Killban’s Blog

Nothing much happened today. I was tired after all my sticking yesterday, especially my right shoulder. I must favour that arm more when I stick, or something like that. I breakfasted, sudokued, exercised and interneted.

We had lunch, and then more exercises, then Mum and Dad went to the field. There was a tremendous rain storm here, but when they got back, they had not had a drop. The field is 6.1km from here as the crow flies, so not a great distance. Dinner was chicken with potatoes and various other stuff. I had read today that fractures can require a lot of calories to repair. For multiple fractures, instead of 2500 calories per day, the body might require 6000 calories! I tried to make up for lost time, but felt too full, too quickly.

Enough about the day to day runnings of the Ball household though. I realised as I got into bed, that I am probably nearing the most critical point of my recovery now. I was told that I should wait 6 weeks before I could put weight on my leg by Dr. Lee in China. That day is this coming this Wednesday, 1st July. The UK consultant(s) will let me know in a couple of weeks whether I can put weight on my leg. At the moment, I am inclined to go with Dr. Lee’s statement, not because it is sooner (although that does help), but because he was part of the team that actually performed the surgery, and would be best placed to make those decisions. My treatment at Warwick Hospital has not been poor, but it seems that they see me as someone elses patient that they have been lumbered with. I know I keep banging on about it, but the first thing the consultant said when he saw the X-rays was “I wouldn’t have done it like that.” I can understand that they are erring on the side of caution, and waiting 8 weeks is better for them than 6 weeks. It gives an extra 2 weeks for the knitting of the bone to be visible, and as 6-8 weeks is the standard length of time for knitting to occur, they are just at the opposite end of the scale to Dr. Lee. Now to the part where I think this is the most critical point of my recovery, (finally, I hear you cry).

If I go with Dr. Lee’s decision and start putting weight on my leg on Thursday. Then in 2 weeks time, I will have the X-rays and if the UK doctors tell me I am now ok to start putting weight on my leg, I will have already had a 2 week head start on them, and hopefully be well on the way to walking properly. However, if I start putting weight on my leg on Thursday, and the X-rays in 2 weeks time make the UK Doctors think I need more time before I can start putting weight on my leg, I would then wonder if it was me putting weight on my leg too early that caused this.

I will need to think about this more before I start putting weight on my leg. One of the things that has helped me, I think, is that since the operation, I have not been on any pain medication at all. I feel that this has allowed me to move my leg as much as I can, and as soon as it hurt, I would stop. Perhaps if I was on pain medication, I would have been doing more harm, as I would not know when to stop. This is what is making me lean towards Dr. Lee again, as if I start to put weight on my leg, I will know how much weight I can put on, as my senses are not being dulled by painkillers. Looking on the internet about the healing of fractures (I know, never look at the internet for medical advice), it seems that one of the best ways to encourage bone growth is by applying weight to the injured bone. The body then reinforces the bone to carry the weight that is being applied. Of course, if the bone is not knitted together, you can make it worse…

Food for thought for the next few days. Of course, if I forget about my crutches again, and stand up, all bets are off.