Knitting>>>Blogging

Looking at the most recent posts on this blog, I've been absent for a bit. Fear not, though—I really haven't been doing anything. Not doing anything here translating to "sitting in the corner chair with my lap being crushed by my afghan as, for no good reason at all, I obsessively try to finish it within a reasonable amount of time." The good news is that the blanket actually does give me a sense of purpose, even if that purpose is creating new stripes on a blanket which will probably never leave the confines of the house. Another piece of good news is that I'm getting quicker and more fluid with my knitting. Whereas before my stitch was tight to the point of worry, today it is reasonably loose.

Yet another piece of good news? I am not getting bored of the blanket, even though the yarn is neither shiny nor anywhere close to new and costs a good deal less than a small car.

I have, however, gotten very bored of my frame, which is shiny, only six weeks old and costs about as much as a small car.

Most of my boredom comes form the fact that the frame limits my ability to move around. I can walk, yes, but I'm slower than everybody else around me. I still don't feel comfortable standing up for a long time. I'm still suspicious of being outside in the Minnesota winter cold for any stretch of time, mostly because I have metal pins sticking through my bones. The walker has yet to leave my side at school. The elevator remains slow beyond belief, though at least with familiarity I've gotten less scared of it (at some point I need to write up a more detailed account of my ability to access school with the wheelchair, but for now, I've got a blanket to knit). Even worse, I'm not entirely sure I want to get the frame off now, mostly because I have been reassured that after the noninvasive ten minute procedure to remove the thing my knee will be outfitted with a soft cast to limit my mobility even more. Granted, the soft cast will be in place so I don't break the pin-weakened bones in my lower leg post-frame. But still…

At my last appointment with Dr. Sundberg, my parents were commenting that this blog's purpose of talking about day-to-day existence with a Taylor Spatial Frame has been slightly undermined by my not experiencing any pain. I agree with this point. I haven't had any problems with pain. None of my pin sites has become infected.

But I can say for certain that if you're getting one of these things, find an easy-to-do activity which can take your mind off the boredom, off the lack of mobility, off the fact that you've got $20,000 worth of shiny metal poking out of your leg and through the bone.

Initially, I thought I'd take my quality couch and chair time and convert that into writing a book. I did not anticipate feeling this tired and drained. Which is, of course, where the knitting comes in. It is a simple repetitive motion that requires no energy and no thought. Plus, with proper color choice you get the fun and exciting experience of having bright colors draping over your lap and pooling onto the floor.

Needless to say, I've had lots of time to knit on my blanket. It should be done this weekend. And then I'll be moving on to another project, such as perhaps keeping this blog up to date.

Life+Frame (1.5 weeks later)

So…I'm about a week and a half post-op now. I figured it might not be a bad idea to just quickly write up how life with the frame has been in general.

The answer is, not too bad. My pain has been pretty tolerable. By now I don't really need any pain medication, though I've still been taking Tylenol and some Valium at night to try to make sleep easier. In general, the hardest part of the whole process has been dealing with sleep and my ever-fluctuating energy levels.

Positioning the frame at night, I've discovered, is not nearly as easy as it should be, requiring copious amounts of turning and tossing about. It's hard trying to find a comfortable way to hold the leg when the frame adds so much bulk. Last night's tossing resulted in one of the pin sites springing a leak and spreading a solid amount of blood over the leg, which was a bit of an unhappy surprise to find in the morning (I didn't notice at all during the night). Beyond positioning, night is also when I start to worry more about the state of the leg—is one of the pin sites bleeding? what if I accidentally knocked my bones out of alignment? what if one of the pins is infected? While I normally do get to sleep at some point, it's been taking longer than I'd prefer.

The other major challenge is the fact that I really don't have the energy to do anything. A full day's activity will look something like going upstairs for a shower, taking said shower (getting cleaned up is one of the highlights of my existence at the moment since, because there's a set of stairs between me and the shower, it's not practical to shower more than once a day), returning downstairs, lurking on the couch for the rest of the day. Yesterday I took a scheduled trip back to the hospital for my first post-op appointment, which wiped me out for yesterday and today. Long story short, my activity is really, really limited. Lots of just resting and watching movies. Or television shows. I'm not picky.

As far as dealing with the frame itself, strut adjustments have been very straightforward. Though these adjustments are physically torquing my bones into alignment, they've been very easy on me. My mother, who's been in charge of doing the actual adjusting (I read off the numbers she sets the struts to), she can feel the resistance as she makes the adjustments. Again, though, no real pain. Even better: the corrections are now more than 50% done, assuming a new set of corrections isn't ordered at my next post-op.

Aside from one of the pin sites bleeding last night, the sites themselves are in fairly good shape and have been rather low-maintenance. Since coming home, they've had to be cleaned once, which, while not fun, was also not unbearable (I took out any discomfort by twisting a washcloth to its limit…that strategy, I might add, was quite successful).

Mobility-wise, since my left leg was not operated on at all, I'm able to hop around by either using my walker or using other people, sturdy objects or the wall for support. Having the frame dangling, though, is comparatively uncomfortable, so I prefer using my wheelchair with leg extension. Since getting around requires having other people help me, I've mostly been sticking to my couch.

At this point, I'm really just waiting for strut adjustments to be complete, at which point my bones can fill in the cuts which were made during surgery and I can have the frame removed. Also, I'm waiting for when I can leave this couch…