I'm Lame

No, my heels are doing fine, I just seem incapable of regular updates.

I've been up on crutches for almost 2 months and going in to work 3 days a week. By the end of those three days my feet are pretty tired and pained but I feel better about myself; preferring pain to the wheelchair. Every night i spend some time stretching out my right foot, drawing the letters of the alphabet for physther. I hope its enough.

I've also been trying to walk, just a little, with no moonboots and a crutch. I can tell I've lost a lot of feeling in the right foot, but, clearly, I will walk again.

Ok, thats all for now

What goes on?

Sorry about the delay in updating, but I've been dancing with moderate pleasure.

I went to see the doctor on the 19th of May. Robert removed my Double Tiggers (Heroes in a Half Cast – Tigger Power!) and I rolled over to X-Ray. Tempers were flaring that day and the X-Ray tech was pissed at the roomer (or Bellboy, or whatever they are called). Being my ever helpful self, I let the tech know that my left foot was pretty OK but that the right was still pretty raw and I’d need to go slow with it. She told me that they have children with brain hemorrhages coming in there for X-Rays and I should feel lucky that I just had a busted foot. I told her I didn’t feel lucky.

I could tell this was going badly.

Seriously tho, my right foot was nasty looking. If I put one next to the other it looked like the right belonged to someone weighing 400 lbs. - plus it was shedding skin and still pretty bruised. I had my tiggers on, but just wrapped in ACE Bandage™ and the casts were FULL of hair; just like Chewbacca’s jock strap.

Anyway, my superior placating skills made a friend of the tech in the end… Actually, it probably has to do with self-deprecating humor, or something. I agreed to thank God for my dumb luck and was on my way.

I spent about 10 minutes with the doctor, not the one who did the surgery, some other dude. He told me that all looked great in the X-Rays but that I would need moon boots on both feet and would be stuck in the wheelchair another 2 weeks. In addition, I would be on the Kaiser Medical Center Physical Therapy Course Outline ™, which is in 2 weeks I should start using crutches, two more weeks and I should start walking without crutches but with moonboots, 2 more weeks and I could try walking in shoes and 2 more weeks come back and see him. No scheduled physical therapy, just ‘drawing the alphabet with [my] feet.


I know I should be happy that it seems as if my heels are healing well enough to do my own PhysTher, but it seems much more likely that it’s a way to offset the price of my surgery for Mr. Wilhelm.

Tiggers - for posterity

I realized I hadn't included a shot of the Double Tiggers... so here they are. Notice the swelling of the right foot. That is all.

T-Minus Three Days

While I am trying not to get my hopes up above the level of my feet, I am cautiously waiting for Wednesday when I am slated to get my casts off. I go in at 9AM and get them off and then I'm wheeled off to get X-Rays and finally to meet with the doc. While they were optimistic about the surgery, I am starting to get all hypochondriacal.

The pain has subsided in the right heel, it still is painful from time to time, but I've noticed that there is a bit of swelling in there. Has it been swollen the whole time? I just don't know. Also, i sort of strained my right foot/leg/whatever over the weekend... trying to close a window. It just wasn't as strong as I thought... So, what does this mean for the crutches I am supposed to be using come Wednesday? I don't know.

To make matters worse, I have to play a show at Mezzanine on Friday, and apparently there is no easy way for an un-walking one to get on stage easily, so its likely I will have to be choplifted up there.

And me without a bulletbelt... *sigh*

Surgery Flashback b/w 16 Stairs

So! B found the camera, so I figured I would post a couple photos...

The Doctor's Gameplan

Lookin' Saucy

So, above is the incredibly depressing triangular surgery waiting room I was in for 9 hours. Each CourtTV show proved more depressing than the last, and I thought you couldn't top Divorce Court... I was wrong. I neglected to mention that Bevin had to help wheel me to a toilet at some point because I couldn't get into the bathroom in the waiting room. I already had my IV in so she had to help me disrobe etc... and request another gown when I realized mine was wet. Humiliation and migraines go well together.

I hinted at our stairs in earlier posts, but haven't gone into detail. Here they are:



When we moved into this place, I complained for a couple weeks that these new stairs were not of standard height... they feel built for much shorter folk. I kept tripping on them as I raced up to grab the phone or whatever. I can honestly say now that I have altered my harmony completely. It is uncomfortable enough scooting up these guys one at a time... the addition of an inch or so would be most unpleasant. I don't think I'm in better shape, but it is true that I can heft myself up the stairs without stopping for rest... Soo... Also, I am thanking the universe that we are no longer in our old place where it was a severe 6 step captain's stair up into the bed loft... feh! I would have been sleeping on the kitchen floor for sure... O.. and also, it was 4 steps up into the entry of the old place versus 1 in the new.. Lucky number 13!

Thinking Legally (For A Change)

So... I know you have been thinking to yourselves, "how could he have ever misjudged such an easy jump" or "he must have been crazy to take such a chance"... and well, yes it was stupid. BUT - I have been playing a certain video-game called "Crackdown". In said video-game you play as a sort of bionic ubercop that can perform ludicrously long jumps and fall many, many stories and survive while leaving a crater in the ground. For your consideration:



For a change I've decided to go all American and, thusly, lawsuit crazed. I suggest that it was this violent video game which caused me, no, FORCED me to make that jump. In a XBOX LIVE CYBERCHAT with friend Justin Hall, I discussed this possible moneygrub. Suffice to say, the subject has been breeched in the forums of Realtime Worlds, the very game developer responsible for Crackdown. I'd say I have a real case... I'm no foolish pre-teen, well swayed by devil music. I'm a MAN with a WIFE (that means I even have sex on occasion)... and I MAKE devil music. Imagine what this terrible, terrible game might do to a 'lesser' mind. Dungeons and Dragons positively pales in comparison.

Oh, by the way, I'm looking at 3 weeks left in these casts, tomorrow is my last tum-tum injection, my shoddy backup wheelchair is shedding vinyl and plastic like a leper and I am slowly losing my mind while looking at my one view of the outside world.

Hugs and kisses.

Tigger Times Two

Hey all.

Well, it seems the wee wife may have lost our camera during our ordeal at the hospital, so you may never see those necessary pics of me in the surgery gown. Whatever. Anyway, that camera was kind of a piece of crap... This should more than make up for it:



Yep, I look like a rickety table that someone tried to fix. I went back to the doc's to get an update on wednesday. Sure enough, they had put screws in my heel. They took off the right cast and said everything was looking really good; a relatively small amount of stitching was removed and I was re-casted up, with another Tigger cast. So dope.

The current plan is for me to get BOTH casts off on May 9th (thats about 4 weeks, yikes). At that point, the left foot will be free to kick around while the right will be confined to a moon boot. I get to become intimate with crutches for some time... then a cane, then ?? Both the Dr. and the resident are very happy with the way everything looks.

The new cast holds the heel a bit more firmly, so its not as painful; its more of a constant tingling pain, which I prefer, but it does make it a bit hard to sleep. I have stopped taking the pain meds altogether. Tigger2 is also much lighter and the white stripe glows... which is very exciting, were I to EVER leave my place :)

All is well and I am staying positive. More soon.

The Tail of My Cut

Sorry about the delay, it’s been quite a week. When I left off, I had druggedly posted that the surgery had been a success, and I suppose it was (so says the Dr.). Now lets go back to the morning of March 29th.

I got to Kaiser Oaktown at 9:30 AM. The Matmos were trying to rush cross the bridge early to help, but they were a bit late so B and I just thru me into the RAV and headed out under our own power. The two of us were obsessed about not being late; missing my chance at the operation; I dunno. Obsessive compulsive. Anyway…

I led myself into Robert the Cast Dude’s lair and he removed the weird bulky cast I had on my right leg. The swelling seemed to have gone down somewhat, but man… the outside of the foot was totally flat, no little bump in the middle of the heel, no stereotypical foot shaped curve…. Oh, and it was a little purple-greenish. Ya, I do believe that’s going to have to come off. Dr. Ford and the resident came in and took a look and decided that yes, they could do the avant garde / experimental procedure.. no huge bloody metal plates for me.

From the CT SCAN, the Dr.s could see that I had shattered my right heel into 4 pieces, ‘like how an egg shatters’. Yikes… They are going to use screws and a small metal plate to keep it all together in hopes of it healing in the correct shape. Part of the reason it was so painful was because a piece of cartilage had slipped down in amongst the shattered bits of heel, so it was all scraping together. Ahem.

Success in this procedure would mean that I should have no trouble moving my foot up and down, however, it is not clear at this point how much side to side action I am going to get… so long professional basketball.

OK, so its across the campus to the Emergency OR, see, this was a ‘fit-in’ operation, and kind of an emergency as you have to operate on these kinds of things quickly, before they heal in the wrong position. After a few abortive attempts at finding the quick way up there, we found the ‘waiting hall’ totally full of folks in pain and on cell phones. They crammed Bevin, myself and my wheelchair into this murky triangular room; CourtTV blaring. I got into my hot hospital gown and began waiting.

By 11:30 I had started getting a bit of a headache. As per Dr.’s orders, I hadn’t eaten or drank anything since midnite the nite before.. actually since about 10. As a result, I had not had any coffee this morning and it was beginning to catch-up to me. I got my IV of fluids around one. By two I was in real pain and wasn’t having any fun at all. It wasn’t till about 5 that the anesthesiologist came to see me.

He told me he was going to give me a sciatic nerve block. This would numb my leg for like 3 days after the surgery – making pain management pretty easy, which sounded great. Telling me he would have to stick a needle in me just under the sitter and prod around my nerves to make sure he didn’t permanently damage me was a little creepy, but hey, I was feeling lucky.

I left for the OR at 6 o’clock. In the OR the anesthesiologist said, “let me give you a little sumthin’ sumthin’”… I have no memory of the sciatic nerve probe.

I awoke with the wife and brother-in-law next to me. A stricken looking woman across from me was refusing her pain meds and insisting that the nurse pray with her, with little success. My leg was hella numb and the Dr. came by to say the operation was a success.

I got home and blogged the last entry.

The next morning I felt pretty good the leg was numb and all systems go… Oh, I forgot to mention, I have to get injections into my tummy every morning. Yes, to keep from getting blood clots from sitting on my rump so long, I pinch an inch every morning, swab a little alcohol and ‘pokey-pokey’. It’s not so bad, but I don’t see myself going intravenous drug user any time soon.

All was peach until about 10:30, that’s when the numbing wore off and the pain began. Oh Lord, this was some delicious pain. More painful by far that the actual accident… or any other pain I have experienced. Piquant. I quickly downed a bit more than the prescribed pain meds… to little avail. I was left moaning and chanting mantras trying to get beyond the pain. I apologize to my bro-in-law who got to sit there thru it. It frankly was pretty funny. Martin came by and I suggested the two of them go for lunch, ‘cause I was downstairs and had to use the bathroom, which means the stairs – and I knew that wasn’t going to be pretty.

I had one more day of pretty excellent pain, then got on top of it. I then had a couple pretty good days, probably better than I was allowed. The pain meds were allowing me to do more than I should… Instead of just sitting and recovering, I was up and about, receiving guests etc. The other thing it was doing was playing havoc with my gastro-intestinal tract. On Monday, I decided to go off the meds… which led to two days of sleep. Sleep I should have been getting before but the meds were keeping me from.

This brings us mostly up to date. Yesterday I went with Ryan to get a second wheelchair for the downstairs (Kaiser sees this as luxury, tho if they’d ever BEEN to my place…). This went fairly well, ‘cept they didn’t give me a legrest… sigh….

Ok.. will update with some photos and info with more regularity from here on out

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 :)