Robo Leg

So at 7 weeks to the day from my surgery I finally got my prosthetic leg. I was once again blown away at just how good Mr. Chris Jones is at making these things. At first, I was unable to use any socks as it was that tight, zero ply as they call it. Walking around the office with one crutch with little pain. After about a minute I felt things starting to loosen up, so I put a one ply sock on. Tighter again and I was again able to walk around with a crutch pretty well. My knee is very weak, so much that at the end part of my stride it was giving out on me. I guess it's been almost 3 months since I have put any real weight on it though. Any pain that I do feel is from pressure being applied to the ERTL bonebridge and the fact that it can and will take up to 9-12 months to fully heal. If I don't have the proper amount of socks on, my leg will bottom out in the socket. This puts weight straight onto the ERTL, which doesn't cause a sharp pain where the contact is, but the bone ache pain that I can feel over the entire leg below my knee. After Mr. Jones, I went to Physical Therapy. By the time I was done with this I was hurting pretty good and ready for a break. PT was pretty straight forward. Need to make sure my strides are even, I don't limp and also make sure my feet are properly spaced. If I can do this from the start I will develop a good stride and not have to correct things again later..

The following day, Wednesday, I had an appointment with Dr. Hahn and Dr. Chitchyan of ASA. Hahn did another Xray and just wanted to see how things are going. Xray looks good, though I'm healing slower than I expected. Not much change in the amount of calcification from last month to this. Guess it just takes time. At Dr. Chitchyan's we basically talked about weening me off the narcotics, or atleast Oxycodone with all it's lovely side affects. New prescriptions with lower doses for a week, then I see him again, see how it went, and move forward. Hopefully in a few weeks I will be completely off them and I'm hoping in a couple of days feeling atleast a bit better from having less in my system.

Walking today I had even less pain and was able to get around even more. I have been able to walk around the apartment a bit with no crutches, 10 or so steps at a time. Went to the hospital, Wal-Greens and even taking Oscar out for his walk, using only one crutch. If I keep improving at this rate, I don't think I'll have the crutch for more than a week or so. Atleast I hope so.

Here are some pics.. Note, the finish on the new prosthetic is not done. Over the next few weeks some adjustments will need to be done and after that they will finish the outside of it.