Andrew Heckman, the man who was riding a recumbent trike for us in 2002
when he got ameliorated by a car (the story is at:
http://webpages.charter.net/200a/AndrewHeckman2.htm) just had his hip
rebuilt! His is an amazing story that has traveled all over the
internet. Andrew's hip was so crushed in the accident that his doctors
likened it to a bowl of corn flakes. And this sweetheart of a man,
refuses to be compromised by this disaster. Keep his fires burning. Let
him know how much you honor him: "Andrew Heckman" <[email hidden]>:
========================================
Home Again
Published on 03/31/04 at 17:04:02 PST by Andrew Heckman
At last I have a chance to do a quick site update. I¹ve been devoting a
lot of time the last couple of days to a business plan I¹m working on
for a client, but that¹s going well enough to allow a quick post.
I came home from the hospital last Friday afternoon, and I¹m able to get
around on crutches (and even go very short distances -- five feet or so
-- without crutches!). Pretty amazing considering that I have a
foot-long gash in my left hip, where a doctor reached in, sawed off the
top of my femur, etched a plug from the living bone, jammed that into my
sunken hip socket and sunk two screws to secure it, then shoved in a
faux socket, screwed a metal ball into the top of my femur bone, then
stapled me closed again.
The operation went extremely well. The only difficulty, according to Dr.
Hikes, was that my sciatic nerve was ³just lying there like a snake in
the grass waiting to bite us.² Normally, the sciatic nerve is encased in
a bundle of soft tissue, but in my case, the soft tissue had all been
obliterated. So the surgery took about 3.5 hours total.
My hospital stay was a piece of cake compared to my last experience.
Whereas before I was in the hospital for three weeks and
non-weight-bearing for six weeks, this time I was in the hospital for
five days and was standing up (using a walker) the day after the
surgery.
The only really tough part was on Tuesday, when I really did feel as if
I¹d been hit by a truck. Lisa said I was pretty pale and waxy on Monday
afternoon and Tuesday morning. But they pumped another pint of my own
blood into me on Tuesday and that helped get my systems back on line. By
Wednesday, I was walking a bit with crutches and feeling optimistic that
I would, as hoped, leave the hospital by the weekend.
Now we¹ve got my pain meds worked out, and my blood volume and
hemoglobin levels are getting back to normal. In fact, things are going
so well that Steve is considering heading back to Madison a few days
early.
The next step is tomorrowŠa nurse will be coming in to do another blood
check and remove the staples (there are 26 of them in the incision). I
might have to take a photo of the incision before and after, but if I
post the photos, I¹ll be sure to link them first with a warning not to
click on them unless you¹re sure you¹re preparedŠit ain¹t for the
squeamish, let me tell you. But as I said, considering the trauma, it¹s
really quite amazing that I¹m so far along so quickly.
So if anyone tells you ³the human race was a lot better off a thousand
years ago when we didn¹t have all this soul-stealing modern technology,²
you can tell them from me that they¹re full of [censored]
M A R T I N K R I E G : "Awake Again" Author
http://www.BikeRoute.com/AwakeAgain
Bent Since '83, Car Free Since '89, Attacking with Love
Coma, Paralysis, Clinical Death Survivor
'79 & '86 TransAm Vet
N A T I O N A L B I C Y C L E G R E E N W A Y