Another Weekend, Another Update

Not much to say in terms of updates: I've been home since last Monday, but I've been spending most of my time with my new hobbies of eating Percocets and watching the ceiling fan spin around and around and around...

Assume the Position: Been keeping my leg up as much as possible. Monday's visit to the doctor showed possible signs of infection (or else just a slightly-greater-than-normal blood pooling near the injury) so was put on antibiotics; another followup on Thursday showed that it was most likely just edema or whatever, so I'd better let it drain, with the good old "foot higher than the heart" position, which is most convenient on the recliner with a few pillows. Did I tell you about the ceiling fan?

Infrastructure attack! When I got home Monday after the doctor visit, and also after being down at my folks for the weekend, really wanted to play with the ol' computer -- and it was great, but later that evening... the thing crapped out. I was totally panicked, thinking I'd probably have to get a new one (maybe a laptop), but I got in touch with my friend Paul of Twin Rivers Computing (husband of my biker-chick friend Mary, we used to be neighbors when I lived over on Southside), and he came over, swapped out my bad power supply, and now everything's fine again. Sigh.

Meantime, while I was recuperating and my car sat in front of my friend's house waiting to be returned, it managed to get hit.

Escape: I'm bouncing around a little here, but I guess I'm going by themes rather than chronology. In between Monday's return home and Thursday's computer fix was the Chain Gang meeting. It was good to see everyone, even f I wasn't the person with the most internal metal in the room: Linda had a bunch of rods in her back; I hadn't realized that her surgery was so serious. Then, I stayed off the percocets all day yesterday, and took a cab to Which Brew last night for St Patrick's Day. That was definitely worth it, even if it was a bit of an ordeal and I probably won't be going out again on a weekend for some time. I hung out with recently healed fellow-injured-biker Kirk, Art & his brother, Ed, and a quite a few cuties. Ahhhhh....

Today I'm kicking back, doing laundry/dishes, trying not to kick myself -- it's beautiful out, and this would have been the day I got to help with the bear denning and cub census in NJ, for which I'd managed to wangle an invitation as a volunteer. Oh well, there will be other years, and other bears.

By the way, here are a few more ankle shots, which I actually posted up on Monday night. Um, enjoy!

Weekend Update

So here I am, down at my parents ("parents'"? "parents's"?) house...

Thursday: The surgery went well, and was pretty easy in terms of what I had to do: they wheeled me in to the OR, put me on the table, there a were a few businesslike conversations going on, then the next thing I remember was being in recovery. My first memory, while I was still pretty "out of it," was saying something like "my left calf needs to be stretched" -- I said that in darkness, then opened my eyes to the recovery nurse telling me to breathe deeply. I was thirsty, but they only gave me a little ice, and a small amount of water. Back to my room, where they made every effort to get me to wake me up, then decided it was too late for discharge, got me a room, told me I could sleep but by then I was awake anyway... More work getting water/soda; they didn't like the way I was guzzling it & were worried about post-anesthesia nausea. The overnight was pretty tough, with pain and discomfort, and I now have less respect for Morphine the Great And Powerful, which didn't seem to do shit...

Friday: Spent most of the day at the hospital, saw my surgeon -- Dr. Mitch Cooper, who reminds me in some ways of my high school friend Ron -- and he gave me the info on the operation: one plate, 7 or 8 screws, all on the outside bone because the inner one wasn't as bad as the x-rays originally indicated. The plates/screws are titanium, because I have a problem with nickel (as in, rashes from stainless steel watch bands, etc). Doc said I'll get my regular cast at my Monday appointment. I was told I could leave "any time I want" just after I ordered lunch, so I stuck around for that, left the hospital around 2:30-3:00 or so.

The ride home was uneventful (I was pretty doped up & slept), then I just vegged around Friday night.

Saturday: More vegging out, then saw my brother & nephew when they came to visit. Watched the Princess Bride, which I'd never seen but I know half the lines anyway...

Today I woke up with a quantum leap down in my level of pain/discomfort, in fact I stopped taking the percocets (which I'd been popping every four hours like clockwork for the past few days) this morning, will probably only need them again for sleeping. Finally got upstairs at my parents, where the computer is, and have had my butt planted here ever since.

Tomorrow I should be home, and I should be back to work Wednesday.