::Griffblog::

I’d like to think that I’ve generally kept my spirits up for the most part throughout the treatment I’ve been undergoing. Yes there have been bad days, infections etc that have brought my mood crashing down but I’m generally a positive person and tough as it can be, I’ve kept smiling.

January is a bad time for many, post Christmas/New Year with bleak weather and back to work etc but this last week has been a real test.

Wednesday was the day I was supposed to be travelling to St Peters Hospital in Chertsey (a 30 mile drive) to meet with my consultant and set a date for surgery to remove the ilizarov frame.  As we all know, Tuesday evening saw the worst snow fall in the UK for a great many years and so when we awoke Wednesday it was clear Cinders would not be going to the ball.

With a foot of snow having fallen overnight our car was stuck and the local roads were equally treacherous. Soon after we got up and surveyed the scene I received a text from the hospital cancelling the appointment and advising that a new one would be arranged in due course.

Buggeration!

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It has been some 4 months since I went under the knife (and chisel, spanner and mallet) and had the ilizarov frame bolted into and onto my leg.

By and large it has been a lot easier than I had feared. I’d had almost a year to prepare mentally and practically for the op so when the day finally came there was little shock at the appearance of the frame fitted to my leg and whilst it has been painful and uncomfortable and life limiting to large degrees, for the most part it has been easier than I had feared it might be.

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After an aborted trip to see the consultant two weeks ago (tuned up only to discover he had been called away) we finally saw him last Tuesday.

The good news is the bone has now connected and begun to knit and fill in the gap. I am now booked to return on 8th December and if all is going well then, they will start undoing the tension on the frame to transfer some of the weight through the new bone rather than the frame.

If that goes to plan then normally the frame is removed a month later!

Given some of the stories I have heard from others with ilizarov frames, this has gone very well.  We were told at the outset that it would be 4mths at the very least but typically 6mths – 1 year so if it comes off in January it will be a shade under 6mths.

I’ve also made some huge improvements at home, I’ve thrown away the crutches and can now get around using a walking stick.  I can walk without but it is there as a backup as balance is an issue with a heavy frame on one leg and it locked straight.

So that was great news, my wife and I returned home with huge smiles on our faces at the good news!

I came across an photograph taken a few days after the frame was fitted and noticed the difference in the gaps between the rings before the lengthening had begun and now with it all finished.

I’ve taken a quick snap as close to the original as possible for direct comparison but it’s immediately obvious how much lengthening has been achieved in less than a month. You can also see a gap between one part of the frame/pin and the skin has appeared where before, the leg was so swollen that it was tight against the frame metalwork.

The red sections are the lengthening rods, compare before and after! The blue box highlights the area where the surgeons made the incision to break the bone, look how tight it was against the skin whereas now there is an inch or so gap!

All but two of the pins have stabilised so much now that they require just the daily cleansing, no dressings needed. Only one wire pin at the top of my thigh (and which goes straight through the leg exiting in my buttock) requires dressing still, mainly because the skin around it is being moved each time I sit or stand.

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On Tuesday I finally saw my consultant to check on the length of my leg and bone growth.

I was delighted to be told that the leg was physically at the right length (+25mm) now and I would therefore not need to continue with the daily nut turning spanner exercise. The bone however has not quite met growth expectations having grown only about 15mm since the surgical fracture.

Not unusual I was told and so I am am now waiting for it to grow to close the gap of approximately 1cm. To that end I have been told to move to using one crutch only and fully weight bear on the right leg, this encourages bone growth.

I’ve started doing just that today but it’s incredibly hard work. Two factors being the mental block that tells you not to put all your weight on the leg and the other being the leg muscles, unused to weight, which scream at you every time you apply pressure and trigger the mental process that questions whether you should be doing this at all!

I’ve a review in three weeks and if I can help speed up the bone growth by walking then walk I shall, that and the gallons of milk, multi-vitamins and orange juice I’m being fed should do the job!