DIANA'S SURGERY & PROGNOSIS 17 MARCH 2011 (POSTED WITH PERMISSION)

Diana's hubby, Jim, reports: Diana got to Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville at midnight Tuesday evening/Wednesday morning and they got her into a bed soon after that. Wednesday they did a lot of lab & x-ray work. Late in the afternoon the ortho surgeon took her into an OR, put her to sleep and took off the plaster cast that they provided in Bonaire. His first concern was the condition of the skin under the cast. It was excellent. His second concern was the blood electrolytes were too low. They did a manual reduction while she was out and that relieved about 80 or 90% of the pain. After a day of medicine & diet to fix the blood work, they hope to go in and do the screws & plate repairs that have to happen. He said she will be able to begin walking on it six weeks after that. Whether she will be able to get a fin on it and dive in June depends on her ability to heal and the success of the physical & occupational therapy. This morning she was resting comfortably and not requiring too much pain medicine. She will be on the computer and making phone calls as well as seeing some visitors today. I have to say that I was a little disappointed in the way that DAN handled the evacuation, and completely impressed with Buddy Dive's response. DAN was slow & difficult to communicate with. One agent told me I should call back in with her passport information. I called back and gave the second woman the information. During the next call, another woman asked for it again. I asked her to check to see if it was in the record and it was not. The second woman did nothing that we discussed in that phone call. They cut corners wherever they could. Rather than provide an ambulance to get from the airport to the hospital they thought a limo would be sufficient. The form they had from the doctor said she should recline. DAN ignored that. Was it better than having nothing? Yes, it was. Was it the service that they sell in all of their literature? Not even close. Buddy, on the other hand, was excellent. They refused to charge us for any of the rental equipment. Augusto told me to not worry about my missing weight belt. (If any of you find a dark blue weight belt with an L on the buckle that you can't account for, it is probably theirs.) They also sent us a certificate for a free week like the one we missed that we can use in the next year. I don't know if we will be able to do that, but we are ready if we can. If you find a light blue weight belt with a black buckle, that might be Diana's. I have to thank each & every one of you for all that you did. Everyone contributed to the effort based on their skills & abilities. I am so impressed & humbled by the way that you accepted us into your group and gave up a part of your vacation to help us. I was hoping that the things we saw on our dives would be the most memorable part of our trip. It is our dive buddies and their compassion that we will always remember from our first trip to Bonaire. You will be the stars of the story we tell for years to come. We are still laughing about the support Lisa gave her on the stairs when she reached eight centimeters. Dive safe and we'll see you in the water soon.

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