Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2006 15:18:35 -0800 (PST)
From: Peter Schneidler <schneidler@yahoo.com>
Subject: Tammy in surgery
Hi everyone. This is a long email. Some of you know already, but I wanted to
give you an update. Tammy fell and broke her left leg in 2 places while we were
walking together to school on Friday morning. She has a small fracture of the
fibula (skinny bone that runs from knee to ankle) just below the knee. This is
on the outside part of her leg. And the serious one is a spiral fracture of her
tibia, the big weight-bearing bone that is also between the knee and ankle.
This is about six inches above the ball of her ankle, on the inside of her leg.
They can't leave it as is. She is in surgery as I speak, we are at Providence
Medical Center in Anchorage, the best hospital in the state. The surgery will
have her walking normally right around the time the baby is due. The risk from
the surgery, to Tammy or the baby, is very very low. The alternative is a full
leg cast that will still be on her when the baby is due, and that is considered
less stable than the surgery, and requires some cast for four months. After
consulting with the OBGYN, the anasthesiologist, and the orthopedist, we felt
like the surgery was the best way to go for Tammy and the baby. The baby is
fine, does not appear to have been much affected by the ordeal at all.
And this follows a bad stomach flu that Tam got on Monday (her birthday!) and
kept her down until Wednesday. We left home in a mad rush, and barely had time
to pack anything. So we are a little dazed and shocked! But we feel like we
are in the right place with the experts who are taking good care of her.
On Friday morning we left home and were surprised that there was a snowstorm
outside. Not really bad, but windy and with big drifts all over, and heavy snow
with little visibility. We were stomping through the snow on the way to the
school and in the biggest snow drift, she slipped and fell. I was just out of
reach, something I have been regretting ever since. The fall was actually very
gentle, and you would NEVER have thought something broke if you saw it. She
heard it pop actually before she hit the ground. Her legs were sort of tangled
up. I think she made a great effort NOT to fall, thinking of the baby, and one
leg was planted and her weight was brought to bear against that planted leg and
it popped and down she went. It was a very very trying day and she was a total
trooper.
I had to find help, leaving her lying in the snow alone. Then we had to help her
into our house, with her kind of "hopping" all of the way, which cause a lot of
pain each time. Then we were seen by a health aid, who put a rough splint
together. I made a plane reservation despite the weather and told them the
situation. Then we eventually made it to the airport via snowmachine, with
Tammy lying in the sled in the back and me knealing at her side. We tried to go
by truck but the river was not navigable because of the drifts. As it was the
snowgo had to get pushed out of places it got stuck in 2 or 3 times during the
trip. Poor Tammy had avoided riding in the back of a snowmachine for the entire
pregnance out of concern for the baby, and here she was getting bounced along in
pain. It was very difficult for me to watch.
Then it was more hopping and lifting and heaving to get her on a 4 seat plane,
which took us to Bethel. more hopping, and into a taxi, more hopping and I
frantically got a wheelchair and we were in YKHC (bethel hospital), where we
were seen by the ER staff there. They did xrays, and told us we probably would
get a cast in Bethel and be home Sunday night. They also splinted Tammy's leg
more professionally, and they twisted her foot to its proper angle and pushed
her toes up toward her head. It was frozen sort of off to the left in a bad
looking way. This was the first time Tammy cried. Very very painful, it was
really awful for both of us. Then they called Anchorage to be sure she
shouldn't go in for surgery, asking the orthopedist here at providence for his
opinion. They were in surgery and couldn't call back, and after about 2 hours,
they called again and talked to another orthopedist who said we should bring her
in. Then we found out that alaska air was full until monday morning! I called
the alternate airline which uses horizon air-style big prop planes (frontier
air) and they had 2 seats, with checkin starting in 3 minutes. More wheelchair,
hopping, taxi, hopping, and then we were on the plane. They let Tam sit in back
with her leg up on a box. This flight seemed to take FOREVER, but we made it,
got her down the stairs of the plane (very stressful to watch, sort of on a
dolly with a seat), and rolled her to a taxi, which took us here to the ER. She
spent the night here last night. They did all sorts of tests on everything you
can imagine. At 9:00 she was moved from ER to the maternity ward, which is more
comfortable and where they could closely monitor the baby. Everything seems
fine with our little girl. Thanks Jesus!
So surgery started around noon today AST, and it is now 2:00. I'll let you all
know more as I find out. We are staying in the home of our dear friends who we
met with last night before they flew out at midnight for their spring break
vacation (they are teachers). We have their home and car for the week. Tammy
will be spending the night here at the hospital tonight and possibly the next
night as they monitor her and the baby. After that I will take care of her at
our friends place. Tammy is done teaching for the year. We were going to go
until April 1, when we would fly to Seattle and live with Tam's folks and have
the baby in Everett. Now it is all a little nuts. I will probably go back to
pack and write up lesson plans for both of us and finalize the baby room for
Tammy's return in July and to get the cat and make our grocery shopping list
(this is important, so she has food when she comes back!) and a million other
details. She didn't even bring her purse! It was at school and I had my wallet
and we left it in the rush. We had no idea we might go to Anchorage. I will be
buying toothpaste and socks and underwear and some maternity clothes and other
stuff. Regarding her purse, it is sort of a miracle that they never asked us
for any ID of any kind when we flew here. We were on a big plane with like over
20 people. Maybe that is why we didn't fly alaska air! We will have someone
mail her purse to us so we can fly Tammy to Seattle from here. Crazy.
OK, I should go. Someone should be along shortly to let me know what is going
on and hopefully I can see her. They wouldn't let me stay inthe operating
room. Sorry for such a long email! I think it is good for m e to just sort of
"journal" to you all about it. Thats the story, thanks for reading! If you see
anyone missing on the list (there are many--Amy Erisman, Scott & Connie, Santos,
etc etc) feel free to add them. I don't have an online address book after it
started getting used for spam. Please pray for the health of Tammy and the
baby, and for the emotional health of all 3 of us! We're pretty exhausted.
Pray for wisdom for us to make some good decisions about all this stuff. God
has what we need, he is our strength right now. We love you guys, thanks for
listening and praying.
peter & tammy
Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2006 15:44:06 -0800 (PST)
From: Peter Schneidler <schneidler@yahoo.com>
Subject: Fwd: Tammy Update
Hi everyone. Just saw the orthopedist, he said the surgery went well, no
problems. Said Tammy was smiling throughout, and that she will start PT today
or tomorrow. Said we should be able to fly to WA on April 1 as planned, but
probably not before. He wants to see her on about 3/31 to make sure everything
is progressing well and that she will be up to the flight, but he thinks it will
be fine. I'm so thankful! Quyana Jesus-aaq, gracias a Dios, and thanks God! :
- )
peter
Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2006 22:37:42 -0800 (PST)
From:"Peter Schneidler" <schneidler@yahoo.com>
Subject: Tammy surgery update #3
Hey everyone, this is getting to be quite a list! If this is the first one
you have gotten, you might want to read from the bottom up. Update time. Today
(Sunday) Tammy was taken off of the epidural and she is on a morphine pump
(on-demand, she gets nothing except for when she pushes a button). She has been
having a lot more pain today than yesterday now that the big pain-killers have
been taken away. But her spirits are ok. Her head is a little groggy since she
started the morphine after lunch today.
The rod in her tibia is 1 cm in diameter, thicker than a pencil! There are also
some screws holding it all together. They let us have a copy of the x-rays,
which Tammy wants me to show her students for her. I will stay in Anchorage
probably until next weekend, and then go to Kasigluk and get everything ready,
and then rejoin Tammy and we'll hopefully fly to Seattle on April 1 as planned.
I started writing this several hours ago, and now (9:15 pm) Tam is feeling much
better than she was shortly after stopping the epidural and starting the
morpheme. They have her on a little oxygen now, which is really helping to
clear her head. She was nervous several hours ago about how she could ever
sleep through the night with the pain in her leg, but she thinks she will now.
Our baby continues to be fine. There was a crazy time around 4 this morning
when Tammy actually started having contractions! This was because her bladder
was super full, but she didn't know because of the epidural. They put something
in her that took care of that problem and the contractions stopped right away
naturally. Phew! We keep telling our baby girl to be patient and wait her
turn. : - )
Tomorrow Tammy is supposed to work with the Physical Therapy ladies and will try
to get out of bed and use a walker. Ouch! This will probably hurt. A lot.
They tried this today but she couldn't even lift her good leg an inch off of the
bed because of the epidural. When she is able to move somewhat independently
around our room a little bit, then maybe I'll be able to take her to where we're
staying. Once she is released, we will be at our friend's Joel & Sarah's house,
and their # is 907-522-3034. Thats all I can think of to say for now. Thanks
for all of your prayers and kind words!
pete & tammy
Postscript - Tammy can walk today with little or no evidence of her fall, though if she is tired you might see her limp. The rehab took several months. We learned that the tibia is the slowest healing bone in the body! Her mom flew up to be with us shortly after I wrote the last email above, and stayed with Tammy while I flew to Kasigluk and got everything packed. We then spent most of the next 2 months at her parent's house in Everett, rehabbing the leg and preparing for Claire's arrival. Mickey and Donna were extremely generous to open their home and their lives up to us for so long. For a long time Tam needed a walker to get around, and I got to do lots of cool stuff like taking a shower with her every day! J She and I are both glad to be free of the walker these days. Just a few weeks ago, at a follow-up appointment in late October, the orthopedic surgeon cleared her to get back on her elliptical machine, so she is excited about that. The screws can be painful to the touch, and we have an appointment to have them removed in January, a minor outpatient procedure. This winter I have stocked up on ice melt, rock salt, a pickaxe, and sand (for traction) in an effort to make the walk to work as safe as possible. My next possible project is building a railing along the entire route, so people can have something to cling to when it is slick. One final thing to add is that this injury ended up being a workmen's comp claim, which actually meant that we received some unexpected summer income, and she didn't lose very much sick time!