“How are you doing?” “Can you hop around again already?” “You must be back on your feet by now…” and the list of comments is many times longer. Just a sampling of recent ones.
It is quite confusing for most people. You break a leg, so then you are – normally – three months later up and running again. That’s true, but unfortunately I didn’t break a leg, I shattered an ankle, and no, that doesn’t happen so fast. But since I do get the question quite often, I thought it would be helpful to give you a brief update on the situation at the moment. (does that sound weighty huh)
For those who didn’t already know: on December 7 (wow, so long ago already!) I had a fatal collision with a large Norwegian giant oak tree during a dog sledding trip. The result was a broken ankle on the left and a shattered ankle on the right. On the left I am doing well, I can do something with that now, but the right remains a problem case.
On December 11 I was operated on in the AMC and there are now 9 screws and a plate in my right ankle. (The foot itself is still numb on the bottom and it regularly feels like someone has my foot in a vice. Very strange really but yes, it seems to be part of the experience. During the operation they tried to put all the pieces back together again and removed some of the loose pieces that no longer fit. For those in the know, the bone that was shattered is the talus. One of the hardest bones to break in your body so don’t get me started on shattering.
Because of the complicated fracture, the right can not be loaded for at least three months. There is a real chance that the bone will not survive and die. Right after the surgery I was told that there was about a 99% chance that this was the case. At the first checkup, the bone appeared to look pretty good, so that was a positive development but how it develops further remains to be seen.
So as we speak, I am still in a wheelchair most of the day. We are practicing with crutches but the left side hasn’t been used for three months and is also broken so we have to be careful and don’t talk about muscles (which muscles). Haha… On March 8, so next week I will have the second check-up and pictures will be taken again. I hope of course that I get the green light and that I am told that everything looks good and that I can start putting weight on my right leg and can start physical therapy. (I do do my own exercises by the way)
If not…. um… well, I don’t want to think about that just yet.
I can work, thank God. With the difference that everyone has to come to me because I’m not mobile. Fortunately, most clients don’t have a problem with that and I’m nice and busy. That’s good, otherwise time would go really unbearably slow. It already does now, though.
I still sleep in a hospital bed in the living room. I haven’t been upstairs for three months and simple things like going up the stairs are becoming a pretty big obstacle.
Anyway, there will be all sorts of things going on internally in that foot, but it’s too slow for me in any case. Once I’m allowed to start putting weight on it again, at least I can make some progress. I hope so.
And no, I don’t talk about it here every time so a lot of people think that everything has healed a long time ago but unfortunately it’s going to take a while yet.
All my hopes are now pinned on next week so hope that will not be a big disappointment. In any case, keep your fingers crossed for a good result!
