Monday, October 8, 2007
Wow, it's been a long time since I've written in here, but it's only because things have been going fairly well for Diesel Dave Galloway.  DDG has managed to stay out of the hospital for more than a month now (it's got to be a record, knock on wood...)!

Dad has been able to get around much better lately.  He has been driving his own car, including putting the new wheels in and out of the trunk by himself.  He has even been riding his new 3 wheel recumbent bicycle every day, averaging a few miles/day.  Watch out Seyboro's, he's doing some hardcore training and will be kicking butt in the weekly time trials in a few weeks time!

This weekend is the great Nebraska trip...we fly out to Omaha on Friday to watch the Nebraska Cornhuskers take on Oklahoma State.  We'll keep you posted on the score.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Well, DDG is out of the hospital for a few days.  He actually came home last Friday, Sept 7, after only a 2 night stay.  The determined that the infection was probably a surface infection, and not in the bone or the plate like they had originally feared.  They gave him a new pic line and put him on Vancomycin again for a few weeks.  As of Monday, his leg had already started looking much better.

Thursday, September 6, 2007
Well, DDG was admitted to the hospital again yesterday evening.  He had a swelling and redness (he's so used to spotting it now) in his right leg near where he had the plate inserted.  Dr. Barsanti said that it was an infection, and they will start him on the Vancomycin again.  They had previously stopped the Vanc and put him on a pill antibiotic, but it looks like that may not have been strong enough.  It doesn't look like he'll be in the hospital long, but please keep him in your prayers.

Thursday, August 30, 2007
Davey G. has a fast new ride!  Keep your eyes out for it.  But don't blink, because he's getting faster by the minute!  Pretty soon it will all be a blurrrrrrrrrrr

In other news, DDG has been pushing himself more and more lately.  He refuses to take his wheelchair into rehab with him.  Instead he WALKS into the building from the car and gets one of the rehab wheelchairs when he gets inside.  Pretty soon he probably won't even need to do that.  It's pretty painful for him when he does walk, but we know he's tough, he can handle pain. 

Sunday, August 19, 2007
Things have slowly started coming back together for DDG.  He has had a tough time getting back to where he was before his string of setbacks (surgery, dog bite, infection, surgery, surgery, infection #2...).  Now that he is allowed to put more weight on his right leg he is able to begin walking some.  That helps him out with the little things like getting in and out of the car and in and out of bed.  He still has a good amount of pain in his knee where he had the infection.  His therapy is going pretty well; the therapists all make him work hard to make up for the time that he lost with his surgeries, but we all know how much he loves pain!

We will be flying to Omaha to take in the sights of Memorial Stadium in October, watching the Cornhuskers take on Oklahoma State.  We were able to get some tickets from the good folks in Nebraska.  It is going to be a very exciting time for both DDG and Nick!!

Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Well DDG is finally out of the hospital.  Again.  They put a new PIC line in him today, and he will now be on 2 different antibiotics.  He will continue with the Vancomycin and he's also on another for his newest infection.  It appears that it wasn't only the Vancomycin that was making him feel so sick, but that he likely had this blood infection the whole time, which caused his lethargy.

And even better news than that??  Dr. Barsanti took some x-rays of DDG's broken leg and said that it is healing nicely.  He can now put up to 50% of his weight on that leg, which means he can probably start using the cane again once he gets his strength back.  Indefatigable.

Friday, August 3, 2007
Well, once again, DDG has been admitted to the hospital.  He was trying to give himself his antibiotic through his PIC line last night, when he noticed that it was clogged.  The other line had been clogged since he got home from the hospital, so they called home health and hospice to send a nurse to check it out, but she wasn't able to do anything with it. 

DDG was complaining of being extremely cold for the last day although he wasn't running a fever.  Since his PIC line was clogged and he was feeling cold, they decided to admit him to Pitt immediately.  After he got there, they gave him some blood thinners in his PIC lines to help unclog them.  About 10 minutes after they got them clear, he started shaking uncontrollably and got extremely cold.  That finally subsided after about 10 minutes, and infectious diseases said there must have been an infection in the lines that went directly into his blood stream when they got the lines clear.  They removed his current lines but they cannot replace those for 48 hours, so they will wait until Monday to do anything.  He will probably be in the hospital for a few days after that as well to monitor the infection.

The Vancomycin that he is on has been making him feel very lethargic.  Some doctors have compared this drug to chemotherapy.  It makes him really tired and nauseous.  As if he hasn't been through enough lately...

Sunday, July 29, 2007
The past few days have been pretty tough and tiring for DDG, and he's more than ready to go back home after 3 long weeks in the hospital.  He has been working back up to getting in and out of his wheelchair on his own; it's amazing how much he's lost in just the past 3 weeks.  But it's slowly coming back to him and he's been able to do more and more every day.  It looks like the doctors are going to reelase him tomorrow to send him home.

DDG will likely be confined mostly to a bed for the first few days.  I'm sure that will be OK with him, as he catches up on rest without a nurse coming in and taking blood, taking his blood pressure, temperature, etc every hour.  He still won't be allowed to bear any weight on his right leg until after he's gone back to the doctor in a few weeks.  His right leg has about 40 staples in it right now from the surgery last Wednesday.

I'm not sure when he'll begin going back to physical therapy.  As much as it's going to hurt him to go back, I know that he's ready to get the ball rolling again and start doing things on his own.  He had made so much progress before the incident with the dog and the resulting infection, and he we all want him to get back on that track.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007
It looks like the surgery went well today.  They did not find any infection in his knee, however they did find a lot of clotted blood in his knee from where they had done the surgery 2 weeks ago.  he was in a lot of pain after the surgery, but that's nothing new to him...

DDG decided yesterday that he had been through enough the past few weeks and soon found himself getting out of bed into his wheelchair.  He wasn't able to move around very much, but the point is that he was not in that darn bed that he's been in for so long!  It was pretty painful on his back just to move like that, but he sucked it up because he knows that he's got to do it sometime.  His back has started feeling better the past few days, maybe due to resting it and having the fluid removed from that area.

Monday, July 23, 2007
Dr. Brown visited DDG today and looked at his right knee (the one that had the infection) and recommended that they operate again on Wednesday.  His knee is still very swollen and hot to the touch, and he can't straighten that leg completely.

He has had a team of doctors reviewing his case to try to determine what is causing the intense pain in his back.  They have discovered that he has some calcification of the soft tissue in his pelvis (heterotopic ossification).  This is the same problem that caused his elbow to freeze up.  Dr. Barsanti, his orthopedic surgeon, and the folks in radiology are somewhat certain that the H.O. is rubbing up against some muscle tissue, causing the muscle to become inflamed and causing the extreme pain.  If this is the case, it would appear that his knee infection and his lower back/upper leg pain are completely unrelated.  On an optimistic front, it's a really good thing that he was in the hospital when he originally came down with the pain in his back.  Otherwise we're not sure what we would have done because the pain was so bad, it would have been very difficult to get him to the hospital, and he would not have had the proper pain medicine to give him any relief.

The fluid that they removed from his back late last week still has not turned into an infection, so they don't believe that the infection has spread into his pelvis.  They were going to attempt to put a drain in his back to assist in removing that fluid, but radiology denied the request, stating that they had aspirated all of it when they removed the sample.

They had to give him a transfusion of 2 pints of blood last night.  His blood numbers have been slowly decreasing, probably because he lost some in his surgery last week and they have been taking so much to run their tests.


Saturday, July 21, 2007
So the 2nd MRI that was done on Thursday showed what appeard to be an infection in his pelvis/lower back/upper thigh area.  They withdrew a sample and are culturing it right now.  Although his temperature seemed to break and DDG started feeling a little bit better when they removed it, the culture does not seem to show an infection.  There is still a possibility that it will, but only time will tell.  There also seems to be a calcification of the soft tissue in his pelvis, the same type that has permanently locked up his elbow.  A spinal surgeon will be visiting DDG to see if maybe something in his spine (he originally had a broken vertebrae) is out of alignment, but since this is the weekend it will probably be Monday at the earliest.

Dad got to meet Dr. Wooten yesterday, who was one of the original surgeons that operated on his elbow to keep putting it back in the socket.  They discussed some possibilities for his elbow in the future, but it looks like he may be better off leaving it the way that it is now.

Hopefully we will have more and better news by Monday on exactly what has been going on in the old man's body.

Thursday, July 19, 2007
Well, the MRI finally got done last night, but when the doctor read the results this morning, it didn't look like there was an infection in his pelvis.  At this poing, they are not sure what is wrong or why he is in such intense pain.  They are planning another MRI today, and hopefully he won't get bumped for 3 days again. 

I haven't made it down to see him, but it seems as if he is very uncomfortable from the pain, and nothing really seems to work well enough or for long enough.  He also seems to get very tired very easily, probably from the combination of pain and the medication.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Well, more than a week after going to the hospital for pain in his knee, DDG is still there.  He woke up the other night in extreme pain (comparable to getting hit by a car??) in his upper thigh/hamstring area, and had to call the nurse for some pain meds.  They finally got him on some morphine but it didn't seem to work very well.  They ran several tests throughout the day including an ultrasound, a CT Scan, and planned to run an MRI.  The doctor's belief was that his infection had spread into his pelvic area where he also has some screws and plates.  They are going to try to draw some of the fluid out to see if this is what was causing his pain.  If that is the case, it probably means another surgery where they will cut him open and remove this infection. 

They have not started him on any medicine to thicken his blood yet, so the surgery will not be scheduled before tomorrow, if they are going to do it at all.  I should have more details later today.

Monday, July 16, 2007
Dad is hoping that he will be able to come home tomorrow.  They are trying to sort out his antibiotic prescription before they release him, but hopefully will have that figured out by tomorrow afternoon.

The antibiotics that he was on were making him feel very under-the-weather yesterday, with flu-like symptoms, a headache, nausea...as if he hasn't been through enough already.  He will need to be on antibiotics for several more weeks in order to make sure the infection is completely gone.

Thursday, July 12, 2007
DDG is out of surgery, they finished up about 6:00PM.  They believe they got most/all of the infection when they cut open his knee, and they didn't have to remove the screws in his knee.  He was pretty groggy and had a sore throat from the surgery when I called this evening, so I havne't been able to talk to him, but mom said that he was doing pretty good.

There will likely have to be some at-home treatment and lots of meciation to help fight off the infection, probably for several weeks to come. 

Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Dad's surgery is cancelled for today due to his blood still being too thin.  They will reschedule, but we're not sure when yet.  As of this afternoon, he still had not been released from the hospital, and they may keep him in until they can do the surgery since he is in so much pain.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007
The indefatigable DDG is back in the hospital...

He has been complaining of swelling and pain in his right knee for the past few days.  Over the weekend he was seen in the emergency room where he found out he has a non-life threatening blood clot.  This may have been caused by the last time he had surgery since he had to be off of his blood thinners for a few days prior.

However, when the pain seemed to get worse, he made an appointment with Dr. Barsanti.  After some questions and answers and a syring full of nasty stuff removed from his knee, they determined that his recent dog bite (don't ask...) had caused an infection.  The infection sought out anything foreign, and apparently it liked the titanium screws in his knee (how could anything besides a bacteria enjoy titanium - it's heavy, expensive, doesn't offer a smooth ride, flexes...?).  It ended up resting in his knee and festering.  I told the doc to use carbon because it was superior...

There are a few options on what they will do tomorrow, but ultimately they will cut him open and remove the infection from his knee.  No telling how long he'll be in, but stay tuned to the website for details.

If it weren't for this mishap, he would have been in the yellow jersey by this Sunday!

Sunday, July 1, 2007
I've been meaning to make a post for the past week, but I guess I've just gotten out of the habit of needing to put things on the website.  I see that as a good thing.

Dad had an appointment with Dr. Barsanti on Tuesday for more x-rays and to have the staples removed from his leg.  He hoped that he would be given permission to start walking again, since he had gotten used to using the walker and cane, and now he's back to being stuck in the darn chair.  However, even though the x-rays looked very good and the surgery seems to have gone well, he's got to be off his leg for another 4 weeks.  At that point he will go back to the doctor again and maybe be given permission to put more weight on it.  Keep your fingers crossed!

Well apparently the surgery had gone very well, and the x-rays showed significant improvement in the straightness of his bones.  All of the breaks had been straightened and then an 8" plate attached to the bone, screwed down in 3 places.  No wonder it was burning so bad for a few days afterwards!  It is still a little painful, but he's a tough guy and he can take it!

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

3:30pm
Dad is home from the hospital.  He was released around 12:00 today.

8:00am
Dad has had a few good, boring days in the hospital.  He woke up in a considerable amount of pain yesterday but the morphine worked quickly.  He was able to get out of bed into his wheelchair for a little while too, although he is still restricted from putting any weight on that leg.  Last night was a little bit better, with stronger pain meds that helped him sleep most of the night.

Pending his bloodwork today, he should be released around lunchtime.  He saw his leg today when they changed the bandage and said there was a pretty impressive 8" incision with staples.  That should leave a nice scar - and chicks dig scars!

Monday, June 11, 2007
2:30pm
Uh oh, he's got a button that he can push whenever he wants, and it shoots him with morphine.  Minutes later, pain free.  Ahh, good stuff.  He's ready to get out of this bed already, but they've told him he's not allowed out for 24 hours. 

We realized today that we should have timed him wheeling from therapy to the cafeteria back in March when he was in therapy and just learning to "drive".  Then he could show off his wicked wheelchair skillz now and show how much better his time was, somewhat like a time-trial.  Some of the therapists were more than happy to come visit him when they heard he was back for a short stint, and they still think he's the best patient ever.  Was there ever a doubt?

10:00am
Dad is now in a normal room, groggy and in some pain.  He woke up feeling like he had been "hobbled" by Kathy Bates, but after 3 units of morphine, he was feeellallinnnnnng  muucccchchhch bettaaa.  Caan I g gat schlmoree ooof thatt sstuffff leease?

He's sleeping now, so we'll probably be able to go back after lunch to see him again.

Update 8:30am
Dad's out of surgery.  Dr. Barsanti decided that he would put a plate in his leg instead of the rods.  He described making about a 5 inch incision where he inserted the plate.  He didn't want to do the rods because there is a risk of infection in the bone after having external fixaters.  Why he didn't tell us this before, we don't know, but we are certain that this was the best thing for him at this time.  He will be in recovery for about an hour and we should get to see him at that time.

Update 7:30am:
3:00am - Alarm.  Geez it's early, what are we doing up.
4:00am - Drive to Greenville.  This looks familiar...
5:00am - Hurry up and wait.
6:00am - Dad's dressed in a fashionable purple paisley print gown.  Good thing he's laying down.

They took dad about 6:30 and planned on taking him in for surgery first.  I'm sure he's a little bit nervous, we all are.  It's really no big deal considering all that he's been through in the past 6 months, but it is still a small step backwards.  He will be non-weight bearing, possibly for a few weeks.  Then again, a Nissan Altima once tried to take him off his feet, and we see that didn't last long.

He's now been in 26 minutes (7:49am).  I will update the site as we get more information about his surgery.  Please check back soon!

Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Dad found out today that he will be having surgery on Monday, June 11.  His orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Barsanti, will either insert a rod in the bone or will put plates on both sides of the bone.  He will not know exactly what he is doing until he gets in and examines everything.  This is what they had originally wanted to do, but the leg was broken too bad and in too many places to do the surgery at the time.

He will probably be in the hospital for 2 days after the surgery.  Soon after that, he will begin training on his new recumbent bike that he ordered today, so look out guys!  All this titanium is making him unbreakable!