External Fixator and Compartment Syndrome

At this point in the story my memory gets a little sketchy because I was full of drugs. I know that they briefed me before the surgery, but if not for my wife’s notes I would recall nothing but signing the consent form! The first order of business was to install an external fixator to stabilize and straighten my leg. This is basically an expandable towel bar that they bolted to the lower end of both my lower and upper leg, safely bridging the area of trauma. Once installed, the bar can be expanded to stretch the leg and help pull the bones and muscles back into place. Shortly after I came out of surgery for the towel bar I had to go back into surgery because I developed compartment syndrome. This is a condition where the muscles swell up so much that their compartments, thin sheaths of skin (?), can actually constrict blood flow and cause the muscles to die. Fortunately my surgeon identified the problem and solved it by cutting open the compartments to relieve the pressure. I woke up with new cuts in my leg and a wound vacuum stitched over a gaping hole on the outside of my leg. The wound vacuum is a small device that sucks fluids out of the wound, helping relieve pressure and swelling. One must periodically empty the wound vacuum’s bag so that it can accept more fluids.

I remained in this condition – with wound vac and external fixator – for several days as the doctors waited for the swelling to go down a bit before operating to fix my bones. Needless to say I was very uncomfortable. It is not every day you are graced with a towel bar and vacuum attached to your leg. I was also still in a bit of shock, trying to come to terms with the reality of my injury and the disorientation that comes with being drugged up in a hospital. I had so many IVs and other things hanging off of me that I felt like a fly trapped in a web. If I tried to move in any direction, one of the many tubes would catch on something. I wondered, what next? Can this get any worse?