Surgery a success

Tho i didn't leave the hospital till almost 10PM, its all good. They were able to do the less invasive procedure, so thats good. Sill pretty groggy but will post later.

ok

The Story So Far...

Hello true believers-

I figured I should make it easy for everyone to get the lowdown on what happened to me and, thank you mighty internet, I guess entering the blogosphere is the way to go.

On March 23, 2007, I did something very stupid. It was the kind of thing I have done literally thousands of times in my life. Jumped from of a slightly high landing, 4-5 feet up, which I will admit is a stupid thing to do. However, being fairly invincible, I do this all the time... Anyway, I landed quite badly and knew after about 3 steps that I had done some real damage to myself. Despite calls from friends to get up and shake it off (and a great deal of good natured ribbing) there was nothing that would convince me to stand, it was far too painful.

I want to thank Colette and her husband in writing here for driving me home. Thanks guys, not sure what I would have done without you.

At home I tried just chilling on the couch for a couple hours. At some point I needed to go upstairs to use the bathroom. I had to crawl/scoot myself over the floor and up the stairs, which is fairly humiliating - not to mention climbing onto the toilet. About halfway up the staircase I noticed I was sweating profusely and feeling nauseous. I was passing out because of the pain. That's ok, I thought to myself, I'll just take a little break :)

Anyway, I spent the night at home that night because the idea of going to the Oaktown Kaiser Emergency Room at 11 PM on a Friday seemed like a nightmare and sleep was calling.

The next day it became clear that I had injured one of my feet far worse than the other. My left foot looked pretty normal and I could bear weight on it if I stepped on tippytoes. The other, not so good. It was damn swollen and blacknblue and hurt like farking all hell. There was nothing to do about it; I had to go to the hospital.

Drew and Martin came by super early to help manhandle me into the car. The two of them, bLevin and myself then set off for sunny Walnut Creek, in search of a somewhat less urban ER. The wait there was not so bad, and I learned that I have an extremely good attitude, as everyone else in the Minor Wounds ward was in exceedingly bad humor compared to me and mine. So much the worse for them I guess. When I finally got in to see the Doctor, he was pretty morose and vague. Granted he was just the ER doc and probably didn't want to give bad info, but I was in very good spirits and really just wanted to know what was going on. Off I shot into the cast room and was given a moonboot for the left foot and a Johnson (or some other name) cast on the other, which is just a bunch of padding and some fiberglass on the back.. All in all not so bad. I was told that the Footsie Dep't of Oaktown Kaiser would contact me so I could get in and get the real deal.

On the way out of the ward, another Doctor? RN? stopped me... She told me they would deliver me my wheelchair sometime that same day... and would I be needing a commode? A commode, hmmm... I answered no because I knew once you go commode you don't go back. She also gave me more morose looks and asked if I needed any more help; and that the next few months were going to be horrible and that I'd probably get depressed and start asking 'why me' and all that jive. I know she was trying to help, but it frankly just freaked me out.

Everyone was just being too damn nice and, well, acting more upset about the situation than I was myself... which got me to thinking... Holy crap, I may never walk again... etc... whatever - It seemed likely my professional snowboarding dreams were over.... and maybe, just maybe, I would never have to carry music gear again.... Bliss!

Anyway I got home and B took the following humorous photo as I tried to maneuver our shower:



At this point it makes sense to describe our house. B and I live in a converted paint factory in a split-level artist loft. I would guess the ceiling at its highest is about 45 feet. I think the counted square feet is 1800.. it is mostly all one room, however the back has two floors. The ground level is all living area and area for our birds (more on that later I'm sure), the bottom of the 2 story span is our recording studio. Upstairs is our bed, the kitchen and the bathroom.

Downstairs:


Upstairs:


As you might guess, getting up and down the stairs is quite an ordeal. Getting out of the apt is also an issue as there is a curb just outside, making it impossible to roll the wheelchair out. I have some plans for this, which I will write about soon.

On Tuesday 27th, after talking with some people in the office who were far too nice to make me feel OK, I got in to see the specialists at Oaktown Kaiser and finally got the straight dope. My left leg would heal up just fine in 4-6 weeks, my right was another story. I am going to need to have surgery on it - either endoscopic or just adding a new, more powerful metal plate - so very butch. I wont have a full recovery with this foot, but it should be pretty good. Up and down movement will be fine, but side to side is unknown at this point. I will also almost definitely get arthritis in this foot, but you know, thats kinda par for the course. It is likely that it will take 6 months for a full recovery. Oh, and Robert in the cast department asked what color cast I wanted for the left foot. I let him decide, which is what I normally do in restaurants, and he gave me this fine TiggerCast TM:



Soo.... you can be sure of updates to this blog for the next 4-6 weeks 'cause what else are ya gonna do? I will update after the surgery on Thursday 29th, as soon as I am strong enough to type :)