Ok, I’ve obviously neglected this for a while…sorry about that. As you may or may not know, I’ve been dealing with some health problems over the past two years. I was diagnosed with (and beat) cancer in 2008. I then went through physical rehab to learn how to use my shiny new wheelchair. After that, I spent the rest of the time until now fighting the pressure wounds that I developed while I was in rehab. The last of those horrible wounds will be gone tomorrow morning.
During the third surgery that I went through last week, I had a skin graft put in place on the wound on my left foot. The wound on the right heel; however, turned out to be much more serious. The bone was infected and, in fact, they had removed over half of the heel bone before that surgery was over. After it was done, the decision was made, between my doctors, my wife and myself to remove the foot.
The procedure is called a trans-tibial amputation, meaning that my right leg will end around the middle of the thigh. From what I understand, the fact that I have feeling (and movement) down to my knee makes me a prime candidate for a prosthetic. There will be a period of time where I’ll be toughening up my leg, getting it ready for the prosthetic, then, as soon as I get it, I’ll be starting therapy to teach me how to wear it, care for it and, most importantly, walk on it.
My goal is to be walking for Christmas. It doesn’t have to be that far, but I just want to walk into my parents’ house again for the holidays. Wish me luck. I’ll post an update tomorrow after surgery.
1 year ago
