Several inches about a foot

[unixronin]

The good news about the foot, two days later:  There's no bleeding visible through the dressing, and no indication of complications.  It continues, by all appearances, to go well.

The bad news:  by day +2, post-op pain is becoming significant.  Pain kept me mostly awake last night; I plan on taking some of the Vicodin tonight so I'll be able to sleep.  I have a suspicion it's as much the compression from the Coban outer wrap on the dressing making my foot ache as the surgery itself, and I'm going to try taking the Coban off for a bit to see if that gives me some relief.

I'm also already heartily sick of hobbling about on crutches again.  It's not just that you need crutches to go anywhere, or that you can only travel slowly, it's that you can't CARRY anything.

Here's now you get a plate of food from the kitchen to the table, without crutches:

1. Pick up the plate.
2. Carry it to the table.
3. Set it down.

Here's how you get a plate of food from the kitchen to the table, with crutches:

• Option A, if help is available:
1. Get someone else to carry the plate to the table for you.
• Option B, if a wheeled cart of some kind is available:
1. On your crutches, push the cart to the kitchen.
2. Pick up the plate and set it on the cart.
3. On your crutches, puch the cart back to the table.
4. Pick up the plate off the cart and set it on the table.
• Option C, if neither of the above holds:
1. Set one crutch down.
2. Pick up the plate.
3. Reach as far towards the table as you can and set the plate down on an available horizontal surface.
4. Grab the crutch again.  Move a couple feet towards the table.
5. Repeat the above steps until you reach the table.
6. Set the plate on the table.
7. If at any point along the way there is a gap of more than your arms' reach between available horizontal surfaces, you're SOL.  Game over, you lose.

There HAS to be a better way.  I have a couple of ideas in mind, and we're not too terribly far from Dean Kamen's company whose name escapes me (yes, Dean Kamen of the iBot and the Segway).  I'd like to get an opportunity to meet with him sometime and discuss my ideas, because I figure he's the most likely person to actually design and build what I have in mind.

Comments

[nephthys510.livejournal.com]

Core muscle strength and balance.

One crutch, plate in other hand. Small hop. hop hop hop. Not recommended for full bowls of scalding soup.

Granted, each hop with send jolts through your foot, but it's easier.


Good luck on a speedy recovery.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Tried this at various times. The addition of bad knees into the equation complicates it somewhat. It's possible, but very tiring, and not feasible at all for a lot of people. My balance also isn't what it should be any more, and I'm not really sure why.

(As a matter of fact, in Tracy where I could get a "running start" straight at the bottom of the stairs, I learned how to hop up a full flight of stairs without stopping. But not while carrying anything.)

[motomuffin.livejournal.com]

Ugh.

That was the big, huge thing I f*cking HATED about being on crutches. Grocery shopping was impossible. Cooking was impossible.

So I borrowed Charlie Richmond's wheelchair!

Then it became:
Pick up item, place in lap.
Wheel yourself to the table.
Put item down.

*Whew!* I was able to make a Roast Chicken dinner!!

But... you have minions, no? ;)

"Hey. Hey! HEY!! Get over here and bring this to the table for me. Don't give me that lip! I brought you into this world and I can take you out of it! Now get over here!!"

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

This place, unfortunately, is very much not wheelchair-navigable. (I have trouble getting through some of the gaps even on crutches, let alone a wheelchair.)

There are indeed minions, though the ones home during the day are 3 and 5, which limits what I can ask them to do.

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

Teleportation.

Alternatively, wheelchair.

Alternatively, cigarette girl harness and box.

-Ogre

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Teleportation would rock all the ass. There isn't room for a wheelchair.

Does the harness and box come with a cigarette girl attached? (Cigarettes not required or desired.)

At one previous point I actually improvised a sling I could hang around my neck to put a glass of milk in, and it worked fairly well. Haven't tried the tray method. but I suspect it would be difficult to impossible to keep it level while moving around.

It might be ok

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

if it had a sort of gyrosopic leveling system like the tables aboardship.

Re: It might be ok

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Actually, that's vaguely the sort of general direction I was going with the idea I want to talk to Dean Kamen about. I think my idea would actually have significant application in other areas too, not just to people who have to use crutches.

Naturally, I don't want to say too much right now.

[shadowcat48li.livejournal.com]

something akin to a walker, with a tray attachment rigged?
I am getting an image of something akin to a tray like the carhops used to use and attaching it to the front rail

lemme do some poking around on the web, I saw something similar years ago when I was working vocational rehab

[shadowcat48li.livejournal.com]

heres one idea
http://www.spinlife.com/critpath/spec.cfm?productID=2259

[smandal.livejournal.com]

Plates are a bitch, because they must remain upright. If you're using sealed tupperware, you could use a backpack or some other luggage.

I'm guessing because of your knees hopping on one foot is out as well.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Well, it's not Right Out, but I can only do so much.

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

been there, done that, gimpin sucks arse!