Thursday, June 26, 2008

Update on Bro. Chuck

I got this email from Evelyn this morning....


Bro. Chuck got his new knees a week ago yesterday and it’s been pretty rough. The surgery was to take 3 hours and it took that long just for the left knee/leg which was in really bad shape. The block for surgery took days to wear off his left leg, leaving him unable to control it and start rehab. Of course, as you’d expect, any movement is excruciatingly painful. He ran a fever, and they got that under control, but he’s having trouble with his blood being at a healthy level. I’m not medical so don’t know what I’m talking about….red blood cell count or something? Anyway the count is low, and he may need a transfusion to get it back to normal. He had B-12 shots for awhile to give him energy, but the blood count isn’t what it should be.

Mobility-wise, he’s now able to walk about 120 feet with a walker and bend his knees up to 70 degrees. Don’t know if that’s on his own or with someone else bending them to keep scar tissue from adhering to them.

Yesterday he was transported by ambulance to Tampa General where he’ll be starting rehab this morning. Guess at Brandon, they don’t have rehab facilities to do the really serious work; people transfer to another facility if they aren’t ready to go home and be on their own. With the delay (the block problem) in being able to do the rehab they offer, he wasn’t ready to go home and be on his own with just Sharr-an’s help. Tampa General is supposed to have the best rehab facilities around, according to various medical personnel in the church.

Please remain in prayer for him as he starts this (probably painful) procedure. Will keep you updated as I hear news of how it’s going.

Evelyn

3 comments:

Council Family said...

He's definitely got our prayers! I hope he recovers quickly and gets back to his flock!

AC

Sheila said...

Thanks for the update. I didn't even know that he was going in for the surgery. Although, he has needed it for quite some time, with the amount of rehab & downtime that comes with it, I can understand why he's put it off so much.

Laci Strickland said...

Wow I'm glad you posted this, I was wondering how it went. We will definately be praying for him.