Thoughts Galore

We are all broken in some ways. A life-threatening disease, lifelong disability, financial hardships, relationship break-down… you name it.

Like how I can’t bear to follow Malaysian news because I think of my dad every time. How he would have liked to see me graduate, doing what I love and said that I would do since I was 10: pursuing a phd, which was something that my dad said he would like to do just a year before he passed away, but was put off due to various commitments. We did joke that he might be one of the oldest in the class.

I guess at the end of the day, it’s up to us to best manage our messed up lives. Some have it easier than others, but then again who’s to judge what’s easy and hard. It helps to know that God doesn’t give us what we can’t handle. Every struggle we endure and the little bits that we conquer, makes us the person we are and that we can only hope that we are better for it.

Revelations 21.4

God shall wipe away all tears and there shall be no more deaths. Neither sorrow nor crying. Neither shall there be any more pain. Praise the Lord.

So, it has been more than 3 months since my last post.Let’s see…Ankle-wise

1. Completed 6 weeks of supervised gym (i.e. a PT watches over you while exercising)
2. Been coaxed into jogging. Tried a gentle jog forwards and backwards with the PT, but still have not plucked up the courage to do so on my own yet.
3. I must have lost the zeal to keep doing those stretching exercises about 2 months in. Got an earful from the PT on one of my visits. On hindsight, I guess that was why she booked me in to be a subject in the recent student exams. I was recruited just a day before the PT students’ final exam. Yay for them, I’m usually a cooperative patient. Bleargh. At least it got me to do some stretching and strengthening exercises.
4. Most people can’t tell that I broke my ankle now, even descending stairs. Except on days when my ankle feels sore, either from over or under use.
5. I have pretty much starting wearing all my normal footwear now, except for heels. I place comfort very highly over pricing these days. Got a good discount for the Homy-ped shoes I bought
6. I still have not gotten over the 2 large surgical scars on my ankle, but I’m slowly overcoming it! During the soaring heat this past week, I wore slippers and shorts. A couple of people did notice it and were very polite about it.

Others

1. More or less got a handle on my research direction for the next 2 years. Needs more work on it though, which starts now (once I have submitted my last paper for Optimisation).
2. Shifted desk.
3. Optimisation class rocks. But the exam didn’t.
4. Discovered that marking assignments can be very, very time consuming. Note: write neatly and legibly if you want the marks. I have been tempted to give a big fat zero to some assignments. hmmph.
5. Sang in an awesome concert at the town hall and my ankle stood up to it! Hehehe.
6. Gosh, proper breath technique is hard!

The 3 week old bandage around my ankle was finally removed during my OS appointment on Monday. The single stitch from the diastasis screw removal was removed without much fuss, though the strange pulling sensation still does rate rather high up my list of undesirables. Fortunately, it’s nothing compared to the first suture removal, about 20 stitches in all? Ym was there on both occasions to give me the much needed support.

The OS gave me an all clear. Bones are as good as new, reinforced with metal now. A refracture would make the ankle very hard to fix, i.e don’t break that ankle ever. Swelling and pain are still expected and it’ll probably feel normal again after 9-12 months. So, I’m off the space boot and this was my final OS appointment

Nevertheless, I have not regained the full range of motion yet. Having difficulties with dorsal and plantar flexions. So PT is on-going and I’m going in every Thursday for the next 6 weeks for an hour of supervised gym, where I get to go on the bike, trampoline etc I must say it feels pretty good to work myself up in sweat again.

Anddd…

drum roll please

I put on a normal shoe on my left on Wednesday!! And managed short distances (between my office and the labs in Old Eng) , plus a full 2 hours on my feet without crutches :-D  That said, my ankle felt pretty sore that night, but I recovered the next day and walked without crutches to the hospital for the gym session. I have been going about without crutches, except when using trams where I have to ascend and descend those steps. The crutches will not be needed once I regained more flexing motion in the ankle.

The only problem now is the increased need for sock laundering.

A new semester started again on Monday. Everything is back in full swing.

Doing 1 subject this semester, Introduction to Optimisation. Good stuff, and the guy is a hard core mathematician. It’s going to be an awesome

Research wise, things are proceeding. At least my mobility isn’t so limited any more. There are a few goal posts coming up in the next few months, mainly admin wise work to be done.

Choir was good as always. Lots of new faces, due to the new semester sweeping in herds of lambs to be sacrificed at the altar to Haydn and Jenkins. Arrangements for the central Eu tour is underway. Note to self: I need to book flights.

I’m going to recommend music therapy for people with broken legs. Just got back from choir about an hour ago, took off the boot and realised that I have much greater mobility in the ankle! Ym agreed that my limp has really reduced. Honest, this was not the first incident.

So here begins another semester, without the wheel coming off the wagon bit please.

Deo Gratias

Wow, finally a blog post that is unrelated to my ankle!

When will Kindle ever come to Australia? I suppose there will be many hoops to jump through before Amazon can ever set up shop here in the land down under, or rather the-land-where-things-come-late-because-it’s-in-the-southern-hemisphere-dammit.

I read through lots of material weekly and would really appreciate a dedicated device that is light enough to bring to bed with me, easy to read (the iphone is just too small, though I must say Stanza is highly recommended) and could hold all my reading materials.

There are hacks on getting Kindle to work in Aus, but what I really want is a fuss free way of buying books. Come to Australia, Kindle!!

I found out where a chunk of my time has disappeared to during the week. Hospital appointments.

I didn’t have any to keep this week and suddenly found a whole lot more time on my hands.

A typical clinic appointment would take 3 hours. Wait + x-ray + wait + see the doc.

Physio would take about 1.5 hours. Wait + see the physiotheraphist + exercise + massage as needed.

I keep telling myself that it’s all necessary in order for a full recovery.

On a brighter note, I found out that my gait without the boot has improved when I got back from choir rehearsal last night. Have gained a few degrees in dorsi flexion, which reduces the limp when walking.

I’m attributing it to the wonders of music and also the fact that we were practically praising God’s name the whole session, in Latin no less.

Sanctus. Sanctus. Sanctus moo

So far,

12 May  Broke ankle

13 May  Admitted to hospital.

15 May  Surgery. 2 metal plates and 16 screws inserted. Leg placed in backslab.

18 May  Discharged.

20 May  Went to uni for the first time since the INCIDENT.

4 June  First OS appointment post-op. Backslab removed. Placed in full cast.

6 June  First outing. Dinner with friends.

25 June  2nd OS appointment. Cast was removed. Started physiotheraphy. Given the CAM boot.

2 July   2nd physio appointment. Worked on range of motion exercises.

9 July  3rd physio appointment. Very limited dorsal and plantar flexions. Physio thinks it’s due to the diastasis screw that is going to be removed next week.
Walked home (~1.25 hour. Usual duration would have been 25 minutes) with lots of rest stops.

13 July  Surgery to remove diastasis screw. Day procedure only. Full weight allowed on left leg as much as can be tolerated.

16 July  4th physio appointment. Still very limited dorsal and plantar flexions. Shown exercises to improve range of motion and to strengthen muscles. Given forearm crutches to encourage more weight to be placed on left leg. Allowed to walk without boot at home. Exercises crucial in regaining full function of left leg.
Walked home.
Realised I can walk with just one crutch.

17 July  Sunny day. Walked to uni (~1 hour, usual time would have been 20 minutes). Rested on benches on the way.
Walked home from uni (less than 1 hour). Took a different route.
Some pain and swelling that went away with elevation.
Limited RoM, which makes walking unassisted hard on the left knee. In general, more weight can be tolerated.

18 July  Climbed home stairs with both crutches.

19 July  Ascended and descended home stairs with one crutch.

Went for physio today. The physiotherapist gave me a whole new set of exercises to do since I’m allowed full weight now. And ….

Meet Tee and Fee the 2nd..

My range of motion is still rather limited. The exercises should help. Just now in the kitchen, I managed to walk/limp without crutches. It’s hard as it hurts when I have to push off the floor, due to difficulties in bending my ankle still. But I managed to walk!

Will still need the crutches for extra support when negotiating the more challenging terrain outside the house though. The idea is to slowly rebuild muscles and wean myself off crutches.

Back to physio in 2 weeks time and the docs in 3 weeks time for the suture removal.

The day started with an early breakfast. Ym has kindly lent me a mini kettle so I could have a hot drink in the morning before I started fasting from 7am onwards.

Sam arrived at 10:30 ish. By 11, kl, Sam and I were ready. Sm arrived to pick us up and off we headed to the hospital. Walked in through the doors I left about 9 weeks ago and checked myself in to the Day Procedures centre. After a short wait, I was ushered into the changing room. I was given a hospital gown, a bath robe and blue covers for my feet. The rest of my clothes and boot were placed in a brown paper bag and tagged. I was given the patient wristband again. Once I was done, I moved to the waiting area, where all the other patients were waiting for their surgery. We were all decked out in white bath robes and blue foot covers. It looks to me like it’s a roomful of lambs waiting to be slaughtered. :-S

Sam dished out his laptop and we had fun playing Bejewelled 2 till the batteries ran out. An old lady who is working as an interpreter for a Polish patient came over and started talking to us. *Psst, I think she has an interest in Sam. A food documentary was showing on TV and a patient asked the nurse whether the channel could be changed. I checked the time, it was 2:30pm. All of us would ideally have been fasting since 7am. The worst thing about the fast is the no drinking bit. Sigh.

Around 3:20pm, there were only another patient and I left. The nurse came by to inform us that we will be up next. I went off to the bathroom to freshen up and just about when I was done, the nurse came knocking to inform me that they are ready for me.

I was placed in a wheelchair (sigh) as they took my crutches and was wheeled towards the operating theatres. Transferred to a bed, then a nurse came by to go through the pre-op list. Then the anesthetist came by and ran through the list again. I expressed my interest in staying awake to watch the procedure. The anesthetist was a bit reluctant but said she will check with the OS. At about 3:30pm, I was wheeled into the anesthetic room.

The nurse started prepping me: stuck the IV in the worst of all places (my wrist) because she couldn’t find my veins and placed electrodes on my chest. Having an IV is now one of the most unpleasant things on my list -_-” The anesthetist came in and said a GA is probably the best option for me.

Oh well, at least I did try. A sedative was first injected. Then I was wheeled into the operating theatre. Tranferred me to the table and she told me that she’s injecting the drug now. That was the last I remembered.

I woke up an hour later at 4:30pm. A nurse in a brightly coloured hat said everything went fine and asked if I had any pain. I was a bit groggy, but otherwise alert. I said no, and asked what time would I be allowed to leave. She said in about 1.5 hour’s time. We chatted for a bit. Then I fell asleep again until I felt an aching pain on my ankle. The nurse gave me some Endone, which surprisingly, I had no trouble swallowing. There must be something about hospitals that make pill swallowing easier. I fell asleep again.

At about 6:15pm, I was more awake. So I was moved to the day procedures recovery area, where Sam was waiting and I was given some biscuits and water. The nurses took the IV out and the needle was bent!!! And it hurt, a lot!!! Bloody hell, as I am writing this, it has been 3 days and my wrist is still bruised!!

The nurses gave me further instructions about post-op care. Basically, I am now allowed 100% weight on my foot

I have much to be thankful for. Thank you, Sam, kl, sm and ym++ for being around. And thanks everyone for your well wishes and prayers. One more step towards full recovery.

Gloria in excelsis deo

Today is the day.

The fast starts from now. I’m supposed to be there by 11:30am. I guess I should be done by the afternoon.

Good luck to me.