Unlike the other posts on here from when I've had appointments with Dr. Sundberg, this post will have no photos of x-rays. Unfortunately, I was not thinking particularly straight during the appointment, which was last Wednesday, the 13th. My mother drove me there from school through a route that, as per her traffic preferences, included no highways. No highways was fine. Less fine was the fact that the route Google sent us through involved a one-way street system that was actually little loops through an industrial park and it was all horribly confusing and… Basically, by the time we arrived we were both rather frazzled and concerned we wouldn't be able to make it back home (we were). So, long story short, no x-ray photos.
With that said, there were x-rays. It seems like with each visit, as I grow progressively comfortable on my feet without the walker, the x-rays get easier, except for when an x-ray involves laying the frame on a table. The frame is round and likes to roll, so the frame needs help to stay still for the x-ray. Also, the more appointments I go to, the fewer x-rays they require. Previous appointments have involved standing x-rays but this last one only required x-rays which were taken while I was laying down on a table.
First off, the frame is not ready to come off yet. The site of the osteotomy (where they took a chunk of bone out so the straightening could begin) is still very visible, though apparently progress has been made. At least, Dr. Sundberg was talking about progress, though I couldn't really see anything.
He was also talking about when the frame will come off. As in, he takes one look at the x-ray and asks me when I'd like to have it off.
I took one look at the x-ray and became quite worried that the friend impaling my leg would keep on impaling through August.
But, apparently, I'm on the homeward stretch. I've been scheduled for a follow-up April 19th, at which point more x-rays will be taken. Then (hopefully) the appointment will be made to remove this thing—I'm targeting on or around May 15th, with all my school commitments. By that point, I will have had the frame on for twenty weeks (today is a day past twelve weeks…it really has been a while, hasn't it?).
As far as the removal goes, I'll need to be put to sleep, though I've been assured that it isn't a heavy sleep—just a blast from the gas mask ought to be enough (let me pause here to quickly note that the smell of anesthesia from the gas mask is number one on my list of traumatizing smells; number two is the smell of hospital saline, courtesy of the six day stay the frame earned me just about three months ago). The tips of the pins, from what Dr. Sundberg said, are coated in chemicals which are designed to promote bone growth. This has a number of positive outcomes, none of which involve the act of ultimately removing the frame. Apparently the pins need to be given a nice twist to come on out. Hence, the anesthesia. Still, the procedure should last about ten minutes. From what I gleaned last week, frames are often removed on Friday so the ex-frame wearer can return to their normal life on Monday, no longer burdened with pounds of leg-happy metal.
After a tedious twelve weeks with way too much time spent in the company of the Recovery Couch and the Recovery Chair, it's freeing to know that an end is, at long last, in sight.
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