I had a weird week with work and a visit to my surgeon as a private patient. It turned out that the surgeon on all my papers didn’t actually do the surgery! Yay for the public health system. I thought it might have been incorrect and asked the fracture clinic to double check it. They told me the wrong surgeon.. I’m sure there must be some sort of liability issue there! He said my recovery was behind, and my swelling and pain could potentially be http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Complex_regional_pain_syndrome I’m choosing to try ignore that for now. He said be trying to get off crutches asap. He also said my calf muscles are very tight.
I had a good physio session on Thursday but haven’t been able to keep it at 1 wedge consistently. Work politics, stress and pain has got the better of me this week.
I’m trying to keep it at 1 wedge today (Sun) and will hopefully keep that up this week. Compression sock is helping and is good to sleep in.
My Mum came to visit last week and took me to the beach which was great to help me relax.
4 responses so far ↓
Stuart // Apr 14th 2013 at 3:28 pm
Georgie - your surgeon could have been the registrar working under the one that signed the papers. The only way to ensure you get the surgeon you want is to go private. It is a big call to diagnose you with this pain syndrome considering there is no diagnostic test for it and he has to rely on your symptoms which could come from a number of areas. I would not say he is wrong, only that it is a long bow to stretch at this point of recovery. Swelling is normal for us all at 6 weeks and beyond. How we feel and perceive pain is more personal. Anyway it was good of your mum to get you out and if it was from Canberra to the beach then that is a bit of a drive. Your calf muscles and tendon need a good massage at least once a day. I know that it may be hard to do it yourself but I used a massage machine sometimes and it did help to relax the muscle. Don’t be too concerned about getting the wedges out. It always takes a couple of days to get used to the change but my phsyio was not in a rush to get rid of them. I think I still had 2 wedges in until the boot until I went to shoes and then they went into my shoe. Weight bearing should be as tolerated anyway. If it is causing pain then you could make the transition to FWB in increments. I think it would be harder to take out a wedge and try to ditch the crutches all at the same time.
georgiemac // Apr 14th 2013 at 5:49 pm
Hi Stuart - The Surgeon who I went to see privately last wk was on my papers and my GP was told did the surgery. He said another consultant did the surgery all together and that he wasn’t on call that day. It just seems a bit scary that that isn’t written down!
He was a bit gung ho and said I should be further a long on my recovery, ie without crutches. The physio said to hang on to them for now as my balance with wedges under one foot is unstable.
I can walk in the boot, it just swells up sometimes and the pain tells me not to.
Lisa // Apr 14th 2013 at 7:23 pm
From religiously reading everything I can read and being on my second ATR recovery in 6 months (with a move in between and therefore different PTs) I can say we’re all treated differently, all have different situations, and are given different advice, sometimes conflicting advice, but that it doesn’t (in most cases) seem to do any drastic long terms harm. My first time around I was still NWB at 6 weeks. This time, I’m right at 6 weeks now, and I mostly wear a boot with no wedge but also spend some time each day barefooted. Of course none of us are looking at your leg but I do think 6 weeks is a bit early to think there’s a problem and I guess (easier said than done) I’d try not to be discouraged,
Stuart // Apr 15th 2013 at 4:03 am
Georgie - now that you have explained it I see your point about it being weird. I have had surgery a few times and even though I was the surgeon was a registrar, the person I saw after was the specialist on call at the time. Regarding your rehab, I actually consider the physio to be more important than the surgeon after the intitial fix. Don’t stress. Listen to your PT.
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