Part 1 – And Now For Something Completely Different…
Part 2 – It’s Going To Be a Long Winter
Part 3 – Holidays On One Foot
Part 4 – Post-Op Check Number 1 – So Far, So Good
Part 5 – A Very Good Day
Part 6 – Second Post-Op Check – So You Say There’s a Chance…
Part 7 – I Can Walk (Kind Of)!
Part 8 – Two Feet Are Better Than One
Part 9 – Lisfranc Recovery Roadtrip
Remember the good old days? Way back a couple of weeks ago when the biggest health-related concern I had was wondering if recovery from Lisfranc surgery on my broken left foot would keep me from being able to golf much longer?
It seems like forever ago. Things have certainly changed in a hurry for all of us. Talk about getting whiplash in terms of what’s really important.
So, this journal is going to expand its scope, at least for this post. Beyond that, who knows?
My last journal post mentioned I had made it to Florida, attended some spring training games, found a Physical Therapist to work with during the month of March and ended with a comment about how it had been a pretty good week.
Was that really only a little over two weeks ago?
Let’s summarize what’s happened since then.
The good news is that the foot is doing fine. The physical therapy I received in Ft. Myers was helpful. Walking in the pool a couple of times felt wonderful. At this point, even having ceased the PT sessions in favor of being much more conservative in terms of staying home, I can tell my foot is doing great. It’s gotten to where I can walk around pain-free, though I don’t move as quickly as I used to.
Even the stairs are something I can handle without pain. I did feel a pull in the calf muscle of my “healthy” leg while going down some stairs yesterday, though. I guess the physical therapists who kept insisting I needed to stretch the muscles in my calves every day knew what they were talking about, after all.
There’s still some swelling in the foot, so I continue to ice & elevate at times. But I haven’t even used the cane to walk for over a week. While I know it will be several more months before the foot is 100% again, I’m feeling really good about where I’m at with the recovery.
That’s about the end of the good news. After all, even the chances of keeping my April 14 check-up with my surgeon seem like a long shot right now.
The plan was to stay in Florida until sometime the first week of April. With the speed at which we went from attending baseball games to working on a jigsaw puzzle while being virtually self-quarantined in the condo, however, it became evident that staying in Florida would risk being forced to stay there by health and/or circumstances for a very long time.
One benefit of driving to Ft. Myers, rather than flying, is that you can go from “planning to stay a month” to “let’s get the hell out of here” in no more time than it takes to pack up the car.
Of course, even driving that 1,500 miles or so held some risk. How healthy would it be to stay at hotels for even one night? How healthy would it be to stop for gas… assuming gas stations would even be open?
In the end, the decision was to drive relatively straight through, leaving Ft. Myers just before noon on Friday, March 20, choosing a route that would hopefully dodge a pretty lengthy line of potential thunderstorms expected to stretch across the southeast that evening.
Outside of a brief one-hour catnap about 3 am and another couple hours of sleep at a rest stop in the pre-dawn hours Saturday morning, the plans to drive straight through, while sharing driving responsibilities, went forward without much of a hitch. Of course, every stop for gas also called for hand-washing/sanitizing and every meal was purchased at a drive-thru window, but by early afternoon on Saturday, I was taking a much-needed shower at home.
Once home, I flipped on the TV, then looked at my calendar, mentally making a note of the date 14 days into the future, April 4, which would constitute two weeks after completing the trip. If I can get to that date healthy, I’ll feel like I survived that trip without contracting the coronavirus while in Florida.
In the meantime, it’s two weeks of pretty much “shelter-in-place.” Maybe an occasional meal from a drive-thru restaurant, but for the most part, there’s really no reason for me to go outside other than to take out the garbage or go for a walk… and my “walks” are still pretty short, anyway.
The toughest part is not seeing the kids and grandkids for another extended time. After all, it felt like I had just emerged from “exile” caused by having to stay home following the foot surgery before I left for Florida and now I’m right back in isolation again.
But I survived the post-op months and I’ll survive a couple (or maybe a few) weeks longer, if it means doing my part to make sure we all get through this thing without completely overwhelming our medical facilities and killing thousands (millions?) of people (a large proportion of them likely to be medical heroes) in the process.
I’m in my 60s, with a history of asthma that makes getting through your normal variety of flu a bit of a challenge at times and some seasonal allergies, but otherwise, I’m pretty healthy, so I’m not overly concerned.
That doesn’t keep me from “wondering” every time I blow my nose or cough just a little bit. Is it just allegies… just my normal asthma cough? Or is this the start of something worse?
I’ve got a digital thermometer that I simply press to a temple to get a reading and I admit that I’m doing that at least two or three times a day, even though I haven’t felt anything close to a fever.
It’s the wondering that is toughest, for me, anyway.
I want all of you and everyone you care about to get through this thing safely and I especially want medical workers and everyone else who doesn’t have the option of self-isolation to have a fighting chance to stay healthy, as well.
So, take the precautions you can and hopefully, we’ll all get back to focusing on things like baseball in a few weeks/months.