March 25, 2010

I was fussing about coming home with no leg one or two days post-op and being home without a leg for a month. So this morning I called Health South Rehab Hospital (Hammerville) - where I would go for rehab when I am ready for the prosthesis. They told me I could be discharged directly to the rehab hospital and stay there for somewhere between seven to ten days. During that time they will work with me on using crutches with a different balance point then I have ever used before and they will provide wound card. (And also they will feed me and help me bathe and stuff like that). After seven-ten days, I will go home - but much more recovered than I would be two days post-op. I am breathing deep breaths of relief. I will be able to manage ten to twelve days post-op after some help at the rehab hospital. And then its only about twenty days to prosthesis time. At that time I go back to the rehab facility for another week or maybe two. That's my one remaining big worry crossed off the list.

Have I noted that you can drive with a bionic right leg. At first I thought I needed some modifications to my Prius - like hand controls. Then I thought about a left foot gas pedal (been there, done that), but the Prius doesn't really have room for that. Then I thought about simply extending the brake pedal so I could brake with my left foot driving with my right (my friend Calvin does that), but then, after research on the web, I found that this is a non-issue. You simply get in the car and drive with the bionic leg.

And now, with the damn weird foot, I am going to take myself for a manicure, something I have done once before in the almost four years I have been in Pittsburgh and probably done less than ten times in my life.