Modern Vespa

Matthew,

Glad you're feeling the support. It can be a lonely time, and pain and self-pity find their way into you unless you're tougher than average.

Be patient. It's going to take a long time, like it or not. I kept thinking "I can beat this," expecting I'd miraculously be off the crutches early, or feeling great at 6 weeks. I'd even been doing some therapies at my disposal to encourage bone growth, healing etc. No miracles. I think psychologically it helps to have hope, and we do better with more immediate rewards, so we try to push the envelope. Whatever it takes to survive mentally, I suppose.

Personally I'm having a great time limping around like Festus of Gunsmoke, and the light at the end of the tunnel is getting fairly bright. You'll get there too, and it will look much better in hindsight.

Now if only I can stop banging my exposed toes on everything...

You know how to find me. Please let me know what I cam do to help. I am kind of missing the Mrx. I am bored and am here to help you.

Update:
I go in for surgery on Tuesday morning. I will be able to go home by mid afternoon and will be able to go back to work on Wednesday. The doc said that they will uss a combination of pins and a plate held on with screws.

I recieved the iwalk pirate peg leg device from fledermaus yesterday and have had only a few minutes with it so far but it seems like it is going to be very useful. It is not perfect by any means. You can not straighten your leg out while wearing it so you can't really sit comfortably with it on. You can, however go up and down stairs and carry things. I need more practice with it. It was a little scary walking away from the support of a wall, railing or furniture but l'm building up confidence.

Great! Glad you got it. Like everything else, it takes a bit of time. Has limitations, but I developed enough confidence to be able to walk without concentrating too much on it. It did seem to help to assist with my hand on the top part, especially on uneven ground.

Good luck with the surgery. As much as it's something nobody really wants, it's going to stabilize things and assure better healing.

Wondering how much swelling you have? Pretty different injuries-I'm still not seeing the veins on top of my foot 6 weeks out.

BTW,

I think we're in similar places with clients.... rolling into treatment rooms got me a lot of wide-eyed looks even after I'd stopped being self-conscious about it. Now it's the other way around, with people being surprised by me walking.

Good luck Tuesday. Hope the recovery is quicker than expected and as pain free as possible.

PM sent Matthew

Good luck Tuesday! I also hope the recovery is quick.

At some point I'll add to the thread. For now all I can really (want to) say is I see a pain specialist weekly and get nerve block injections. So usually about 8-10 injections a week and I also am on some pretty strong pain and neuropathic pain medications. For the most part the pain is managed except when I have a flare up and then forget about it, nothing works. It's a condition with my nerves and I just feel pain "differently" I guess is the best way to put it. It also comes along with the added bonus of being pretty sick (nausea) almost every morning meaning I need to start my days at least an hour before I really need to. For whatever reason riding also seems to help as I need to concentrate on that and the pain sort of settles in the background.

It's one reason I miss Judy amongst many other reasons. She had similar issues with pain and we were able to have open discussions about it. Far too many people suffer because they are not treated properly for their pain. I'm fortunate in that I am I suppose but even in the Canadian healthcare system the less fortunate suffer because they are "at risk" of abusing the stronger pain medications or more commonly the concern is they are just looking for it to sell them on the street. With my benefits plan I pay about $5 (if that) for what can be sold on the street for hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

I just want to say fuck cancer. Bitza can't speak for himself and in no way could I do justice to how he would put. But in this thread we should honour our dead.

Goodbye Judy and Bitza The update here is they have left us far too soon.

I hope to not have to add to the list in this thread for a long time. Let's all try to take care of ourselves, OK?

Aggreed....

The surgery went fine. The doctor said it was a little more complicated than he thought and he had to put in a couple more screws than he had planned. They gave me printouts of the post op x-ray pictures that I will try to upload later but no promises. I have been having trouble uploading pictures lately.

He said at first that I should spend one night in hospital but later said I could go home where I would get better sleep.

They gave me a pain blocking injection in my leg that will last about 24 hours. I have zero pain now but we'll see how that goes after the meds wear off. I decided to take another day off work tomorrow.

So far, so good. A big step today but the joirney is a long one.

Glad surgery went well.

Onward and upward, Matthew!

Great news.

My GP is about my age, so when I visit him, we exchange stories.
We both agree that we are part our warranty period and were foolish not to take extended warranty insurance in time.

I had a laparoscopy on my left knee by Dr X, he had his right knee done by Dr Y. Now my right knee also needs work...

But as long as I can get my leg over the motorcycle saddle I will be happy with life. When I can't, I shall be joyful that I have a Vespa I can step through and will still be happy with my life.

Before I get old and senile, I hope to have an unintended meeting with a highway bridge support at 160+ whilst escaping the wrath of a cuckolded husband...

(One can still dream,can't we?)

Matt, hang in there! I hope your able to return to work soon enough. I remember years ago when I worked in a super market how nasty standing at a cash register could be! Barbers do much the same thing and even with a floor mat it must be tough. Good luck.

Do the screws stay with you or come out later?

My left knee doesn't "qualify" for laproscoping, which my doc intended to do. When the MRI showed presence of osteo the Medicare rules combined with my age denied me the better fix and forced him to go with a lube job injection of the joint.
A local knee center provides self-payed "Platelet enrichment therapy" at ~ $1,800 USD a pop. That's what the high end athletes use for their knees.

I took a week off work when it happened because I hadn't seen the bone doc yet and I didn't know what was happening. When I did see him he said it was OK to use the knee roller as soon as I was comfortable with it and I could, obviously put absolutely no weight on my foot. I would be going crazy if I were sitting around the house all day. I worked with little or no pain until the operation. I went back to work two days after the surgery. There has been a little more pain since then but not bad. About a 2 or 3 at most on a 1-10 scale and pain meds have helped with that. Hydrocodonde 7.5mg. Three times a day has been enough.

I am on my feet, or I should say a foot and a knee but I dont move around much. I take plenty of breaks and I have been working short days.

I have two different mobility devices and I have been trading back and forth. One is the knee roller. A padded platform on 4 wheels. The front wheels steer with handelbars. The other is called an iwalk. It is basically a pirate peg leg that straps to your thigh. It has a platform that your knee rests on with your lower leg horizontal. Each has advantages and disadvantages. The iwalk takes about a minute to get into and you can't really sit with it on but you can go up and down stairs and carry things. The knee roller is easy to get onto and faster if you have a long way to go but not as easy to maneuver in tight places.

The screws and plates stay in. I dont know if I'll have issues at airports but I don't do that very often. I'll try to post pictures of the post-op x-rays. It hasn't worked with my tablet or phone. Maybe my laptop will be more reasonable.

For now I sit back and wait. It's more than two weeks till my next appointment. I will keep you posted.

I have screws and plates in my ankle. The doc says they can stay in, unless in the unlikely event they begin to bother me they can be removed. There's no pain now, just a little stiffness in the broken ankle. I can feel the screw heads under my skin when I search for them. No problem in airports.

On the morning after I came home from the hospital my wife went to the local Walgreens to get my painkillers. They keep the controlled meds in a time-delayed safe, so I had to sit in pain for an hour or two. Felt like all day.

Then they should keep some small supply outside that locked safe, with controls in place to be sure they don't 'disappear'. It would drive me absolutely up a wall if my medications weren't available when I came to get them, especially pain killers.

The hospital shoulda sent some home with me.

. Could have gone to a dif pharmacy!

Probably the same with any pharmacy. We could have had the prescription filled at the hospital, if we'd known.

Good point.

In every surgery I have had with a number of different doctors I was released from that facility with pain meds. Docs do tend to Rx more than you might need to avoid refills. Some blame docs for this practice but as a person who knows when to stop using them I found it a practical approach.
When I had the TMI?/ butt surgery in 1990 I got too few pills (was before oxy stuff like Matt's taking) and was begging for mercy. It is one bitch of a pain when the first "one" happens! Said to exceed even childbirth.

If body metal was an issue the million's of persons with metal would be in trouble.
I think the THR figure alone is like 3-400k per year now.

My dad was a banker in a small-town bank. Their safe was on a time lock, but Dad kept a secret stash of cash in case someone had an emergency need. He never made that generally known, but he had it if somebody called him after hours.

Nothing new to report except slow, steady progress. Hurts a little less every day. My next doctor visit is Tuesday, April 30.

Here are a couple post-op x-rays.

Doesn't exactly look pretty, but having it fixated takes some variables out of healing. Glad you're having less pain.

Swelling much?

Hope you're managing the day-to-day well enough. It's a PITA, but at least it has an end.


Speaking of ends....first day without the boot! Enough swelling that I barely got my regular shoe on. In no way was I going to default to the boot, even if that's all that fit.
Still stiff, still limping, but that should gradually improve.

Less pain is good. Get well soon.

Sending good vibes your way for a fast recovery.

Ok, just got back from the doc, 3 weeks after surgery.

Looks like it is going to be a long haul. The orthopedist told me when it first happened that it would be three months until they would start to put weight on it. I was hoping that they were really thinking two and told me three just to be on the safe side. Not only is that not so, they said today that it would really be more like four months from the time of injury until I would be cleared to drive my regular car, which has a clutch. Thankfully, I can drive my 1983 El Camino, which is an automatic. My car is a diesel Beetle and gets 45mpg. The El Camino gets 16 but at least I can drive it. Scootering is, of course out of the question for the foreseeable future. Still, it could be worse. I'm glad that I can drive and more importantly, work. If I couldn't the financial burden would be major.

The bone is healing well but there is some concern that the incision may become infected because there is very little tissue between the skin and the bone. If infection got to the bone it would be very serious.

My next appointment is in two more weeks. I will let you know what happens.

Hi Matthew,

This is very similar to my situation eleven years ago when my heel bone was broken and the skin split open. They were very concerned about infection. Make sure you take exquisite care of the wound. (I know it's a surgical incision in your case, but infection doesn't care one way or the other.)

I was able to walk on it after twelve weeks, but I didn't get back on a scooter for seven months. Luckily it was my left foot, so I could drive.

The foot still swells and aches, but I'm functional otherwise. I hope your long term recovery is better.

Matthew,

Sorry about the less-than-good news. I can imagine you feeling a lot of frustration. I know I kept hoping for better-than-expected news, which kept me motivated at least.

Going to be a long summer for you. Hang in there. It's a real endurance challenge, and getting around is a PITA. Thank God for automatic transmissions. I tried to celebrate the fact that of all my extremities, my left leg was the most expendable, allowing me to drive and work with my other three.

Sucks to lose most of a scooting season. Guess riding pillion is an option, but not the same.....

Fortunately, it will have an end and you'll eventually be able to see all of this in the rear view mirror.

Matthew, scootering is definitely not "out of the question for the foreseeable future." Stop that nonsense. As soon as you can get your foot in a shoe you can scoot. It'll do you a world of good. I know this.

Who is the doc on this...

I guess I should define my definition of the word "foreseeable". I'm not sure when they are going to let me wear a regular shoe but I am going to be in a boot until at least 12 weeks after surgery or the first of July. I can assure you that I will be riding as soon as I am able.

They are also saying that if there are no complications, like an infection I can expect to have a more or less complete recovery by 16 weeks or the first of August.

I can see light at the end of the tunnel but it seems like a long way away at this point.

For now it's one day at a time.

Saw the doc today and pretty much all good news.

That does not mean that I am going to be riding or even walking any time soon but things are progressing slowly, but surely.

I have graduated from the splint, which was held on by Ace bandages and I am now in a boot. Much more comfortable and easier to deal with.

The risk of infection seems to be all but over and I can now shower without wearing a trash bag taped to my leg.

I am still using the knee roller and the iwalk. I am glad for those because I wouldn't be able to work on crutches.

The pain is much less too and I have been tapering off the pills. One or two a day now.

I can't remember if I said but I bought an old and beat up Honda Civic to drive because my regular car has a clutch. I'll sell it when this is done. Drives great, gets good mileage and the AC works. What else do you need?

Four weeks until the next appointment. Seems like forever. We'll go from there.

Stay tuned. Same time. Same station.

Congrats on the good new Matthew. Take care and heal well.

Great news Matthew....well, pretty good at least. Pretty soon it will all be a memory-but time drags on in the meanwhile.

I was at the orthopedist's yesterday as well. Last visit. I'm rather impressed (in not a good way) that the bone isn't done healing yet. It's stable, and doing what it's supposed to, but there's a pretty clear fracture line on the films. I can at least do what I want, though still start limping after a good workout.
I'll probably have a thick leg for most of the summer..... but at least I can get my shoe on.

I am covered with wounds but they are contagious

Sorry for the late edit: NOT contageous.

I have 8 more radiation treatments left for my prostrate cancer. Starting from 45, I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel. I finish on May the 29th. Things are going pretty well right now, but there have been some rough periods and I still have to deal with severe fatigue. At least part of the fatigue is caused by the Lupron hormone shot that takes your T level down to zero.

At this point, I am a completely "harmless" male and have to take those shots for a total of two years.

But, I am still upright, and within boundaries, still enjoying life as I get closer to 77 years old.

My wife and children have been handling this pretty well and it doesn't look like I will have to resort to chemo.

I don't envision riding anytime soon.