Part 7 of my “journal” related to my Lisfranc injury to my left foot. I’ve come to realize some people may be discovering this journal late in the game, so to speak. So, I’m going to add links to the prior entries. I’ll try to remember to keep doing this with future posts.
Do physical therapists just really like to cause pain? I think almost anyone who has undergone physical therapy has wondered about that at some point. They all deny it, of course. But would you really expect them to admit it? Of course not. They’re all going to go with the standard bit about how they like helping people.
Maybe. But I’m not totally convinced. I have to give them credit though, because they’re SO friendly and empathetic while they make you use muscles you haven’t used for weeks.
Still, while it may be true that physical therapists are sadists, by nature, that doesn’t mean that what they do isn’t important and effective when it comes to getting through the post-surgical process.
I started physical therapy on Monday, February 10, and have had four sessions. It’s been pretty remarkable how much progress I feel like I’ve made in just over a week. It may have felt like I was just doing a few relatively easy exercises that stretched foot muscles in seemingly innocuous ways, but there’s no question that those exercises have been effective.
I started the week with limited range of motion in the injured foot and a fair amount of pain twinging through the foot whenever I placed direct weight on it. By the time the week wrapped up, I was wearing a shoe, instead of the walking boot, and while I was still using crutches for balance any time I had to take more than a few steps, I was no longer having much pain except when I’d put most of my weight on the balls of my foot.
The first couple of PT sessions were mostly about working on range of motion exercises and those went pretty well. The most challenging of those was simply tring to scrunch my toes. Sitting down, lay a towel on a hard floor surface (no rug or carpet), then put your foot on the towel and try to scrunch your toes enough to gather the towel. If you’re doing it right, you essentially pull and gather the towel down from the top. Anyway, it’s tougher than it sounds.
Check it out! Wearing a shoe on the left foot! Also doing some “stepping” at physical therapy.
By the third session, on Friday, I was also getting some time in on a step machine and that went real well. No pain to speak of at all during or after an 8-minute “ride.”
The fourth session, on Monday, was focused on re-learning to walk properly. Heal-arch-toe. Again, it’s something we take for granted until we haven’t done it for a while and it still causes some pain to do it, especially when I push off with the toes. It’s a lot easier if I keep my foot flat and support most of my weight on my heel and the outside of my foot, but doing that for any length of time just makes my knee sore, which isn’t a good thing either short-term or long-term.
Bottom line, I feel like I’m making progress. It’s obviously going to be a while before the foot feels anywhere close to normal, though.
I still wake up with swelling in the morning and the same is the case after any extended period of being out and about, so ice packs and elevation are still the norm. But I’m pretty much sleeping through the night (at least as much as I usually did, even before the injury).
I’ve also more or less retired the knee scooter. Most of the time, I just hobble around home from room to room, but I’m also starting to get accustomed to using a cane. It felt a little odd at first, since I was using my left hand, but then my physical therapist pointed out I was using the cane wrong and should be using my right hand. I felt kind of stupid, having to be told how to use a cane properly, but he wasn’t wrong… it’s much easier this way.
So, the scooter is semi-retired, along with the shower seat. After not being able to shower for the first few weeks after the injury, getting out of the splint and having the OK to shower at all was a blessing, both for myself and anyone who had to be near me, I’m sure. But not being able to stand in the shower was awkward, at best. Using the seat got the job done, but as soon as I felt like I could put enough weight on the injured foot to stand upright long enough to get a shower in, I stopped using that seat.
At 8 weeks, the scar is looking better and the foot isn’t too swollen when I first get out of bed in the morning. It looks even more “normal” after a half hour of ice and elevation.This picture was taken about 30 minutes after the other 8-weeks photo, after making coffee, taking a standing shower and getting dressed for the day. Not a lot different, but certainly more swelling and discoloration.
Showering is one thing, however, that results in considerable soreness and swelling. That means I really need to plan ahead for the showers. I need to make sure I have an hour or so post-shower to ice and elevate the foot before going out.
Since I have to wear a shoe on the injured foot for physical therapy, I started to get into the habit of not wearing the walking boot, even when I go out. I may have overdone that over the weekend, though. I was out and about on Saturday for several hours and ended up really sore and swollen by the time I got home. Lesson learned. I was back in the boot on Sunday and Monday when I was going out.
I’ve got a couple more PT sessions set up for this week, then the plan is to set sail (in a manner of speaking) for Florida sometime the last week of February. I’ll probably need to find a physical therapist in Fort Myers, as well, to continue the torture routine while I’m down there, but I’m hoping I’ll be wrapped up with that by the end of March.
I’m still concerned about all the swelling and discoloration that comes back any time I’m not elevating the foot and I really wish the pain any time I put weight on the balls of my left foot would subside, but I guess it will just take more time, right?
Part 7 of my “journal” related to my Lisfranc injury to my left foot.
I’ve come to realize some people may be discovering this journal late in the game, so to speak. So, I’m going to add links to the prior entries. I’ll try to remember to keep doing this with future posts.
I haven’t posted any updates in a couple of weeks, so now seems like a good time.
The two weeks between check-ups really dragged. The first week saw some crummy weather, meaning I stayed pretty well cooped up indoors for a few days. All along, though, I was just looking forward to the next check-up when they were going to do x-rays and, potentially, let me start putting some weight on the surgically repaired left foot.
When I get up in the morning, my feet are pretty much the same color and there’s little swelling. It doesn’t take long for that to change though. A half hour later, after showering, it’s time for ice and elevation.
That is exactly what happened this past Wednesday. I’ve looked at the x-rays and compared them to those that they gave me right after surgery and can’t see any difference, but I guess they liked what they saw because they gave me the go-ahead for putting some weight on it and starting Physical Therapy.
It’s been almost two full months since the injury happened, so this is a really big deal, mentally. It’s one thing to realize, logically, that my foot was healing all along, but as long as I wasn’t allowed to put any weight on it, it was a struggle to feel mentally like I was “getting better,” if that makes any sense.
Now, though, I can use the crutches just for a little extra support, rather than relying on them for full weight-bearing every half-step. In fact, if I’m only walking a short distance, I can hobble my way without a crutch. I’ve got a cane I can start trying to use, but it feels awkward. Maybe because I need to use my left hand.
Anyway, I’m able to drive now because I can get in and out of the car and into the backseat to get crutches, if I need them. I’m sure my wife is even more thrilled about this than I am. I won’t have to rely on her to run most errands. I can also get up and down stairs much easier, though I’m probably not going to be ready to haul several bags of groceries around for a while.
It doesn’t sound like much, I know, but you don’t realize how much you take for granted simple things like being able to just decide to run out for lunch without having to plan for it, until you can’t do that for a couple of months.
Seriously, the psychological relief of reaching this point is probably even more important than the physical progress it represents.
There’s virtually no pain in the foot at all when I’m wearing the boot while I’m moving around. If I have to stand around for an extended period, it will get a little sore, but not really painful.
Obviously, I don’t wear the boot unless I’m going out, so around home, it’s a little different story.
Putting weight on the foot without the boot on produces a pretty good twinge at times. The swelling still comes and goes, depending on how long it has been since elevating and icing the foot. But when the foot isn’t too swollen, I can get it in a slipper that has a bit of a firm sole. Hobbling around with the slipper on significantly reduces those twinges.
Next on the agenda is to start Physical Therapy and my first appointment is Monday, so that should be interesting.
I’m still a little concerned about whether the hardware in my foot is going to be problematic for golfing pain-free, but I’ve come up with a Plan B, just in case.
If transferring the weight to the front foot is painful, I’m just going to get some left-handed clubs and golf lefty! No problem.
Sure, that may sound hard, but keep in mind, I used to bat left-handed! So how much different could golfing left-handed really be? Of course, those who actually witnessed my baseball “career” might question whether golfing as well as I hit a baseball would really be a good thing but don’t believe anything they tell you.
Golfing or not, I still have my eyes on the last week of February, hoping to be ready to head to Ft. Myers then and completing my PT down there. The next appointment with the surgeon isn’t until April 14, so that leaves plenty of time to enjoy beaches and baseball before I have to be back home for that.
Just knowing that getting to Ft. Myers is looking like a “go” has me feeling warmer, already. Or maybe it’s just because I’ve got the fireplace on.
The nurse practitioner at the surgeon’s office tells me the screws aren’t really as big as they look like in the x-rays. But I think she lies.
A couple of weeks ago, in the aftermath of the Minnesota Twins signing free agent third baseman Josh Donaldson, I checked in with sportsbooks at William Hill and Elite to see what effect the addition of the Bringer of Rain was having on the oddsmakers’ views of the Twins’ chances of winning their Division, the American League Pennant and the World Series in 2020.
As it turned out, the bookies weren’t exactly joining in Twins’ fans euphoria. The odds had shifted very little or not at all.
As I wrote then, however, I decided to follow this throughout the rest of the offseason (maybe even into the season) and see whether things change. In addition, I also noticed a few other interesting lines as I perused the William Hill and Elite Sportsbook sites this morning.
First, let’s take a look at what’s happening with the Twins’ odds for the 2020 season.
The long and short of it is that there isn’t a lot of movement and the differences between the two sportsbooks are shrinking or even disappearing, in some cases.
The one bet where it still pays to shop around is with regard to Minnesota’s odds to repeat as the American League Central Champions. At William Hill, the Twins’ odds have moved from -175 to -160, so they’re becoming bigger believers as time moves on. But if you want to put money on the Twins to win their Division, you still want to go to Elite to do it. They continue to list the Twins as an even-odds favorite to repeat. (A $100 bet on the Twins at William Hill will win you just $62.50 if they win the Central, where the same bet gets you $100 at Elite’s 1-1 odds.)
William Hill has brought their odds on the Twins winning the AL Pennant and the World Series directly in line with Elite’s line, which hasn’t changed since we checked in a couple of weeks ago. William Hill has brought their projected regular season wins total back a half-win, to 91 1/2 wins, however. Elite is where you want to go if you want to bet the over on Twins wins, however. They’re at 90 1/2 wins. I couldn’t find where I checked what Elite had for Twins Total Wins a couple of weeks ago.
So, that’s the story on the Twins. But let’s move on and look at where else you might want to have some fun.
In the last article, I pointed out that, if you’re inclined to throw you’re money away, you could get much healthier odds on the Tigers and Royals to win the World Series at William Hill than at Elite. That’s still the case. In fact, the odds against the projected AL Central doormats are getting even longer. At William Hill, the Royals have moved from 200-1 to 250-1, currently. Previously at 500-1, the Tigers (along with the Orioles) are now at 750-1. At Elite, the Royals and Tigers sit at 125-1.
But if you’re really looking to flush your money down the toilet… I mean… if you’re looking for a value-buy, check out the Orioles. At Elite, the Orioles get you a measly 100-1 odds. But at William Hill, they sit right there with the Tigers at 750-1! I mean, if you’re going to throw $100 on a long shot, do you want to get ten grand when it pays off or would you prefer $75,000?
Silly talk right? Yeah, but I bet there’s one member of my immediate family who, assuming he reads this, is sitting there right now thinking hard about that Orioles bet.
There are a couple of more realistic (relatively speaking, anyway) options to give some thought to, though, when you compare odds being offered at these two books.
The Red Sox are still sitting at 5-1 odds to win the American League on Elite, but you can get 12-1 on the same bet at William Hill. Have to say, 12-1 on a Boston AL Pennant is pretty tempting.
If you think the AL East is just too tough for the Red Sox to fight through, how about a team that’s in a Division most people see as much easier to win? How are you feeling about Cleveland, for example? Yeah the Twins are loaded on offense, but Cleveland still has pitching and defense and that’s what wins championships, right?
Again, stay away from Elite, where they offer just 7-1 odds. You can get twice that (14-1) on Cleveland to win the American League at William Hill.
You might start to think that William Hill is simply the place to go for better odds, right? Not always, no. You know the Angels have been making some pretty strong moves. Maybe you think the Astros will falter when they’re forced to use trash cans just to collect trash. The Angels front office seems to think this is the year to go for it. What if they’re right?
If you want to get on the Halos’ bandwagon, you turn your attention away from William Hill (where they offer just 10-1 odds to win the AL Pennant) and give Elite your business, taking them up on their 17-1 offering for the same bet.
Believe it or not, though, they also play baseball in the National League! Let’s take a peek over there.
People in Minnesota may not be aware of this, but the Chicago Cubs have a pretty big following (especially down here in Eastern Iowa). I know, there’s no accounting for taste, but some people were just raised poorly and we shouldn’t hold it against them.
Most of these people, you would think, learned a long, long time ago never to bet on the Cubs. But some of them, still drunk on finally winning it all a few years ago, might be optimistic enough to consider putting some money on the Cubbies in 2020. If that describes anyone you know, the place to go is William Hill, where you can get 12-1 odds on the Cubs winning the National League (vs. just 6-1 at Elite) and an even healthier 25-1 on a Cubs World Series Championship (compared to 12-1 at Elite).
Yes, that means you get the same return at William Hill for the Cubs “merely” winning the NL Pennant that Elite is requiring a Cubs World Series trophy to get.
Of course, if you want the longest odds on Cubs bets, you might want to wait a few days. Now that Kris Bryant lost his case and is under club control for the extra year, it’s only a matter of time before he’s traded, right? That should bump the odds up a bit.
I guess that’s enough to ponder for today. Maybe we’ll check back in about the time Spring Training is getting underway.
Part 6 of my “journal” related to my Lisfranc injury to my left foot.
January 22, 2020 2nd post-op checkup
Just short of five weeks after the Lisfranc injury surgery, it was time for my second post-op visit and I’d categorize it as a pretty encouraging check-up.
Two days short of five weeks after surgery. Stiches out & replaced by Steristrips.
I didn’t see the surgeon at all at this visit, but a nurse practitioner checked me out and said everything looks good. They removed my stitches and replaced them with Steristrips, so at least the foot looks a lot better than it did with the stitches still crisscrossing the incisions. And no more keeping it wrapped in a dressing, which is nice.
It still amazes me how different the foot feels when it’s been elevated and iced recently compared to when it has been a while, such as first thing in the morning or after being out and about for a few hours.
I still have two more weeks to go before they’ll let me put any weight on the surgically repaired foot. They’ll do x-rays at the next check-up in two weeks (February 5) and then we’ll have a better feel for how the healing is really going. They said that’s also likely to be when I’ll be released to start Physical Therapy.
They also mentioned that the February 5 appointment will be my last appointment with the surgeon’s office until two months later.
Two months? Hmmm… I wonder what I could do with that time.
It took me just a few seconds to pose the question, “Is it possible to start Physical Therapy here and then continue it somewhere else… for example, somewhere in Florida?”
It turns out, while they understandably don’t want you getting surgery one place and then all the follow-up appointments halfway across the country with a surgeon who didn’t perform your procedure, they aren’t nearly as particular about where you do your PT.
Do you suppose Physical Therapists in Fort Myers make appointments on the beach?
So, the bottom line is, while nothing is certain and I’m not going to make any firm plans until we find out how things are going in two weeks, do you remember that annual trip to Fort Myers that coincides with the Twins’ Spring Training that I had pretty much resigned myself to not happening this spring? Well, it’s no longer a foregone conclusion that we won’t make it down there.
No, it won’t be easy. My wife and I (and her dog) drive down and back when we go down for the trips where we plan to stay awhile.
I haven’t driven since the injury, but I don’t see that as a real problem (I might be biased). I’ve been released to drive for a while, but I haven’t done it. Driving is the easy part. I could do that right now.
The challenge is that, at some point, I’d have to stop the car, get out and get inside my destination… and for now, I would have to do all that without putting any weight on the injured foot. I’m still not the greatest on crutches, so I haven’t been anxious to head out on my own anywhere I’d need to use them… which is everywhere.
But once I’m quasi-mobile and able to at least partially bear weight on the foot in a boot, I’m thinking driving really shouldn’t be an issue.
The decision, as I see it, could come down to whether I’m still having a lot of swelling. Driving somewhere for lunch is one thing. Driving for a couple days straight, though, would probably not make elevating my foot very easy to accomplish with any regularity.
Still, if there’s at least a chance of getting to Fort Myers for some of February/March, I’m going to try to figure out a way to get it done. Since we’d drive down and we have the condo to stay at, there are no flight or hotel reservations to worry about. We can just decide to go and then go. (OK, it’s not really quite that easy, but it doesn’t take long.)
Just the possibility has me feeling better about things, anyway.
Being down there wouldn’t be as enjoyable as it usually is, I’m sure. Golf probably isn’t going to be happening. (I’m still worried about whether I’ll be able to swing a club without pain.) Walking on the beachfront probably will be limited. I’m not going to be walking around doing a lot of shopping (dang).
And then there will be Physical Therapy which probably won’t be the most enjoyable part of my day. Still, if you were going to have to do PT for a few weeks, would you rather do it somewhere that you may still need to drive through snow to get there or somewhere that you could try to work in your PT appointment before or after watching baseball?
So, you see my point, right?
As for the current status of the foot, itself, I may have jinxed myself by talking about how little pain I’d been having in the foot all along, from the time I broke it all the way through surgery and afterward.
About a week ago, I started feeling more pain in the top of the foot almost any time I didn’t have the foot elevated and on ice. It got to the point where sometimes it would even wake me up in the middle of the night. Some nights, I could sleep in my bed for a few hours, but then wake up with the burning pain and would end up going out to the kitchen, getting an ice pack and getting a few more hours of sleep in the recliner with my foot elevated.
The elevation, ice pack and maybe a couple of Tylenol usually eased the burning sensation and I’d be good for the day as long as I didn’t go too long without elevating and icing.
This hasn’t been as much of an issue for the past three days or so, though, so I’m hoping it was just a phase.
What I’ve found interesting is that what pain I get seems to move around. More often than anywhere else, it’s on the top of my foot where the incision was, but other times it may be on the outside of my foot or in my toes or my ankle. One evening, I was even feeling it all the way up in my calf.
It still hasn’t been anything I couldn’t deal with, sometimes with a couple of Tylenol, sometimes not even bothering with that. Just kind of odd how the pain moves around. All those nerves running through our legs and feet are inter-related, I guess.
Speaking of nerves, the top of my foot is really sensitive, even when it’s not being a literal pain. I’m wondering if having the stitches still in has been causing that. If so, maybe that hypersensitivity will back off now that the stitches are out.
It’s been a pretty good week. I’ve now finished watching the entire Star Trek: The Next Generation series and have moved on to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. I may need to move on to something non-Trekkie after I get through streaming that, though.
If you follow me on Twitter, you know I’ve been taking advantage of legalized sports betting in Iowa. Not many days go by between my comments or observations concerning the betting lines on the teams and sports that I tend to follow.
With the broader legalization of sports betting across the country, it’s a lot easier to put a little money behind your beliefs when it comes to your expectations for your favorite teams. A bet on the Twins to win the 2020 World Series is just a click or two away.
Naturally, that means I had to check out the shifts in what the oddsmakers set for the Minnesota Twins chances of success are in 2020 after the Twins front office signed Josh Donaldson to a hefty free agent contract. The signing has been widely seen as a signal to their fan base and any other interested parties that the Twins are serious about taking advantage of their current window of competitive opportunity.
Winning the American League Central Division title is nice, but with the strong core of talent on the Twins roster, you can’t blame fans for wanting more. We want postseason success! Winning 101 games was terrific! Losing three straight games to the Yankees in the American League Division Series, not so much.
The signing of Donaldson to a contract far beyond anything the Twins have ever offered to a free agent before appears to indicate that the front office agrees.
So the question remains, does the addition of Donaldson, which allows the Twins to assemble what could arguably be considered the most dangerous offensive lineup in Major League Baseball, really improve the Twins’ chances of winning an American League Pennant or, if we’re allowed to dream, even their first World Series Championship since 1991? Or will it still take more (a top-of-the-rotation starting pitcher, perhaps) to significantly improve those chances?
There’s no shortage of opinions on the subject out there. Here’s the thing, though – all of those opinions are worth exactly what you pay for them. Nothing. In fact, if you are paying a subscription fee to read the analysis behind those opinions, they’re worth even less than what you pay for them.
While I’m still a relative novice at the sports betting thing, here’s something it didn’t take me long to learn: The people who set the gambling odds know what they’re doing. They don’t let emotion and personal bias determine the betting lines they set… at least not their own emotions and personal biases. They will absolutely take into account the bettors’ emotions and biases if they believe it means those bettors will let their emotions influence their bets.
Take the betting lines set for the Twins’ 2020 season, for example.
First, don’t let anyone tell you that the Twins aren’t the favorites to repeat as champions of the American League Central Division. Yes, the White Sox have made some significant moves. Yes, Cleveland still has talent on their roster. That’s nice, but the sportsbooks are having none of it.
I have accounts with Elites Sportsbook and William Hill and I’ve learned it does pay to shop around. That runs true with regard to the Twins in 2020, as well.
Both sportsbooks see the Twins as the favorite to win the AL Central. Elite sets the odds for the Twins at even (1/1). You bet $100 and you win $100 if they repeat as Division champions. At William Hill, the odds are just -175, which means if you bet $100 and they win the Division, you only make $57.15.
The difference seems to be how the two sportsbooks see Cleveland’s chances of clawing their way back up past the Twins and how strong a challenge Chicago’s capable of making. At Elite, they set Cleveland’s odds at 6-5 and the upstart White Sox at 7-2. William Hill, however, sets both of the Twins’ top Divisional competitors at 3-1.
By the way, if you’re one of those bettors that like to bet the longshots, don’t bother with Elite, who sets the Royals at 75-1 and the Tigers at 150-1. You want to go to William Hill where you can get 200-1 on your Royals money and a whopping 500-1 if you’re willing to bet on former Twins manager’s Detroit squad.
But let’s start looking at the Donaldson effect. I never bothered to look at what the sportsbooks set for odds of the Twins winning their Division, because to me they were the obvious favorite and where’s the challenge in betting on the favorite in a horse race?
A couple of weeks ago, I did see the over/under on Twins wins during the regular season at William Hill was 90 1/2 wins. Today, post-Donaldson signing, it’s up to 92 wins. So you can still allow for some regression to the mean and yet make even money on the “over” bet. After all, the Twins didn’t shell out all that money to just get an extra win and a half, right?
But let’s face it, we all expect the Twins to repeat as Divisional champs. They’re going to do fine over the course of 162 games, right?
With Donaldson in the fold, we’re looking for more. We’re looking to get to the World Series and once you’re there, you might as well win it!
Will they still need starting pitching better than what they had against the Yankees in October? Yes. But the extra oomph the Twins get from Donaldson’s bat and the improved defense he brings to the infield give the Twins some flexibility with regard to how and when they improve that rotation.
There’s no longer a significant rush to get another top-end starting pitcher (or two). They can stand pat into spring training and see whether other teams’ demands in terms of prospect returns come down. They can even arguably wait until mid season to see which teams fall out of contention and are ready to deal their aces for help rebuilding their systems. Waiting also gives Michael Pineda, Rich Hill and the bevy of young arms the Twins feel are ready to break out their chances to prove themselves worthy of “top starter” status.
Right now, I’m optimistic (perhaps unrealistically so) that the Twins will not enter the postseason short on starting pitching.
But that’s me and my personal bias showing. What do the bookmakers think?
Before Donaldson, the Twins were a 12-1 shot to win the American League Pennant. Now, it’s down to 11-1. That doesn’t seem like the oddsmakers are all that impressed, does it? Still better than the 10-1 they offer at Elite, though.
That lack of Josh respect is nothing compared to what we see when we look at the Twins’ shot at taking home the World Series trophy.
Back on November 1, the Twins were 20-1 shots to win the 2020 World Series at William Hill. Last week, still before Donaldson, those odds had risen to 22-1 at the same sportsbook. Now, with Donaldson in the fold… it’s still 22-1 at William Hill. (It’s 20-1 at Elite.)
Talk about no respect!
Of course, the thing we have to keep in mind is that the oddsmakers aren’t making their decision strictly on what they feel a team’s chances are. For them, it’s all about getting money bet on both sides of the line so their bosses make money regardless of who wins. They’re setting these lines where they feel they can get people to bet on both sides.
To me, they’re telling us, “We don’t think people who bet money on this stuff are convinced the Twins’ chances of winning the AL Pennant are much improved with Donaldson… and their chances of winning the World Series aren’t any better than they were before he signed.”
Do you disagree? Are you amazed that not only are the Twins a bigger longshot to win the Series now than they were when last season ended, but that Donaldson doesn’t move the needle in their direction at all?
Me, too.
But how strongly do you disagree? It’s never been easier to put your money where your beliefs are. No, I’m not suggesting anyone mortgage their house and put the money on the Twins to get World Series rings. In fact, I’m usually not inclined to bet much money at all on teams I have a genuine rooting interest in. Emotion and gambling don’t mix well.
But I have to admit, it just seems weird to me that the betting community, the oddsmakers and the gamblers, don’t see Josh Donaldson’s addition as improving the Twins’ chances of finishing the season with some hardware. Does it make them a favorite for anything beyond winning the AL Central again, no. You still have to beat the Yankees at some point and that won’t be easy.
But the argument that Donaldson makes that only slightly more likely… and not at all more likely to top whoever comes out of the National League in the World Series… just is a tough one for me to understand.
It’s a tough betting line for me to ignore. In fact, I couldn’t ignore it. I put a little something on the Twins at 20-1 back in November and I’ve added a bit more at 22-1. I also put a bit on the 12-1 odds to win the AL and I’ve added some to the “over” at 92 wins. I couldn’t pull the trigger on 90 1/2 before Donaldson – I simply had little confidence that ownership would ever sign that kind of check – but I wish I had.
It will be interesting (to me, anyway) to follow these betting lines over the coming weeks to see if there’s any sort of movement as we get closer to Opening Day, 2020.
Part 5 of my “journal” related to my Lisfranc injury to my left foot. While I started making journal entries about a week ago, this is the point at which I made the decision to post my thoughts and experiences here at Knuckleballs. The early parts were put together from my memories of the early days of this adventure.
January 15, 2020 Not quite four weeks post-op and one week away from my next post-op appointment.
Things are still going pretty well. Was mentioning to my wife this week that I feel like I’ve been really fortunate with regard to the pain issue. I said it felt like I really haven’t had much at all.
She said she thought maybe I was choosing to ignore some points at which I was feeling it. She’s right, of course.
I’d forgotten how intense the pain could get those first couple of weeks whenever I first lowered my foot from being elevated. It would be just intense pain, I suppose as blood rushed to my lowered extremities. It never lasted more than a few seconds, but those few seconds were incredibly painful.
I can still feel some initial soreness when I lower my foot and it certainly feels better when it’s elevated above my heart (even better with ice on it), but I no longer have that searing pain.
There’s still swelling and discoloration, but as long as I keep the left foot elevated and regularly iced, there’s very little pain. What there is would more accurately be called soreness than pain.
The foot is still swollen and discolored. I’m not concerned about the color, but the swelling concerns me a little. I’m not really sure whether this is normal or not. Hoping it is.
The area just below my toes, in particular, seem to swell up any time I go for any time with my foot not elevated. It was particularly swollen when I got out of bed this morning.
For something like three weeks after the injury, I was sleeping in my recliner, so the foot was elevated all night. Since I’ve been going back to sleeping in bed, though, it’s harder for me to sleep with it elevated. I sleep best on my sides and there’s just no comfortable way to keep it elevated sleeping that way… or at least I haven’t found one.
As a result, I tend to wake up in the morning with my foot laying flat, as normal, on the bed. And it’s sore & swollen until I get out to the recliner, get it up in the air and get an ice pack on it.
Whenever I have symptoms that I’m not sure of, I tend to refer back to the lady’s blog that gave me the idea to write this journal, myself. Sure enough, she wrote at her 4-week point that she was still having swelling when her foot wasn’t elevated for any length of time. For better or worse, that kind of reinforcement from a stranger whose name I don’t even know makes me feel better.
Oh! I finally took a shower yesterday! This probably falls in the “Too Much Information” category, but I hadn’t been able to shower since the injury.
No, I didn’t just let myself get disgustingly filthy during that time. I used the “Full Body Wipes” along with the good old fashioned “sponge bath” process (and washing my hair in the kitchen sink) to keep from being completely offensive. But I was ready to get in the shower.
Having clearance from the surgeon to get the foot wet was the first step, but then you have to figure out how to actually get into the shower, stay there for long enough to wash up, and get out of the shower… all without putting any weight on your injured foot. Try doing all of that on just one foot sometime. It ain’t easy, folks.
Enter the shower seat.
It’s still a little cumbersome getting in and out and sitting while you’re showering is not ideal. But using it makes showering doable at this point and that feels great, not only physically but psychologically. I can’t begin to explain how every little bit of progress toward normalcy helps me from a mental standpoint.
Overall, I’m feeling pretty good. But hey, the Twins signed All-Star free agent third-baseman Josh Donaldson last night! How could I NOT feel good today?!
Part 4 of my “journal” related to my Lisfranc injury to my left foot.
January 8, 2020 First Post-op Check
Finally, two days short of three weeks after surgery, I was getting my “two week” post-op check up. (Yes, it still was bugging me that I had to wait the extra five days.)
It was actually a very full day. My appointment was at 8:45 in the morning, then my wife and I went out for breakfast. That evening was also the family party to celebrate our granddaughter’s second birthday (see the last post, Part 3, for more on that), but I split the day’s events into separate posts.
Getting the splint cut off was refreshing. My foot could breathe!
My foot can breathe again! No, it wasn’t pretty when they took the splint and dressing off, but it felt really good. It felt even better to find out they weren’t going to put another splint on.
The foot was still swollen, though. That was disappointing, though I’m not sure if it was just my expectations that were unrealistic or what. I thought I’d get the stitches out, but the surgeon decided not to do that. I tried not to be concerned about that. He did, after all, tell me that the foot looked good.
They applied a light dressing and fitted me for a boot. For some reason, I was expecting to get another full splint put on the foot, since I knew I was still not to let it bear any weight, so hearing him say I was getting a removable boot was exciting!
The boot is not comfortable, at all, but I really only wear it when I’m going to be going outside (which is still almost never) or when I’m going to be trying to stand for a little while (brushing my teeth, doing laundry, preparing food in the kitchen, etc.). I’m still not allowed to put any weight on the foot, but I can use it just to keep my balance when I stand. It’s easier to comply with that limitation if I’m in the boot.
The next appointment, set for two weeks later (January 22) should be when the stitches come out and, I believe, x-rays will be taken and we’ll find out how the actual healing is going.
From the outset, every doctor I’ve talked to has prepared me for a long recovery process. Maybe I just didn’t want to believe it or maybe I thought they were just giving me conservative estimates. But it’s becoming clear to me just how long this is going to take.
Before the injury, I had planned on spending almost all of February and March (even maybe some of January) at the condo in Florida. I don’t like cold weather and when you have a place to stay in Florida, there really aren’t many reasons you shouldn’t spend the winter there.
Of course, after retirement, family is really the ONLY reason for spending time in Iowa during the winter and with two adult children, three grandchildren and an elderly mother all living in Iowa, I’d want to spend some time in the home state. But with direct flights between Cedar Rapids and an airport only a half hour away from the condo, spending the winter in Florida doesn’t mean you can’t also see the family a few times.
That’s not likely to happen this year, though.
Surgeon check ups every couple of weeks for the next month or so and, eventually, physical therapy sessions all mean extended periods in Florida are probably not going to happen for a while.
And then there’s golf.
I don’t know when that’s going to happen again. Sometimes, I even wonder whether it will ever happen. Will I ever be able to swing a golf club the way I need to, with the stress it places on the front foot?
Getting old isn’t a lot of fun. Beyond the family thing, two of the things that have made it at least a bit enjoyable have been going to baseball games and golfing. This year, my annual trip to watch the Minnesota Twins MLB team and their minor leaguers in spring training probably isn’t going to happen and I can’t say with any certainty when, if ever, I’ll be golfing again.
That sucks.
I know, I know. Have to think positive. Some days it’s just easier than others.
Here’s something on the positive side, though – while it certainly is January in Iowa and that means we get snow and ice and cold and all that goes with it, when I’m stuck in my recliner all day, I have absolutely no reason to even look outside to see what the weather’s like. Could be lovely. Could be a blizzard. If not for the occasional audibly strong wind (and family who decide they need to tell me what’s going on), I’d have no way of knowing as long as I don’t look outside.
Part 3 of my “journal” related to my Lisfranc injury to my left foot.
December 25, 2020 Merry Christmas!
After I got home from Florida, I did manage to get out to see my kids and grandkids, but it wasn’t for long. Then it was back to the recliner and stay put.
When Christmas Day rolled around, the plan was to have the family get together at my son & daughter-in-law’s house. I was looking forward to it, but I had some mixed feelings.
Binging update: Now partway through the final season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Add that to the entire West Wing series, 22 Marvel movies, The Mandalorion series, and a few other movies and several other TV series episodes. And that’s all in addition to NFL playoffs and Iowa Hawkeyes basketball.
Yes, I was already having some cabin fever issues and I was ready to spend a day doing something… anything… other than watching TV. I was looking forward to spending time with the family, but I was also a little uncertain about how I was going to handle being out and about all day. It was only five days post-surgery, after all.
My mom lives about an hour away and my wife and I needed to drive to pick her up, bring her back to the Holiday gathering, then take her home again afterward. In between all of that, of course, would be celebrating the day with the kids and grandkids, opening gifts, having dinner and all that goes with a family Holiday. I don’t mind admitting that it felt a little daunting going in.
I shouldn’t have worried though. It went fine. We piled me into the back seat of my wife’s SUV and off we went to get my mother. The ride didn’t really phase me at all.
The day itself was great. I obviously was limited in how much moving around I could do, but that’s ok.
One thing you figure out when you raise kids is that time just flies by so fast. One day, they’re going to their first day of school and it feels like the next day they’re all grown up and you’re wishing you had found a way to enjoy those things like holidays and birthdays and everything else just a little bit more.
Then you get grandkids and you get a chance to do it all over again and do it right this time. Savor every opportunity you get, even if they aren’t as often as you’d sometimes like and you probably wouldn’t have the energy to keep up with them even if you did have more opportunities.
Anyway, I also made it through the trip to take my mother home and get back home myself. I will confess I was awfully tired by the time I got home, but the effort was well worth it.
Then, two weeks later, I got to do it all over again.
Well, not exactly all over again. But I got out for another family gathering, this time it was to celebrate my granddaughter’s second birthday.
It was a much shorter outing (no trip to get my mother, for one thing… sorry mom). Just pasta and presents over at the son and daughter-in-law’s. And an ice cream cake, of course!
Again, it was really nice to get out for a while and seeing the family makes it all the better.
Other than the birthday party, it was another stretch of the “recliner and TV” routine. Of course, in this age, we also have social media and, being on Facebook and Twitter, that means I’m never really more cut off from society than I choose to be.
With the computer on one side of the recliner and with a smartphone always on my person (in case I do something stupid like fall off my knee-scooter and need to call for help), it’s easy to keep up with the news (notwithstanding how depressing that can be), share the joys and frustrations of being a Twins/Vikings/Hawkeyes fan with those online communities and keep in regular touch with the family.
I also had plenty of time to get an article written on the sad state of the relationship between Major League Baseball and their minor league affiliate organizations for the 2020 Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook*.
I’ve written an article (and provided a number of photos of Twins minor leaguers) for the authors of that book for several years and I wasn’t sure I was going to get an article done in time for their publication deadline this year. Then, just like that, I found myself with nothing but free time.
Maybe now I should start a novel.
*If you’re interested in reading my article on the MLB/MiLB conflict and/or learning everything you might want to know about the Minnesota Twins minor leaguers, click here to get access to the links to purchase the book. You can pick it up in eBook PDF format or as a hardcopy paperback book.
Part 2 of my “journal” related to my Lisfranc injury to my left foot.
December 20, 2019 Surgery
The medical records staff at the hospital in Florida got my records, including the x-rays and CT scans, into the hands of my personal physical in Cedar Rapids (who then got it to my surgeon) all before my appointment with the surgeon on the Tuesday after I got home to Iowa.
If it looks to you like this foot will need surgery, you’d be correct. This is what it looked like at my pre-op exam 3 days before surgery.
As with the ER doctor, he couldn’t be certain whether I had done the damage that would necessitate hardware installation, so he explained that my surgery could be very short, but I should expect to get the full treatment. And that’s exactly what happened.
He also explained that there were currently two schools of thought on how best to treat this sort of injury. One was to insert a plate with screws to stabilize the middle foot. The other would be some sort of fusion of the bones. He said that he preferred the first approach.
While I appreciated knowing about the options, I honestly wasn’t feeling like delaying things to do more research. I wanted to get on with things. I signed up for the hardware.
The surgery only took a couple of hours and not too long after that, I was headed home (with my wife driving, of course) with a fresh calf-high splint/dressing on my foot and another prescription for Percocet. This one I got filled.
I still wasn’t in much pain, but I suspected that would change once the nerve block they gave me before surgery wore off. They strongly urge you to stay ahead of the pain, rather than waiting until you are writhing before you take something. That sounded like a sensible strategy to me.
The protocol also called for a two-week post-op check-up appointment with my surgeon, which I also had scheduled by the time we left the outpatient surgery center. I noticed, however, that my appointment was set for January 8… just two days short of what would be a full three weeks after surgery.
I’m sure that probably had something to do with the Holidays, but all it meant to me was that I’d have to wait almost a full extra week before getting that splint off.
I knew two weeks sitting (and even sleeping) in a recliner, unable to go much of anywhere or do much of anything unless I was prepared to maneuver stairs, sidewalks and any other obstacles, would be challenging enough. I figured that tacking on an extra week would just add to the frustration.
I figured right. It turns out I’m not always a very patient man. Who knew?
Xrays taken after surgery. One plate with three screws. Apparently, the plan is to leave the hardware in there permanently, unless they give me trouble. I haven’t yet asked how to define “trouble.” Not sure I want to know.
I found out very quickly (before I even left Florida, in fact) that I suck at using crutches. I feel like I’m going to fall on my face every step, especially when I’m not supposed to put any weight at all on the injured foot.
I ordered a knee-scooter that arrived three days after surgery and that’s a game-changer for me. Things that you take for granted like getting up to get a drink from the refrigerator or answer nature’s call were adventures that I dreaded when they meant having to use crutches to get around.
But with the knee-scooter, rolling from room to room is relatively easy and, with the basket attached to the front, allows me to carry drinks, food, etc., to and from my recliner.
I was still bored to death, but at least I could move around home much easier. After a few days, I thought I could sleep semi-comfortably in a bed, rather than sleeping in the recliner. Sometimes it worked, sometimes I had to get out of bed and back to the recliner. That “club” on my foot was just a giant pain in the ass.
Ice packs and elevation remained the rule, of course, and that got old. But the pain (which still was remarkably low most of the time) was almost non-existent when my foot was up. It wasn’t non-existent at all, however, whenever I would lower the foot from the elevated position. The several seconds after doing that was literally the worst pain I had that entire post-op period.
The ice pack thing made no sense to me, however. The splint/dressing on my foot was a good inch thick above the top of my foot, so there was no way the cold was getting through that. When I mentioned that to one of the nurses, she me to apply ice to the back of my knee – that there are nerves that run from there down to your foot and icing behind the knee will help your foot.
I’m sure I looked at her like she was nuts. To say I was skeptical is an understatement. But it worked. So, I not only kept my foot up, but also kept applying ice packs to the back of my knee, above the top of the splint.
After surgery, it’s back to the wrapped and padded splint.
That three weeks, though, was long. Very long. Almost intolerably long. I was just glad I wasn’t wearing that thing in the middle of the summer. It was uncomfortably warm, especially for someone who typically can’t sleep without at least one of his bare feet sticking out from under his sheets.
This is where I want to mention how much help my wife was and has continued to be through all of this. Well, not ALL of it… after all, if she had been with me in Florida, maybe she’d have been nice and gone to the bedroom to get my inhaler for me and I could have avoided the whole damn thing! I suppose it’s unrealistic to blame her, though, isn’t it? Guess I’ll have to take responsibility for this myself.
Other than not preventing this, though, she’s been a trooper. Picking up meals and groceries, not to mention having to haul the knee-scooter around every time we go somewhere. I probably don’t want to know what ring tone she’s associated with my name on her cell phone at this point. She has to be tired of the, “hey can you pick me up some…” calls/texts by now. She’s probably more anxious to see me get into a walking boot and able to run my own errands again than I am.
Until then, though, it’s just binge watching TV and relying on her to keep me from wasting away due to lack of food.
I got all the way through all seven seasons of The West Wing again, though. And started watching the Marvel movies in timeline order (rather than the order in which they were released).
If you’ve been a regular reader here at Knuckleballs over the past decade (yes, it’s now been ten years since we launched this site!), you’re used to coming here for sports-related content – usually, but not always, related to the Minnesota Twins and/or their Class A minor league affiliate, the Cedar Rapids Kernels.
It hasn’t all been about baseball here, though. Sometimes, I’ve ventured into Vikings or Hawkeyes material. Occasionally, even something entertainment related.
For the past year or so (maybe longer), however, those posts have become infrequent (to put it mildly). I was actually surprised to discover I hadn’t posted anything here since last April’s Game of Thrones Poll article.
Obviously, I don’t write as often as I used to and, when I do, the feature pieces I do are generally posted at TwinsDaily.com. I may start posting thoughts here again this baseball season. We’ll see.
But, with apologies to Monty Python’s Flying Circus, “Now for something completely different…”
Over three weeks ago, I had surgery on a broken left foot. Having a lot of time on my hands, I’ve spent a lot of time watching sports on TV, binge-watching old shows (did you know Hulu has the complete Mary Tyler Moore Show series for streaming now?) and movies on Netflix and other streaming services and browsing web sites on the computer.
Last week, I was doing some research on my particular condition/surgery and came across a blog/journal written by a woman who had pretty much the same injury and surgery. She had her injury something like six years earlier and decided to write about her recovery experience. Since she did a pretty good job of making regular, quasi-weekly entries, there was a lot of material to read, but I got through all of it before heading to bed.
By the time I finished reading it, I was almost sorry that I had.
Yes, I found value in it. I could see that the entries she posted for the day of her surgery and the first couple of weeks post-surgery very closely tracked my own experiences, both physical and psychological. That was reassuring, to a large degree.
I probably should have stopped there, but I didn’t. I kept reading and the more I read about what the next several months of my life are likely to feel like, the more depressed I got. I questioned whether I was really prepared for dealing with what’s coming up.
The next day, while watching NFL playoff football games and some college basketball, I re-read some of her blog entries and, in doing so, it felt like just going through the exercise of writing about her experiences was somewhat therapeutic for her.
So, I decided that I’m going to do the same thing.
I’m starting a little bit later in the game than she did, since I’m already a month post-injury and over three weeks post-surgery, but I decided I could easily go back and recreate the process since the memories are still very fresh.
As I type this, I don’t even know if I’ll ever post any of this – or even show it to anyone, for that matter. I do already have a web site, Knuckleballsblog.com, where I used to post a lot of baseball-related articles. It has gone virtually dormant since I’ve cut way back on my writing and what I do write usually gets posted on TwinsDaily.com, instead. But I can decide all of those details later.
I guess, if you’re reading this, I must have decided to put it out there, right? Also, if I do post this somewhere, I’m probably going to include pictures we’ve taken along the way. So if that kind of thing grosses you out, I’m sorry.
With that, let’s get started.
December 11, 2019 The Fall
Don’t let all the joyous Holiday decorations fool you. This condo was about to become the scene of my (literal) downfall
Whenever someone I know sees me for the first time hobbling around with my foot in whatever splint or boot I happen to be wearing, they inevitably ask, “What did you do to your foot?”
That’s natural. I just wish I could tell them.
Of course, I can tell them I broke it and I can even go into some detail concerning which bones were involved, but I have no explanation for how it happened. Not a good one anyway.
I had decided to spend three weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas down in Ft. Myers, Florida, staying at a condo that we bought last May. I flew down there on November 30 and was scheduled to return to Cedar Rapids on December 20.
By the time I got there, I had developed a bit of a chest cold or bronchitis. I tried to fight through it, but eventually went to see a doctor at an acute care center not far from the condo. They gave me a couple of prescriptions and sent me on my way.
After a few days, I was feeling like things were progressing fine on that front.
On the evening of Wednesday, December 11, though, things took a nasty turn.
I was sitting in the recliner in the TV room of the condo, watching TV, and decided my breathing was becoming a little labored. I have a bit of asthma, so when I get bronchitis, some shortness of breath is not unusual. I just take a puff from an albuterol inhaler I keep handy and I’m usually good to go.
This particular evening, however, my inhaler was in my bedroom. So, I stood up from the chair and took about five steps in the direction of my bedroom.
Three things happened then. I think I remember the order, but they happened in very quick succession and, in hindsight, I can’t be 100% certain my memory is accurate. In any event, I got dizzy, my vision faded pretty much to black, and I heard a sharp “POP.”
I do know what the fourth thing in the sequence was, though. It was my landing on the bamboo wood floor.
I knew right away I had broken my foot. I’m not sure how I knew that, exactly. After all, the only broken bone I’d ever experienced in my life to that point was a collarbone I broke playing football when I was 13 years old.
I spent a couple of minutes sitting on the floor, taking stock of my situation, comparing my left foot with my right and confirming the left was already starting to swell. I wasn’t in much pain at all, but I realized that was likely to change very soon.
I scooted on my ass back into the TV room where my cell phone was. I knew, I think, that I needed to call 9-1-1 and get to an Emergency Room. But I didn’t do that right away. Still a bit uncertain about what exactly had happened, I called my wife… who was back in Iowa.
To my credit (or perhaps more accurately, to her credit), I did call 9-1-1 very shortly thereafter.
I scooted again on my ass out through the hall and to the front door to unlock it and wait for the ambulance. I also realized I wasn’t exactly dressed in anything close to a presentable manner, so I then scooted into the bedroom and managed to pull at least pull on a clean t-shirt. Then, back on my ass, I scooted out to the door again.
The EMTs were great and managed to get me loaded into a mobile chair. They slowly carried me down the outside stairs from the second-story condo unit, then they transferred me to a gurney, loaded me into the ambulance and off we went.
I still really wasn’t in much pain and was able to carry on pretty normal conversations with the EMTs all the way to the hospital. Once there, I was moved into a room in the ER, where I spent the next four hours or so.
The injured left foot doesn’t look TOO bad, right? At this point, in the ER, I was holding out hope that maybe it was just a sprain. Yeah, right. (By the way, that bruised toenail was not due to this fall… it was from slamming that big toe into a cement step at the same condo about five months earlier.)
Up front, I just want to say that literally everyone I dealt with at the hospital was incredibly nice, while still very professional. Doctors, nurses, technicians… everybody… treated me like a person and seemed to really enjoy the work they did with patients. Maybe it was because they were used to dealing with patients in all manner of pain and discomfort, and I was being relatively accepting of my situation. But I chose to just believe they were all genuinely nice people.
They brought an x-ray machine in, but when the results were available, the doctor felt I needed a CT scan as well. He said he believed I probably had what’s called a Lisfranc injury, but they would need the CT scan to confirm it.
They had to take me to another area for the CT scan, but again the employees pushing me around on the gurney were really pleasant, as were the people doing the CT.
After those results were back, the doctor indicated he had spoken with a specialist and, while even the CT results weren’t absolutely conclusive, they were almost certain I had the Lisfranc break and would be needing surgery… and soon.
Lisfranc, he explained, was a middle foot injury where the metatarsals meet. In my case, at the juncture of my first and second metatarsals. It also generally includes ligament damage and, if so, it means you’re going to need some hardware screwed in there to stabilize the middle foot.
They wrapped up my foot and calf in a splint and bandages and discharged me with a referral to a local orthopedic surgeon that I was supposed to make an appointment with the following week. They also gave me a prescription for Percocet, for pain, but I didn’t even get that filled. I simply wasn’t having all that much pain.
Like I said, this all took place the night of December 11 and I was’t scheduled to return to Iowa until December 20. We talked about how you really don’t want to have surgery done by one surgeon and see a different one for follow-up (which makes perfect sense), so I obviously wanted to have the surgery done back in Cedar Rapids. Although, I’d be lying if I said the thought of using the injury as an excuse to spend all winter and spring in Florida didn’t run through my mind.
Once the “stay in Florida” option was pretty much nixed, the next decision was whether or not I would wait until after I returned home on the 20th, as scheduled, to see a surgeon.
I talked to the nurse at my personal physician’s office about getting a referral. That part was easy. But we were coming up on the Holidays and the odds of getting an appointment and surgery scheduled in anything resembling a prompt manner seemed long.
While I was still having that internal debate, I ended up back at the ER the following night.
I’d read my discharge information thoroughly and there were instructions to return to the ER if I noticed that my toes got cold, turned pale or turned blue. And that afternoon, I could see the tips of my toes (the only part of my foot visible) were distinctly turning darker.
So, I called Lyft and off I went back to the ER.
That turned out to be an unnecessary trip, though. My toes were turning dark for a very logical reason… my entire foot was beginning to show significant bruising. That included my toes.
I admit I spent those first couple of days being really depressed. I was alone, 1500 miles from home, with a broken foot and no idea what was coming next.
By Friday morning, I’d had a revelation.
Back at the condo after the trip to the ER, in the recliner that I was essentially confined to until I left for the airport a couple of days later.
I don’t know why I even considered sticking around Florida until my scheduled return flight on the 20th, but the fog in my mind finally cleared that morning and it became clear to me that I needed to get home as soon as possible.
My mental state was better, as well. I recognized that so many people have much more serious issues than a broken bone. For me, it would just be a matter of time – and perhaps some surgery – before I’d be as good as new. We all know a lot of people who are not as fortunate.
Luckily, I was able to get on a flight home early Saturday morning, a full six days earlier than planned. That allowed me to get an appointment with the Orthopedic surgeon for Tuesday, the 17th and surgery scheduled for Friday the 20th… the date I would have flown home if I’d stuck to my original schedule.
The injury and premature return home meant I didn’t get much of the condo cleaned up before I left, so I guess I’ll have to deal with that when I get down there next.
Unfortunately, that won’t be as quickly as I’d hoped.
