Well here I stand, that's right, standing unassisted., but still in the R2D2 boot.  It will take a couple of weeks before I can shed the boot.  Healing has progressed as expected and the fusions are fusing as they should be.  I have been OK'd to put full weight on the ankle.  It is up too me and how well I respond as to how fast things progress.

I got to stand on it today without the brace.  It felt weird but very stable, and for the first time in over 4 years I was flat footed.  Heck of a deal.

So for now the time line sort of looks like this:

• next two weeks get used to walking without support but with the boot.
• I will then try on shoes and give that a try depending on how comfortable I feel, I can then graduate to a shoe. I can begin to drive the golf cart around the apartments so I can get used to operating the gas and brake again, with minimal chance of hurting me or anything else.  I feel like I'm 14 again sneaking  out to pull the car down the driveway to wash it.
• once I feel like I can handle it I can graduate to the big boy car and drive around the lot and our neighbor hood.  If I feel I can not endanger others I can start to drive.
• The hope is that by Christmas I am back in the saddle and driving as before.

I stated way back that I figured It would take 200 days to be fully recovered.  That would be January 14, 2013.  Dr Feinblatt told me to make an appointment for 90 days out, at which time he expects me to be Jogging (yea right) into his office fully healed. 90 days from to day is January 17, 2013.  I guessed it pretty close considering I was in a drug induce stupor when I said that.

Thanks for all the support and well wished.

Here are some of the X-rays promised at the last update:

Well here I sit the end of week 8, and a new adventure is beginning.  I got Big Red off Thursday and he was replaced with and Aircast. I did get xrayed but the disk they gave me, my computer can't read. I will try to get real copies my next visit.  They show my foot positioned under the shin bone nice and square and that my arch is raised about and extra 1/4 inch.  The arch will relax once I start to walk on it.  I also found out I got a bonus of a fourth screw.  This is to help the fusion hold up better. Dr Feinblatt actually had me stand on my foot so he could see how well it is aligned.  Let me tell ya I'm sure glad I hit the can before that visit.

The Aircast is quite the deal. It weighs about twice as much as the fiberglass cast, is more bulky and a little bit awkward.  However it is REMOVABLE, so I can take it off in the evenings and just relax.  It will also allow me to gradually begin putting weight on my ankle/foot. I have graduated from my scooter to a walker (a little more stable than crutches right now), then as I become more mobile I will start using the crutches.

 I am supposed to start with 25 pounds of pressure, measured by pushing down on a scale with my foot and feeling what 25 pound of pressure feels like.  Once I can manage that, I can increase it to 50 and so on until eventually I can support myself unassisted by crutches or cane. The goal at this time is to try and get up to 150 pounds by October 18th which is my next visit, 6 weeks out.

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The Bionic Ankle 4 week update

It has been 28days since surgery,  17 days in the green monster and now I am now looking at a 4 week stretch with Clifford the Big Red Cast around my leg, until the next check in. I am beginning to get some normalcy back in my life.  Off the heavy drugs, so the fog has lifted, more mobility, balance, ability to  converse on a coherent level and in general know what the hell is going on in this world.

Meet Clifford

 All is healing as planned.  It appears as though I do not have as much metal in me as originally suspected.  I will not get an xray until my next visit (safety concerns they don't want me to glow in the dark).  I understand there is the original post one heel screw and 2 screws through the shin bone. The outside of the ankle (the one with the biggest scar) is where all the rebuilding was done and the bone wedge was taken out, so my foot would lay flat again. 

bbbzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

POP it's open

AAHHHHHHHHHH

FREEDOM YEA 

This is the side they did the majority of the work on to level my foot and square up my frame

This is the entrance for the rod, the area to the upper left is bruising

If you grit your teeth and show real determination, you always have a chance!