And now for something completely different.....

I've been keeping a secret. For a very long time. Well, not a secret exactly. About a year ago I wrote a post in the form of a letter to my surgeon. In it I mentioned that I have always wanted to be a doctor, but I felt like my injury was holding me back.

I applied to medical school today. It's a long process with a lot of steps, but I made the leap today.

The silver lining of being this injured for this long is that it has removed any doubt that a career as a physician is right for me.

Wish me luck!

One more cast picture (hopefully)

A week from tomorrow I have my x-rays. If they look good I can start trying to walk again. I REALLY hope they look good...

Feel free to comment

I have some pictures of my surgery itself. You can see exactly what was repaired. I think they are awesome, but should I post them? Will you all get grossed out? They are GRAPHIC.

Computer Wizard

Here's the repair. You can see that the very end of my leg is broken and is basically hanging out of my body. In the center of the white bone is a circle. That's the piece that he transferred in!












In the second picture, you can see the bright red circle in the middle of the white bone. This is where he took the graft that got transferred into the first picture. He filled it in with a combination of my own bone marrow and a bone growing matrix, which is why it is red.

Right now, my body is trying to incorporate the new graft, grow new bone in the donor site, and repair my broken tibia. Which reminds me....I need to take my calcium!

I Look Like a Dr. Seuss Character

"Everything stinks till it's finished."

-Dr. Seuss

Exactly What I Wanted to Hear

I look freaking fantastic! It's only been two weeks and it's already looking like an ankle again. The doctor continues to be amazed at my lack of excruciating pain. This is one case where I'm happy to be abnormal. So now comes the boring part. I'll spend the next 4 weeks hoping and taking calcium and vitamin D and praying that where he broke my tibia heals nicely. If it does then I'll get to start walking again.

Shots, shots, shots, shots.....

I'm all done! I gave myself my last injection this morning. All in all, this process made me realize that I'm a giant baby. I'm showing you this picture for proof. That's the needle compared to a regular pen.
This medication was a blood thinner that I needed to inject into my stomach once a day. Since I just had major surgery and my leg is in a cast I was at a high risk for blood clots. In all honesty, the needle wasn't bad at all, but the medication sort of stung after it went in. For like, 3o seconds. I also have a sweet collection of 12 bruises on my stomach where the needle went in. I'm super happy this part of the recovery process is over!

Orange and blue stripes!!!! I'm loving this cast. I saw Dr. McGorgeous this morning and we unwrapped last weeks soft splint. I saw the incision.....I'd say it's 6-7 inches. Pictures next week. I'm glad I was prepared for it to be so big. Incision looks great, minimal swelling and bruising, all the pain I'm describing is totally normal. All in all, I couldn't have asked for a better first visit. I'm in this cast til Thursday when I go back and we take another look. We were talking about how my pain has been increasing the last two days and this little exchange happened:
Dr. McGorgeous: "You've also probably been getting up more, been more active"
Me: "Me? No way"
Dr. McGorgeous: "You're so full of crap"

LOL. That's some good bedside manner right there :P

Other than that things are good. I've actually had a really good day, pain-wise. Dr. McGorgeous was a little WTF that I've been off the pain pills since Saturday. He wrote me a prescription today for something not as strong as what he initially prescribed, and I haven't filled it yet. Since they changed the splint out for this cast, I haven't had much pain. Certainly not enough to warrant a narcotic. So for now, no more painkillers. However, he did tell me not to think of it as a backwards step if I do need to take them.

Now to try to find a way to keep myself occupied for the next week.......