• Friday 1 - Ukiah to Fort Bragg

• Saturday 2 - Fort Brag to Arcata

• Sunday 3 - Wedding Day

• Thursday 7 - Kick Fest

• Saturday 9 - Flying Pones

• Sunday 10 - Eggs!

• Monday 11 - Cast off!

• Wednesday 13 - One-legged Gimping

• Thursday 14 - pooped again

• Sunday 17 - Sunday Drive

• Tuesday 19 - First PT Session

• Friday 22 - Second PT Session, Teaching a Horse to Lie Down on Command
• Saturday 23 - Post PT
• Sunday 24 - Breakthrough
• Tuesday 26 - PT #3 
• Wednesday 27 - Dr Visit and X-rays
• Thursday 28 - PT #4
• Friday 29 - Sinatra's Visit to UC Davis
• Sunday 31 - Fergus Gets a Trim, pft Goes Out Solo

Back to July 2008 • Forward to September 2008 

	Friday 1 August - Ukiah to Fort Bragg - From Ukiah, we drove over the twisty Boonville-Ukiah Road, then took the Greenwood Ridge Road to the coast at Elk. We ate lunch on the wooden deck of Queenie's Roadhouse Cafe in Elk - yum. Apparently Elk wanted to be called Greenwood, but when they came to apply to name their post office, they were told Greenwood was already taken (it's the next town over from us, where my friend Ann lives). Hw-1 winds its way up the coast and we were very pleased that we'd opted to bring the miata along as our "viewing platform" - so pretty. We stopped a bunch of times and I was bummed that I couldn't get out and run about on the beach, particularly when we dropped down to Navarro Beach - soft yellow sand with tons of driftwood to play on. Not. Just the idea of sand in my cast makes me grit my teeth. We stopped in Mendocino and "perused" the shops... sorta. I crutched around - probably the most I've done so far and was pretty wiped out, spending quite a lot of time balancing on one leg and slouched on my crutches trying to recover. I managed to resist buying eye candy (aka batik fabric) in the quilt store, but we ended up coming home with a couple of books (you never know when you might need more books). I got a fat thing about the six wives of Henry VIII (just finished reading another book about Catherine of Aragon). The fog was just off-shore and although it held off for most of the day, by the time we got to Fort Bragg it had blew in and, woo, was it chilly. Luckily Patrick was paying attention and suggested that even though it was only 4:30 since it was Friday we should probably stop and find a room. Just as well - if we'd waited much longer we would have been out of luck. It turned out the hotel we picked had an indoor swimming pool, so I got to try out my waterproof cast properly and swam for about 30 minutes. It felt so good to be able to move around so freely for the first time in six weeks, although it made my leg ache and trying to dry out my cast in foggy weather was tricky. I ended up blowing the hot hair dryer down it, but you never get the ankle dry.

Saturday 2 August - Fort Bragg to Arcata - From Fort Bragg, we continued up the coast on hw-1 and then turned inland through the trees. Yesterday's antics caught up with me, and I couldn't keep my eyes open and missed most of the 18 miles through the woods.

They are working on hw-101 through the narrow twisty portions which should mean that one day the trip to Eureka will take less time. Redwood endurance ride, here we come? 

We opted to take the Avenue of the Giants option, to admire the very big trees which was fun, and took the time to stop and look at them up close (at least it didn't require too much crutching).

Along the coast north of Eureka, Humboldt County have put up 'Entering Tsunami Hazard Zone' signs every time you dip down to near sea level (presumably since the terrible tsunami in the Indian Ocean?). This plays havoc with your imagination and you have to resist the temptation to accelerate to get up the next hill (not that I was driving, but I know what I would have done...<grin>).  We continued all the way up to Orick to meet Katie (who'd done the Redwood ride that day) before returning to her house in convoy. 

Oh - on the way home we saw some elk wallowing in a marshy pond on the coast. Odd place for them to be.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 4, 5, 6 - Given that this trip was the first time I'd done anything strenuous in six weeks, I thought I coped pretty well with it. 

It took us 7 hours to get home on Monday, which was too long for my poorly leg - mucho fidgeting in the last few hours trying to get comfy. 

When we got home, I proceeded to sleep all day Tuesday and then instead of not being able to sleep that night, I went to bed and slept for another 10 hours. Hmm. Didn't realise it took so much out of me.

Thursday 7 August - Kick Fest - Today I happened to be looking out the window and saw Hopi and Jackit having a kick-fest. I'm guessing Jackit started it and predictably came off worse - finishing the game on three legs. I swore and crutched down to the barn to make sure he didn't have blood coming out anywhere - and couldn't actually find any wounds, but he was sore enough that he didn't want to walk on his right front, even after I fed them supper (a first for me in 6.5 weeks - I loaded up the lawn tractor trailer and drove it around - very cumbersome and I had to do a certain amount of hopping while holding hay which wasn't particularly safe, so I won't be doing that too often). When pft came home, I had him investigate more and he concluded a shoulder injury. <gulp>. We shut him in a stall overnight.

The effects of being  double-barrelled by Hopi:

Saturday 9 August -  Flying Pones - Jackit improved some yesterday, but this morning was still gimpy trotting out. So he's shut in his own stall for the time being and getting a little bute. Hopefully no long-term harm done (and he and Hopi are still friends, which amazed me, after seeing them going at it).

This afternoon, we opened up the bottom gate so Roop, Mouse and Hopi could race about, which they did. 

Remember how Mouse broke her leg a few months ago? Well, today she was quite able to race up the steep hill at a flat out gallop. She might not be 100% sound, but I'd say she was pretty comfy. :)

I took this photo of Mouse and Hopi - but didn't notice Roop in the background until I looked at it just now. What is he doing?? 

Sunday 10 August - We got eggs! Never mind that they're the size of marbles - we don't eat that many anyway, so only having a bunch of tiny ones suits us fine. Not sure exactly who's laying, but judging by the attention the roosters are giving them, I'd say one of the speckled sussex henlets. Notice the grape next to the fried egg, to give an idea of scale.

Monday 11 August - (44 days post op/51 days post-break) Today was the day - the x-rays looked a little better than two weeks ago - the gap is vaguely starting to fill in, so Dr Christensen said I could go in a walking boot. Woo hoo! Brady got out her tools and extracted the puny worm leg from its prison.

	First she showed me her rotating "saw" and explained that it doesn't cut so much as vibrate... I'm glad she mentioned this since as it hummed along close to my pointy bits it was a little nervous-making. She sliced all along the right side and then used her "prisers" to splay the fibreglass apart. Then she whirred along the left side before cutting through the padding with blunt-nosed scissors.  And finally, voila! the puny leg is revealed ...poor thing.
	And then having made it nekkid, Brady realised that the place that supplies the CAM (controlled ankle motion) boots was closed for lunch, so she wrapped the back of my cast like a back-board with an ace bandage to get me through the next hour or so (Ann and I went to Annie's for lunch - yum) until I got my new spiffy footware.

The leg feels very strange indeed (no surprises, given that I've only seen it once in the last seven weeks). I have virtually no flexion in my ankle in any direction and it feels very tight. If I close my eyes and "point" my toes and it feels like they are pointed to the max - and then I open my eyes and the foot is virtually straight up and down. Too weird.

I can feel the lump on the tibia on the inside from where the bone is cracked outwards and I think I can feel the tops of some of the screws (although in reality, who knows what I'm feeling...).

I've very gingerly put weight on the leg (tightly encased in its new boot) and the bones aren't jiggling around any more, which is a relief. There's a sensation of sinking slowly downwards as I put my weight on it, it might just be all the padding on the boot. No sharp pain though - Dr said to back off if it hurts too much.

Best of all, I got to scrape 7 weeks of dead leg off in the shower!

Until my tibia x-rays show it to look less broken, I'm not getting on a horse - too much potential for setting me back months if I prang it when it's not properly fixed which is just not worth it to gain a few earlier weeks on a horse. They'll still be there when I'm ready. But it's driving me nuts - esp. being enthralled by the olympic equestrian stuff right now. 

Swanton 100, Roo and my next ride is coming up Saturday, but alas we won't be there to play. :(

Wednesday 13 August - I just came back from carefully waddling down the corridor to turn off the a/c and then waddling back with only one crutch. It feels very odd - I haven't hurt myself yet, but I've been going very, very slowly and stepping down and loading up that leg very carefully. It's scary as heck since I'm visualising the x-ray of that broken tibia at each step.

I spent the afternoon practising my flexion - well, actually vacuuming the house (talk about several months overdue... eck). The easiest way to do it is to walk around on my knees which forces my foot to do its plantarflexion behind me, although it isn't even vaguely comfortable to do. And my knees now have carpet burns and I was quite pooped out by the end.

My dorsiflexion is already a little better than it was on Monday... "better" being a relative term.

Tight, tight, tight!

I'm booked in for my first PT appt on Tuesday - they couldn't do me on Friday (<pout> now I wish I'd tried to go yesterday). The first session will be an hour of evaluation - I guess measuring my leg and angles, etc.

Oh, and when I was vacuuming I found a dead mouse wedged behind a box that as been sitting in front of our chest of drawers for weeks. Euwww. I guess the cats mauled it and it crawled in there to die. Made me squeak. :) 

Ah, life at the zoo...

Thursday 14 August - Although my range of motion was quite good first thing this morning (after sleep, when the leg is at its most deflated), I did too much yesterday and had to sleep much of today. So much for being "mended".

I did manage to walk without crutches a little tiny bit, very carefully. "Walk" is perhaps too lively a term - slow motion hobble is probably more accurate. That made my leg ache. I'm not sure what's better - to walk further with the aid of crutches, or walk short distances, but really make the leg bear weight.

I put together some comparison photos of the x-rays. This first is viewing the leg from the front:

And here's from the side (although that second photo is a slightly different angle):

Being able to stand for a bit longer on the poorly leg while wearing my boot is great. I crutched down to the barn this evening and brushed out Roop's witchy-knot mane and rebraided it (to stop him pulling it all out, not to turn him into a girly...). He wasn't thrilled and walked away a few times, circling me and bumping into me with his belly at one point, earning himself a jab from my elbow - I can't afford to have him not respecting my space right now.

Sunday 17 - Sunday Drive

It wasn't ludicrously hot so pft and I drove up to Mosquito via Chili Bar and then across the alarming Mosquito Bridge to Placerville for an early dinner. The road to Mosquito Bridge has 3-4 really tight steep switchbacks to get down to it, then a tight turn to get on it, and then it's only about 8' wide, built in the 1800s and squeaks when you go over it - very alarming. 'Course I didn't get any photos of the bridge itself... Another day, perhaps.

Looking down  on the reservoir  just upstream  from Chili Bar:	Downstream,  South Fork of the American River from Rock Creek Road:	Upstream,  South Fork of the American River from Rock Creek Road:	South Fork of  the American River  from Mosquito Bridge:

Chili Bar's a bit spooky at the moment. A local man was murdered (possibly by his wife and a guy who was staying with them) and put in his car which was set alight and pushed off the side of the steep embankment. There's a big investigation ongoing with signs of police activity on the road above.

Right as we got level with that spot, a huge eagle flew in and landed on the top of a ponderosa pine. I got some pics of it, but then annoyingly managed to delete the photo of it in the tree when we got home <grrr>. At least I got these shots of it in flight. I think it's a golden eagle and have a call into a friend to find out for sure:

	Golden Eagle? [Update, my friend says she thinks it's just a very large red-tailed hawk... aww. But that there are golden eagles out there... ooh!]

Tuesday 19 - First PT Session

Well, I've been doing pretty good with my full-weight bearing - I can stay upright for an hour or so at a time before it starts to ache. I'm still hobbling, but getting a little faster and a little more balanced. The CAM boot doesn't allow my ankle to flex at all, so it's hard/impossible to walk up slopes, but as of today I can walk up steps in a normal fashion.

Today was my first physical therapy evaluation. My PT man - Jim Kreutz - measured all my angles. He was amazed how much plantarflexion I have in my good foot - I can point my toes beautifully, but then was surprised how little dorsiflexion I have - was my calf tight? Yup - my calf and hamstring are both really tight. Need to sit around stretching, that's for sure.

Predictably, the poorly leg is tight in all directions. He gave me a couple of exercises to do - pull back on my foot with a towel wrapped around it for 30 seconds, then point the toes. The other exercise is for proprioception - trace the alphabet with my foot. This is to re-teach my head and foot to communicate (soon I get to drive!), as well as improve range of motion. It's harder than it sounds when you have very little ROM.

• He had me spend 10 minutes on the reclining bicycle - I did my best to pedal as hard as I could for the last few minutes considering the complete lack of muscle in the poorly leg and managed to go 1.75 miles, so I was pleased about that. I actually felt fairly strong, which surprised me, but will probably pay in the morning. Bleached worm leg said "wha...?".
• Finished up by spending 10 minutes hooked up to a pulsing machine while my ankle was wrapped in ice to get the swelling down.

The PT man suggested that I divide up my weight-bearing walking about into shorter more frequent sessions - say 4 x 30 mins and to ice and elevate it afterwards. He said there was no benefit to working the bone hard one day and letting it rest up the next - just to keep pushing at it.

So when we got home, I iced/elevated my ankle for a while, before spending some time scooping sludge out of the pool which we're trying to get clean enough for me to use for therapy - it could be a while, it's still plenty grungy. After icing and elevating, I went outside and trimmed the undergrowth that had been grabbing at my crutches ('course I wait until I'm nearly not using them any more before doing this...<roll eyes>). Iced and elevated, went out and did some weed pulling and set up the sprinkler. Iced and elevated, went out and straightened stall mats and rearranged pones (swapped Jackit and Mouse with Uno. Hopi and Jackit got into another kick-fest this afternoon - this time through the panel. No doubt someone jammed their leg). Now I'm prone on the sofa, pulling on my towel, pointing my toes and icing with my horse ice boot. Already I see some improvement, which is very encouraging.

Friday 22 - Second PT Session

1. Ten mins of bicycling (to warm the area up?). I managed 1.8 miles and felt great. Now, five hours later, my muscles are all wobbly, sore and twitchy ;-o
2. Some resistance exercises - pushing against PT man's hands - up, down, side to side (a friend who broke her leg mentioned that her PT had her put 5 lb rocks under her desk to push sideways back and forth... maybe start with lighter rocks?). This would be a strengthening exercise. He said something about doing it with some tubing next time around. When you work on resistance, make sure you're pushing/pulling with your *foot* and not moving your heel/lower leg.
3. Stretching the achilles/hamstring/other tight bits. He had me stand with my foot on a wedge of foam to dorsiflex my bad foot (is dorsiflex a verb?). The wedge was 25-30°.
   • With a straight leg, I was to lean forwards (I had a table in front of me to lean against) and hold the stretch for 30 seconds. Repeat x 3.
   • Same thing, except this time, slightly bend your knee (he said this would work your achilles more), hold for 30 secs, x 3
4. Wobble board. He had me sit on the side of the bed and put my foot on a 15" diameter board.
   • Without moving my knee, I was to flex my foot forward and backwards, trying to get the edge of the board on the ground (plantar was fine, dorsi I really had to work at). 20 reps (a forward and back counted as one rep) x 2.
   • Same thing, except side to side, 20 reps x 2.
   • When this was done, I worked on rotating the whole board so that it touched the whole edge to the floor - kind of like twirling your foot. That pulled on some stuff.
5. Got a nice massage to my lower leg (bliss) for about five mins. He pushed pretty hard on those muscles and it hurt - but in a good way.
6. Ten mins on the pulsing machine wrapped in ice.

He said to continue with my alphabet exercise and my pulling against a towel. Oh, and something else I thought of. PT man said don't just mindlessly do your alphabet while, say, watching TV - take notice of what you're doing and work on precision. The exercise is supposed to give you better control over your foot, not just stretch stuff. Cursive is easier for me, since the letters end up smaller and rounder, while capitals are harder - doing diagnoal straight lines (like "A" or "V" or "W") are where my ROM falls down. Letters like "O" also show where your limitations are - that movement is the only time I feel the plate in my ankle, when I get to about 5 o'clock to 2 o'clock on the circle it feels funky.

When I look back on what I did today, it seems wimpy, but I came home and took a nap and woke up stiff and sore.

Teaching a Horse to Lie Down on Command

I went out and hosed the horses in their paddock for entertainment earlier today, to see what they'd do. Uno quite liked it and rolled. Roop rolled. Hopi rolled (even though he didn't get wet). So that's what they do.

Now I'm wondering - can I teach Uno to lie down on command, so I can get on when there are no mounting block opportunities around? Interesting thought.

From the Clicker List:

Saturday 23 - Post PT

This morning my foot is still really achy - particularly my "index toe" (the one that corresponds to my index finger on my hand). The tendon attached to that toe stretching down the middle of my foot is evidently *very* tight :)

I almost feel like I have mild flu and my leg is sore walking, so I'm going to take it really easy today.

Sunday 24 - Breakthrough

It seems a combination of hard use, followed by rest/ice/elevation really does the trick. When I got up from the sofa to go to bed around midnight last night, my leg felt almost normal. Almost.

I've been walking around the house with a nekkid leg for a couple of days now - very, very carefully, since I know it doesn't have any support and could easily fail on me. But having a nekkid leg helps my ankle motion be more normal. (When I have to go out and walk in "real life", I'm wearing my boot diligently).

Up until now, whenever I stood up to walk, it would really hurt (particularly in my heel) for the first 30 seconds or so, and for the first few steps until everything settled down. I thought this was from fluid being squished out of places it wasn't supposed to be, but now I'm wondering if some of it was tight achilles tendon. The whole leg just feels more loosened up and less taut, which is a very, very good feeling.

Eggs

After a bumper crop laid in the chook house (all gathered up), followed by another 8 laid in the barn, I ruined it all by spoiling the henlet's laying area by moving the horse blanket she was hiding behind and causing her to move yet again. Since then it has taken a while, but pft has been watching her in the mornings to see where she goes and it looks like she's laying in the undergrowth in front of the house. We will dispatch an egg-finding expedition later today to see for sure.

Tuesday 26 - PT #3

The only new thing was an exercise where I lay on my back and pushed against a spring-loaded board with my legs - moving from bent to nearly straight. That pulled pretty good on my achilles tendon since I worked to keep my heel on the board. It also worked my quads good and hard, using many of the muscles I use for distance riding, so I was pleased about that.

I'm hoping to get to DVE over Christmas/New Year, although realise that might be a little ambitious at this stage - have only been full weight-bearing (FWB) for two weeks but my PT man thinks there's no reason I shouldn't start riding again around the end of September. Whether I can get me and the pone back in enough condition to do 50 milers in less than three months remains to be seen :) Time will tell.  (and in any case - which horse to ride? Roo, who can spook like a ghoul, but does so predictably; or Uno, who tends to be easier on the body, but can do stupid stuff if he gets scared?)

The FWB is going pretty good. Despite not having been given the go-ahead by my DR yet to do so (I see him tomorrow), walking around the house with a nekkid leg rather than using my CAM boot has been good. The booth tends to torque my leg weirdly because of the lack of ankle movement, so I'm actually more comfortable without it. That said, I've been walking around in barefeet to really get good feedback and not overdo it. I still wear the boot if I'm going to walk on uneven ground (anywhere outside the house, basically).

After I've done all my exercises and my flexing, getting up and walking is a lot easier and less painful. I guess I thought that the "bone is pushing out the bottom of my heel" feeling when taking those first few steps was from the bones settling into place, but can see now that it is from tight everything - and if I've loosened up the pain just isn't there and I almost feel *normal* (relatively speaking).

Anyway, I'm very pleased with how it's working out and already see some muscle returning to my runny-pudding calf which is gratifying. Yay!

Wednesday 27 - Dr Visit and X-rays

The x-rays looked good to me (esp. compared to last time), but he peered at them and said "well, it's getting there, but slowly".

I told him I'd been walking around without my boot (very carefully). He said on the one hand, that was good because it let my ankle get more flexible, but on the other hand it was bad because flexing my new bone might make it not heal properly and instead of putting in new hard bone, it'll just fill with flexi-bone and then I'll be stuck with a mal-union and have to have a bone graft.

WHAT?

He said "don't worry, I don't think that will happen, I'm just mentioning it just so's you know".

Oh.

He said continue as I am (walking around the house with a nekkid leg and wearing the boot when I do more walking/go outside) and that he'll look at it again in six weeks and see what's happening.

Hmmm.

Although he didn't say there was a problem, he still planted the seed of doubt in my head, so now I get to subconsciously fret for the next six weeks that the bone isn't knitting properly.

He did say I can go back to work on Wednesday, though (but to make sure I wear my boot).

Thursday 28 - PT #4

Gah, I worked hard today at PT. Did all the usual exercises, but in addition stood on a see-saw type board and worked those calf muscles. 2 x 20 each and my calf muscles in the poorly leg were beginning to judder.

But there was worse to come - Jim had me lie on my back on the spring-loaded platform and put the balls of both feet on a bar. I was to stand on tip-toes, then dorsiflex as far as I could - 2 x 10. This is the first exercise I've had to do that hurt so badly I was really struggling with it. Standing on tip toes really hurt my foot and even my good calf was seizing up. I suspect I'll feel like I did an endurance ride by tomorrow. <whimper>

Best of all - I drove myself to PT in the silver truck. Woo-hoo! First time driving since June 20.

Friday 29 - Sinatra's Visit to UC Davis

My friend Crysta's horse, Sinatra, has been suffering from squamous cell carcinoma on his nose for a few years now, but it has recently gotten very aggressive and spreading, chipping away at his nostril. I'd say the poorly area has doubled in size than when we did Patriot 100 together back in May. So she drove over from Nevada to take him to the oncologist specialist at UC Davis. Leslie and I went along as moral support.

The visit was actually pretty uneventful. They put Sinatra in the stocks, sedated him and took a biopsy of the swollen lymph gland under his jaw. Sinatra drooled happily through the whole event and propped his body up in the stocks. They will have the results back later next week: if the lymph gland is just swollen because of general inflammation (and his nose was pretty inflamed), then they can blast localized chemotherapy at the affected areas to try to clear them; however, if the lymph gland shows signs that the cancer has spread, then there's not a lot they can do. :(

Sinatra is pretty comfortable and doesn't actually know he's sick and is eating well, so that's good. They cleaned off the necrotic tissue from his nose while the sedation was wearing off - he was less happy about that so it's clear that his nose is very tender, poor guy.

Sinatra in his insect-head costume in the trailer - he rides backwards so he can see out.

Sunday 31 - Fergus Gets a Trim, pft Goes Out Solo

Yesterday I trimmed Fergus' front feet and this afternoon pft and I did a joint effort and got the backs done. Considering we hadn't touched his feet since before I broke my leg - in fact June 1 was the last time - they weren't in too bad shape. Fergus was a relatively good boy, munching on hay the whole time and he's the easiest one to do, having so much space underneath him to get in there. It's not that comfy on my bad leg - kind of jams it into the ground and makes it ache a bit, but at least I did it.

Afterwards, pft went off all alone with the trailer and Fergus to Cool - a first and I have to say I was a little anxious (just because of all the recent accidents - we got word earlier in the week that our vet Maria came off down in the canyon and broke her pelvis and didn't get flow out until 3 am after 9 hours). So I'll sit here quilting and act casual and not worry.

As it turned out, pft sent me pics from the trail so I could chart his progress as he went along: