inert (caution: contains all manner of tv and film spoilers and ‘cancer’ and ‘AIDS’)
On the latest and varied, real and imaginary ATR progress widgets, I am:
- 3 weeks, 4 days post-op
- 4 weeks more in full NWB casts
- on episode 9 of Mad Men Season 3
- catching up on this season’s Grey’s Anatomy
- rapidly becoming adept at drawing creatures of the sea in various states of sartorial sophistication
All things taken together, a single-word generating ATR progress widget would yield ‘Shitty’. Mine is a world where Kepner lives and McSteamy dies, where the still-living Kepner is additionally sleeping with Avery (JACKSON FUCKING AVERY!!! ), where all the married ad men are sleeping with anyone they damn well please and doing whatever the fuck they want, while it’s a real monkey-performing-shitshow for the women and wives, who all have bigger breasts and/or nicer dresses than me anyway, AND they’re all striding around or shifting their hips while walking around on their own two feet. (Except Guy MacKendrick. That dude’s foot was just mown off.) And it makes me want to wail, ‘What the hell is the point?’
The more salient and sobering news came this past Friday, from which I am still slightly reeling: mine is the hospital with the non-progressive protocol, so I’m NWB and in casts for another four weeks. Apparently, this was due to a lot of non-compliance in this hospital and a high rate of re-rupture once patients came out of casts and were put into boots. There really isn’t much of an upside to this except that I can be REALLY sure that my a-hole of an AT is stuck together by the time I start in a boot. I’m sure I could make more :/ type faces and get put into a boot and start weight-bearing sooner, but I want the doc’s support, guidance, and say-so. (Don’t tell The DG, but, truthfully, I’m generally an aim-to-please-do-as-I’m-told sort and trying to go rogue on this would fill me with dread.)
So. I’m just going to chalk it up to bad luck in being closest to the hospital with the most passive protocol, and count myself lucky that everyone has so far been kind and efficient, and look forward to seeing the lovely plaster man twice more… (shh)
I know. Stop with the malingering and complaining. No good will come of it.
The DG and I almost had an(other) argument because I was whinging about something ATR-related, and he said things weren’t that bad and that I needed to keep things in perspective, to which I made some comment about everything being relative and that one might make the same argument about perspective to someone with cancer who wasn’t dying of AIDS and starvation in some war-torn country, and then The DG accused me of comparing myself with people with cancer and AIDS and I most certainly wasn’t and I said so and he said I most definitely was and then things almost got out of hand. A word of advice to other ATR sufferers whose partners have suddenly become full-blown carers as well, maybe don’t mention ‘cancer’ or ‘AIDS’ around them because that shit makes them crazy.
Maybe for perspective I will watch ‘My Left Foot ‘. Although, given my state of worse-than-cancer-and-AIDS-and-starvation-combined-self-pity-and-selfishness, maybe I’ll just envy him his sinister foot dexterity…
I would just watch ‘Misery‘ but The DG won’t allow it.
7 Responses to “inert (caution: contains all manner of tv and film spoilers and ‘cancer’ and ‘AIDS’)”
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normofthenorth
April 8th, 2013 at 20:07
Lots more fun to read about than live through, I’m sure!
If their non-op rehab is as slow as their post-op rehab, hou’re lucky you insisted on the knife! Going slow because you are getting bad results is a classic addictive trap, and they’ll probably never escape until somebody opens a joirnal and reads an article — or the Docs in charge retire, or some higher authority intervenes… You could introduce them to an article or two — like the full-text of the 2010 UWO study that’s on our site here…
poisonorange
April 8th, 2013 at 20:51
I’ve spoken to lovely-plaster-man about it and the problem isn’t just the docs knowing and understanding the best evidence-based protocol but getting their patients to follow it. And if the hospital or clinic get more people of a certain flavour/age/sex/penchant for disregarding medical advice than the other hospital/clinic then you’ll get poorer results. I see their side. It just doesn’t work out in my favour.
Ripraproar
April 8th, 2013 at 23:34
Hi norm
Did my first pt today, I did the t band , grabbing and moving towel with toes, she did the Thompson test, said was very slight movement. That’s about it apart from the massage, the pt is a young lass not done non op ATR but was willing to work at same pace, Norm the shocker was the massage on the tendon was very aggressive, hurt quite a lot still is, and although I couldn’t feel a gap over the last 2 weeks there is now post massage a dent at the side of the tendon . I’m 7 weeks now, norm should the massage be a rigorous one? If so the pain doesn’t worry me, it’s a mental worry thing for me. Oh I also asked why she wasnt using the ultra sound thingy, she said until she sees proven results she prefers to massage to get the colleges working. N rom sorry to ask yet again for your view but I really value your opinions.
Rrr
Ripraproar
April 8th, 2013 at 23:35
Sorry meant to read willing to work same pace protocol as uwo
normofthenorth
April 9th, 2013 at 02:36
Thanks, RRR, but I’ve got no idea. PT modalities and timing seem to be all over the block. Some PTs DO do harm (some details on my blog!), though most of the most successful studies do use PT. Firm and painful massage is useful post-op to break up “adhesions”, though we non-op’ers don’t usually get those. Dunno, sorry.
normofthenorth
April 9th, 2013 at 02:42
It’s always possible that a hospital with below-average clinical results is above average and has been victimized by exogenous factors — I just wouldn’t bet on it with my body or those of my pals. A d if they think they are lowering rerupture risk by going slower, they are clearly Out To Lunch and in need of reeducation. Even the nice ones.
Ripraproar
April 9th, 2013 at 18:54
No worries Norm
But thanks for getting back
Rrr