Left Leg, Right Clavicle

I had my March appointment with my surgeon. There were two items on the agenda, 1) weight bearing status of my left leg, and 2) surgery to remove the rod from my right clavicle.

The Leg
The x-ray showed there wasn't as much callous as he would like to see, but apparently fair skinned people don't build obvious callouses on their bones. My leg feels great, and it still has great range of motion (I do my exercises every day :-) so he said go for it. I got the green light to start putting weight on my leg today. I have to call and make an appointment with a physical therapist and he sent me home with a single point cane. While I am very excited to start walking again, I am very nervous about it, and afraid I am going to hurt myself (the Fear is creeping back...there really hasn't been much pain in my recovery, but the Fear of pain has been hard to manage). This evening I thought I would give my cane a try. I made Spencer stand on my right side so I could hold onto him, and braced myself with my left hand on the cane (normally for a left leg injury one would use their cane on the right side, but that darn broken collar bone makes that a bad idea). I put my weight on my left leg, and it felt weird. I realized very soon that not only was I not going to be walking, I wasn't even going to take a step (I did make a baby step). My foot felt like a pillow and there was no way I was trusting that cane to hold me and my baby weight up. It was like learning how to drive, and then being asked to ride a unicycle. With some physical therapy I should regain some confidence in myself and my new bionic leg.

The Clavicle
The x-ray of the clavicle showed that there was not as much healing as we would want to see at this point. Last month it was looking really good....so this was a disappointment. I had actually been able to schedule the removal of the rod for March 23rd, but we decided to cancel that and push it a month out to give the bone a chance to heal better. My other option was have the rod removed and risk breaking it again because it didn't heal completely, or having a permanent rod inserted. This totally sucks because it drags my recovery out another month (grand total of 4 months!!!!).

I hadn't thought much of my recovery beyond the 3 month mark...but realize now that I had assumed by Gwen's 6 month birthday I would be more mobile and could be the Mommy I want to be. I just have to accept that I am the best Mom I can be right now, and continue to live in the moment (no mourning what could be, just enjoying what is).

Heavy Metal

Today I had my first follow up with my orthopedic surgeon. I had an x-ray of my knee and clavicle to see how they are healing and they are doing well. I will get the rod out of the clavicle in 2 months- it is a simple outpatient surgery (like dental surgery), with another small scar on my chest. I am really glad the rod will come out because it probably causes me the most discomfort right now and it is so disturbing how it pokes out a little at the center of my chest, which is the extra little bit that the surgeon needs to pull it out (yuck!). In the x-ray the thing that looks like two paperclips is part of my bra strap :-).
The metal in my leg is there for good (unless there is some sort of problem in the future). The x-rays are really intense- even the x-ray tech remarked that I have quite a bit of metal in there. I imagined the metal to be a bit different, like a square plate screwed to the bone with 4 little screws, not s 6-8 inch piece of metal that looks like it came from The Home Depot.


It looks a bit haphazard, but my surgeon assures me that there is a method to this madness. I will have to keep the brace on my left leg (no weight bearing, i.e. no walking) for another 2 months! You can see a slight fracture in the knee cap, and my right knee cap has the same fracture. In a month that should be healed and I can take the brace off my right leg (though I don't know that this will help my mobility much). I meet with the surgeon again in 1 month. We have to drive to Oakland for these appointments, and it is quite a trek (left Gwen with my Dad who is staying with us this week). After the appointment Spencer and I went out for Chinese food just the two of us which was a treat on a few different fronts. It was nice to be out and spend time with Spencer, just the two of us.


P.S. Happy Inauguration Day! I didn't get to watch the inauguration but Gwen and I listened to most of it on the radio. What an amazing time this is for our country.