Progress Report

At the doctor's office

I visited the doctor this week and he gave me a good progress report. Everything is healing well. I had all 35 staples removed and the incision looks great. No sign of infection. (Which is always the first question out of my mouth. I may be a bit paranoid.) My prosthetist, Aaron, was there as well.  Aaron is going to be very important to me as I go through the process of building my prosthetic, adjusting, and fitting and refitting many many times. I already like him a lot and we've built a great relationship in a short time. Aaron also gave me a glowing progress report. My leg is in good shape and by that I mean the shape of my leg is almost ready to fit into a prosthesis. Aaron put a shrinker sock on my leg. This is exactly what it sounds like. A very tight sock which, in his words, "feels like a tourniquet" that helps push out swelling and shrink down my leg. We will be waiting on my incision to heal completely and my pain level to go down before I begin walking in a new leg. In about a week we'll take a mold of my leg and the process of building my prosthesis will begin.  

  Fun Fact: I often get asked what the difference is between prosthesis and prosthetic. The difference is that one is a noun and the other is an adjective. I have either a prosthesis or a prosthetic leg. (Oops, is the teacher in me showing?)

 

This is the end of anything interesting in this post and the beginning of my rambling and venting. This will probably be lengthy so I recommend you stop here at the update and save yourself some time.

 

Reality Stew

When I started this blog I deliberated for a long time about allowing readers. I am a very private person and  I really set this up to be an outlet for me to work through things. If there's one thing I should have learned in the past few years it is that private isn't always better or safer. Because this is therapeutic for me I am going to continue as if there aren't any readers, just warning you.

Since the day of my surgery my leg has been encased in a rather large and bulky splint. It protects my limb from damage if I fall (which many know I DID) and keeps it straight so that I don't have to do months of physical therapy to regain full extension in my leg. At my recent doctor's visit, having it completely uncovered, I looked down at my bare leg and got a big dose of reality that caught me unprepared. My leg is gone. It's really difficult to find the words to describe what that feels like. I am able to spend a lot of time now out of that splint so I am seeing a lot more of my leg. It's helping me adjust and also brings a few more sad moments.

My pain level is higher than the average patient at my stage of recovery and I experience a lot of phantom pain. This really doesn't surprise me and it doesn't surprise my surgeon.  During any surgery it is normal that the muscles and things twitch and move a bit. During my surgery my surgeon said my leg was twitching, jumping, and having spasms to a far greater degree than he had ever seen. Which means all my nerves in my left leg are hypersensitive and hyperactive. It is going to take time for things to calm down. Also, the amount of pain I was in and the length of time I was in that pain really irritated all those nerves. It's just going to take time. Pain. My nemesis.