The Elbow Journey

AKA. Adam's Wenis Removal (as his students like to say)

I think it's safe to say that Adam's elbow journey has come to an end!
But here's where it started...

Adam has gout {sad but true} and sometimes when you have gout you get tophus {or tophi when it's plural}. Unfortunately, Adam has tophi in both elbows, his hand and left big toe. Well, actually, now he just has one little one in his right elbow because this is the story of the left elbow tophus' eviction!

I honestly can't remember when it started, but probably 6 months ago Adam's "Gout Ball" {as it was affectionately known around our house} on his left elbow started getting bigger and yucky-er. So after a number of doctor visits and a whole lot of bandages and blood and just plain oozing {seriously, it was so gross!} surgery was scheduled for the morning of  September 28th.

In the car on the way to the surgery center
(we took "head on" pictures too, but the thing was kind of open and the pictures are WAY too gross to put on here!)

In the waiting room.
See how big it was just sticking off his elbow!
As we were waiting Bennett accidentally knocked and it totally started bleeding - YUCK! 

The surgery was actually really quick, but they did knock him out because they said, "In case we open it up and we have to dig in the muscle, we want you to be asleep."  {SO GROSS!!!} Anyways, Adam was home by 10 am and he was just a "happy, hungry little stoner" with all the drugs still in him but around noon'ish {after eating like a teenage boy} he pretty much passed out and slept for like 5 or 6 hours.

Here he is that night putting on a nice smile for his crazy wife :) 

That first "nap" {drug induced coma} after surgery was Adam's last time sleeping in bed for about a week and a half... he didn't want to accidentally bump his elbow by rolling over so he just slept on the couch where he literally wasn't able to roll over.

Here he is sleeping on the couch and "spooning" the iPad his school lent him for his recovery since he was one handed
... pretty sweet "get well" present if you ask me! 

Due to the pain meds Adam was on, he wasn't supposed to drive so for the the next week and a half Bennett and I drove him and picked him up from work everyday.
Bennett LOVED going to "Dad work" and has actually been very sad since we've stopped.

Adam's hand ended up getting really swollen from lack of circulation with his elbow in the sling for 8 days ... poor guy.

8 days after surgery it was time for the "unveiling" {we were told to not touch the bandages and we were good and followed directions} so we went into the surgeons office to take a look.

Fresh out of the gauze

Bennett enjoying the doctor's visit and his Daddy's new toy! 

 After the doc looked at it and said no heavy lifting for 3 weeks, the nurse came in and took the stitches out and for a couple days he had these little strips on his elbow, but they fell off pretty quickly (a day or two)

He had his last follow-up appointment with the orthopedic surgeon this past thursday and all is well!

His hand is still having a bit of a "being able to make a fist" issue, {as in he can't do it completely} but the doctor said that's normal for up to 8 - 10 weeks post surgery and he was happy with how the elbow looked. So other than keeping stuff on it to help the scar heal up nice clean we are pretty much done with this journey which is nice considering we are just 6 weeks aways from baby time! {yikes! we really need to pick a name!}