More toe

Roger Tulk

Member
Messages
3,018
Location
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
Just in case anyone was wondering, the toe, or where it used to be, seems to be healing much cleaner and better than the one that went before it. I am beginning to be optimistic that sometime in October this may be all back to normal. I had to give up a trip up north this week, so I could stay around for dressing changes, but as someone had to stay home with my niece who has just begun high school, it sorta worked out. If anything more exciting happens, I'll let you know.
 
Optimism is good. So is keeping clean dressings on it. You did good staying put and tending to business. Only way to get back to some semblance of normal.

A year today I was in the hospital and it has only been the last few weeks where I felt I could take on some usual stuff without suffering. These things take time. I was so happy to be able to go on vacation and that was 9 months after getting out of the hospital, and 7 months after getting out of wound care. I can now walk without a cane if the ground is level and it isn't too far. But I am working on that as well. I am not good at being disabled.
 
Optimism is good. So is keeping clean dressings on it. You did good staying put and tending to business. Only way to get back to some semblance of normal.

A year today I was in the hospital and it has only been the last few weeks where I felt I could take on some usual stuff without suffering. These things take time. I was so happy to be able to go on vacation and that was 9 months after getting out of the hospital, and 7 months after getting out of wound care. I can now walk without a cane if the ground is level and it isn't too far. But I am working on that as well. I am not good at being disabled.

Yeah, I'm terrible at it. I have a cane which I sometimes regret forgetting. I can only walk about 200 m. without feeling tired, so I'm anxious to get to the point where the doctor won't complain if I walk a little more. My dog is beginning to wonder if she'll ever have me at the end of her leash again. My main problem is with the lack of walking I'm getting little exercise There's a building donwtown that has a three-storey staircase. I think once this is healed I'll go walk up it and back down a few times a week. It's cheaper than the Y.
 
Another inexpensive but helpful thing you can do is grab a chair back and walk in place. Helps the leg muscles and get you used to planting your foot on the floor again. Count your steps or get a cheap pedometer and keep increasing the number each week. Don't be too discouraged if you begin at a few hundred per session to begin. You are rehabbing more than your foot. Your whole body has been traumatized by both the infection and the multiple surgeries. So, steady as she goes. And your mental trust level in your own feet has been compromised, so you are also retraining your brain to again trust your feet.

One more thing, walk on different surfaces. Just find something to hang onto for awhile. Soft ground and hard floors are very different to your sense of balance. Try small invlines and declines. Again a different balance issue. Then try doing without holding on to something (but have something nearby). This would all be part of a formal physical therapy program, but you are doing it yourself.

There is some difference in what you are doing to recover and what I had to go through. You have family to help you, but I live on my own, so I wasn't allowed to go back home until they deemed me 'safe'. The plus side is I got professional rehab. The downside was the sense of incarceration and the horrible food!

You have options but the hard work is definitely up to you. Don't minimize it and think you will be back to/normal/ within a few weeks. Your body dealt with this infection for a long time. It will take a while to get over it in ways it is hard to understand.
 
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