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Not much, but a start.. The following day Cory and I did about a 5 mile ride at Washington Park, which was a blast. Much better than crutching around.

I'm going to get in trouble for this..

Cory built up a Surly Pacer for me to ride and I'm psyched. Feels good to be back on a bike again. Thanks for everything Cory!! and Adriane (Monster and Sache as well)

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.

Check Socket

Today I went to have try out the check socket. This one is clear plastic so they can make adjustments and see where it is rubbing against my leg too much or not enough. The final one should be black carbon fibre. I took my first steps today with this and though it was quite painful I was able to take a few steps putting a majority of my weight on my leg and was using my crutches for balance. I'm very excited to get my finished leg on Tuesday. It's going to be a long process of learning to walk and toughening up my leg on a daily basis, but just the fact that I won't have to use these damn crutches anymore is awesome.

The first picture shows my leg with the silicon sock with pin. This pin goes inside the socket and clicks in to hold the leg on. There is a release button on the side so I can take the leg off.

6 Weeks

It's been 6 weeks since the surgery. Crazy how fast it's gone by and I feel like I'm doing great. Today I had a cast taken of my leg for my first socket. This is the upper part of the prosthetic that attaches to my leg via the pin. I go back in on Friday to have a check fit. Which they will check the fit and make sure feels good and is comfortable. I will then return on Tuesday, to pick up my leg. I'm very excited about this and I can't wait. Just to be able to start walking again and putting my energy into that rather than just waiting around while I heal will be good for me. I'm still having issues with my pain medications. The side affects of the drugs have been the worst part of this entire ordeal. Feeling sick to my stomach all day long sucks, there is no positive way to spin it. Took a few pics of my leg as the casting was being done and one, just to show how it's healed. The car is my doctors.. maybe I should get into making prosthetics eh?

Day 24

It's been 3 weeks and 3 days since my operation and today I am no longer in a hard cast. It was removed today and I was fitted with a clamshell. This is technically still a hard cast, to protect my leg when I'm up and about, but when I'm laying down I can remove it. Instead of bandages and ace wraps, I now have 2 socks. The first just being a simple sock for my leg and the second being a compression sock. I can now touch my leg, bend my kneeg, move the muscles below my knee (tho this feels really funky) and start to desensitize things. This is a huge relief and I'm so glad that I've moved onto this phase of my recovery. A week or so of getting the swelling down as much as possible and toughening my leg/stump and I will be returning for my first molding for a prosthetic.

No more stitches

Cast change today, remembered a camera this time and got my stitches out. Having the stitches removed tickled a bit, actually it hurt. They also did a mold of my leg so they can fit with me a clamshell cast on Friday. This will be cool because I will finally be able to take off my cast for periods of time. This will be great for being able to move my leg, bend my knee and it will also give me the chance to wash my leg properly. They also did another X-ray and things are still looking good as far as the bone bridge. Next appointment with Dr. Hahn is a month off, so I will mainly be seeing Chris Jones from now on. I have an appointment for PT tomorrow, though I really don't know why. I feel like physically I'm in good shape and even though my left leg has atrophied a bit, I don't see what they are going to really be able to do for me that I can't do myself. That and the cost is $20 per visit, at 3 per week.. umm