One step at a time: Lester Prairie woman
doing well after foot amputation
BY STARRLA CRAY
Associate Editor
Having one’s foot amputated doesn’t seem like
a laughing matter, but Linda Rehmann has kept
a sense of humor about the situation she’s found
herself in.
She had her right foot removed in May, and grins
when she thinks of all the funny things that have
happened since then.
“It was hilarious, well, not really hilarious,” she
laughed, telling the story of her second day home
from the hospital.
She had been instructed to wear her new pros-
thetic leg a few hours a day, and gradually get used
to wearing it longer and longer. But, when she at-
tempted to take it off, it wouldn’t budge.
Her husband, Gary, wasn’t able to free it, either.
They ended up driving from their home in rural
Lester Prairie to urgent care at Glencoe Regional
Health Services. There, two nurses and a physical
therapist gave their best attempts, but to no avail.
“I thought, ‘Am I going to have this on for the
rest of my life?’” Linda recalled.
Finally, the physical therapist suggested that
Linda elevate her leg for 15 minutes, in case the
problem was swelling. Then, the leg came off al-
most too quickly.
“It went fl ying at Gary,” Linda laughed. “He al-
most fell over.”
The next day, a doctor who specializes in pros-
thetics found that there was a small piece of fi ber
caught where the leg connects. That, combined
with swelling, was most likely the cause of the ex-
citement.
Fortunately, Linda hasn’t had a problem since,
and she can quickly attach and detach the leg as
needed.
How it all started
Five years ago, Linda never would have guessed
she’d be dealing with a prosthetic lower leg.
Her leg problems started in early 2013, with a
broken tibia and fi bula.
“I thought I had a sprained ankle, and I walked
around for six weeks that way,” Linda said.
Since she felt pain in her ankle, only that area
had been x-rayed. Eventually, an orthopedic sur-
geon x-rayed a larger area, and found the fracture.
By then, Linda’s leg had become infected. The
day after her surgery, she was told her mother had
passed away due to a stroke. Linda was able to at-
tend her mother’s funeral, but doesn’t remember
the details because of the pain medication she was
taking.
Linda thought this would be the worst of it, but
over the next few years, more of her bones began
breaking. She had surgery on both
hips, and also on her right elbow.
“I counted this up – I actually
had 13 surgeries,” Linda said.
Linda was told that the medica-
tion she had been taking for rheu-
matoid arthritis since 1989 (metho-
trexate) may have contributed to
her brittle bones.
Meanwhile, the infection on her
right foot wasn’t going away.
Trying to heal
In January of this year, doctors
made another attempt to clear the
infection, but when they later tried
to remove the stitches, a tendon
came up with it.
At that point, doctors decided to
remove the metal plates that had
been inserted, in case there was
something else going on. When
they did, they discovered that the
plates were “coated” with bacteria.
Linda was given medication to
help get ride of the bacteria, but
more bacteria kept forming.
Linda stayed at the Glencoe
hospital for seven weeks, where a
nurse changed the bandage on her
foot daily. Doctors tried surgery to
get the tendon to go back in place,
but ended up having to cut the ten-
don off. Unfortunately, the incision
from the surgery wasn’t healing
properly, either.
In April, a plastic surgeon from
Fairview Health Services had an
idea to bury the leftover tendon by
putting a fl ap over it. The procedure
sounded encouraging, but when it
was done, the surgeon told Linda,
“I’m sorry, but it didn’t work.”
The next step was the Wound &
Hyperbaric Healing Center, locat-
ed on the lower level of Ridgeview
Medical Center in Waconia. There,
Linda tried vaccuum-assisted clo-
sure of a wound, also known as
wound VAC.
After a few weeks, doctors told
Linda, “This isn’t helping.” They
suggested trying hyperbaric oxy-
gen therapy an hour a day for six Linda Rehmann of rural Lester Prairie has a realistic looking prosthetic
More REHMANN on Pg 24
Senior Connections HJ.COM
lower leg. It snaps in place with the click of a button.
Senior
PHOTO BY STARRLA CRAY
Connections December 2018
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