Today was an important day — I had my appointment with Dr. Abidi, the surgeon who did the repair of my fractured right knee. Xan, Eric, Gail, and I went to the appointment. The leg was unwrapped and inspected, x-rays were taken, and the judgment was clear: healing had gone well and it was time for the fixator, the steel brace keeping my left from bending (and thereby damaging the surgical repair to the knee), to come off.
Taking the x-rays involved some pain, moving the leg this way and that so x-rays from different angles could be taken. Removing the brace was yet more painfuful. The brace was secured to my leg by screws embedded in the leg bones. Taking the steel rod off and removing the screws from the leg was painful — and great, because
the hardware, the brace, is off and history!
A big step forward on the road to being able to go home.
The next big step may happen tomorrow. I have an appointment with Dr. Smith, the urologist who installed the catheter-and-foley in me. When I pee, day or night, the pee automatically goes down the catheter into the foley (container), which is emptied a few times a day. I don’t have to think about it at all. But I can’t go home until the catheter-foley can be removed and I can pee, and control my pee, on my own. In tomorrow’s appointment with Dr. Smith he’ll test me to see if I can do that. If yes (big if), I’ll be cleared to go home.
There’s still more to do. I’m back at Santa Cruz Post Acute rehab care, where I need to work with the physical therapy folks on gradually, little by little, bending the leg a bit. I need to work on some other things, too — like my ability to accomplish transfers (e.g. from bed to wheelchair) with minimal help. The criterion is clear: I can go home when the doctor at rehab judges that I can be at home safely.
So there’s still work to do, but what happened today was a big step toward going home.
I’m feeling confident and happy. Going home will take more work, but it’s on the horizon, a lot closer than before.
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