::Griffblog::

It’s been a quite a while since I last blogged. Whilst I was in the midst of the ilizarov treatment I found committing my thoughts and progress to the blog was quite cathartic but now I’m on the mend it’s much harder to find the time.

My last leg update at the beginning of March concerned my knee bend, or lack of. That is still the over riding issue albeit I can now achieve almost 90 degrees range of movement at the knee.

It has been very slow progress with twice weekly hydrotherapy inter mixed with a weekly visit to a private physio. The cost has mounted up and as the operation to lengthen my leg was elective, my medical insurance won’t entertain covering the costs unsurprisingly.

The knee itself is much stronger now but it seems to have stuck at almost 90 degrees. It would seem I am unlikely to enjoy any great improvement past that mark without undergoing another operation to free the stuck tissue that, it is believed, is preventing further bend.

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It’s already 5wks since the ilizarov frame was removed and in most respects I’ve recovered rapidly and life in a frame already seems a distant memory.

I say “almost” as there is still one issue that is holding recovery back; my knee.  Although there was nothing wrong with it pre-op, the frame fitting required four pins to be inserted through my knee to stabilise the lower part which effectively locked my knee straight.

This has meant that my knee joint has partially seized.  The tendons and ligaments have all become stiff and the muscle has stuck to surrounding tissue.  This is expected after being immobile for so long but was a side effect I hadn’t truly prepared for.

I had foolishly expected that the knee would bend as soon as the frame came off but not so!

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