Recovery timings

Posted in: Injury Time

Had a chat with yet another of the doctors here and apparently if the surgery goes well (which of course it will) I could be out of here by this time next week. I can then start to bear weight on that foot within about six weeks, expecting decent usefulness in eight to twelve weeks. Since my left foot at the moment is more damaged it'll be longer. An immobile summer awaits.

I've mixed feelings about leaving the hospital.

On the one hand I share the bay with up to three other patients including one that is particularly annoying right now; I'm regularly descended upon with three-hourly blood pressure, temperature, O₂ saturation tests; daily anti-coagulant injections; painkilling administrations; food at set times; giving blood samples; hailing nurses for ice-packs; injury inspections; not having a proper internet connection; being woken at 6:45am; and so on.

On the other hand, none of that stuff actually bothers me particularly, and quite honestly I'm really grateful I'm getting it. Having my meals cooked for me is fantastic, despite not particularly wanting them, the bed is really comfortable, I have some kind of 'net connection, I can work, the view is amazing, and I am mostly in a place where I can get on with life, minus the physical bits. I'm being unbelievably looked after which I'm so grateful for it's hard to put into words (altho occasional tears seem to substitute).

My three-story house isn't suited for wheelchairs, even incredibly hi-tech expensive ones. I know this as I have a paraplegic friend and even her super-slick chair isn't much use chez moi. I generally sling her up on piggy-back and waft her to a comfy chair. Unfortunately I can't do that for myself, nor do I know anyone who could that with me, however much fun it might be :-)

In practice I think this means I will be living in my bedroom for three months. Not sure yet what I'm going to do about biological matters like food, and its ultimate expulsion. Simple stuff like ice packs will be extra work. My house is in Zone 3 which means for most people it might as well be in the horsehead nebula. Obviously, all this has solutions and in the scale of things probably straightforward but right now I'm in no hurry to leave here.

The other aspect is that after surgery it is going to hurt like fuck. There's no getting away from this, that's what happens when you're cut up, drilled into, and sewn back up. Last week I listened to my neighbour, a cool Latvian guy break from those sharp, pained, sucked-through-teeth inhalations into quiet suppressed weeping all night and into the next day after they operated on his foot. My current neighbour spent the night before last yelling for morphine, also post foot surgery.

On to more fun matters, Tom has already kindly offered me at least one outing to a conference in late June so that'll be good stuff. And not going out for literally three months will provide an unprecedented opportunity to clear a backlog and forge ahead with some cool projects...

Posted by Paul Makepeace at May 27, 2005 13:52 | TrackBack