NorthernRedneck

Feeling good these days has taken a whole new meaning. Lol. My worst pain day before the accident was way better than my best day now. I've had to lower my standards quite a bit to what I now can call a good day. But I still consider myself lucky to be here. Not many people can say that they got run over by a jeep, broke their back in 6 places, had their liver almost cut in half, survived having 1.5 liters of fluid on the lungs, and walked out of the hospital 3 weeks later.

I saw a specialist this morning for the liver drain. With the amount of fluid still coming out into the bag it's looking like I may be in line for a scope surgery to have a stint inserted going from the liver to the bladder. If that doesn't work then a more intense surgery may be required where they would open me up again like a can of sardines and attempt to repair it that way.

One day at a time. It's been a hell of a journey so far.

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Yawn. My day started waaaaay to early when the alarm clock sounded at 2:30am. I had a mid night mri scheduled to look at my back and try to figure out why my legs and feet are burning /tingling most of the time. I'll be a fine mess if they end up doing surgery on my back. I'm most likely going to be going to be getting a scope surgery to insert a stint in my liver. If that doesn't work it'll be under the knife for me. They'll have to do a major surgery on my liver to try and repair the damage as apparently it's not healing after 7 months.

It all gets depressing after a while. Some days it's harder to stay strong.

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NorthernRedneck said:

Yawn. My day started waaaaay to early when the alarm clock sounded at 2:30am. I had a mid night mri scheduled to look at my back and try to figure out why my legs and feet are burning /tingling most of the time. I'll be a fine mess if they end up doing surgery on my back. I'm most likely going to be going to be getting a scope surgery to insert a stint in my liver. If that doesn't work it'll be under the knife for me. They'll have to do a major surgery on my liver to try and repair the damage as apparently it's not healing after 7 months.

It all gets depressing after a while. Some days it's harder to stay strong.

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Continued thoughts and prayers always for you, Brian.

Thanks. Just seems like there's no end in sight. How I would love to be able to get back to work and not have an endless round of specialist appointments.

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Looks like I'll have this drainage bag for a while. It's not draining enough to require immediate surgery but it's not slowing down. Seeing as I have the thing permanently attached to me my awesome wife hauled out her sewing machine today and made a nice little pouch for it to both protect it and keep my skin from becoming irritated from the constant rubbing every time I move. It's flannel so soft and easy on the skin. That's the closest thing she had to camouflage. LOL

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Hey Guy! As long as you are on the right side of the grass.......

Yep. I have to keep telling myself that. Everything I'm going through is better than the alternative. If I didn't feel pain I wouldn't be here for my wife and children. So I can either whine about being in constant pain or embrace it.

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Oh go ahead and whine. We'll listen to you.

Leni said:

Oh go ahead and whine. We'll listen to you.

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No we won't.

Honestly man, I feel for you. I've had my health problems in the last 12 months or so. They were all fairly trivial but they just seemed to come one after the other. Every time I started to feel down I thought of you and I told myself that if you can handle what you're going through, I can surely handle my little shit!!!! There!!! You never knew that you were an inspiration ... did you???

Luck bro'. Keep fighting.

Thanks. I know I'm not alone and others here are going through their own issues.

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I'm due for another liver ultrasound this week. Hopefully it confirms what I'm suspecting. I've had a drainage bag attached to me for a month now. Over the past three days the draining has basically stopped. Before they can remove the tube and stitch the opening shut they have to confirm there's nothing left in there to drain. I'm due for some good news for a change. Then I can get back to the gym and hit it hard to get better.

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Drainage bag is still attached at least for another two weeks. I'm finally at the point where I can start to walk for a few minutes without a cane or walker. It's slow going of course and I'm sure a snail would win in a race. But it's progress

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So we decided to up the anti at physio yesterday. I had been walking good laps at the gym using a walker. So we decided to try the treadmill not holding on. It didn't go well. I was walking at a snails pace without holding onto anything. I only lasted four minutes before my back was on fire and I nearly collapsed from the pain.

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I had a follow-up with the liver specialist yesterday for the drainage bag. I was already limited to what I could do before the bag. Now it's even more limited.

Basically he said it's time to get more serious since the thing is still draining bile after a month. What getting serious means first doing a dye scan where they inject dye through the drain going into my side and see where it's coming from in my liver. Depending on the results they can either go in via scope to insert a stint or I'd have to go for a more extensive surgery where they'd basically remove the bad part of the liver and let it regenerate. I'm not looking forward to that since it means traveling to southern Ontario for most likely a week or more to get it done.

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Time for my weekly whining about everything. Some days are a real struggle to walk. The back basically is what it is. It's not getting any better and my daily mobility and endurance is limited. I can only handle sitting in a vehicle for an hour max before the pain sets in. Most nights it's a hassle to get myself into bed. Once I'm there I don't dare move an inch. By 3am I am wide awake in pain. Some nights I manage to fall back asleep. Other nights I'm out to the chair in the living room. I had the mri mid January. I'm waiting to get in to see the back specialist this week. Some days I get a flare up where my legs start burning and I lose feeling in my feet. When this happens I almost collapse.

Then there's my liver. I had a CT scan to get a current image of the liver and see another specialist for that this week. They will be injecting dye into the drain to see where it's going inside. That will determine if I have scope surgery here or if I have to go to southern Ontario for a major liver surgery. It's getting harder to stay positive



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NorthernRedneck said:

It's getting harder to stay positive



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You need to.

I know. Just frustrating juggling all the medical appointments on a weekly basis.

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For what it's worth I will be praying for you.

just remember that you are on the right side of the grass and there are those who love you and depend on you.

Good thoughts and prayers coming your way. Like PG and others said you really need to work at staying positive. Find something in the day to be positive about. It is a long slippery slope to depression and once there it is like mud that sucks you further in; making it near impossible to get out. You'll have to work to stay out of that muck but it will be so worth it. Good luck.

That is so true. Depression runs in my family. Hard as it is try to stay positive. Do you have a pet? If not getting one may help you. Cats are very affectionate and not too big. My Siamese would play fetch and walk on a leash.

Thanks everyone. I'm taking all the right steps to recovery as far as I can tell. I currently do physio three times a week, see 2 specialists as well as my family doctor, have homecare nursing coming to my house twice a week to change the dressings on my liver drain, and I just signed up to a specialized pain management program. Some days it's hard to stay positive when I'm in pain. Currently, I'm on 2-3 percocets a day to help with the pain.

When the weather changes I can sure feel it. Two days ago, it was -3C. Yesterday it dropped to -25C and today it climbed back to -8C. If nothing else I can always get a job as a weather forcaster. No need for fancy computers and probes. Today is another rough day. I was wide awake at 4am in pain so I opted to move to the chair in the living room. To describe the pain, picture taking a hammer and slamming it over and over into the same spot on your spine. After doing that, take a read hot fire poster and trust it into the same spot. That pretty much describes my pain most days. Then, for good measure, wrap straps around your legs and tighten them tight enough to cut off circulation to your lower legs and feet.

Yes, I am thankful that I'm still on the right side of the dirt. Some days the pain is so intense that moving an inch causes a flare up. I take it one day at a time right now. I can't make any plans other than scheduled appointments as there are no guarantees on how I will feel. We do have two little dogs who are enjoying having me home every day.

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Glad to hear about your puppies. Aren't they a joy? They don't know why but they know that you need them.

Here's the little mutts. Marley is the longer haired one. She part min pin and dachshund. Thunder is part min pin and terrier.



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I had a rough day that started at 11pm yesterday when I developed a fever and sore stomach. This resulted in me being up all night. I had the dye test which show the damaged bile duct. There's a chance that scope surgery could fix it but they are leaning towards sending me to southern Ontario for a liver surgery. They have a couple options. Go in and remove the bad part of the liver and allow it to regenerate or basically inject a Chemical to kill the bad part of the liver

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What does you wife and children have to say about all of this? After all what ever you decide will affect them.

No concerns there. My wife is behind me 100%. No decision has been made yet on how to repair the liver. That's up to the doctor and specialist to decide.

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Is the liver issue due to the accident? Best wishes for getting it fixed.

Yes. In the accident, I had a level 4 laceration of the liver as well as a small laceration of the spleen. They were able to save the spleen but the liver apparently had a bile duct damaged. So basically, if I didn't have a drainage bag and hose inserted into the liver right now, the liver would basically fill up with pockets of bile and there would be a serious risk of reduced liver function. Just a side note, a level 4 laceration of the liver is very serious as level 6 is fatal.

So where does that leave me? Well, they could just forget about me and I live the rest of my life with a tube hanging out of my side to drain the bile or they can do one of three things I'm told.

1. They could try a scope surgery where they insert a stint in the bile duct to connect it to the other end of the duct. The scan yesterday showed that they could only find one end of the bile duct so I don't see that working.

2. They somehow isolate the section of liver that contains the bile duct and basically inject something to kill it.

3. Major surgery! Where they open me up and basically remove the section of liver that contains the bile duct then close me back up.

It's all a waiting game right now since the doctor here wants to get a second opinion on what to do. He's consulting with the best liver surgeons in the country on what to do. If it's option two or three I will be sent to southern ontario for surgery.

With all that being said, I'm doing alright but definately not out of the woods yet. I have the ongoing issues with my back and even though the latest mri showed the bones have healed nicely I did sustain a tremendous amount of blunt force trauma to the muscles and tendons in my back. When they become aggravated, they swell and affect the nerves going to my legs and feet. I have the ongoing issues with my liver which I discussed earlier. Walking for extended periods is a struggle. By extended periods I mean anything more than 100ft. I walk with a cane or walker most of the time though I have been working on being able to walk for extended periods without any form of support.

It's definitely frustrating to not be able to do half the things I used to be able to do. I think the hard part is the unknown. One day I feel fine and can do things. The next day I can barely stand without being in pain.