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

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.