Interesting To Cows

Nothing terribly interesting in my visit with the Orthopedic Surgeon this morning.  The bones are healing nicely and they renewed my Physical Therapy prescription for a few weeks.  I have my (presumably final) checkup in mid-September. 

I'm trying to get copies of the x-rays, but there appears to be some bit of beaucracy surrounding the medical records.  They still archive the x-rays as actual film copies vs. an electronic format.  With the proper paperwork, they allow you to borrow the x-rays for a few days.  I'm going to try this and get them scanned myself.

 Oh, and apparently I wasn't paying attention in my earlier visits.  I've got 4 screws rather than the 2 I thought I had.  (They're in 2 groups, this was the first time I'd gotten to see the xrays close up)

Flew for the first time with the hardware in my leg.  It looks like I don't have enough metal to set off the alarms.  No issues on either side of the flight. 

Walking in dress shoes through the airport was another issue entirely and my ankle is pretty sore this morning. 
I've got my latest visit with the orthopedic surgeon tomorrow (or rather his assistant- my OS is on sabbatical)

- I picked up a low strength compression sock to wear for the days where I'm sitting in an office chair for 8 hours.  They're supposed to help prevent  swelling. (If not, then I just paid 25 bucks for a pair of tight dress socks)

- I hit the elliptical machine for 15 minutes today.  This was the first full weight bearing cardio since my injury.  No real pain in the ankle but the muscles in my right leg clearly weren't used to the effort.

Started my physical therapy this afternoon.  It had originally been scheduled for next Friday, but since I was walking/driving again I had it moved up a week.  The session went well- no real pain and it wasn't particularly taxing.  They didn't have any issues with the stuff I had been doing on my own and I can continue to go to the gym between sessions.

The session started with the insurance/medical paperwork followed by an assessment of the current state of my ankle.  My range of motion looked good but I had a bit more swelling than I should have and need to keep the leg elevated while at home.

 The physical "workout" consisted of the following:
– 5 minute warmup on the exercise bike
– Standing "flamingo" style on just the injured ankle.  This was much harder than I was expecting as I've lost a lot of strength in the stabalizer muscles on that ankle.
– Standing squat style motion with my back against an exercise ball.  This didn't seem to tax the ankle at all, but my upper legs needed the workout.
– Calf stretches pusing againt a wall.  This is one of the more common stretches from my swimming days.

After the workout they iced up the ankle and applied some electrode based therapy that is supposed to help break up scar tissue.  My homework was to repeat the exercises 2 times a day on my own and have my next session on Monday.

Dr. Abbey Bartlett:  I was hiking, Oliver, I was hiking.  Are you really that much of an enemy of nature?

Oliver Babish:  Nature is to be protected from. Nature, like a woman, will seduce you with its sights,  its scents, and its touch, and then it breaks your ankle – also like a woman.

Dr. Abbey Bartlett: What the hell kind of dates are you going on Oliver?

-West Wing Season 3 Episode #306 Gone Quiet

Scar from my ankle surgery.  Its not too bad all things considered.  At least it will be under my sock line.  There is a smaller scar on the opposite side from two of the surgical staples.