Modern Vespa

Here's my latest update but first let me say to MoonDancer that I did not see your post when you first put it up. I hope you are feeling better. Keep us posted.

As fo me, I had another appointment with the doctor yesterday. He said that the wound had healed and the swelling had gone down significantly.

He also said that I am experiencing more pain and less flexibility at this point than he had hoped for so now I go into physical therapy.

He said that since I still have pain at the fracture I might never get over it completely and in two or three years I might need to have the screws and plate removed and have the bones fused. Oh, swell. Just what I wanted to hear.

I hope to be walking in my boot in a couple weeks and I should be able to drive my car with a clutch in 3-4 weeks. That's been an issue because I had to buy a car with an automatic so I could drive. That and insurance on it have made funds tight. At least I'm able to work. I don't know what would have happened if I couldn't.

I'm not sure when I'll be able to ride again but it should be soon after I can wear a regular shoe.

My next doctor's appointment is in 6 weeks by which time I hope to be near the end. I will let you know how the PT goes.

Progress seems slow at this point but at least it's steady.

Thanks for the update, Matthew. I was wondering how things were going. Never fast enough, unfortunately.

Rough go for you. Hopefully you can wring some joys out of the summer regardless of the situation.

It's difficult. Just moving around wears me out. In the mean time the summer is passing me by.

If I could walk on my own, even in the boot without the aid of the iwalk or knee roller that would help a lot.

Having said that I am well aware that things could be worse. I probably said before that my doctor told me that if this had happened to me 100 years ago they would have cut off my foot.

Fledermaus, I'm not sure if it really tells you much but the original diagnosis was "displaced intraarticular fracture of left calcaneus". All I know is it hurts like hell.

I'll get through it, like my wife says "one hop at a time".

It's been a long time since I posted because the progress has been slow and incremental.

I did reach a milestone today of ditching the boot and wearing regular shoes.

That does not mean that I am walking normally yet. I still have to use a crutch. Maybe in a week or two I can put that down too. I suspect it will be a few weeks more than that until I feel comfortable riding again. I hope summer holds out for a couple more months.

I can see light at the end of the tunnel.

Good to hear things are coming along for you Matthew!

Good to hear man! Getting your foot back in a shoe is a huge step (pardon the pun). Just need to build those calf and ankle muscles back up now. You'll be back on the scoot in no time.

It's been over two months since I posted an update. Progress continues to be incremental. Every week, every day it gets a little better.

I have been walking, limping really, with a cane for a few weeks. I may give that up soon as well.

Since the modern Vespa has no foot brake, shift or kick starter I could be riding but I have decided not to until next season. If I went down now and twisted my foot it could cause a life changing injury. Besides I have mothballed the scooter, canceled the insurance and there is not much left in the riding season.

I saw the orthopedist yesterday and he said that my recovery is proceeding well considering my age and no further appointments have been scheduled.

I missed an entire year of riding and there I have a limited number of those left but things could have been worse. They are telling me that since there was no tendon damage I will, eventually make a complete recovery except for maybe some arthritis.

I'm looking forward to next year.

Don't you just love hearing that?

Glad you're doing relatively well. Walking on both feet is truly awesome. 8)

BTW, while I'm here....I've recovered pretty much, though they were right on with the swelling. Wouldn't have expected it, but still have a fat leg compared with the other side. Theoretically a couple of months to normal...though who knows. As long as I don't hurt and my shoes fit, I'm not complaining.

My foot was hurting so I called to schedule an appointment to have it looked at. The doc took one look and said that it is infected and we are operating tomorrow to take the plate and screws out. See you at 7:00 AM.

The prognosis ranges from you will be back to work next week to several operations for bone grafts. The worst case scenarios I don't even want to talk about.

I won't know what I am in for until I get out of surgery.

Best of luck to you Matthew.

Fingers crossed to a (much) better New Year for you, Matthew. Take it seriously easy (PT aside) till then!

I wish you the best as well, Matthew.

This could have been me a few years back and it was very scary.

Take care of yourself as best you can and keep us posted.

Wishing you the best possible outcome with the op Matthew.

All the best for the most favourable outcome possible.

Good luck, stay positive! Peace.

Wishing you the best for a speedy and positive recovery!

Wishing you all the best Matthew! Hope all goes well and it is a speedy recovery.

Hoping that you have a successful operation with a full and speedy recovery.

somerset

Sending healing wishes your way, hope the New Year brings health and wellness.

I hope things go well, Matthew. Infections can be problematic as you know...sending healing thoughts....

Dave

i'm going to jump in with extending best wishes to you with full recovery.
ken

Good luck. Fingers crossed.

I'm out of surgery but they won't tell me anything until cultures come back so they can tell what kind of infection it is. I am getting IV antibiotics for now so I will be in the hospital for at least two days.

IMO they have been a little stingy with the pain meds but it is what it is.

As I said before I will keep you updated.

I am sending all the Good vibes to you. Stay strong and listen to your doctor (s). ***Man hugs***

I just learned that they are suspecting MRSA. Oh, swell.

Nasty stuff, but I know folks who have gotten through it. You can do this.

Bill Dog had it.

Wishing you a good recovery, vrm. I'm sorry I was not aware of your situation and had not read this thread until today. Hope you're back on two legs soon!

Don't worry too much. Focus on your recovery. They will not know if you have MRSA until the blood cultures come back and those usually take 48 hours.

Yes, that's pretty much what they said.

They won't be able to tell me anything definite until the cultures come back but it looks like I should be able to go home tomorrow and, hopefully get back to work the middle of next week but antibiotics might continue for several weeks more depending on what type of infection is involved.

I got sick this morning and couldn't keep breakfast down but that seems to be getting better. They just brought it lunch and we'll see how that goes.

Stay tuned. I'll let you know how it goes.

In 2004, my wife suffered a ruptured aneurysm in her head. Repaired that evening, it turned out the shunt they applied to her head was infected with MRSA. It took six months (and two months of antibiotics at home) plus some unneeded surgeries to cure the infection.

The moral of the story? Push for the best antibiotics first. Zyvox cured my wife; there may be something better now.

A little more information.

It turns out that they are not particularly worried that it is MRSA. That is just one of several possibilities that they are concerned about.

I will be in the hospital probably until Monday morning. I am currently on a basic antibiotic IV and I can't leave until that is finished.

I just had a A PICC line put in. If you don't know what that is you are not alone. I hadn't heard of it an hour ago either. It is a catheter that is inserted in the upper arm and leads to the heart so they can inject whatever antibiotics that I will need systemically. I will either go in to a clinic for that or someone will come to my house.

The type of antibiotics that I will need won't be known until the cultures come back.

The foot itself is healing and no more surgeries are expected.

Onward and upward.

My husband had a injury that lead to a MRSA infection and a PICC line. He had to have these ball things that would connect to the line filled with antibiotics connected to him two times a day. There's a lot of the 6 months he was on the antibiotics that he doesn't remember. He slept a lot. He had to carry pill antibiotics for a year as a backup. Sorry that you are going through this. I'll spare you the gory details of my husband's MRSA. Please get better. It's scary stuff.

Relatively good news, Matthew. PiCC lines aren't fun, but I guess being able to carry on one's life with one (vs. life as an inpatient) is a good thing.

Kind of irritating about medicine that they sometimes throw out everything in a differential diagnosis, whether it's a reality or not. As a patient, one doesn't have a very clear picture anyway, and it just adds to the fear/panic factor. They have to consider all sorts of possibilities, but there's a perspective too....

It wasn't MRSA but rather a less agressive and not particularly antibiotic resistant strain but that doesn't mean I can relax yet.

They gave me a trash bag full of tubing, alcohol wipes, surgical gloves, syringes full of saline and other drugs and an infusion pump that I have to hook up to the PICC line for an hour every day for the next six weeks to inject the antibiotics.

I go in once a week for wound cleaning, PICC tube maintenance, monitoring and a fresh supply of antibiotics.

They are very optimistic but they always seem to be.

I will keep you posted.

That's a relief. You know you can call me like I said whenever you should need to talk I'm here to listen.

We're on the verge of regressing to pre-antibiotic times. Scary stuff. More money in ED drugs, BOTOX, and COPD than in new classes of antibiotics. Phage therapy has some promise with skin infections.

Be careful on your scoots. Protect your skin. Never know when simple road rash will end up killing you.

That's good news, Matthew. The first time I saw my wife's PICC line removed it was like the magicians who pull a never ending string of napkins from their pocket. PICC lines are long!

Since today is the one year anniversary of my injury I thought it would be a good time for an update.

The antibiotics did their thing and I am now infection free.

Removing the hardware was a big help. It was necessary to hold the bones in place while they healed but it needed to go and I won't miss it.

Walking is not much of a problem but I'm still limping a little and running is out of the question. I can get exercise by riding a bicycle. It seems to bother me most when I stand up after sitting for a while. It gets better after I take a few steps. The doctor said this is arthritis caused by the joint between the bones being injured and I will probably have at least some problem with that from now on, though it will improve somewhat from what it is now. He recommended Ibuprofen and that seems to help. There goes my dreams of a career in ballet.

If, after a year or so it is still giving me significant discomfort they might fuse the bones. That sounds painful and I'm sure it has its own complications. I guess we'll see.

When this first happened the orthopedist said that it would be there months before I could start to put weight on it. I assumed he was overestimating the recovery time so I wouldn't get pessimistic. I should be so pessimistic. I could have been worse. When it got infected they told me there was a 10% chance that they would have to amputate. I'm past that danger so it's all good now.

Stay tuned.

Thanks for the update and glad to see things are well!