4.29.2012

Surgery

Hema's arm injury turned out to be worse than we thought. He had a distal bicep rupture. After about a week, the bruising kept getting worse and worse and his bicep started to sag off the side of his arm. 11 days after his injury, he had surgery to reattach the tendon to the bone. If he had waited any longer, he would've had to get a donor tendon. We have been very very VERY blessed through out this whole experience. We are so grateful for the support of our families.
This picture does NOT do his bruise justice. Poor guy.

For the surgery, they cut a 3 inch slit at the top of his forearm, drilled a hole through the bone, and laced the tendon through the hole with a "button" to keep the tendon in place. We got to the surgical center, and Hema's doctor grabbed his arm and shoved his boney little fingers into his bicep and started feeling around. That was probably the worst part of the whole experience. The surgery itself was an hour long, and it went really well!
It took Hema a really long time to wake up. They said normally it takes about 10-30 minutes, but Hema woke up an hour and a half later! He didn't wake up enough to go home for about 3 1/2 hours! His blood pressure was really high, and his heart rate was really slow. So that had lots to do with it.
Hema's meds...
He's been out of work for about 3 weeks, he still can't lift anything with his arm. He was out of school for about a week, so not being able to go back to work has actually been a blessing since it's time for finals. He has done REALLY well on his finals so far! I'm so proud.
We thought he was going to be in a hard cast for 2 months, but instead he wears a compression sleeve and a simple brace. So much better!! We still have about 2 more months recovery to go. He is already able to play guitar again, Hema is so happy about that! Lucky that it is his strumming arm, and lucky since he had to play guitar for 2 of his finals.
Looking better already!!

Here is a video of Hems when he was waking up. Excuse my annoying comments and shakey camera work, I was trying really hard to keep him awake! If you notice, he falls asleep a ton mid-sentence. And every time you hear the beeping sound in the background, that means his heart is going too slow. Eeek! 


4 comments:

  1. What a cute video Norma! :)
    Glad Hema is doing good!

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  2. Oh gee! Poor guy! Glad he was able to get surgery and is doing better! That just looks miserable! I bet having a great wife to help has made his recovery that much better! :D

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  3. Crazy! I am really glad everything is working out so well in the end.

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  4. Oh man that is so scary that he didn't wake up for so long, and it is so sad that he had to have surgery... but at the same time it is so hard not to laugh when they wake up! That video reminded me so much of Jeff- I remember trying so hard not to laugh but not being able to help it! Anyway that is a fun video. You are a good wife, you care so much and do so much.

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