Physio session

Posted in: Injury Time

Had an hour with a senior physio at St George's who did a full assessment. In practice, this meant him taking a thorough description of my various aches and pains. It was quite a strange exercise as for each one I had to rate it 0-10, 0 being "no pain" to 10 being "worst pain imaginable" along with a description of the pain -- specific, dull, ache, pinch, stab, ... There were about half a dozen or so things I could identify still causing me discomfort (4/10). An elderly lady in the next booth was having real social difficulty with this "oh, I hate to sound like I'm complaining...".

I am a pain, not a number!

The pain scale was tricky. 10, "worst pain imaginable", doesn't seem in my mind to have a limit. Try imagining that pain, and what it would take to inflict that pain. Now, double that. I bet you can. Double again. And again. It doesn't seem to end. Needle in the foot not painful enough? Heat it up. Still more? Try twisting it back and forth once you've hammered it into a joint. Still more? Pull it in and out so the cartilege and tissue are perforated. Still more? Jam it into the bone. Still more? Apply an electric current. Still more? Turn up the voltage. Still more? Change the voltage so it pulses. Still more? Increase 'til the current is causing the surrounding flesh to burn. Once you're foot's done, move onto your knee, nose, eyeball... Needle worn out? How's those thumbscrews and pliers doing.

There was a documentary on TV recently about people who have woken up in surgery and been without pain relief but unable to signal it because they're still paralyzed. Their descriptions were horrifying. A couple of them reached pain levels so high they just passed out. So I suppose there is a limit.

Apart from the sympathetic pains, destruction of karma, and conscience, torturing someone must be about the easiest job, limited only by creativity and sadistic cruelty.

Where was I.. Ah yes. So after some mild prodding and poking Tom essentially thought I was ready for some functional/proprioceptive rehab but was hesitant to do without clearance from the surgeon. I'm so ahead of schedule in my healing, and he could see that and wanted to capitalise on it, but at the same time was worried that I only had surgery two months ago...

My right foot is quite damaged. The talus bone which sits between the bottom of the shins and heel has really thickened up, a normal response to bones breaking ("it'll repair stronger than it was to start!"). Great, except for the fact it could be a while before I can fit the damn thing into my shoe collection... That excess callous bone build-up will recede over time but it takes ages.

My calcaneus/heel has also set at a slightly tweaked angle. I'm not sure if it was like that before though; I do have some minor asymmetry in my feet/leg mechanics.

Eh, the fat lady's not singing yet... And thank goodness I'm not a runner/construction worker/long jumper...

Posted by Paul Makepeace at August 10, 2005 23:09 | TrackBack