3rd day at the Hospital: Very bad and sad news!

February 13, 2010, Saturday:

It was exactly 8 o'clock in the morning while my brother was having his breakfast, he was very excited in telling us that he had a chance to walk again normally when his surgeon arrived and talked to us (me and my hubby) privately. Because Carl was so positive about his operations, we were also excited to hear the good news from his doctor but unfortunately has a different side of the story. We first spoke to the him and he showed us the x-ray result of my brother. He even showed us the actual picture when my brother arrived at the emergency room. It was not only broken but crashed bones. The bones were scattered in the area where they met the accident. A lot of blood was lost and he said that was my brother's. Have you seen a leg without a knee? That's how it looks like or even worse. I can't exactly describe it but it was yulky! I almost fell and threw up.

The next part was when his Ortho came and talked to us too. He said, the good news is that they will not amputate the leg anymore because the nerves are still functional. He said there are 5 signs to consider before the decide to amputate the leg: the bone or the knee cap, veins (which was cut off too due to injury), the patella, the skin and the tissue that no longer has an adequate blood supply. But, the nerves are still functional so they decided to just fuse it (leg-knee fusion).

For those of us who are not familiar with that term, in lay man's term (as I understood) is that they are going to remove the knee joint by connecting the leg bones and thigh bones (?). The left leg will be smaller than the right leg and it is a permanent procedure. You could not bend it anymore...as long as you live. As you can see at the X-ray picture, you cannot detect where the knee joint anymore. At first, I was convinced that it was the best way instead of amputating it. So... it's only me who can tell that news to my brother.

Carl and I talked... It's hard for me to give advise because I myself was not convinced that I cannot anymore bend my legs... I even tried walking without bending my knees. It's hard... I prayed before I talked to him. I told him that we are still fortunate that the doctors have decided not to amputate the leg anymore but.... (silence) they will have to fuse it. He was in tears. I cannot hide anymore how sorry I was while talking to him, i burst into tears. I hugged him and told him that everything will be alright just pray. Prayer is the most powerful than anything else in the world. I told my brother that I will never leave him whatever happens. I will always be by his side. I will do anything for him... it was a long silence... I knew he was very depressed. He doesn't want to eat anymore but when I told him that God will never give us his cross that we can't carry...