I was released by the surgeon from wearing the walking boot. I am finding this situation to be surprisingly frightening. Not to say that I am not thrilled and excited as well but deep down inside I am experiencing aprehension as well.
After 14 weeks I get to hit the theatre with both feet tomorrow.
More anon….
I just snapped the vertical support on the walking boot. Grrr
I guess I am about to find out how wondrous the stupendous power of the electrical / gaffers tape combination really are.
Walking slow
Tired of this
I went in this morning for my first PT appointment this morning. I was quite aprehensive about it as for the last week all I was hearing at work was how painful it was going to be. There were many gleeful predictions concerning me and crying.
It was not so bad. I have been wearing out the support boots and beating myself up pretty good and was glad to hear that I am at 12 degrees (whatever that means) and so did not have a lot of the pain part that the folks at work were warning me about.The worst part for me was the massaging of the scar part which hurt a bit but not so bad.
So now I have a list of exercises to do, another appointment for later in the week and a lot of hope for progress to come.
I asked if I could toss the boot and he just laughed and told me that the boot is protecting me from me.
Oh well…
Just back from the Doctor. I wore the boot out after 6 weeks, huge hole in the heel, lots of flexibility in the vertical side parts. So I went in there thinking that I must be ready to move on to some other type of hardware or maybe even…. NOTHING.
Alas… not to be. Now I have a brand new boot of the same exact type and model as I went in there with and the suggestion of developing a ‘less aggressive’ lifestyle. He said I have to wear it for a month and then come back to be looked at again.
I do like the surgeon yet I have to say that his insistence on not seeing things my way is beginning to annoy me. He found no humor or inspiration on my tales of heroic feats of strength and kept remarking on how he hates it when he has to protect the patient from himself. I guess when I feel I am at my most charming that perhaps I am not. Enough with the personal growth, already. I like being the worlds largest (and oldest) 6 year old.
The good news is that I got a prescription for physical therapy 3 times per week and I will be on that as soon as I figure out which one of the many providers on the list are also on the insurance list.
More to come…
So I have been wearing the boot for a few weeks, using a cane and not using a cane (the cane makes me faster) and things have been going pretty well. I was pain-free when sitting around and the swelling had become fairly negligable. I was not even having to ice at night. Since all was going so well I decided that it would be ok to do some lifting of heavy objects at work. This seemed to not be very bothersome so I moved on to amazing feats of strength category. By Friday evening I was pretty swollen and ended up back on the dreaded crutches for Saturday and Sunday. Back to ice at night and pain at rest and at walking. I am officially tired of this.
Nice to know my intelligence level has not been changed by this experience
2 weeks in using the boot. I have abandoned the crutches and have used them 1 time in the last week. Things seem to be going very quite well, even though I now realize that I am never going to like pain very much I have been working some long days and … well they have been long. When I get home at night I still have some swelling but have come to love doing the ice the tendon routine as I watch the swell and color changes up my leg upon removing the boot.
I have been looking for a cane and found a cool website and was about to order it online when I noticed that the place is around 30 miles from where I live so I went out there this morning and am now the dubious owner of one large, industrial strength black cane. Trying to practice with it around the house but I suspect I will fall down at work at some point tomorrow.
I must say this whole idea has been wildly entertaining to my associates at the art factory.
Question… My next appointment is not until mid August. Does that mean I am not supposed to walk without the boot on? I have experimented with putting some weight on it without the boot and …
I suspect I know what the answer is
I have been working away from the crutches and adapting to boot usage. It is great to not be dragging mt sorry behind around on the crutches. I suppose I will get used to the fact that walking in the boot is maddeningly slow.
Whine points:
a) This is taking a long time to get better. I am ready to be done now.
b) When I remove the boot (YAY) at the end of the day I get some swelling and the incision path looks and feels raw. This is typical?
c)The triple digit temperatures are not helping.
That’s all
5 weeks post surgery. Well I went back to the doctor to get what I was expecting to be the third hard cast and instead received a removable velcro, foam and plastic deal which I am suppossed to start walking on. Life is good.
Greetings
I have been trying to sort out the timeline of his whole thing since yesterday and having limited success; a lot of time has flown by already.
I can date the injury to 28 May. I was crossing a wet stage set (outdoor theatre) and felt and heard what I thought was me walking out of my boot. I looked down to see the boot still on and my foot dangling at a rather eerie angle. I felt some bunching up in my calf and knew right away that something was not quite right.
Went to the on call for work related injury doctor who, at a glance, seemed to know what the problem was and then got referred on to a surgeon. It was surprising to me how little needed to be done in term of diagnostic testing. I suppose my foot was way too loose for it to be anything but this type of injury.
The operation was done 2 June and I stayed overnight in the hospital. I am embarrassed to admit that I was in no way prepared for how much pain was involved. Took me by surprise.
I went home the next day, 3 June, and spent the next week or so finding out how bad my ability to balance on one foot is, how hard it is to learn to use crutches and just what ‘NWB’ means. I was bandaged with elastic style bandages and not a lot of physical suppport.
11 June, stitches (lots) removed and a fibreglass cast put on with my toes pointed down-ish. I am scheduled to go back 23 June for…. I am not sure what for. They will remove this cast and put my foot in a new position. I think he said he would be putting another cast on.
I have been getting these strange cast inspired panic attacks. When my foot feels sort of stuck . They are horrible.
The panics and the having to become rather dormant have been the worst so far.
Glad this is all here, thanks
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