Another year has come and gone since I began this blogging about my prostate cancer. I’ve had incidents, I think that are purely unrelated to the cancer. I have had ongoing Diabetes (2) and I fell in September 09 and broke my right femur in the upper part of my right leg. That required a plate and screws in the femur and an attached pipe or pole that extended to the ball joint and was inserted into the ball. I mentioned these things in a previous blog but this is somewhat more detailed and to change the subject. The surgeon entered the outside of the leg and had to cut some nerves and muscle tissue.
This was followed by a couple of weeks of rehab in a sub building to the hospital. An interesting side to this is that when they transfered me from the hospital to the rehab center they had to load me in an Ambulance and drive me accross the parking lot to the other building and then wheel me in there on a guerny. This is all insurance related. Apparently the insurance wouldn’t recognize that I was in a seperate rehab facility unless I was transferred by Ambulance…lol. Anyway I spent two weeks there learning to walk again. It couldn’t have been like losing a leg in Iraq and getting used to a new leg.
But it was similar in that I had to rehab the leg and this took some time. First I learned how to get in and out of bed and how to swing the leg…gingerly…over the side of the bed. It was interesting learningto use a bed bottle to urinate. I required a few changes of bedding before I learned the finer points of using this piece of apparatus. Then the wheel chair and then the walker. I got pretty good at hurrying to the kitchen for meals. I almost needed a horn on the chair to warn folk of my coming down the hall. Then there were the twice daily exercises. One for the lower body and one for the upper body. I thought the bath experience was interesting. The nurses aids drew this duty and some of them were very timid or embarrassed by my sitting in a shower unclothed. At first I wasn’t able to reach my feet so they had to wash my feet and my back. They made me wash everything else. Their inexperience was amusing but I don’t blame them. I’m no longer young and interesting….? Finally I had my evaluations and release and came home to continue my rehab. There were some specialists that came by for about 6 weeks. Twice a week to give me special exercises. Again both upper and lower body exercises and walking. One of them went for walks with me to evaluate my progress. I no longer have them but I really appreciate all the help and all the people that helped me get back on my feet and regain my mobility. I’m back to walking a mile 2 or 3 times a week. This summer has been too hot to walk outside so I have been driving to a mall to walk in air-conditioned comfort. This is sometimes hard because I still have some discomfort in the upper leg and some numbness in the area of the incision but I’d have to say that all that is improving. I can get in and out of the car with little discomfort and I have a problem keeping from stopping by the ice cream store on the way home…lol. Any questions or comments will be appreciated. Jack Settles.
Next subject will be the diabetis and all of its ups and downs….Soon. Jack.