SHIP'S LOG:

      Unfortunately, there isn't a great deal to write about sailing in the winter time. I will not be going to Key West Race Week nor will I be participating in the Force Five Nationals in Key Largo in February, though several from TYC will be there racing. Unless one is in a heated shed, there is very little one can do aboard because of the temperature.It doesn't have to be "brutally cold"it just has to be cold enough for paints, varnishes , caulks and adhesives do do their thing.That's where we happen to be right now . . .not in a heated shed!

     There is a real possibility that we will get some serious snow this weekend which will put a further damper on maintenance activities in the days and weeks ahead. This snow will probably not go away as the temperature is expected to drop sufficiently to keep it around for awhile. But the end of February will see the beginning of maintenance come whatever.

      Speaking of maintenance, my ankle continues to improve. I should be out of the "boot cast" by week's end and into a smaller brace. This will allow me to work in the sail loft for Kevin and make a few bucks on the side. This recovery seems to be taking forever and the real downside is that it is pointing out just how much I have to get the right knee worked on.Walking correctly on the left leg after years makes it clear how damaged the cartilage is in the right . Ah such is life!

Shorter

SHIP'S LOG:

     It has actually been "wintery" for the last couple of days. We even got "snow flurries" on Monday:  though it all melted before the end of the day. Thank goodness! And thank goodness the temps are going to be in the 50's over the weekend.

     Interesting discovery during physical therapy yesterday. During one exercise o a particular piece of equipment, my "effected" foot - can't call it my "bad' foot -  kept slipping off the support bar. The head therapist measured both legs and discovered that the "bad," er..."effected leg is actually short than the other. The difference is probably less than "significant" but it does have some effect. I am sure there is some fancy term for it and I just can't wait to share that info with my two orthopedic cutters. I am not sure what or if they can do anything about it or whether or not it is worth the effort, but it will be interesting to see if they knew anything about it.

Spring Is Coming!!!!! I Do Believe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SHIP'S LOG:

     Five days into the New Year and already I am getting antsy to go sailing. Perhaps it is because the temp today is to top out at 27 degrees. I hate winter!

     I just got back from my physical therapy session. It is wonderful and awful at the same time. Still quite a bit of numbness in the foot . I go in and for 15 minutes, they wrap my bum ankle in a hot towel and it feels wonderful. Then they spend 45 minutes moving it in all sorts of way that I am not sure it was meant to move. Then, for 10 minutes, they pack it in ice while they run an electrical current through it to "stimulate it." It makes my toes wiggle  and the hair in my leg stand up. It definitely is helping there is more movement and the electrical/burning sensation has faded a great deal and the pain that was there is negligible. I must be getting better.

     Thanks to some very generous Christmas gifts, I was able to pay a big chunk of the outstanding yard bill and ABISHAG will be free and clear by May at the latest. I am looking forward to getting up to Yankee to begin working on her and work out some deal with Sound Rigging to get the furler back in service. The rest of what needs doing is DIY stuff and I can handle it. It only wants some decent weather and some more Marine Units. AH, the joys of boat ownership!

                                                              

round and Round and Round! ! ! !

SHIP'S LOG:


     I started physical therapy for my ankle and most of it is just moving the ankle in any which way it will go and even in some directions that it should go but won't go at the present time. It is a lot of flexing and twisting and because you are supposed to do it in tandem with the uninjured foot, you get an immediate readout of just how far you have progressed and how far you have to go.In some directions I am nearly back where I should be, in other directions not so much. There is a lot of snap, krackle and popping going on which was distressing at first as I thought I was cracking bones but the physical therapist said it was just scar tissue breaking. I also have to spend time rubbing the scars. It was at the sight of the scars that the nerves were cut and rubbing them is supposed to break up the scar tissue and get the nerves used to being touch and so reduce their sensitivity.  I hope that is so because it is still painful at times when I try to sleep.  I'll just have to see how well this works.

     Yank Boatyard is shutting down its "consignment shop" and they want everyone to come and take away the things they have left for consignment sale with them. I think I left several pieces of machinery from the old refrigeration system  and the old auto pilot. I will have to go and get them and take them to the Consignment shop in Mystic. I doubt that they will sell but anything is possible. As someone once said, "Some greeny-back dollars are better than no greeny-back dollars at all."

Exciting Stuff!

SHIP'S LOG:

      I wish there was something new and exciting to report, but such is not the case.

     The ankle seems to be healing but at a glacial pace. The wounds are all exposed and they look just fine. There will certainly be some impressive scars when all healed. They are all closed but one, the outside of the ankle. It is still seeping a bit and I am wondering if they left a stitch or staple in the wound.  The outside of the foot is numb except  when it isn't, which is usually when I try to sleep. It stars with a little tingling which slowly increases and then shifts to a burning sensation and then it stops, like someone turned off a switch.  After a few minutes it will star again and when I am trying to get to sleep, it gets me just when I am nodding off.  The pain isn't so much "bad' as annoying. I usually end up taking a pain med just to take the edge off so I can fall asleep. It won't wake me from  sound sleep but it will keep me from getting there.

     The location of the "Hermitage" is right next to the stairwell.  There are several college students who have apartments on the upper floors and are wont to run, skip and gambol up ad down the stairs at odd hours. They aren't particularly noisy in the transits but listening to them go up and down on those well working joints is frustrating. I am sure they don't give kt a thought. I know I didn't at their age and I am envious. I long for the day sometime in the future when I can do the same again.

     I have a feeling that we will be getting snow before too much longer. I have no shoe, boot or other footwear that I can wear over the cast-boot that would allow me to traipse around in the snow. It will really limit my movement should it come before I am out of the boot and into regular footwear. And with the snow comes to cold. Right now, I am still wearing shorts as they are the only "pants" I have that can really accommodate the boot and the brace. I found one pair of pants that I could get the left leg into for Thanksgiving but the effort it took to get them on and then get them off was very involved. Perhaps I could go to a kilt?

4 More Weeks

SHIP'S LOG:

     The appointment Tuesday past went well, everything was fine. The next 4 weeks will see all the bones healed, hopefully correctly, and then, as of December 15th, I will enter the next phase which mean PT! There is a little wiggle room for the healing, but the heel is key. If it isn't back where it should be, it will have to be broken again and I will have to wait for it to heal properly. You would thin, "How hard can it be not to walk on the heel of one foot?" Well, try it. Even with the walker, it can be more than a bit of a challenge. I spend a lot of time sitting and laying down, but there are times when you just have to get up and move around. Using the bathroom for a shower and all the other ablutions often require both hands and sometimes both feet. Trying to balance on one foot and the ball of the other takes a fair amount of practice and skill. I am trying my best but I get the impression it would be best if I never got out of bed at all. Right, tell that to my prostate!

      All the staples were removed on Tuesday, all 47 of them though they left several stitches in place. They will just let them dissolve. The foot looks fine though it is a little swollen which means I have to keep it raised and ice it down a couple of times a day. I hope my best effort will be sufficient as I would not like to have to go through this all over again.

Cut & Slash

 SHIP'S LOG:

 

So glad you all made past Friday the 13th.

     I had a little accident taking a shower on Thursday, not a slip and fall but a drip and leak. To take a shower without wetting the wrapping, I wrap my cast.splint in a garbage bag and then seal it with plastic packing tape, once around the top edge adhering it to the skin of my leg and once below that just as precaution.It sound pretty good and you would think "fool proof," but Thursday I managed somehow to leave an entry way for the way.

      After the shower, having removed the bag, I was drying off when I noticed that I was leaving maroon marks on the formerly white bath mats I got from my sister for my bathroom. Feeling along the bottom of the wrappings, I could tell that they were damp and that what I was trailing around was dried blood just recently liquefied by the water from the shower.  One of my sisters had a nasty infection experience from getting a dressing on a surgical wound wet, so I contacted the doctor's office and, even though I have an appointment on Tuesday next, the instructed me to come up tho their clinic post hast.

      I was able to impose upon a friend to rive me up and got seen right away. The surgeon who did the cutting was, "surprise,"in surgery but his PA was there and he took off the dressing. Yes, no wonder I was leaving a bloody trail. There were four incisions on one ankle: 1.) one running from the ball of the foot along the inner edge of the ankle all the way to the pad under the ankle; 2.) one inscribing the bottom of the heel; 3.) one under the outer ankle bone; 4.) and the last mid-way up th e inside of the calf which either  was the sight of tendon harvest or where a screw was set to hold the tendons in place. Both staples and stitches were use and it is safe to say that it looked as though I had been tap-dancing on a running chainsaw.

     The good news, according to the PA was that there was no sign of any type of infection whatsoever and everything was looking as it should, everything in its proper place. The PA cleaned the foot, painted it with Bedadine, put a special tape loaded with antibiotics over each of the incisions and re-wrapped it. Rather than another splint/cast, I was given a boot to wear and sent on my merry way, to appear Tuesday next for the doctor to do a full inspection and assessment. If all goes well, I should start physical therapy so after.

 

     It is annoying clomping around the "Hermitage"  in a boot and a walker though it is undoubtedly much better than  being on a boat. How did they do it with peg legs? I am hoping that I will be able to ditch the walker but then that surely means PT has begun and no matter what the injury, that is never fun.