It is important to me that I share my victories and blessings and not just whine about life! Victory came most unexpectedly yesterday ...
I had a series of doctors' appointments yesterday, so Swede was coming down from Everett to drive me around. Only he never showed up and did not call either! Most unlike him! He is an engineer, if you looked up any aerospace engineer in a dictionary - his photo would be pasted there! Sometime it is just too funny the way in which he is so atypical, an engineer. I texted him and took off walking for the hospital where the first doctor, the infectious disease doctor is.
I also called his office to tell them I would be late since I was walking. It is only four blocks to the hospital but it still took 30 minutes due to the leg problems. But, I made it in record time - utterly exhausted. Everything is still good with the body, no signs of a re-infection. But, it seems that foot is now showing signs of a failure with the lymph system. Is there no end to this!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!!
I stopped off at the Physical Therapy place, which apparently does evaluations for lymph system disorders - I have no idea as to why. I was to learn that it is because there are so many women with breast cancer around here that they do this task and then treat in house. I get a packet of paper to fill out am told there is an evaluation appointment available in the afternoon and I am done with them!
By now it is lunchtime so I head off to my favorite Mexican place for lunch and text the still silent Swede that I am now walking there from the hospital, a distance of perhaps a half mile. He texts back that is already there. And I think ... "What the heck?". But as I walk along I am trying to remember back over 40 years ago and my medical training when I was in high school. I was a part of Rocky Mountain Search and Rescue back then, we were the para-medics of the day in Colorado. I had to admit there was little I could recall.
I make it about 100 yards from the door of the hospital when I see his little sports car turn on to the street I am walking down and roar past me, pull a U-Turn and then slide to a stop. I hop in and he is so apologetic! It seems he had written down 1:00 rather than 10:00 as my appointment time so he drove like a demon to get down to my little Burg and figured where ever I was, I would be doing Mexican food for lunch! LOL, I guess he knows me.
Over lunch, Swede and I chatted while I fill out reams of paperwork and ate. He had no ideas on the lymph system either and really wanted to talk about the new launch site Blue Origin is building in Florida ... perhaps he is thinking of coming out of retirement? Certainly, he is bored enough as witnessed by his driving down to see me weekly!
The bone doctor was next. New x-rays shot, one of his interns came in, yakked a bit and then left. About an hour later my surgeon comes in - I have not seen him since May when he was doing the titanium structure on me that failed a month later. I figured he was mad at me for destroying his fine work! But, he is happy, very happy, even jovial!
So the short of it:
- The fracture of the foot is solid
- The the bone structure of the foot is solid
- I passed a bone and muscle stress test
But, the titanium beam in the foot has failed and for now should be no problem. It just means my dream of being a ballerina will never happen now - sigh ... LOL!
He is happy because I am the exception. Only .5% of what I have gone through end up keeping any part of their leg, ankle or foot! And I get to keep all three! He even said that, "I had lost all hope for you because we started with a disaster, the attempts to save the foot and rebuild it failed, and yet - (he is waving the x-rays around now) - there is foot! Come back and see me in three weeks."
I was walking on air as I went to the physical therapy place. I was run through their tests as I told them about the year and its trauma. The person admitted she had never heard of someone getting this far in the process and still having their foot! All she ever gets to work with are amputees. I just smiled. In the end, she confirmed that lymph system has failed, probably damaged by the surgery, but with an intensive six week treatment program - it should be restarted.
So, I took everyone out to dinner to celebrate God's miracle and now I reek of garlic ..... hmmm, Greek food ....
A major shout out to God!
If you have been following along, you know what I have gone through to make it this far. Still a few more months of discomfort and pain but there is now light at the end of the tunnel - there is HOPE!
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