Faceless Blog

It’s official, if all goes as planned, I will be going home this coming Tuesday!  

Little adjustments continue to be made in both the thickness of the ply I’m wearing and the prosthetics, themselves.  My left leg, oddly enough, still feels like it’s a little too long.  Bjorn will be stopping by tomorrow to make some more adjustments including, I hope, shortening the left leg by a smidge.  Meanwhile, the redness on the end of the left leg has decreased significantly.  It’s looking a lot better tonight.  

I also had the dressing of the wound vac changed today, and the wound care nurse was very pleased by what she saw.  The depth of the wound has decreased quite a bit, and the nurse assured me that she saw a good amount of granulation inside.  (That means that the wound is, like it’s supposed to be, healing from the inside out.)

Oh, I almost forgot, I did something brand new today!  My therapist took me outside for a brief walk!  I parked my wheelchair just outside the entrance to the hospital and walked out to the valet parking sign and back, about a hundred feet, including turns, over various terrains.  (smooth concrete, textured tile and bricks)  After we went back inside, we took a quick detour to the chapel to try my legs on a ramp.  (the aisle leading from the alter to the doors is sloped upwards)  While I was initially very concerned about this new development, I handled the slope like it was nothing at all.  Walking downhill will be the next challenge.

Short update tonight, but there’s nothing but good news in the next few days.  

I was warned when I first got my prosthetics not to be discouraged by the process that would follow.  Many, many adjustments need to be made before the legs settle in to their final state.  Really, the process of adjusting the legs never really stops, they’ll always need little tweaks, here and there.  Today was another round of those little adjustments.  Bjorn came in this morning and tweaked the legs a bit.  The dorsal flex of the left foot was increased again, and the left pylon was kicked out a bit to the outside.  All of this is trying to relieve some of the pressure on the end of the left leg.  There’s a little spot that’s rubbing and opened up a little.  It’s not something that’s serious enough to stop therapy, but it needs to be closely watched.

My standing and walking continues to improve, and it seems, from what I hear, that I’m reaching the point where my therapists may start talking about when I’m going to get out of here.  The next step, after going home, is to start out patient therapy, of course.  While I’ve made a lot of progress here, there’s still a long way to go.  That being said, I can’t wait to get home.  I’m looking forward to going back to the ARC in Slippery Rock (our gym), watching a movie at home with my wife, seeing the cats again, etc.  Hopefully, at some point, my sleep patterns will return to normal, too.  (this is being written at 3:50 a.m.)

As I find out about when I’m going to be discharged, I will, of course, post that information here.  Until then, sweet dreams.  

When I was learning to drive, my mom insisted that I learn on a manual transmission car.  Her reasoning was that if I learned on a stick shift, I’d have no trouble driving an automatic.  (Whereas if you learn on an automatic, it can sometimes be a pain to drive a stick.)  I cursed that manual transmission every step of the way.  At the end of the road our house was on, there was a stop sign on an uphill slope that seemed to be about ninety-one degrees…but it forced me to learn, and now, I can comfortably drive either one.

What does that have to do with my PT?  The crutch canes are my stick shift, at the moment.  I continue to practice with them daily, and every time I move to the walker after the difficult gait of the crutch canes, it seems just a bit easier.  My walks with the walker, as a result, get further and more controlled every day.  Today, a trip that just yesterday caused me to stop three or four times to stop, bent over the walker and gathering my strength, was made with only one pause, to stop and answer a question from my therapist.  Previously, I would have been in some pretty intense pain, gasping for breath and barely able to stay on my feet by the end of what I call “the big loop.” (out to the parallel bars, hang a right into the hallway, then back through the gym, turn around again and sit down in my wheelchair)  Today, I was still a bit winded by the time I made it back to my chair, but (as mentioned), I stopped only once and I was in NO pain.  That’s right, folks…NO PAIN.  That’s a walk of over a hundred and fifty feet, complete with several turns and a controlled stand and sit.  

So, I continue to push myself every day.  I walk and walk and when I don’t think I can make it any further, I walk some more.  That’s what’s going to get me through this, and when I do finally go home, I’m going to be a walking machine with muscles like bundles of steel.  :)

Big news for the past few days!  The reason I didn’t post yesterday was because I was dead tired from some incredible walking!  Again, the changes made on Friday made all the difference as, with the techniques learned then, I was able to start walking with a smooth, continuous movement!

Up until now, my walking has been very…jerky.  My gait is step, pause, step, pause, repeat.  With each step, the walker gets pushed forward a little, there’s a pause, then I do it all again.  Well, that all changed yesterday.  With a little nudge from my therapists (that’s why they’re there!), I took smaller, quicker steps, feet spaced nice and wide, and the walker was pushed forward in a continuous motion!  This is huge because this type of walking puts almost all of your weight on your legs, with the walker being used primarily for assisting in balance.  It’s for those same reasons that it’s also much more tiring than the walking that I was previously practicing.  So, I’ve been exhausted…but happy.

Day 22, today, saw more of the continuous walking with two new additions.  For the first time, I stood up and walked with my crutch canes!  If you’re not familiar with them, crutch canes look like a long cane with a cuff that goes around your forearm and a hand rest that’s parallel with the ground.  They give you the stability of crutches with the flexibility of a cane, basically.  I purchased mine when I still had my original legs, but never had a chance to really use them, so I was super excited to use them today.  It was a slow walk, but it felt damned good!

To wrap up the day, I did something else brand new!  For the first time on my new legs, I walked up (and down) three steps!  They’re arranged like a little pyramid, where you take three steps up, two or three steps across a little platform, then three steps down to the floor.  All things considered, it felt great…except for reaching the floor.  Upon finishing the steps, I end up standing on the floor with my hands on the rail…slightly behind me.  This makes me feel like I’m falling backwards, and really freaked me out for a bit.  I got turned around successfully, though, and walked right back up and down to my wheelchair!

So, where do I go from here?  I continue to push my distance and technique with the walker, going further each day and improving how I walk.  I will also continue walking with the crutch canes, improving my balance and practicing for the day when I’ll be using them as my primary aid rather than the walker.  Finally, I keep pushing myself in new and different ways, getting stronger and stronger each day!

I can’t tell you how excited I am right now.  I mean, I’ve been excited the whole time, but things are starting to really to click.  Allow me to explain.

Yesterday, if you’ll recall, was the super long day in which my legs were adjusted, I walked a whole bunch and everything kinda came together in the end.  Well, day 19 was my first full day with the new adjustments, and I was anxious to see how things went when I was fresh, not tuckered out from too much testing.  So, I stood up and, after the (now common) initial soreness of standing for the first time in the day, I started walking.  I was very careful to keep my feet at shoulder width, like they told me to the day before.  I almost didn’t realize until a few steps in, that I wasn’t feeling any pain in my legs!  Not only that, but my stride feels so much more natural now, I can’t get over it.  Where I used to jerk the walker forward, then pull myself forward with my arms, I’m now (fairly) smoothly pushing the walker forward as I walk, meaning that my legs are doing more and more of the work.  Even more telling is the fact that this time, unlike previous efforts, it was my legs that tired out first, rather than my arms.  This, too, means that I am placing more and more weight on my legs, and doing the actual work of walking with them.  

 By the end of the day, I had walked about a hundred and eighty feet, and during that entire time, I had a little pain in my right knee for about ten minutes, towards the end of the longest walk.  If you haven’t been following along, let me clue you in…this is an amazing improvement!  It continues to impress me how a little change in the legs or even, as it turns out, in my foot placement can make all the difference.  

I commented to my therapist, yesterday, that it’s now occurred to me that little kids must go through all of these same struggles when learning how to walk…we just don’t remember it!  I have the semi-unique experience of re-learning how to walk as an adult.  Granted, I’d rather not have to do it, but since I’m in this situation, I have to admit that it’s interesting, and I’m glad I can share the experience with you all!