Ankle screws, mock incision

As promised, less-than-super photographs of the hardware (these are actually negatives; I'll get positives, but not until 12 June), along with a picture of my left ankle as a stand-in to demonstrate the incision that was used to install the hardware. 

Michelle is doing better now. Getting away from the hospital took a bit longer than expected, what with getting the nerve block apparatus in place. She's pretty tired, and maybe a bit overwhelmed with remnants of the general anesthesia. Still, she was a real trooper getting into our house, going up the steps out of the garage into the house, one step at a time, maneuvering herself onto the plant stand, up another step, maneuver, up another step, repeat repeat repeat, and then repeat some more times. There was really no alternative for it, and she just dug in and got it done. I don't think that she can handle going up the steps to our bedroom tonight, so she'll probably sleep downstairs.

It's been a full and demanding day for her, but she was strong and solid and got through it okay. We're in the countdown phase now, and things will be getting better in a specific time-frame now.



Surgery complete, recovery continues

Michelle exited surgery around 2:00. The doctor came into the waiting area and beckoned me into one of the consultation rooms.

“She did fine…she’s fine,” he told me.

The fix implemented, for which less-than-super photos will appear in the near future, is a plate on the outside-facing bone surface bearing three screws approximately horizontal and another screw from the other side (inside-facing bone surface) at a somewhat-over-perpendicular angle (call it 115 degrees ) to the three screws mentioned earlier. This engineering update will live with Michelle for the rest of her days. She is now a bionic woman.

I neglected to ask any metallurgical questions. Details will come to light eventually.

I was shown pictures (“these are hospital records; you can get copies at your post-op visit”) of which I took cellphone-camera photos. I look to post those in the next few days. I got the doctor to draw a line on my ankle showing the incision. Got a picture of that, too. Sure, I’ll post it with the other ones.

She has a plaster cast on her left ankle now. We’ll go in for her post-op appointment in two weeks for dressing/stitches removal and fiberglass cast installation, probably in a complicated color scheme.

Six weeks after (or from now, my notes say, I’m not confident about that yet), left ankle cast removed, x-ray, put on another cast if needed, or put on a Moon Boot.

With the Moon Boot, she’ll be able to walk on it, but not before. She’ll only be allowed to walk on it after they put on the Moon Boot.

At the six-week mark, her RIGHT ankle will be fitted with a “sports brace” for the rest of the recovery cycle. She’s been hopping on the right one ever since the event, so that’s how things will be until she’s allowed to put weight on her left.

As I type these words, they’re installing a “nerve block” device to release tiny metered amounts of local anesthetic to the back of her knee and moderate the left ankle post-surgery pain for “about 48 hours.” It’s a home-removal process when the reservoir is depleted. Hey, I get to be a medical technician.

Mom and I await notice of getting to take her home. I think I’ll make chicken and dumplings for dinner.

NO WEIGHT ON HER LEFT FOOT UNTIL THE DOCTOR SAYS IT’S OKAY.

More 411, and pictures, when I get around to it.

Thanks to everyone for all your kind words of support.

Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day, everyone.  Grateful honors to and for all in uniform, and respectful intentions to all families who mark today with memories of lost loved ones.  Our day has gone well, and I hope that yours has, too.

Michelle's nephew Rudy is confirmed for coming in on 10 June to help with whatnot around the house.  Now I just have to work out meeting him at the airport six-ish PM.  What with his transit from Sacramento through Las Vegas, I hope that there's nothing that needs to stay in Vegas. 

Props to Robin next door for running a 5K this morning, coming home to cut their grass and ours, and then blowing off our driveway.  I told her that this was breakfast-Saturday-before-Christmas for years. 

Michelle is to be at the hospital tomorrow at 1130.  Tia is taking care of Angel for most of the day.  Big thanks to her to helping with the little guy, and big big thanks to everyone for their support. 

Progressive and Ongoing Accomplishments

Getting through yesterday and moving into today, a number of things are moving forward.  Michelle chose to try a different ambulatory stair method last night, crawling up forward, rather than backing up.  That went pretty well, quicker and a whole lot less tiring.

Mom and Dad came up today, and visited with us for a few hours. Mom is staying with us to help out next week after Michelle’s surgery.  I’ll be able to go into the office more consistently, and that’s a serious advantage for my ongoing assignments.

Her pre-surgery ankle is complaining a lot more today.  Elevation helps, but only for a short time.  She’s over there working right now, getting some projects finished up.  She’ll put it away and go lay down in a little while.  Putting her feet up will help, when she does it.

Two more nights before she goes into surgery.  The doctor will splint it post-op, and then June 12 for her post-op exam.  We’re expecting a cast then, and the countdown (six weeks, I believe) starts for the serious part of recovery towards increased mobility.

What I remember, and I’m having to rely on memory since I forgot to take pen and paper for notes, is that the cast on her post-op ankle is for six weeks.  After then, the Moon Boot replaces the cast and, as I understand it, her right ankle is functional and she’ll be able to put weight on both feet.  MAJOR ACHIEVEMENT.  At that point, we’re working towards things being back to what they were before the events of Saturday morning, May 19^th.

The stairs, pictorially represented, in part

Here, you can see the final five of the stairs that were described in the previous lengthy post.  The dog shown is a true-to-life scaling constant so as to represent what one might see upon looking up the stairs.  Given the actual distance from the bottom (or near the bottom) of the stairs, and being that the point-of-view is actually 2/3 of the way up the stairs, the dog in the not-so-recent cellphone photograph is larger than he appears, although maybe not so much.

a milestone event, with associated events of note

TODAY’S ENTRY IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY FONT “Inkpen2 Script”

Yesterday was a VERY full day, the first day that Michelle left the house since coming home from the hospital on Monday afternoon. Consulted with the doctor who'll be surgery-ing her foot Tuesday, the 29^th, after which we had to go through pre-admission at the hospital (sort of across-the-street from the orthopedist), after which we went to the tag office to pick up a handicapped hanger for my car during her passenger-ing, after which we went to P.F. Chang's and met Erin, a single one of triplets, but not identical to either of her sisters. It turns out that Erin is big buds with Cassie, who is in Venezuela, I think we were told, visiting family. Either are excellent wait staff persons, and well-worthy of asking for if you go to P.F.C.

And then we went home, got on our various computers to get some work done. Not long after that, the physical therapist, Rosanna, came by and we worked on stair usage techniques, along with showing us how to "lock down" the knee scooter so that it won't roll. (the trick is to push the handbrake levers in the direction opposite the usual direction for braking; it takes a bit of force with the one we're renting)

After Rosanna took off, Michelle was pretty tired, and lay down. Maybe she took a nap. I stayed on-line, logged in to the office, getting things lined up on my current assignments.

we had been talking about Michelle going upstairs to sleep in our bed, but the (just went and counted) 14 (fourteen - FOUR TEEN - ten plus four more) steps were a challenging issue of very specific reality.

Had to take the dog for a walk, which wound up being around-the-block for the first time since Michelle's accident due to crossing paths with one of our dog-walking neighbors and having some company to make the loop. With that thoroughly completed, got back home a little after ten and prepared for ascending the staircase.

Bear with me for just a little bit here.  ONE – pull the foot in the Moon Boot up one stair, grab the rail, push with the foot in the boot while pulling with the arm on the rail while pushing with the other hand on the stair step that you’re vacating to approach the next step and seat yourself upon it.  Repeat.  Repeat.  REPEAT.  Do this 12 times, because, after transferring to the staircase from the wheelchair, you actually started two steps up and not from the floor, thankfully.  It’s still no picnic, especially with holding her left leg up to keep from putting weight on her to-be-operated-upon ankle.  She was REALLY tired when she got to the top.

Had the knee scooter up there, but still the hassle of getting her upright enough to get her knee (the knee somewhat above the ankle that’ll be operated on in a few days) on the knee scooter.  Got that done, navigated her into our bedroom for the first time since Saturday the 19^th, the fateful morning where our plans had been to first go have some breakfast at Uptown Breakfast (we had a coupon, plus we both really like going there) and then go to Area 51 / Aurora Cineplex to see DARK SHADOWS.

Alas, but it was not to be.  See earlier entries for details.

But I digress at some length,  She went to bed not long after getting upstairs, and was asleep, or close enough for it to count as such, within a minute or two.  I got my shower done and my keyboard-ing finished (one pass through a transcription of O CHRISTMAS TREE, the Guaraldi arrangement, and then J.S. Bach’s PRELUDE IN C MAJOR) before going to bed, reading for a few minutes, and then turning the light off.

We got up sort-of-early for a Saturday, 7-ish, but we were both awake and there were things to do.  We navigated her into the master bath and I placed preferred intentionals at hand for her usage.  She washed her hair while I was out with the dog, and dried it after I connected power to the hair dryer.

With all that business complete (there’s a lot more that I didn’t go into), she transported out and had a look in the closet for the first time since the morning of the 19^th.  (maybe I keep going back to that, but, hey, think about a week of not getting into the part of your home where you keep your personal necessaries) 

With that part of the day’s preparations behind us, we were faced with descending the staircase.  Not so difficult as the ascension phase, albeit with somewhat more risk, what with gravity’s part in what’s going on.  Getting her seated at the top of the staircase went better than we expected, and then it was the tedious business of one-step-at-a-time, move both feet, keeping the soon-to-be-operated-on foot from bearing any weight, the whole brace with the booted foot and gymnastics with the arms business.  Again, tedious.  Not the stuff of a page-turning novel, nope, nosirree, uh-uh.

But it went well.  Got her downstairs with some expedition, into the wheelchair, into the den, and on the sofa as I prepped for my parents visiting with us this morning.  Cooked some breakfast for us, got a call from Dad about how things weren’t working out for today, but that tomorrow is scheduled.

What with our talking about going to the movie last weekend and missing it, we had been discussing going to the movie tomorrow.  With that no longer an option from blocking out the morning for my parent’s visit, what the hey, we got things in motion for going out.

I took the dog for a walk, we went through getting Michelle down the treacherous stairs into the garage (not so many, but a really tough payoff at the bottom if mistakes get made), knee scooter over to the car, into the car waiting while I got the wheelchair into the car, and then we took off.

Got to the theater, saw the movie, left the theater (no review, plenty of those on-line; we enjoyed it enough), drove through Arby’s to pick up some lunch, and then came on home.  Michelle fed me curly fries on the way.

So, the big deal, the milestone event, the associated events of note, are herewith described.  If it’s not clear what, hey, have another go at the read.  Thanks to everyone for their kind thoughts and generous wishes.

You know, I like this font.  It’s sort of almost like how I write when I’m using pen/pencil and paper, except that the letters and digits are much more read-able.

"stress view" x-ray

This image was taken 25 May and is called a "stress view" because the surgeon was twisting her ankle, getting the break in her distal fibula to show more clearly. The twisting lasted only a fraction of a second. It's not so bad as it sounds.  Michelle can tell you more about it.

Explaining above, the oval shows the break that will be repaired by installing a plate on the outer side (from the right as seen above) and holding the plate on and to the bone with two screws, with the screws piercing the fractured bone portions and pulling them together.

The diamond surrounds what appears to be another fracture that will have two screws implanted from the left side, repairing the damage and affixing the broken bone surfaces together for healing to commence and continue, hopefully over a span of six weeks.

The rectangle shows how her tibia is not-quite-aligned with the foot bone (sorry, I'm out of medical specifics), indicating ligament damage that will presumably be addressed by holding the whole system of bones stationary over the six-week term of the post-surgery cast-wearing phase.

Being that I was completely unprepared to take notes during today's consult, I'm relying on memory for this, so any mistakes will have to be corrected when the data is available. Thank you for your patience.

25 May status

Hello and greetings, everyone.  Michelle got a consult (and a stress x-ray, not a pleasant event) today with the surgeon and is scheduled for outpatient surgery on her left ankle Tuesday, the 29^th.  They’ll put a cast on her ankle after the surgery.

After six weeks, the cast comes off and the moon boot on her right foot/ankle/leg-up-to-her-knee will swap to the post-surgery ankle, leaving her right ankle, we believe, without medical devices and presumably free to function as originally intended.

We have a time-frame for resolving the situation.  Many thanks to everyone for your kind words of support.

how it began on 19 May, 2012

Hello and good day, erstwhile reader. Here is a quick summary of Michelle’s injuries: Saturday morning, missed last step down into garage, concrete floor, two broken distal fibula (one in each ankle) and a broken 5^th metatarsal in her right foot.  “Moon Boot” on her right foot/ankle/leg for “walking” (hopping, actually) – no weight on left foot (angry shooting pain when that happens). temporary splints on both feet/ankles/leg-from-knee-down, orthopedist earlier today recommended surgery, scheduled for 29 May; wheelchair, walker, severely restricted mobility, many restrictions, various indignities. 

http://twobrokenankles.blogspot.com/ is much worse than what Michelle is facing, but it’s a good summary of what she’s dealing with.

Stairs?  Only with tedious business that I'll detail some other time.  Completely independent mobility is not for some weeks, at very best.  The knee scooter (picture, eventually)

Thanks to everyone for kind words of support and hopeful wishes.