The Good, the Bad and the Extremely Ugly!

The Good:

-Amazing friends, family and friends that are like family. I have 48 people on my Thank You card list so far. 48 people! If you are one of those notes recipients, please forgive me if the handwriting is illegible after awhile and it looks like a 1st grader wrote them. (Note to self: have 1st grader write them)

-Said amazing people delivering amazing meals every single night since the accident (sometimes two meals show up on one night!), cleaning my house from top to bottom (and still speaking to me after scrubbing my toilets) and washing, drying and folding my laundry (yes, even my unmentionables).

-Make-shift ramps that allow us to take wheelchair walks, ahem, parades through the neighborhood and bask in the delicious sunshine. Give Mark a few more days & I'm sure he's going to be popping wheelchair wheelies.

-Fresh baked apple pie that is so pretty you don't want to eat it.

-Who am I kidding? Eating fresh baked apple pie. Twice.

-Good surgeons. Mark's surgeon is a master at skin grafts and an expert in Compartment Syndrome, but his specialty is hands. So he handed Mark's case over to another surgeon in his office that specializes in traumatic leg injuries. His new surgeon's eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas when he saw Mark's X-rays. He briefed us on his surgical plan and really took the time to explain each step. He also explained in great detail the risks of rushing Mark's surgery that was supposed to be on Thursday.

And that brings us to...

The Bad:

-Compartment Syndrome. That's it. It's seriously the only thing on my list. But it's a beast. And it's seriously jacking everything up. Because of the C.S., the much anticipated Thursday surgery is now scheduled for Monday. There is still too much swelling to correct the actual break. Because the soft tissue and the muscles have been so traumatized, the surgeons are not only afraid they will not hold the hardware they will be installing as they build him a new leg, but also that we'll see Compartment Syndrome Round 2 if they proceed to soon. 

The Ugly:

I knew his injury was bad. Really bad. But I was shocked to see his X-rays next to the X-rays of a healthy male's leg bones. He is missing 2 inches of knee bone! And there are so many different breaks I stopped counting. I was blown away. Kinda like you're going to be when you see these cool/disgusting pictures of his leg (really depends on how morbid you are). Please stop reading now if you easily loose your lunch or are the slightest bit squeamish. Trust me.

The faciotomy incision. You can see how the skin graft-covered muscle is still bulging out of the side.

Another view of the faciotomy. I included this one because for some reason it looks like Mark has a strange frog-like tattoo on his upper thigh and that just makes me giggle. (For the record, he does not)

A view of the skin-graft transfer site. Gag. Gross. Icky.

One normal Mark leg and one ugly giant leg. We need the right leg to look a little more like the left leg.

Did it make you hurl?