1.17

I scheduled a meeting with the Director of Nursing, Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy and the Director of Social Services at the home. 

I just wasn't seeing the progression I had hoped for. 

He basically gets about an hour of therapy and then lays in bed for the rest of the day. 

He isn't being forced to move that much and it was concerning me. 

So we made a decision. 

We are moving him to my house temporarily. 

Send good thoughts!!! 

We reached out to Ohioan Therapy and they will be sending PT, OT, an aid and a nurse to the house. 

Stay tuned!

1.12

We went for a ride!!! 

I don't think he wanted to but with a little "encouragment" and John's muscles, we got him in the backseat. 

We drove out past Sugar Creek, through Elmore along the river and then through Genoa. 

We were gone about an hour but he basically had no pain! Yay!

Also, I have made mention before but his emotional health has been very unstable. 

After a few chats with the doc, we finally got him on some meds and it's made a world of difference. 

We have seen a huge improvement.

1.9

My dad is a warrior.

He's been dealt a pretty crappy hand and is struggling emotionally.

I know at the end of this "HE WILL BE THE STORM"

1.6

January 6 was the two week follow up appointment with the surgeon.

We finally saw a glimmer of light.

He got his stitches out!

Got new x-rays where we were made aware that everything took!

And had all restrictions lifted on his left leg. No more brace and allowed to start using a bend.

The right leg is going to take some time.

But for now....we focus on healing and therapy.





1.1 - 1.5

Dad continues at Genoa Care Center.

He is receiving physical therapy daily and is working hard to get up on his own.

Once he is able to get up on his own, he will be able to be discharged.

We aren't sure what the next step is whether the discharge is at my house or his own.

We just keep pushing through.

Eleven days post op



12.21 - 12.31

Dad spent the next 10 days at Toledo Hospital.

There were many ups and downs, good days and bad days.

Unfortunately, there were many more downs than ups.

We were very disappointed with the hospital and the care he received.

For every good nurse, there were three bad.

On top of the horrible care, we got stuck in the health insurance red tape.

A good day and the first time sitting chair.

Unfortunately this meant we spent Christmas in the hospital.

That was a very sad day. 

We were ready to be discharged on 12/23 and after days of waiting and holidays, the approval finally came through on 12/31.

So...there were many days of this.

We watched lots of shows. Ha!

Finally on the morning of 12/31, we received approval and scheduled transport for that night.



12.20.19

Surgery was scheduled for 2pm. I took a half day vacation so I could be at the hospital with my dad. 

We were in pre op for a couple of hours and they finally took my dad back around 4pm. 

He was in surgery for 5 1/2 hours!! 

It took so long! 

The surgeon finally came out and shared with us the results. 

Everything went well. 

This is his right knee. 

He removed the screws and added this wire mesh. 

There were too many pieces to keep it together with screws. So this is basically sewn into his knee cap to keep the pieces in place. 

He did an exploratory on his left knee and found that to be healing nicely. 

So he removed this wire that was placed during the surgery in North Carolina. 

Surgery overall went fine. But this evening turned out to be my dad's worst night of his life. 

He was in extreme pain in his knees and was having bladder issues. 

This was the case all night. I stayed up at the hospital with him that night and neither one of us slept a wink. Between the heart monitor sky rocketing every time he had an ounce of pain to his bladder, he was miserable. They also added vacuumed ice packs to his legs. The ice pack on his right leg ended up disconnecting through the night and he was soaked. We had to change his bedding at like 3am. 

It was a crazy, chaotic night but we made it through! 

I broke out about 11am the next day to go home and sleep for a few hours. 

12.19.20

I was very fortunate to snag an appointment for my dad at a well know orthopedic surgeon in our area fairly quickly. We were super excited heading for the appointment to continue his care in Ohio. 

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to set up transportation on such notice so there was no other choice but to take in the Yukon. I recruited my Uncle Mark as the muscles and with some careful assessing and moving, he was in the car and we were on our way!

We made it to the office and for the first time, they removed his bandages. 

We got some super cool new braces for his legs and were able to ditch the "furnace blankets" that my dad hated so much. 

They removed his staples and took a few xrays to see how everything was progressing. 

This is when everything took a turn for the worse. They came back to the room after the xrays to let us know his right knee had failed. The pins had pulled away from the knee. What does this mean? His right knee was still broken. I think they had to pick mine and my dads jaw off the floor. 

We were so incredibly disappointed. The bad news just kept coming. The break was severe that is was outside of their realm. They needed to refer us to a trauma surgeon because it was too bad for them. Luckily for us, Uncle Mark had stayed close and was able to join at at Toledo Hospital to help with transport. 

The failed xray...

The surgeon called ahead for an appointment with the trauma surgeon. We were able to go straight there. They took us back pretty quickly and analyzed everything. 

It was determined that he needed another surgery ASAP, the next day. 

I asked for them to admit him into the hospital immediately to prevent him from having to travel back and forth again. By 7pm, he was all set in his new home at The Toledo Hospital. 

Surgery was set for 2pm the next day. 

12.17 - 12.18

We had a great couple of days having my dad back in Ohio.

He was finally able to have people come and see him and it was such a comfort to know he was only 10 minutes away. The girls were so excited to have Grandpa back home.

I was able to get him an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon on December 19th and to finish his treatment.





12.9 - 12.16

The next week or so was spent getting my dad healthy enough to travel. His heart rate was still raising during any physical activity. Nate stayed in North Carolina and we talked multiple times per day, checking in, discussing ideas, options, etc...


First time in a wheelchair...so happy! Ha!

On December 13th, we received word that he was healthy enough to be released.

My brother and I decided it was in my dad's best interest to be medically transported to a rehab facility in Ohio. I was able to secure in a room at the Genoa Care Center and arrange transportation through MedLink. Unfortunately, insurance didn't cover that so we had to pay out of our pocket.

With modern technology and tracking, my dad finally arrived at the Genoa Care Center about 12:30am on December 17th.

After a surprisingly smooth check in, he was able to rest easy knowing he was in Genoa. 

12.7.19 - 12.8.19

From the second I heard about my Dad's accident, my first thought was getting him home to Ohio. 

We were pushing for this with every intention of putting him in the back of the Yukon. 

Nate and I were meeting with Doctors and Physical Therapists trying to determine the best way to make this happen. We were aggressive with PT, hoping this would get him more mobile. 

On Dec. 8, he should up for the first time. 

This happiness was short lived though. 

Within seconds of this photo, nurses and doctors came flying into the room barking orders to get my dad back in bed. This was too much stress on my dad and his heart rate had sky rocketed. It was up to 185! 

We knew at this time there was no way he was ready to be discharged. There was no way he could make a 12 hour trip in the car. He needed to rest and get well. If we would have left it would have been against medical advice and there was no way we could jeopardize my dads health. 

I had to get back to Ohio. I have a family. 

Nate and I put our heads together and it was determined that I would fly home and he would stay in North Carolina with my dad. I left my car in NC for Nate to use while he was there to help offset expenses. 

His words were "I'm not leaving North Carolina until Dad does". 

We headed to Walmart to get some necessities and found this shirt for a fun little reminder down the road. 

I flew home on Sunday night, Dec. 9th. 

At this time it was waiting game to see when my Dad was healthy enough to travel and HOW we would get him home. 

12.6.19

I made it to North Carolina by 12:30pm the next day. Plenty of time to see my dad before he was taken back to surgery. 

Since my dad and Nate were on a golf trip, they had some perks and we wanted to be sure those were used. They both had $100 gift cards at the course where the accident happened. 

Rivers Edge in Shalotte, NC. 

Nate and I drove over there and on the way out, he showed me where the accident happened. 

I believe this is the 16th hole. 

We headed back to the hospital to get ready for Dad's surgery. 

We were in the waiting room for about 3 hours. 

Dr. Michael Marushack performed the surgery. 

Below is the drawing he provided to us after the surgery to explain what he did. 

The left knee was broken off at the bottom and in turn had tendon damage. He placed multiple screws in the bottom of the knee cap and then threaded a wire through the knee cap down into the tendons to hold those up and attached to the knee cap. 

His right knee cap was broken into multiple pieces. He had to put multiple screws in place and also threaded wire through the pieces to keep them in place. 

We were fortunate that surgery went fairly well with little complications. 

Once he was settled into his room, Nate and I headed to a hotel for the night. 

12.5.19

It was a Thursday afternoon and I was at work. I received a call from my brother, Nate. 

He was currently on a golf trip with our Dad in Myrtle Beach, SC. 

I knew a phone call in the middle of the afternoon didn't mean good news. They were supposed to be golfing. 

He was calling to tell me that Dad had an accident at the River's Edge Golf Course in Shalotte, North Carolina. My dad was at a different hole than my brother but one of the guys with my dad called Nate to let him know my dad had fallen and possibly dislocated his knee. 

Nate immediately went to the hole where my dad was and found him laying with his legs behind him and screaming in pain. They had called 911 and they transported him to Brunswick Medical Center in Bolivia, NC. At this time we weren't sure of what the final diagnosis was. My dad shared with my brother that when he fell, he reached down to his knees and his right knee cap was about 3-4 inches above his actual knee. Nate sent be the below photo to show me my dads legs. 

At this time we didn't realize how bad the breaks were so I didn't make decisions at this point. As we were waiting for results, my brother sent me this text. Please disregard the foul language. 

My dad has Osteogenesis Imperfecta aka Brittle Bone Disease. 

I knew at that moment, it was much more than a dislocated knee. 

After a short time, they came back in with the diagnosis:

2 broken patella's and a broken right foot. 

He was going to need surgery the next day. 

I knew at that moment I needed to head down to North Carolina. 

I left work and packed a bag. I was on the road by about 6pm and started the drive to North Carolina.