongly about me seeing a social worker, who will help me work thru issues as they happen.
Ortho doctor was not what I expected. Because of the infection, he is having to take a "wait and see" approach, waiting for the bone to heal on its own. If there hadn't been infection complicating matters, he might have done a bone graph or rod, but with the infection there, the bone graph could have been killed by the infection, or the infection could have adhered to the rod, complicating everything, and potentially causing irreversible damage. So. the current plan is for me to see him at the end of the antibiotics run, for an xray to take a look see at the bone. At the end of the antibiotics is when we are going to look at possible radiation, so radiation takes priority over reconstruction surgery. Radiation will also slow or halt any regrowth of bone. Fun. But its better to be doing things step by step. At the end of the antibiotics, in the xray, it will be better determined whether they successfully got the tumour out (there are chances of traces remaining). I am a bit grumpy to learn that I may be stuck with a bad arm for longer than the 18 weeks, and its really going to tick me off if they have to go back in and do reconstruction. But maybe there is less pain and discomfort involved when they do reconstruction because its fixing the problem and not waiting for nature to fix it? He has ordered a brace for me that is designed for fractures of the humourus that aren't put into a cast. He says that I can use it now that the mass is out. It will provide protection from being jostled (I am so nervous about people bumping me that I walk curved in, trying to protect my arm)and will give me support that may allow me to use the arm a bit more. He has also ok'd me for some physio, to keep the shoulder and elbow mobile. No resistance and no weight bearing, but that is ok. He says that the physio will likely be quite painful right now, but better to start now, than to wait until I am even stiffer. He also is keeping me on the stronger pain killers, as long as we only use them as needed. He says that he expects me to be experiencing a lot of pain right now, that ideally, I would be not using the arm at all and be doing absolutely nothing for at least 6 weeks. But that is not going to happen, so we will use the pain killers at night, or when I am guaranteed not to use the arm. The fear is that, if some pain is eliminated, I will over use the arm. I am just grateful that there are meds out there that can reduce the discomfort to a manageable level.
I am meeting my avon supervisor tomorrow to sign the paperwork and should be up and running later in the day. So, dingdong, if you want Avon, you know who to call! LOL
