May 6, 2010 - at home

It's Thursday morning. I left rehab on Tuesday morning, went right to an appointment at orthopod's office, went out to lunch with son and daughter, and came home. For lunch we went to Tessaro's, a place I have been wanting to check out since I moved to Pittsburgh. Had heard that Tessaro's was the home of the best hamburgers in the Burgh. Son and daughter had hamburgers. They looked pretty darn good. I went for a steak sandwich with bleu cheese. It was lush, and satisfied my food needs for the rest of the day.

First I'll report on orthopod visit, then on being at home.

Orthopod was not at all gung-ho about my going to rehab. His preference was that I went home and went to bed for six weeks with leg elevated. I couldn't imagine going home without a leg two days after surgery, so made arrangements for rehab on my own. Turns out there is a real philosophical difference between orthopedist and rehab folks. Orthopedist wants leg elevated and still. Rehab wants you to work. Ortho is concerned that wound area will not heal well, that entire area could open, etc., etc. Rehab is concerned that you are strong and ready to take care of yourself and ready for prosthesis. I tried to get ortho folks and rehab folks talking to each other to evolve a treatment plan that would satisfy both and me. Not sure that I ever succeeded. And because I was with the rehab folks, I went with their plan.

So,, while I am healthy and the wound area is healing well, ortho would have been happier if I had been home in bed since the surgery and continuing on.

As a side note, I remember the same kind of disconnect when I did the ankle implant. Should I be strengthening the area or should I be sitting still waiting for healing? Again I went with PT folks. That's the failed surgery, but I don't think it is because I did six weeks of PT.

Back to the ortho visit. I learned that my entire plan for walking again is off by two to three weeks. I heard that the whole thing was a six weeks process. My assumption was that I would be dancing at the end of six weeks. Well, I got that one wrong. I will be ready to be fitted for a prosthesis at the end of six weeks. I think this means I am fitted for prosthesis sometime the beginning of June and then get it about ten days after that. So that would be back to rehab maybe June 14.

And then there is the decision about inpatient vs outpatient rehab - and I don't have to figure that out today. I think I will figure out a lot more after my next orthopod appointment on May 25.

So, because I am always in a hurry to get to the next place, I am angsting a bit about this, but it's back to that expression that I love, "It is what it is". And that's clearly the first line of the next haiku.

About being at home. My bed is downstairs in the family room. I bought a 40 inch TV before I had the surgery, and that is set up at the foot of the bed. The whole downstairs of the house and the deck in the yard is easily wheelchair accessible. I have my leather wheelchair "rocker" gloves and I am good to go with all of this stuff. I have hired help for two hours M-F to get me started for the day (I need about 30 minutes of help, but that's harder to arrange unless I want to call on friends and neighbors

Son James took me for a walk around the perimeter of my property yesterday to check out the garden. Blooms abound. The azalea are glorious right now as are some of the rhodadendrum. Hydrangea will follow. I've become a real fan of flowering shrubs, especially if you can organize to have shrubs with blooms for different seasons. Checking out my garden does make me itch for a trip to the grand nursery out by Fox Chapel where, or course, I would buy too much plant material. This year, I think the rest of my planting needs to be postponed until the fall. The yard needs shrub material and fall is a good time to plant.

Otherwise, not sure how I spent the day. Did watch some TV on this 42 inch screen - Rachel Ray and the View. All grandkids but one have checked me out, and that one is starring in her school play this week. Matter of fact, I will be taken on an outing this evening, where we have already made arrangements for the wheelchair lift to be available so I can see Ali do her stuff in Fiddler on the Roof where she is playing the mother.

Home Health Care Nurse came by yesterday. Physical Therapist comes by this afternoon. Is it time to start a quilting project? Only so many hours a day I can lie around and read or watch TV.

And about pain - I do believe the phantom pain is diminishing. I realized, as I was about to write about it, that I spent less time talking to my leg yesterday than I had the day before. And the talk goes something like this - as I hold the bottom of Daisy - "Hey, this is the end right here. You can stop sending messages into the void. That's a real waste of energy. Better to send signals about healing to where my hands are". I'm not sure this does anything at all, but this is about retraining the brain, and I figure that talking to it can't hurt and might help.

It is what it is
Each day is twenty-four hours
Wait, tomorrow comes