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!
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
Friday, December 18, 2015
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."
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."
Saturday, November 28, 2015
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?
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?
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
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.
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.
Sunday, November 15, 2015
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.
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Bit And Pieces
SHIP'S LOG:
Truth be told there is nothing really new to report. I have one more week until my doctor's appointment and the removal of the splint/cast and the removal of the stitches and a determination of just how good a job the surgeon did on the ankle. it is difficult to say as I am not supposed to walk on it and that's fine as even with the walker it is not a "pleasant" experience. So I stay off it as much as possible and try to keep it elevated and all the other things the "papers" recommended. I know what the surgeon did but not what he actually did so all speculation on how it went is up in the air. All I can say is that there is no real pain, my toes are pink and I can wiggle them and there are no red streaks going up my leg. All good things I suppose but not a lot to hang your hat on. But at least there is no itching where I can't scratch it.
Big highlight of this day is that I took another shower! I have to go through a laborious process to wrap the leg securely against any chance of the dressings getting wet which is a no-no. Once they get wet they never dry out and it can lead to infection which is a major no-no. I have to wrap the leg up in a garbage bag and seal it shut with plastic packing tape to keep the water out. to minimize the chances of an accidental leakage, I take a Caribbean shower, developed over the years by sailors in the Caribbean who have to pay sometimes serious bucks for fresh water. You hose yourself down and turn the water off. You soap up all over and then turn the water on and wash off. Simple. And while it gets the job done I do miss a long soaking shower. Then the bag must be taken off and removing the packing tape is like getting a Brazilian. I have developed a rather strange looking "bald spot" on the upper part of my left leg.
One thing that i have noticed is that with the pain from the ankle significantly reduced the pain from the knees has increased. The brace takes care of the left knee and really it is the last step before replacement, so that will have to wait. However, the right knee is a cartilage issue and I am going to have to pester my other ortho cutter. I can both hear and feel the cartilage in the right knee and it won't get better on its own. However, he is not sure at this point whether or not removing or repairing it will eliminated the pain problem. I'll go see him after New Years and see what's what.
Truth be told there is nothing really new to report. I have one more week until my doctor's appointment and the removal of the splint/cast and the removal of the stitches and a determination of just how good a job the surgeon did on the ankle. it is difficult to say as I am not supposed to walk on it and that's fine as even with the walker it is not a "pleasant" experience. So I stay off it as much as possible and try to keep it elevated and all the other things the "papers" recommended. I know what the surgeon did but not what he actually did so all speculation on how it went is up in the air. All I can say is that there is no real pain, my toes are pink and I can wiggle them and there are no red streaks going up my leg. All good things I suppose but not a lot to hang your hat on. But at least there is no itching where I can't scratch it.
Big highlight of this day is that I took another shower! I have to go through a laborious process to wrap the leg securely against any chance of the dressings getting wet which is a no-no. Once they get wet they never dry out and it can lead to infection which is a major no-no. I have to wrap the leg up in a garbage bag and seal it shut with plastic packing tape to keep the water out. to minimize the chances of an accidental leakage, I take a Caribbean shower, developed over the years by sailors in the Caribbean who have to pay sometimes serious bucks for fresh water. You hose yourself down and turn the water off. You soap up all over and then turn the water on and wash off. Simple. And while it gets the job done I do miss a long soaking shower. Then the bag must be taken off and removing the packing tape is like getting a Brazilian. I have developed a rather strange looking "bald spot" on the upper part of my left leg.
One thing that i have noticed is that with the pain from the ankle significantly reduced the pain from the knees has increased. The brace takes care of the left knee and really it is the last step before replacement, so that will have to wait. However, the right knee is a cartilage issue and I am going to have to pester my other ortho cutter. I can both hear and feel the cartilage in the right knee and it won't get better on its own. However, he is not sure at this point whether or not removing or repairing it will eliminated the pain problem. I'll go see him after New Years and see what's what.
Sunday, November 8, 2015
CLOMP! CLOMP!! CLOMP!!!
SHIP'S LOG:
Any nostalgic glamour that anyone might feel toward having a peg-leg, disburse yourself of it! Since Tuesday, I have sort of had a "peg-leg," a split-cast on my lower left leg and have been clomping around "the Hermitage." I have to use a walker so along with the clomp of the cast on the floor and the muffled thud of my other foot, there aluminum clinking of the walker. I have been lucky in that there has not been much in the way of pain. The down side of that is that it is easy to try and do too much and it gets exhausting and when I do too much, I end up having to nap for several hours. It's not easy to do so and keep your leg elevated.
And then there's the shower. I can't get the leg and the dressing wet. Do so and you run the risk of an infection developing in the wound. It happen to my sister. So for a few days, I made do with baby wipes and while they work OK, sometimes you just need the shower. I waited until I began to smell like a Yak, then wrapped a garbage bag around my cast, double taped it is place and took the shower. Not as easy as it sounds as the bag made it seem that I was standing on ice and doing so with the bad leg. it was a bit of job getting the shower do without falling, but all the effort was worth it to smell human again.
It will be a little more than a week until the cast gets unwrapped and hopefully removed. It will undoubtedly be replaced by some sort of walking boot/cast/splint. And hopefully I will find that the the surgery was a success.
Any nostalgic glamour that anyone might feel toward having a peg-leg, disburse yourself of it! Since Tuesday, I have sort of had a "peg-leg," a split-cast on my lower left leg and have been clomping around "the Hermitage." I have to use a walker so along with the clomp of the cast on the floor and the muffled thud of my other foot, there aluminum clinking of the walker. I have been lucky in that there has not been much in the way of pain. The down side of that is that it is easy to try and do too much and it gets exhausting and when I do too much, I end up having to nap for several hours. It's not easy to do so and keep your leg elevated.
And then there's the shower. I can't get the leg and the dressing wet. Do so and you run the risk of an infection developing in the wound. It happen to my sister. So for a few days, I made do with baby wipes and while they work OK, sometimes you just need the shower. I waited until I began to smell like a Yak, then wrapped a garbage bag around my cast, double taped it is place and took the shower. Not as easy as it sounds as the bag made it seem that I was standing on ice and doing so with the bad leg. it was a bit of job getting the shower do without falling, but all the effort was worth it to smell human again.
It will be a little more than a week until the cast gets unwrapped and hopefully removed. It will undoubtedly be replaced by some sort of walking boot/cast/splint. And hopefully I will find that the the surgery was a success.
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