Over the last few weeks, I have been impressed by how little the broken part of my leg actually hurts.
- When I stand up (or dangle my foot below my waist), the blood rushing to the break area and my foot, and the resulting pressure, certainly isn't pleasant. This goes away quickly when I raise my foot back up;
- There's still some soreness on my ankle bone (which, interestingly, wasn't broken);
- As we continue to try to reduces the swelling in my foot, the calf muscles feel bruised, likely clogged with the goo we're pushing out to the foot;
- Knee stretches clear tell me area around the stitches on my knee is tight, but it's getting better each day;
- My MCL doesn't like how I hold my leg that much.
But other than that, below the knee, things are looking OK.
Above the knee has been another matter, and in fact has attracted virtually all the attention of my physiotherapist these last 2 weeks.
It started with cramping in my quad that neither heat nor ice nor a combination thereof could make better. And given a lack of range of motion in the knee, it's not a space that can be stretched. It lives in the land of continuous discomfort.
My IT band started to feel hugely bruised a week or so ago, about 5" above the knee. No idea why.
Ten days ago, something -- likely an attempt at stretching my hip flexors -- pinched a nerve in my hip. This sent a rocket of pain (like someone injected acid into my leg) from my hip to my knee, which lasted ~5 minutes. Since that day, a palm sized area above my knee has been numb and has no feeling. And, by simply moving my leg in a certain way, I accidentally trigger this nerve at least once a day, sometimes a few times a day, repeating the "acid injection" feeling. Very uncomfortable. Last night, it happened twice in my sleep, which is a rude awakening to say the least.
Almost 2 weeks ago, I started to get severe sciatic pain, which is quite literally a pain in the butt. This peaked early last week and was downright crippling, though we found a stretch that calms it down, and it's been okay for the last few days.
When I hobble around on crutches (which isn't fun at the best of times, given the arthritis in my wrist), I get a choice:
- Carry my leg forward, which irritates the hip flexor, and sends stabs of pain down to my knee;
- Carry my leg back, which irritates my sciatic pain in my butt; or
- Carry my leg in the middle, necessitating pulling my toes up with my quads, which cramp with unhappiness.
This is why I like my wheelchair, but because it does not have the ability to raise my leg, I can only sit in it for about 30 minutes before the pressure in my foot gets too uncomfortable.
Now my good leg has started cramping in the quad, too. Not sure why, but an utter lack of activity probably isn't helping.
"An utter lack of activity" is pretty accurate. I have only 4 places in the house I can sit and elevate my leg, and a very short list of what I can do.
- I can sit and read. I've already finished Harry Potter #3 (Prisoner of Azkaban, took 2 days), #4 (Goblet of Fire, 4 days) and I'm half-way through #5.
- I can sit and work on my laptop for a few hours, though really, really crappy ergonomics of the way I have to do that add severe shoulder pain to my list of issues if I do that too much.
- I can sit and watch TV, though there's NOTHING on I want to watch. Yesterday, I watched the F1 Barcelona Grand Prix, the first time in ~5 years that I watched a race on the day the race was run. Boring race. If I watch TV for 30 min a day, I would be amazed, though we do watch movies every night after dinner.
It's still not really warm enough for me to get outside in the wheelchair. It was -2° this morning, and may get to 13° this afternoon in the sun. There is still snow on my lawn.
And just think, I have another 16 days to go -- at least -- before I can be weight bearing.
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