Hi everyone:
I guess it’s been a while since I’ve added anything. Many of our collective stories are depressing & heart-wrenching, with good reason, but I feel excited to share some good news on my end.
I’m now slightly over 7 weeks post-op. My injury occurred in Utah (where I had my surgical repair) but I live in NC. I returned to my Ortho Doc here in NC at about 5.5 weeks post-op. The Doc in Utah said 10 weeks NWB so I had every reason to suspect this last visit to be more of a formality than any bearer of what I would call good news. Even my sister who drove me said, “don’t get your hopes up, he’s most likely to say another month in the brace, on the sofa & continuing to go ever-more mad. But I got a miracle. He said the x-rays looked good & I could begin to put some wgt. on this dead foot, ankle & leg. It brought me to tears, I’m a very active person & words can’t describe my joy at hearing him tell me that I can take that brace off & start trying to get my life back to where it was.
All he said was, “Slowly start putting wgt. on that foot, get down to one crutch & I want to see you in 4-6 weeks & don’t want to see any of these crutches next time”. I simply stared at him, paused…”what about PT?” “Do you want PT?” “Yes I do!” “OK, we can arrange that for you” “What about driving?” “If you have an automatic you can drive” “What about a handicap parking sticker?” “Yeah, we can get you one of them”
Point being, I was mostly on my own. If I hadn’t been to this great website & had read so many worthwhile things about recovery I wouldn’t have known what to ask for. We MUST BE OUR ADVOCATES IN RECOVERY. He’s a nice guy but wasn’t going to bring up ANY of the points I’d mentioned.
I went from there to join the local pool where I now go every day to walk in the nearly chest-deep water. No one from my Ortho team even mentioned this. I’ve gotten a great PT who has helped me progress in ways I could have never done on my own. My flexion went from 90 degrees while I was still in the brace to now 105. Now, I’m very driven to recover which does have a lot to do with it but I believe nowadays we must be VERY ACTIVE & INFORMED in our REHAB.
I’m down to using just one crutch to get in & out of the pool & at home many times don’t use one at all.
I’m eternally grateful for this site & forum for providing me the education & mental support we all so desperately need while dealing with & recovering from this MAJOR injury. I’m far from ‘out of the woods’ & have a long way to go but wanted to share some of my good news with each of you.
May we all continue to find the patience & determination necessary to recover from this.
Blessings everyone,
Bill