Friday, May 27, 2011

Fixing One Piece at a Time

Nick's in pain. I don't think he could have predicted that three months after the accident, some things would be hurting more than they did originally and quite frankly, that's probably a good thing. Handling recovery one day at a time is easier when you believe that every tomorrow, you'll be a little bit more healed.

For the first two months his broken teeth were exposing nerves that couldn't be fixed until he could open his broken jaw. Now that he can do that and the dentists can get in there, it's exposing deeper issues. He's now got a bunch of temporary crowns, but the molar with the new root canal was originally cracked vertically, and the two month delay allowed infection to creep into the tooth and, they fear, his jaw. This is not good news. He's on antibiotics and says he feels a difference, so fingers crossed they're working. Normally Nick doesn't even take aspirin, so when I see him obeying doctor's orders to take pain meds I know it's bad.

He spent many more hours with Courtney and has seen the root canal specialist five times so far (he's the one currently monitoring the infection) so he's getting there: about halfway done with his teeth.

As for his hand, at least we know one of the reasons it's still hurting: There's a small spot on his wrist that was slivered in the crash, and in the months since, the ligaments attached to it have pulled it outward like a little V. The hand doc said to leave it for another six weeks and if it's still an issue, he'll go in and cut off the protruding piece of bone. Why he needs to wait six weeks I don't know, because as far as I can tell that bone isn't going to pull itself - against the will of the ligament - back into place. Maybe the idea is Nick will just get used to the pain? In any case, it seems to be somewhat fixable.

His eye isn't fixable, but the way it currently looks is. Looks, that is, not looks. :) One week from today he'll be getting the prosthesis, the front part that looks like an eye. (Stay tuned for before and after pix...)



Taking time to smell the roses...



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After reading Corinne and Francoise's comments (below), I had to laugh when I passed the window this afternoon and saw this:




Pretty soon he'll hardly have to bend at all!
(The huge yellow rose on the tiny plant is by his left leg.)


    

3 comments:

  1. You should grow some higher rose bushes… 
    Good luck with all those tiny bones, wherever they are, that fix themselves "au petit bonheur la chance". Thank you for all the news, the funnier (we loved the slippers story) and the less funny.
    Love

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  2. I quite agree with Corinne's comment...
    I hope things will go on better and better, and no more bad surprises!
    Lots of love.

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  3. J'ai compris 1 mot sur 3, mais je pense beaucoup à vous, à Nicolas en particulier.
    Bon courage et nous attendons de meilleures nouvelles.
    Excusez moi d'écrire en français, mais cela vous fera un exercice pour ne pas l'oublier.....
    Je vous embrasse
    Irène

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