78 Visit to Trauma Surgeon
The first thing the trauma surgeon did when he entered the examining room where I’d been waiting was to zero in on my “drop foot”.
He immediately expressed his concern that I would have trouble walking in the future if something wasn’t done pretty soon.
He went on to explain that the Achilles tendon and muscles have shrunk a lot in my leg and would only continue to get shorter, leaving me with the need to have a separate operation on my Achilles if left too long.
And in case I was not intimidated enough yet, he added, “There’s a possibility of the Achilles snapping in an operation, the longer one waits.”
As he turned to study my x-rays, I explained that I had been exercising my foot with a bicycle tire to get flexibility back into my ankle, and that a fair amount of progress had already been made from my original “drop foot” status when I first got back from Peru.
I added that I had laid off exercising my ankle these last two days, as fluid was leaking from one of my bottom pins and it was inflamed, and I was concerned about infection.
The trauma surgeon confirmed it was good that I pulled back and then went on to present his analysis after studying my x-rays --that is those from Peru, as well as those taken after my return to the States.
He immediately expressed his concern that I would have trouble walking in the future if something wasn’t done pretty soon.
He went on to explain that the Achilles tendon and muscles have shrunk a lot in my leg and would only continue to get shorter, leaving me with the need to have a separate operation on my Achilles if left too long.
And in case I was not intimidated enough yet, he added, “There’s a possibility of the Achilles snapping in an operation, the longer one waits.”
As he turned to study my x-rays, I explained that I had been exercising my foot with a bicycle tire to get flexibility back into my ankle, and that a fair amount of progress had already been made from my original “drop foot” status when I first got back from Peru.
I added that I had laid off exercising my ankle these last two days, as fluid was leaking from one of my bottom pins and it was inflamed, and I was concerned about infection.
The trauma surgeon confirmed it was good that I pulled back and then went on to present his analysis after studying my x-rays --that is those from Peru, as well as those taken after my return to the States.
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