We checked in with the fracture clinic at Grand River Hospital and confused the reception staff. My surgeon, Dr Stevens, was not booked today. In fact he is never in the fracture clinic on Mondays. So what in the world could have happened? And could we come back tomorrow?
Well, "what in the world" did happen, and we couldn't come back tomorrow. So, they booked me with Dr Snider, who saw me three weeks ago when my first cast was removed, staples extracted, incisions inspected, second cast applied. For the last visit, we knew Dr Stevens wouldn't be there and Dr Snider would step in for him, but today's visit was supposed to be the first follow up with my surgeon.
Apparently the receptionist was on autopilot last time. Appointments booked on Mondays are usually for future Mondays, so the reminder that the appointment was supposed to be with Dr Stevens didn't get the traction it needed. We didn't know that a Monday appointment assumed a follow up with Dr Snider instead of Stevens. Anyway, we let it play out and it's all good - except we didn't get answers to all the questions we came in with.
I'd been sitting in the fracture clinic waiting room for five minutes when the x-ray technician came for me. But I still had the cast on so he said he'd try again in a few minutes. Fifteen minutes later, a different technician came for me again, but I still didn't have the cast off, so she made sure the fracture technician knew about the holdup. I had the cast off quickly after that, and got my second look at my emaciated leg. Who knew that muscle needs to be exercised to maintain it's strength and bulk? Ten minutes later the third x-ray technician came for me and I was ready.
All this while I had been chatting to an old man who had a fifteen year old hip replacement go bad. Apparently arthritis had started eating at the material around his prosthesis and was causing a lot of pain. He was at the hospital for an injection for the pain. Again, my knee scooter got a lot of attention. Business opportunity, anyone?
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| My hardware |
Anyway, the fracture technician had told me to come looking for her when the x-ray was complete so I went scouting. I found her and was asked to sit on a bed and wait for her to finish with a boy whose arm she was casting up. We noticed a monitor with an x-ray image and hoped we would get to see my foot. Sure enough, when it was my turn, we got to see the hardware in the foot. I'm sure glad the foot doesn't feel like the x-ray looks.
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| Dr Snider reviewing my x-ray |
Dr Snider declared that the incision wound was healing nicely and the x-rays looked good. He said he wasn't sure what Dr Stevens would say but he recommended that I remain non weight bearing for another two weeks, in an air cast and then start putting weight on the foot still in the air cast. He said I should go with that assumption until (and if) Dr Stevens contacted me with different instructions. I am allowed to have a bath now - if I can get to it... we'll see how that goes. We are both disappointed because we had expected to start weight bearing gradually immediately.
We made a follow up appointment - on a Tuesday this time - with Dr Stevens. The day after Thanksgiving. Irony? I'll have to learn to be thankful before I get the news I want to hear. Gotta love God's sense of humour.
So, I'm back in my barracks for another two weeks, but I'll try to have that bath soon. Krista will be ever so grateful. :-)
A few hours pass...
I've had that bath now. I marinated for a few hours and scrubbed off layers upon layers of dead skin - I stopped counting at thirty. I am now cleaner than I've been since... well since birth. Actually there are still more layers to remove but that'll have to happen some other day. The trip up and down the stairs, and in and out of the tub, etc was too traumatic to document.
