The other foot...

Posted in: Injury Time

Since a few people have asked me this - my left foot is "being treated conservatively" which means they're not taking a knife to me, just yet. There wasn't enough bone as I understand it to do much in the way of pinning anyway. Since a couple of weeks ago I've been doing physio on it and it's moving around much as a foot ought to albeit it slowly, with less range, and with discomfort at the limits of its movement. No weight on it yet, altho' I'm sneaking a bit here and there...

I have something called an Aircast PneumaticWalker, a robocop-esque lower leg brace that includes inflatable cells to support and provide compression. Apparently this compression increases venous pressure, i.e. constricts the veins so the blood shoots back faster which encourages osteoblast (bone precursor cells) adhesion. Read the instructions for more. I'm not at a stage where I can walk with this yet, I just wear it at night to keep my foot at about 90° to prevent calf tendon shortening. It's often really uncomfortable - it gets hot and setting the right cell inflation pressure is an art form. Several times woken in the early hours with a strong desire to tear the thing off...

Probably have another xray of both feet in a week or two's time to see what's what. As soon as I can start to bear weight on my left foot I get to use crutches.

Posted by Paul Makepeace at June 17, 2005 13:18 | TrackBack