Have you ever gotten news that you didn't know whether you wanted or news that all you didn't know if you wanted to cry, laugh, or throw things? That was me Friday.
I was told that once again at 5 weeks and 1 day postop from my 3rd right ankle surgery, that I needed surgery again. This is all from a fall in Philadelphia that happened on August 15th, 2007. I don't think I have totally wrapped my brain around it yet.
So Friday I had a doctor appointment to have my cast removed which did happen. The doctor told me to stand up and try to walk. I couldn't. The outside of my heel had a very very sharp pain that went up my leg and the heel felt like it wasn't stable and the outside of the ankle felt like it was not supported by anything. So the doctor immediately took me over to the fluoroscopic unit and we found 2 bone chips on the outside of the ankle. They were missed in prior x-rays because an x-ray is only one dimensional. Actually the place the bone chips were, no x-ray would have picked them up. I have had MRI's and CT scans which never showed them either, mainly because with any test that was done, there were always metallic screws and anchors in my ankle from the prior surgeries. Those screws and anchors would distort the picture and the distorted place was where the chips were.
This last surgery I had those screws and anchors taken out so I am scheduled for another MRI this Wednesday. They will not only be looking at those 2 chips but any damage they might have done to the posterior part of the ankle (the back part) and to the 3 ligaments that provide stability to the back part of the ankle - the posterior talo-fibular ligament, the posterior inferior talo-fibular ligament, and the calcaneofibular ligament. The actual incidence that these ligaments are torn and never repair themselves is rare. Of course, me being me, nothing is rare for me.
So I await the MRI results. I can shower and pretty much have no restrictions - the doctor said my ankle will tell me what I can do or not. Friday night I was able to walk in a walking cast boot with crutches although pretty slow. I went back to the scooter by that evening. The ankle throbbed all day yesterday from all the movements the doctor did to it on Friday and because of the storms that rolled in last night so I pretty well just stayed off it and in bed.
Up until this point the thought of suing Philadelphia had never entered my mind. But gotta tell you, the way the medical bills are stacking up, the thought has occurred to me now. All the pain and everything I have been through the past 2 years is all because Philadelphia can't repair a sidewalk.
