Jake had his appt. this afternoon, and was cleared for travel! We were careful to make sure no one came near his cast this time, hehe. His surgeon was on leave, but still in contact with the clinic. The xrays looked great, there were no concerns at all...so his resident was able to give us the all-clear. The surgeon here has already been in touch with the surgeon back on Okinawa that will take care of Jake's follow-up care. They want Jake in this cast for 4 more weeks, then in the AFO boot for another 4 to 8 weeks.
I think I failed to mention this, but the surgeon told us IN THE RECOVERY ROOM that he was PCSing (moving, for you non-military types) to Washington DC this summer. This is how he said it..."I hope I'm able to perform his other foot surgery. I'll be PCSing to Walter-Reed this summer, so I'm not sure...but I'd love to do his surgery there, if not here, so that he can have continuity of care." I'm thinking, "If only it were up to us and not the managed care system we work within, HUH?" I wanted to say, "Are you kidding me?!?!?!" I can't believe this was not figured into the equation when he was deciding whether or not he'd do both feet at once...especially since it would have been better for us for SO many reasons. All I could do was shake my head.
Anyway, I bring this up, because now we only have a one week window between when Jake has spent 4 weeks in his AFO boot and when the surgeon is checking out to move. And there is no guarantee Jake will even be ready at that point. It would sure make things easier to just get it over with before the move. Counting on getting the permission for Jake to travel to DC to get the surgery is a gamble...and since there are so many possible methods for the surgery, we really don't want to take the chance of another surgeon doing it completely differently and Jake having mismatched feet, if we can avoid it (considering he needs them to carry him around the rest of his life). It's kind of a big deal, I think.
We went back down to the brace shop in the basement and they had his beautiful, space-themed AFO boot ready to go. Since he is in the cast, he couldn't try it on for size, but it looks great! Very high-tech.
So, the battle continues. I'm just grateful to be going home for now. Tomorrow, we'll check out with the liaison and turn our plane tickets back on. Woohoo! I asked Jake where he'd like to go for dinner to celebrate.
Can you tell by the coconut shrimp where he chose?
If you guessed Red Lobster, you would be correct!
This is only the second time in his life Jake has ever eaten here, but he has always drooled over the commercials. He was in lobster heaven! At least living in medical-limbo has some fringe benefits.
No comments:
Post a Comment