News from the doctor

Things that might happen at the end of the month that would make me happy:

• The left wrist may be healed enough to remove the cast.
• Right wrist will hopefully have progressed enough to remove the external fixator that is causing me so much pain. At this point the wrist and arm would be put in a cast for approximately another six weeks.
• Pelvis will be examined by xray to determine if it’s healing enough to begin bearing weight. There are some other things that need to happen before I can walk, more on that later.

I have had in-home physical therapy the past couple of weeks and the physical therapist (pt) is impressed enough with how far I have progressed that I will soon begin outpatient physical therapy. I feel very fortunate to be in good shape because it’s helping my recovery immensely. Outpatient PT’s won’t come to the house, so I will have to find a way to make it out to Kaiser twice a week. That will be a challenge, especially considering I probably won’t be able to drive for at least another month. There are tools available in outpatient PT that should help me recover quicker, which includes a machine that sends electrical impulses to the nerves to stimulate movement and recovery. So here’s the bad news, the nerve that allows me to lift my right foot and toes off the ground is mad at me. The best way to describe it would be to say I could step on the accelerator pedal just fine but I would have trouble lifting my foot off the accelerator. This could be detrimental to my driving record and my health, not to mention I would experience “drop foot” when walking. To be clear, the nerve is not dead, it does respond and my foot will lift off the floor a bit, just not nearly to the extent it should and it’s really weak. The top of the foot is pretty swollen, so we’re hoping once the swelling goes down that the nerve will respond a little better. Regardless, this is where the PT is focused right now and I’m hoping and praying for the best.