Does It Ever End?

Just when it seemed like things had finally settled down and life was almost beginning to return to some semblance of "normal," curve balls must be thrown. This one started out seeming like a non-issue. A suit/boot combo I had worn seemed to have irritated the skin over my tibia plate, but hadn't rubbed it raw or anything along that line, so it seemed pretty benign. Irritation and inflammation occurred, but didn't seem to worrisome.

At my PT appointment that week, she commented on the inflammation and tenderness - it seemed a bit unusual. This raised a little red flag for me. By that Friday afternoon, the area where the fracture blister had been was getting "stretched" with a very fluidy feel underneath the thin layer of skin over it. I placed a moist bandaid over it to see what would happen. Saturday afternoon it came through, and began draining quite a bit of fluid, some of it milky. This concerned me for fears of an infection taking place or getting started, so first thing Monday morning I made an appointment with my ortho for the first available appointment which was Wednesday. In the meantime, I began treating the wound fairly aggressively using the calcium alginate dressing to help draw out the inflammation.

Doc wasn't any more thrilled than I was - while he had expected this, since it had seemed to heal over he had hoped that we had dodged a bullet. Apparently not so much. He wanted to get in there and clean and flush it out, and see where it was getting infected - if it was getting under the plate at all, then he would have to pull the hardware out. This wouldn't be ideal as it is a little too early in the healing to normally pull hardware, but the bones are set, it would just delay my weight bearing status yet again - but still better than losing a leg!

He scheduled the surgery for first thing the next morning - I had to be in the surgery center at 5:15 a.m. for a 6 a.m. procedure. I was unsure what I'd wake to, but I was just resigned to what we had to do - I didn't want to muck around with infections. As it turns out, whether it was pure luck or a combination of an early catch and treatment, either way, he was able to leave the hardware in. I woke to a big old bandage on my leg, but was left with weight bearing status and direction to leave the dressing in place until my follow-up the following Wednesday.

The first couple days I was pretty miserable, currently sitting here on the second full day post op. At this point I'm feeling better than I did yesterday, and hoping that overall this will be a quick-ish recovery since it was mostly just a fluid flush and clean with some incisions related to that. I have no idea the damage on the skin, but at least I can weight bear. At this point,still hoping/planning on making the races next weekend since the skin will have had over a week to heal by that point and should hopefully be past the worst of anything. Cancelling the races is still a possibility, but I'm hoping not to since he was able to leave the hardware in place.

Rehab Begins

I knew atrophy would be a bitch. It really is. A few weeks or something would be one thing; even a couple months. Coming back from nearly four months of non-use and everything is complaining. Sometimes the simple act of walking just HURTS. I’m back on regular use of ibuprofen to help with both the pain and the inflammation. Things swell – a lot. From puffy ankle, to spots that get a big edema, to my knee swelling up, life is just plain old uncomfortable. Tendons and ligaments are TIGHT, and they are NOT happy about having to work. Life hurts.  Even when I’m resting, it usually hurts on some level, or I’m stretching it, moving it, something or it’s just had a long day and is mad. But, that’s part of rehab, and so be it.

Things are still moving along, don’t get me wrong. I’m a couple weeks into PT, and if anything, there’s probably more I should be doing, but I’m also still working, taking care of the house, and back to my “regular” work schedule, so time is an issue. While I’m WAY more mobile, I’m still slow. I get around without the cane as needed, but it’s nice to have that when I’m trying to cover more ground, plus my gait is a little better with it than without most of the time.

Being tired and weird sleep patterns is rather frustrating. I get way more tired just doing “normal” things which makes getting up early enough for the gym an easy thing to skip. Let’s just say I haven’t been to the gym since my work schedules went back to normal. It’s an excuse, really, but only sort of – I haven’t been sitting in front of the TV that much, either, other than for an hour or so when I eat my dinner, so it’s not like I’m watching TV for hours on end and skipping the gym…

At this point, while I wouldn’t call any of this fun, for the most part it’s not “surprising” either. I knew it would hurt. I knew it would take time. I knew it would suck. Honestly, other than the “tiredness” factor, things are kind of what I would have expected.

At least I can ride, which has done wonders for me mentally even if it’s not as “fun” as it was (mostly because, well, it hurts!!).  But, it still serves the purpose of getting me out of my head, and even if for only very brief moments, there are moments of pure freedom as the bike accelerates and carries me on its wings, in that moment I don’t think about having a bum leg. It may only last until I need to shift, but even that second of freedom is worth more than I can express.

I have my first trackdays coming up this weekend – I know my leg is going to give me problems, but I’m still excited to get out there. It’s going to hurt, I’m sure I’ll be frustrated, but I’ll be on the new bike, and hopefully there will be a lot of those “moments” that’ll have me smiling through the gritted teeth.