Yet Another Recovery Update
I was released from the hospital on 23 December 2006 with little fanfare. Just a quick goodbye to the nurses on duty and an admonition from the doctor to be very careful and to keep stretching my leg. I went home and promptly fell asleep for 17 hours.
By the time I left the hospital I was able to bend my knee 120 degrees by force and about 110 degrees without force. It was difficult to put much weight on my broken leg. Physically I was very weak.
I quickly learned that it is much easier being in the hospital than it is to be out in the real world. In the hospital, the sofa is one step away from the bed, the TV is on the wall at the end of the bed, the refrigerator is next to the couch, and the toilet is only four steps from the bed. or two steps from the sofa. However, at home, everything is in a different room, the bed, tv, fridge, bathroom, and water cooler are all in different rooms at opposite corners of the house. Also, while the hospital is empty and free of obstacles, walking around the house requires navigating around the bed, running machine, computer, bookshelves, tables, the fridge, carpets shoes, etc. Simply navigating around the house was like running an obstacle course.
I rested up through Christmas and started working on Tuesday. I spent the week being very careful and conserving my strength as much as possible. But my condition is so weak that I would fall asleep immediately after getting home and go to work immediately after waking up. There was, and still is, a huge amount of stress worring about doing something stupid or slipping or getting hit by something that would break my leg again and send me back to the hospital for the third time.
This past Saturday, I went to the hospital for my first post-hospital check up. The doctor said that althought the progress is a bit slower than he would like, the bones appear to be growing together nicely and I should start putting more weight on my leg. He appears satisfied with the progress I have made in increasing the flexibility of my leg. He said that it is ok for me to drive a car. I will go back each saturday for check ups.
On another note, as I looked at my x-rays, i noticed a bright white twisty-looking thing in the middle of my thigh bone near my knee. I had never noticed that before. It was much brighter white than the screws or the titanium plate. I asked what it was. I was told that it is the end of a drill bit that broke off inside my bone when they were drilling screw holes. That broken drill bit will apparently be my friend for life, as taking it out would apparently mean slicing open the inside of my thigh, breaking or drilling a larger hole in my thigh bone, yanking out the broken piece, sewing me back up again and going through the entire healing process again. I think I will let it stay there.