Time Line: Injury and recovery and set backs to date

Posted by Jeanne Barrett on July 11, 2010 in Uncategorized

Let’s see the time line thus far for perspective on my very strained patience:

February 18 2009:  fractured patella in a sidewalk fall

February 19 2009:  emergency surgery to repair patella.  Bone was stabilized for healing with two pins and figure 8 hardware. I was sent home with a full leg splint immobilizing leg into full extension.

March 4 2009:  leg splint removed and replaced with a full leg Bledsoe brace; leg in full extension (no knee flexion whatsoever)

March 5 2009:  returned to teaching private lessons and directing teacher training course with fully extended leg brace; cane required for any walking.

April 1 2009:  30 degrees flexion allowed in Bledsoe brace

April 15 2009: 60 degrees flexion allowed in Bledsoe brace; began PT

April 30 2009:  Bledsoe brace removed; cane relinquished, careful walking resumes

May 8 2009:  resumed Gyrotonic exercise with careful and expert guidance

August 12 2009:  released from surgeon’s care

May 25 2010: hardware surgically removed from knee, resulting in far less pain and much increased mobility.

June 1 2010:  resumed teaching post surgery, as well as walking to work and other destinations with great ease and joy

June 23 2010:  excruciating foot pain begins to limit walking

July 2 2010:  foot pain results in back spasms that make even simple mobility impossible

July 7 2010:  metatarsalgia (extreme inflammation and pain in ball of the foot) diagnosed, likely due to increased mobility post hardware removal surgery.  Cane required for even limited walking, even at home.

So, here I am a year and nearly 5 months after the original injury.  Obviously, as evidenced by the above time line, recovery is not in any way linear in progression.  This current set back is depressing and dismaying beyond tolerance. I had been hoping to resume my morning runs by Autumn; now, I am desperate just for walking capability.

Having endured so many levels of pain, and the deeper psychic pain of immobility (movement having been both my joy and my coping strategy), my patience and tolerance for discomfort is utterly spent.

Thankfully, I can teach, an activity I treasure and deeply enjoy.  Now, if I can just (please!!) walk to work and home again, I will be gratefully overjoyed!  Enough already!  How much can a constitutionally active person endure?