Moving Forward

Kyle had patiently waited for updates on the graft sites for his right leg and to hear about its possible healing and progression for several days.  His right quad served as the donor site for his skin graft and this caused him some complications following the surgery with excessive bleeding and discomfort.  Everything did move in the right direction, however, and his status was stable and his right leg was showing signs of improvement for the first time in four weeks.

Kyle went into his tenth surgery on Wednesday, July 21st, and the doctors were able to confirm the satisfactory results of the skin grafts, remove the ex-fix placed on Kyle's leg in Afghanistan and set the bones with a Taylor Spacial Frame.  This surgery was very arduous for Kyle, resulting in a lot of pain.  This was Kyle's most difficult day since being shot.  After about 18 hours following the surgery, Kyle's pain and uneasiness seemed to be under control and he was on the mend.

It was time to start weening him off of the IV pain meds, get mobile with crutches and master some standard techniques for taking care of himself in and around the house.  While these few days were challenging in many ways, Kyle was making huge steps in his recovery, and they were ones we could all witness.  Nothing topped seeing him out of bed and standing upright, even if he was a bit shaky at first. 

Kyle was trying to walk over to the stairs to learn how he would do them in his parent's house.  After feeling a bit too light headed he turned around and sat down on his bed for a few minutes.  He was then able to get back up and return to the stairs and do half a flight up and half a flight down with help from his PT guy Joel.

Kyle cuts away at part of the bandage covering his donor site for the skin graft while sitting in his wheelchair in his hospital room.  Over time, this would eventually all peel away and only the scab from the surgery would remain.

Some moments were hard for all of us - Elsie and Bill were by Kyle's side, always supporting him.

Kyle laying in bed on his phone - it was a good time to get a new phone and figure it all out.

We all had to learn how to take care of the pins and the cleaning strategy for the Taylor Spacial Frame.  We got the hang of it and I think initially Kyle preferred to not be as involved, as he lays here playing with his phone and Elsie cleans the pins.

The inside of Kyle's right leg showing his skin graft and the Taylor Spacial Frame while Elsie cleans the pins with q-tips.  This was the more challenging side of Kyle's leg to heal because the wound was so deep.  The doctors did a great job stitching it up from either end after removing some dead muscle, skin tissue and rearranging things a bit too.

Elsie cleaning the spacial frame.

The inside of Kyle's left leg where stitches have been removed and the healing is looking great.  These are the scars where the metal shrapnel and frag went into Kyle's leg when he was shot.  His left leg is moving along very well and Kyle always looks to it to be the stronger of the two legs and finds it nearly inexcusable when it causes him any pain. 

The outside of Kyle's leg also has a large skin graft area - it's much longer than the one on the inside, but not as deep.  The doctors have all been encouraging about the healing of Kyle's leg - saying they think he can make a full recovery and it won't look too much different than it did before.  One doctor said it may look like someone took a little nibble out of Kyle's calf, but that's about it.