Saturday, April 14, 2007
CRUTCHLESS.........
WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS MATERIAL WHICH MAY OFFEND SOME READERS.
So tread carefully.
Another first!!!
Yesterday was the first time I'd gone out of the house ( not including going to the shop 4 doors down ) with walking aides.
They had to be told.
"You're holding me back! We just don't seem to get along anymore. I appreciate all the support you've given me over the last year, but the spark in our relationship has faded. My legs have grown together and we've grown apart and I don't think we'll ever get back together again. "
They took it rather well I thought, although when I got home my main crutch was in the same position as I'd left it, moping.
The last two weeks have been quite strenuous physically and mentally and Thursday was a good example of the kind of days that have passed.
Off to work for an 8:30 start, 12:30 straight from there across town to Cabrini hospital for a review with my pelvis specialist, 2:30 straight from there to the Alfred to visit Al and then the 8pm tram to the place that sells bad beer for a couple of relaxing pints to soothe the day's aches and pains, and eventually home.
Friday it all came to a grinding halt.
About 5 ish I had to have a lie down just from being totally knackered.
Hoping to get a little snooze for even half an hour, all I could do was lie there and mentally locate and count all the areas of pain spread generously around my body.
Lying there, listening to Hurt by Nine Inch Nails, I thought of the beginning of all this and how I was doing pretty much the same thing, except that the pain was a hell of a lot more intense.
Oh, and the bed is a lot softer than bitumen.
Speaking of NIN, I found this little bit of gold on the interweb the other day. Tragic, but funny.
After my unsuccessful siesta I was marginally less sore and that's when I decided to throw caution to the wind and go to the place of bad beer sales and see if I could make it there unaided.
I was also feeling the need to talk to a couple of people I knew would be there.
Hey it's cheaper than therapy and it works!
After catching the tram I made the half mile trek, with a lot of teeth gritting and conscious planning of foot placement.
Walking at a much slower pace than other pedestrians and with an unsteady gait matched with agonisingly contorted face, I tried my hardest to not look like some drug fucked alcoholic wandering the streets in the dark.
I suppose being a Friday evening in Melbourne, I didn't exactly look out of place, maybe more like an early starter.
Friday the 13th and a couple days short of 13 months since I lost the freedom.
13 might be my new lucky number......
On the pelvis front, the good surgeon was extremely happy with the progress and was recommending swimming and bicycling!
On informing him that I have been officially banned by the physios and rehab doctor from even entertaining the thought, due to the possibility of my coming a gutser and breaking something that's now healed, he burst into a healthy guffaw and shook his head.
In the scheme of things I have to adhere to the directives coming form my rehab doctor.
No more review with this one until November.
On the Al front, he was in fine spirits on Thursday.
One of the plastics surgeons was there and mentioned that the following day he would be meeting with the trauma, plastics and orthopaedic teams to discuss the next step in sorting out a plan for Al's arm.
The short of it is that if the skin graft donor site looks fine this weekend and the arms looking ok, he might be able to go home soon.
One point of contention is the external fixation on his arm and a means of supporting that arm if he were to go home.
Apart from that, he really did look well.
The full body rash from a reaction to one of the antibiotics has pretty much cleared up and that in turn has turned his mental state around to the point that he was cracking jokes, making the nurses and doctor laugh and generally feeling a lot more positive.
Tonight it's Bones' bucks night and there will be go karts involved.
Woohooooo!!!!
Time to get sore again.
.
So tread carefully.
Another first!!!
Yesterday was the first time I'd gone out of the house ( not including going to the shop 4 doors down ) with walking aides.
They had to be told.
"You're holding me back! We just don't seem to get along anymore. I appreciate all the support you've given me over the last year, but the spark in our relationship has faded. My legs have grown together and we've grown apart and I don't think we'll ever get back together again. "
They took it rather well I thought, although when I got home my main crutch was in the same position as I'd left it, moping.
The last two weeks have been quite strenuous physically and mentally and Thursday was a good example of the kind of days that have passed.
Off to work for an 8:30 start, 12:30 straight from there across town to Cabrini hospital for a review with my pelvis specialist, 2:30 straight from there to the Alfred to visit Al and then the 8pm tram to the place that sells bad beer for a couple of relaxing pints to soothe the day's aches and pains, and eventually home.
Friday it all came to a grinding halt.
About 5 ish I had to have a lie down just from being totally knackered.
Hoping to get a little snooze for even half an hour, all I could do was lie there and mentally locate and count all the areas of pain spread generously around my body.
Lying there, listening to Hurt by Nine Inch Nails, I thought of the beginning of all this and how I was doing pretty much the same thing, except that the pain was a hell of a lot more intense.
Oh, and the bed is a lot softer than bitumen.
Speaking of NIN, I found this little bit of gold on the interweb the other day. Tragic, but funny.
After my unsuccessful siesta I was marginally less sore and that's when I decided to throw caution to the wind and go to the place of bad beer sales and see if I could make it there unaided.
I was also feeling the need to talk to a couple of people I knew would be there.
Hey it's cheaper than therapy and it works!
After catching the tram I made the half mile trek, with a lot of teeth gritting and conscious planning of foot placement.
Walking at a much slower pace than other pedestrians and with an unsteady gait matched with agonisingly contorted face, I tried my hardest to not look like some drug fucked alcoholic wandering the streets in the dark.
I suppose being a Friday evening in Melbourne, I didn't exactly look out of place, maybe more like an early starter.
Friday the 13th and a couple days short of 13 months since I lost the freedom.
13 might be my new lucky number......
On the pelvis front, the good surgeon was extremely happy with the progress and was recommending swimming and bicycling!
On informing him that I have been officially banned by the physios and rehab doctor from even entertaining the thought, due to the possibility of my coming a gutser and breaking something that's now healed, he burst into a healthy guffaw and shook his head.
In the scheme of things I have to adhere to the directives coming form my rehab doctor.
No more review with this one until November.
On the Al front, he was in fine spirits on Thursday.
One of the plastics surgeons was there and mentioned that the following day he would be meeting with the trauma, plastics and orthopaedic teams to discuss the next step in sorting out a plan for Al's arm.
The short of it is that if the skin graft donor site looks fine this weekend and the arms looking ok, he might be able to go home soon.
One point of contention is the external fixation on his arm and a means of supporting that arm if he were to go home.
Apart from that, he really did look well.
The full body rash from a reaction to one of the antibiotics has pretty much cleared up and that in turn has turned his mental state around to the point that he was cracking jokes, making the nurses and doctor laugh and generally feeling a lot more positive.
Tonight it's Bones' bucks night and there will be go karts involved.
Woohooooo!!!!
Time to get sore again.
.
