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#484
Bill
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Greetings fellow TP victims:

I’m 47–very active. Sustained my TPF while skiing on 2/15/14. Had to wait until 2/18 for surgery as that was when the “better surgeon” was back in town. It was a blessing as I feel he was very competent at this procedure.

Spent 8 days in the hospital without a bath or any noticeable sleep. Had to change my return flight home multiple times (on my owm in a drug- induced state) since my insurance denied me skilled-nursing rehab. One resident said “this is not a hotel” so after 8 days I got on a 4 hour flight home. As with most other stories mine is also a semi- nightmare. Alone on a ski vacation & having to navigate my rental car, hotel, insurance, logistics, rides, follow-up care was very hard. Then my primary care wouldn’t accept any of the discharge PT,OT & home nursing cares orders (I live alone) since they hadn’t seen me in 2 years!!! They did deliver the CPM machine but couldn’t tell me how it worked (I’m using it right now) so luckily I went to YouTube to figure that out!

I’m very lucky to have family that came to my desperate rescue the first 3 weeks I was home. There was no way I could’ve managed alone even though I was previously very athletic & independent. As for most of us this has been a very challenging injury to endure. I find myself weepy quite often but just allow my humanity to flow thru. On the second week home we lost power (& water) for 4 days just when I was thinking it really can’t get worse. Perhaps this is some kind of cleansing for each of us? To remind us of what is truly important? God knows I’d never sign up for such a debilitating injury but I can’t escape it now. I hope I can maintain some sort of trusting of it all. I just feel there must be some good to come of all this pain & suffering?

Today marks 1 month post-op & I see my Ortho in 10 days to evaluate how the plates & screws are doing. I’m really nervous that I’ll be able to return to my previous high activity life style but right now is where I am at & I think fearing a long or bad recovery doesn’t help me now. I’ve also had a real problem with getting any quality sleep but feel that will improve with time.

I’m at 90 grees with my knee flexion so am pleased about that, and the fact that I got a chair for the tub so now I can take a (mostly) real shower!!!

Blessings to each of you. This ain’t no easy thing.