Stepping up

I had my hospital appointment today and there was good news and bad news, but I’m
delighted to say progress is being made and I’m so glad I made that phone call earlier in the week!
The nurse that I’d spoken to stayed with me through the appointment; she was so lovely and said anytime I have any issues at all in the future, I have to call her and she will sort it. She’s certainly come through for me this week that’s for sure.

First the good news....
My consultant finished his mornings work earlier than expected, so was able to devote the rest of his morning to me as a result. We had a good chat and I expressed my frustrations and concerns, which he sympathetically took on board.

My ankle break is healing nicely, so rather than adjust the lower ring on my frame, he said it would be better to just remove it; would I like to be tortured now or later?!
Part of me had hoped he might do something today so I jumped at the chance to crack on with it while I was there.

Removing the ring and some of the struts was much easier than I expected. The consultant said so long as you have a 10mm spanner, you’re good to go!

I was offered a local anaesthetic for the pin removal, but opted for gas and air; nobody told me they had nobbles on! Man, it hurt like a mofo but was over in seconds!

My leg feels lighter already and I can now wear matching shoes....hurrah!!
My next challenge is to work on my walking and free up the stiff ankle joint.

Now for the bad news....

The bit that isn’t healing (where it looked like a jigsaw puzzle on the original X-rays) needs further surgery; he’s going to take bone from my hip, add some ‘magic dust’ and hopefully this will speed up the healing process. I was warned that 4% still don’t heal afterwards, but I’m focusing on the 96% and the fact that of those other 4%, the majority are likely older/overweight/diabetic/smokers (maybe even all four things combined!).

He asked me when our wedding was and while (understandably) he can’t make promises unlike the other twit I saw in January, tut, he’s trying to work backwards from that date, so that’s encouraging. Bless him, he was concerned the bone graft would leave me with a scar on my hip, but I said I’m too old to be vain and would take a scar any day if it helps with healing.
I told him to be grateful there’s still a pandemic, or I would have hugged him for everything he’s done for me today, which made him laugh I wasn’t kidding :-D

I’d only been home about an hour, when his secretary rang to book me in for surgery on the 8th April....yikes!

Although I’ve said it’s bad news, actually it’s not bad at all, as we are making progress now and I’m in a better position than I was a few months ago. Today has given me hope and the lift I needed.

My blip today is of my leg’s lightened load (plus the toolbox in the background) and a close up of one of the pins that were removed. I declined to take the pins home but kept the ring for posterity ;-)

DQ x