I think I mentioned before that my husband has a spinal cord injury and is paralyzed, but I think that's all I said, so I'll give a little background info before I start my LOOOOOONG story. He was injured in a car accident 13 years ago, and is a quadriplegic as a result of the accident. He is a lower level quad, so he is completely independant and can still do everything that all of us "normal" people can do, with the exception of walking of course.
Well yesterday my husband tells me that he thinks he's getting a pressure sore. For those of you who don't know what I mean, a pressure sore or ulcer is a spot where increased pressure has caused inadequate blood flow to the tissue in that area causing it to die. A pressure sore develops from the inside out, so by the time you see anything on the outside, you've got way bigger problems that you can't see. On the outside there are several stages of a sore to indicate it's progression internally. A track can develop from the wound on the outside, all the way to a bone and cause a bone infection. Anyway, pressure sores are inevitable when you have a spinal cord injury, and are most common on the butt because you spend all day every day for years sitting on a butt that you can't feel.
Alright, enough technical crap. So yesterday he tells me he thinks he's getting a pressure sore on his butt. Apparently it's been developing for several months now but for some reason he didn't feel the need to tell me or to do anything about it. Needless to say I'm angry, but right now that's beside the point.
I've examined the sore now, and it appears to be a stage three or four sore which will require surgery to fix. It most likely goes right to the bone as there is bone underneath the sore, which means it is very likely that the bone is infected. We'll have to wait until Monday to contact a wound care specialist to get an appointment and find out for sure.
More than likely, he's going to need to be in the hospital (the hospital he will need to stay at is a 90 minute drive from our house) for 6 weeks on IV antibiotics to get rid of or prevent a bone infection. This 6 weeks needs to be spent on very strict bed rest, he won't even be allowed to sit up. Then he will need to have surgery on the sore itself to fix it. Then another 6-8 weeks on strict bed rest to let the sore heal, followed by a 5 week progressive sitting program where each day he spends more and more time in his wheelchair. (After that long lying down, the blood pressure change when he sits up will make him so dizzy that he might pass out. Plus the area where the sore was needs to get used to having pressure on it again.) All of this means it's doubtfull that he'd be home for Christmas.
All of this is timed perfectly for the start of my first year of college, and if he ends up having to be in the hospital for that long, I won't be able to go to school. I'll need to work to help pay for the hospital bills because his health insurance is pretty crappy (no one will give good coverage to someone with a spinal cord injury) which creates a whole new problem as I just quit my job for the school year. Now I'll need to find another one.
I am seriously ready to fall apart right now. I don't know how I'm going to deal with all of this. If he has a bone infection, antibiotics often don't work to get rid of it. Since someone with a spinal cord injury has a comprimised immune system already, death is a real possiblity if the bone infection speads or infects his blood.
I hope that I haven't dragged you girls (and guys) down by telling you all of this. We aren't telling our friends and families anything until we know for sure what to expect, so I have no one else to confide in right now. I am absolutely terrified of what might happen.
I hope you can get an appointment as soon as possible with the specialist so she/he can make a definitive diagnosis. Try not to panic (though I know our first instinct is always to imagine the worst case scenario). Please know we're always here to listen and I only wish there was more I could do than provide support and be an outlet when you need one. Please keep us updated. I wish you both the very best outcome. 
