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.)