Thursday, January 29, 2009

The End Of The Tunnel

I'm find I'm so excited I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel. A free man at the start of a long journey, whose conclusion is uncertain.
-- Part of Red's Final Narrative From "The Shawshank Redemption"

As the title of this post says, I can finally see something that looks like light at the end of the tunnel. And I know now that it isn't the headlamp of a train heading in my direction. I had a visit with the surgeon this morning, and it went extremely well. He is pleased with my progress. Pleased enough, in fact, that he was almost ready to release me to go back to work right then and there. However, I had to remind him of a couple of things, one of which being that I have no leg strength and the other being that I can't wear a shoe because of the heel wound. So he cleared my for PT, which starts this Monday.

He will see me again in six weeks. If I've made good enough progress with the PT (which I suspect I will) he will likely clear me to go back to work. Plus, he cleared me for full activity at the gym, which means I can now get back on a bike or an elliptical machine. I am going to wait, however, until I'm evaluated by the physical therapist to see whether or not they will set limits to what I can initially do.

Of course, there is the issue of the heel wound. I was supposed to see the wound guy yesterday but because of the nasty weather we had my appointment was re-scheduled for next week. I plan to ask him about the process of perhaps going the route of the appli-graft (the baby foreskins which act like stem cells) or maybe HBO and see if he bites on either of those.

Basically, with this visit today the clock has started ticking. I'm okay with that; if I can go back to work sooner than later, that would actually make me happy. I don't expect to be free of a limp of some stiffness; the doc said this morning that it's common to have all of that for as much as a year after the injury. Plus, I will probably always have some atrophy left over, even after I get leg strength back. These are things I will have to live with. But I can do that.

So now the work starts to get ready for going back to work. I have a purpose again....

6 comments:

TOTWTYTR said...

That's all good news! I do have to day that the appli-graft and HBO comments made me laugh in an inappropriate EMS kind of way.

So, if you have an appli-graft, will your foot swell when you get excited? As to HBO, I find it's overpriced for the content and I don't think it will help your foot.

As I said, it's that weird kind of EMS humor.

Unknown said...

Hey - I'm all about EMS humor. And I can't lie and say I'd never thought, said, or heard the jokes about the foot becoming swollen when I get excited about something.... :)

I know what you're saying about HBO, especially from the standpoint of cost, but I put it out there because it's part of the treatment regimen for open wounds like mine. Strictly said, though, I don't follow the criteria to be able to use this because I'm not a diabetic and I don't have tissue on the verge of becoming necrotic or anything like that. It's all healthy and pink. And the wound surface looks really good as it's got good circulation and no bio-film over it. All things considered, I think he may go for the appli-graft because I'm constantly forming calluses on the margin, and they require frequent debriding to keep the epithelium clear. I'll know more either way when I see him next week.

Susie Hemingway said...

Good news for you Walt, we are so please to hear that - "Good Luck" with getting completly fit once more.

Evil Transport Lady said...

Fantastic!!!!! Get ready to bust your hump!!

.. said...

Not sure what happened so I guess I better get reading, but I'm glad to hear everything is moving forward!

Jen said...

Hmm, first comment gave an error, so hoping this doesn't post twice. Thinking of you today and hoping everything went well yesterday!