The Final Stage, Finally! I'll always be bionic.

I went in for what is hopefully my last appointment with the leg doctor for the next 2 months. Earlier this week, he pulled out about 1/3 of the screw that connects my tibia and fibula because he was worried it would break (which it did). I got an x ray today only to find out that a decent amount of the screw is still in my bone, just chillin. The fibula now has a hole in it and me being curious was wondering if this hole is going to make my leg easier to break in the event of a tumble. However, I was reassured that it would not be and I could proceed to go about my activities. Hopefully next week I will get back to running. After 5 months, the whole broken leg process is finally over. I can finally go back to wearing two shoes. I often see a lot of people in walking boots or casts, and ofter them a word of advice because I know I would have wanted some when I was in a cast. It was definitely a learning experience overall, and although I wish I never have to experience it again, in a way I'm glad I did because it taught me several things and underneath it all there was a lesson: don't ride razor scooters.

I know there are other lessons, but that's the most obvious. If you have the means to pick up a razor scooter, I advise you not to. You'll be glad you didn't.

Side note: for any of you wising to invest in one, if you are over 110 lbs, don't buy it. Mistake #1. There is a reason little kids ride them.

Mmm fun! Stitches! I'm glad its not staples.

The 2/3 screw left in my leg. If you look closely, you can see the hole in the other bone.

A sideview of the hardware. Doesn't that look fun?

Leg Surgery, Part 2

Waking up at 5 in the morning on Monday wasn't exactly how I envisioned my spring break happening, but it was out of my control. I woke up, took out my various piercings, put on my glasses, sweatpants and heading out the door. We were the first people in the surgical center, a dream come true, except not. After about 30 minutes of the standard procedure of getting ready for surgery, the gown, the socks with the grips, and a sexy blue hair cap, I was almost ready. Except, I forgot my favorite part, the needles! Woo for IVs. This specific nurse decided that putting the IV in my hand would be a swell idea, boy was I wrong. First, she stuck a needle in my hand to numb it, which didn't really do much, and then she stabbed me with the IV needle, only to find out that my hand veins were not substantial for the IVs. I then proceeded to tell her how I had the IV in my wrist last time. Side note, IVs in wrist from now on. The doctor then came in and drew a nice purple arrow on my leg, the right one, just to make sure they operated on the correct leg, that was reassuring. How much would that suck if I came out of surgery with a bandage on my left leg and nothing on the right....

Now unlike last time, I don't really remember my trip to the operating room, but this time I did, since they gave me the drugs when I actually got to the room. Meanwhile, on my way there, all the people I passed were smiling at me, as if they knew something I didn't. I also was a bit urked by the musical choices they had in there, the song from the Titanic, and Another One Bites the Dust. I feel they shouldn't have such debbie downer music in there, it might give patients the wrong message. That room felt like an ice box, the nurse had to give me three warm blankets just to keep me warm. They then put the meds into my wrist, which proceeded to burn. I struggled to stay awake, but felt myself drifting, I battled but failed.

I woke up around 8 am to a nurse mildly shouting my name. I awoke from my mid morning siesta with the worst salty taste in my mouth and the inability to swallow. I was concerned. One nice thing about the post op room, they are always offering juice. They have such a large selection it's hard to pick just one. I went with fruit punch, a solid choice. I then got another walking shoe, which meant going back to my one shoe days, and was told I had to only walk with this until friday.

I then got home, ate my McDonalds egg mcmuffin (YUM :)) and proceeded to lay on the couch all day. Wait a minute, this seems familar.... just when I thought I was done with this..

So the whole purpose of this surgery was to remove a screw that went through my tibia and fibula, aka the two leg bones. The irony of the whole story is, I started surgery with 10 screws in my leg, came out with 9 1/2. How is this possible you may wonder? Apparently, the screw that they wanted to remove broke sometime between january and this monday. So, when the doctor first pulled out the screw, it was about the size of the ones attached to the metal plate. He thought he had unscrewed the wrong one, wouldn't that be special? But no it was the correct one, just half the size. Where is the other half? Chilling out in my tibia. There was no easy way to get it out apparently, so rather than battling and getting it out, it was better off to just leave it in there.

Here are some fun pictures from this surgery:

My sweet yellow foot and bandage

The cute new shoe

Half of the screw that they pulled out

Time Heals Everything

It's been a while since my last post, but I've been busy using BOTH of my legs!

I'm back to working out 5 days a week now and I've had people tell me they would have never known I had a broken leg. It's a good feeling to know how far I've come in the past few months.

I've gone from walking to not walking, to sort of walking to finally walking with two shoes. Today, I met a girl who also had a knee scooter just like me. I asked her what had happened, and she slipped on some ice. She had it easy though, she doesn't have to use the scooter in the winter with the snow. But I still felt her pain, and promised her it does get better. I'm proof.

The irony of my accident is also the fact that it has inspired my art now. In my design class, we got an assignment, pick a body part, and obviously I picked a leg, and had to carve it out of wood. Now being inspired by my accident, I decided to do the stages of my leg. The ideas were, a skeleton leg, the broken skeleton (after the accident), the newly robot leg, a healed up with scars one, and a normal leg. I decided to pick the robot leg because for about a month after my cast came off, my leg felt foreign, it did not feel like my leg. The idea of artificial is what I wanted to portray in this piece and that's what I think I got. The model of the wooden leg is how I felt for while and reflected that feeling.

The Finished Product

I'm walking almost back to normal now. I'm still not running, but I am swimming once a week. I never thought I would recover so quickly and be able to get back in my workout routine but I managed to make great progress in a short amount of time. I never thought I would be where I am today, but for all of you who are out there reading this, and are broken, I promise it does get better