Ralph McAllister and family

June 12 1994. Its a day that not many in my family will ever forget. That is the day Ralph and Doreen had a head on collision with a speeding drunk.

Doreen had minor whiplash. Ralph's injuries were much more significant.

Ralph had a simple break in his arm from the air bag forcing his arm onto his head with incredible force. He has a very hard head, who knew? His left leg recieved 135 breaks when the front tire went under the fire wall and up into the floor pan of the car where his feet were.

While he was recovering in Foothills hospital he developed a blood clot (DVT) in his right leg. A couple of small horizontal fractures were also eventually found in his right heel a couple weeks later

Believe it or not the leg with multiple breaks, screws and pins is not what has troubled Ralph the most over the years.

In the early 1990's DVT's like Ralph's were commonly left alone due to size and location.

The DVT caused his leg to have limited blood flow which has caused many problems and multiple infections over the years. If he got a simple bug, like Strep, the virus would get into his lower right leg and not be able to leave. This resulted in Ralph having about 15 "Hospitalcations" (vacation in hospital) over the last 31 years, to recieve high dose IV antibiotics to kill the infection.

For about the last 10 years he has been battling with onset type 2 Diabetes as well.

14 months ago he went to his Doctor to get some antibiotics for yet another infection, this was on a Wednesday. While there the Doctor also changed his Diabetes medication. Doreen was trucking on the highway at the time in the Yukon and not home.

That Friday, two days later, while at the hospital for a dose of IV antibiotics he vomited all over the ER. He was sent home as the staff felt it was just a reaction to the infection and cold.

Saturday he drove himself back to the hospital for yet another dose of IV antibiotics. He was visibly VERY unwell so the staff admitted him. By the time I got to the hospital that evening he was literally near death. One of the visiting resident doctors came into the room to consult. He took one look at Ralph and said basically "stop all medication this man is in Ketoacidosis!" The words said may have been different but that is the jihst of the conversation.

It turned our that the new Diabetes medication cannot be taken when there is an active infection and some of the side affects can include death caused by Ketoacidosis.

This drug interaction caused several skin ulcers to form below the DVT in Ralph's lower right leg.

Way back in 1994 in the car accident even though the right leg was not broken or otherwise visibly damaged it turns out there was damage. The crushing caused some scar tissue to form. This scar tissue is now Calcified Scar Tissue. In other words his body made some bone. While it was still safely hiding in the Dermus tissue it was just lumps we could feel. No big deal.

However the skin ulcers allowed that tissue access to oxygen. This encouraged it to grow. A LOT.

The skin ulcers have been very slow in healing for the last 14 months. 5 months ago a surgeon in Fort St John removed some of that calcified tissue hoping the holes would then be able to heal. The largest hole was 7 cm x 4.5 cm x 1.5 cm deep, that is the size of a business card!

Over the last two months the holes have been healing but the pain has been getting exponentially worse. The pain is from tiny pieces of that bone tissue to break off and poke him from the inside whenever he steps, stands or twitches. The last two months Ralph has been pulling small pieces of "bone" from these holes on a regular basis.

On Friday January 31 2025, we went to see a Plastic Surgeon, in Prince George BC. We were hoping he could do a small debridment and close up the holes so the leg would heal and the pain would stop, or at least lessen.

I should point out that Ralph still is a Truck Driver and in fact drove 62 hours last week. Because he is a truck driver he cannot legally take prescription pain medication so he takes Ibuprofen only for the pain, a lot of it. The pain he was in for the last 14 months is unimaginable. The pain was so bad that walking more than a few steps was excruciating and standing still nearly intolerable.

Unfortunately the visit with the Plastic Surgeon did not go as we thougt it would. Prior to our arrival he had looked at Xrays and CAT scans from December and made a plan. Please note that Ralph did not know the result of the CAT scan before this visit.

The plan was not what we expected, at all!

He immediately sent us across the hall to the orthopedic surgeon for a consultation.

Today, Sunday February 2 2025, Ralph is going in for surgery. The surgery will be to amputate his lower right leg.

The calcified tissue has grown to completely encase his lower leg. The Doctor likened the calcification to chicken wire that is extremely brittle and he is worried that a piece may break off and get into his blood stream, that would be bad, life ending bad. The Doctor determined that there was no way to both remove the calcified tissue and save his life/leg both

The Doctor, therefore, will be amputating the right lower leg. The only real question will be above or below the knee. The decision will be made in the OR and depend on how much healthy tissue there is. We hoped for below the knee but understood it might be above the knee amputation.

Below the knee Ralph he would most likely be able to drive truck again. Above the knee he may or may not be able to drive as an occupation again.

So our near future will be surgery, recovery, rehabilitation and sell the house in Rose Prairie. The house has a lot of stairs so it has to go. Then we have to decide where we will live both in the short term and the long term.

Rehab, prosthetic devices and Doreen working enough to support Ralph in his recovery is what is in store for us.

Asking for help is humbling. However with Ralph's health deteriorating over the last 14 months we have not been able to work enough to support his trucking business and we have been forced to let it go. As a result our savings are gone. We both just started new jobs in January as company drivers with the hopes of starting over.

However now Ralph will not be working for a while and who knows how quickly we will be able to sell things like the house to support all that will be needed over the next few months.

If you are able to help us out financially with just a little bit. We are using this platform to raise enough to pay for some rehab, a new prosthetic leg and pay some bills for a few months until we are both back on our feet (pun intended ). We will be forever grateful for whatever you can spare.

Thank you in advance for whatever help you can give.

UPDATE - The Doctor was able to do just a below the knee amputation. He is not 100% confident that it will heal well enough but we are hopeful that the Doctor will not have to go back and do more.