Thursday, March 26, 2009

The Good, The Bad, & The Broken...

I'm still recovering from my broken ankle.

The break happened when I was shoveling snow in our driveway. One foot hit a patch of black ice, the other stayed planted on the pavement. The one that stayed planted is the one that broke. It rotated as I was falling and that put the stress level past the breaking point.

The ankle was broken in three places, and required surgery. I have a plate with seven screws on the outside of the ankle and two screws on the inside of it. There is a two-inch incision on the inside and a six-inch incision on the outside.

I'll be in a cast yet for two more weeks from Monday, & then a boot for two-four weeks after that. After the boot, I'll be allowed to gradually start putting weight on it and relearning to walk. Part of the difficulty after I become weight-bearing is the muscle atrophy, which is pretty rapid and very significant. The other part is the stiffness in the joint after it's been immobilized for so long.

The good news is, when the surgeon took me out of the temporary splint and put me in the cast a couple of weeks ago, he tested me for range of motion, and I have full range of motion without pain. That's with him moving my foot, not me.

I had an interesting issue the night before last. I work in downtown Chicago, & have to walk two blocks from my parking ramp to the building where I work, with a walker. (I'm on desk-only duty doing computer & paperwork until the end of May) When I left the other evening, it was raining out. You're not supposed to get these casts wet at all. I had it bagged with a trash bag. Well, even though I'm just setting the foot on the ground as a balance point, (which is what the surgeon told me to do for stability on the walker) it still wore the bottom of the bag through and soaked the cast.

Unhealed incisions on both sides of the ankle and a cast sock soaked with rainwater off the streets of downtown Chicago. Not exactly a recipe for good health. I had to go to the emergency room, get the cast cut off, get the leg cleaned up, and get put in a temporary splint for the night. Then I had to go to the surgeon's office the next day and get a fresh cast of the correct type and angle put on. Another day off work after I was just out for four weeks. That's not really what I want happening in this economic environment.

Well, after I explained what happened to the surgeon, he pulls out this rubber-soled, canvas-sided velcro-strap sandal that I can put on over the garbage bag to keep it off the concrete. Where was this sandal a week ago?

These medical offices do great injury repair and such, but when it comes to practical advice on how to handle the day-to-day mechanics of living with a cast, they are very short on foresight and advice. There should be a cheat-sheet that tells you what to watch out for and ways to overcome obstacles, instead of having to learn every little thing the hard way! I think they just don't "get it" unless they've actually lived it themselves. There are other examples, but I won't go on.

The bottom line, however, is that I'll get to go back to Karate in early August. Believe me, I am greatly looking forward to it.

Thank you, as always, for reading.

Sayonara,

Dan

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Recovering from ankle repair surgery

My ankle surgery was this past Tuesday. From what they told me it was badly broken, but the repair went well. I'll have 8 weeks in a cast & months of PT.

Sayonara,

Dan