Done Deal

My hardware extraction went well this afternoon. I think I was heading back home within an hour of coming out of surgery. I was given general anesthesia, but very light dose. They gave me a nerve block behind the knee to kill any sensation from knee down. General anesthesia is risky, and deep general anesthesia takes a while to come out of. The after effects of the block suck though. Now seven hours later, I still have no sensation or movement in my lower leg. Touching my toes is the weirdest thing. It is like that limb doesn't even belong to me. Creeps me out. I have to wear my boot cast with crutches for now as a protective measure until I get my feeling back. The only pain I experienced so far in this process was finding the sciatic nerve behind the knee for the block. I laid on my stomach and they told me to hug the pillow. They couldv'e given me something to bite down on too...

Progression from fracture, to pins and plate, to no hardware.

Note large voids left in both tibia and fibula where screws came out.

In the middle x-ray image above, you can see how the two pins protrude from medial bump on my ankle. It was those that gave me the most grief. The right image suggest I may have a more normal looking medial bump when the swelling subsides. Hope this makes significant improvement in XC skiing comfort.

Titanium trophy collection. Scale in centimeters. Plate is shorter than

 I thought it would be. Pretty stuff. Shiny and very light weight. The

pins are hollow, and all screws look just like self-tapping sheet

metal screws.

I now realize there will be a little more down time than I first believed. I'm to do nothing until I see the orthopaedic surgeon in a week, when my stitches come out. Bummer. I was at least hoping to ride on the road this weekend. Oh well, I got in 13hrs of riding, rollerskiing, hiking and running last week, and I had a good 10k run this morning before surgery.

Wonder what I'll feel tomorrow when the block wears off? They gave me a 'script for percocet. Hope I don't have to use it. That is nasty stuff.