The Leg is Free

I woke up after the procedure with my leg wrapped in ACE bandages and surrounded by a splint. It didn't hurt. There was no visible blood (though later on in the evening, once the splint was removed, we could see some faint pink circles on the bandages). There was some conversation in the recovery room, almost none of which I can remember other than my mother telling me a couple times that I'd be a really bad drunk.

Before too long, we went home, with instructions not to shower until Sunday. I spent the afternoon resting on the couch. The splint wasn't the most comfortable, but with a sizable enough stack of pillows, any amount of discomfort can be conquered.

My Friday was essentially spent under blankets, watching movies. I went to bed and slept easily, no longer adjusting my leg so the frame wouldn't complain.

Saturday, I had no energy. I stayed downstairs and continued reading It.

Sunday, I had some more energy. For the most part, I still stayed downstairs, still continued reading It. I did shower, unwrapping the leg for the first time since frame removal, to discover…not much, really, just some already-scabbing holes, much less interesting without the frame than they were with. I went on a couple of outings, once to get ice cream with the family, once to pick up normal size sweatpants without residual frame damage with my father. Every time I get into and out of the car I have to splint or unsplint the leg. Besides that, everything feels back to normal.

And that's more or less where I am now. The frame is off. I have yet to go running back to my walker and am still completely weight-bearing, though I've been walking a straight-legged walk.

I thought that this blog entry would, like some of the other entries here on Leg+Frame, be pushing it as far as word count goes. But the truth of the matter is that right now, I have nothing to write about. On Friday, I had what I'm pretty sure will be my final surgery for a while. There was some part of me that thought perhaps this frame process would continue after the frame was removed.

Before the surgery, everybody was encouraging me to celebrate. I was too focused on the whole surgery aspect of the matter to do so and for the last few days I've been too worn out to celebrate. And the really funny thing is I'm not sure there's anything to celebrate. This feels like a very gentle transition, a subtle shift into normalcy.

In about three weeks, I'll be able to get this splint off.

And then everything will be normal again.

When I started this blog, I intended to try to cover more or less the full sweep of wearing a Taylor Spatial Frame. At some point, I got so used to the reality of wearing the frame (or was it the frame wearing me? I get so confused with prepositions once things penetrate bone…) that I lost motivation to continue the blog, leading to an absence of a while. And then I managed to get my act back together, but as I did, Leg+Frame became more and more unwieldy. I decided it would be easiest just to end it shortly after the frame came off.

There was still a part of me that wondered if, by ending it before I came out of the immobilizer, I might be cutting things short.

That part of me now has an answer: no, nothing's going to be cut short. I'm back to normalcy now. Or at least, I'm almost there.

I almost can't believe it, but there you go…

Life's about to go on.

My leg is free, everything is essentially back to normal and I'm done with the frame.

Life is good.