New cast....

This is how I regularly see myself now...

Day 1 - note the pink antiseptic!!

Day 1 - backslab only, not too swollen or painful - yet.

Thanks to my parents for our lawnmower - best engagement present EVER. Thanks Josh for mowing :-)

At the hospital, about to get my new cast

Old cast gets snipped off... it was only bandage and cotton wool @ the front anyhow...

Note the arrow to distinguish which leg to cut! I couldn't wait to see what was underneath....

Loving this. Only a small amount of blood on my ankle/cast, 3 holes in my leg!

My ankle was wider than my foot. Not nice. It got a lot bigger too...

The bottom plaster for my ATFL cut, the middle one for my arthroscopy, the top/right one for my ganglion excision.

Note the stitches... yes the part that looks like fishing line. They started tugging on these to snip the ends. I got dizzy and lay down... this from someone who LOVES the gore of the medical shows. Didn't last long and I was back looking again.

A fairly bruised, but neat cut. It goes under my ankle bone, so chances are will hide the scar well.

My foot from my view. The scar on the right is the ganglion... which turns out it wasn't! However pathology hasn't let me know just yet exactly WHAT it was. I'm intrigued.

Stocking bandage layer 1. Warm and cosy...

Cotton wool bandage layer 2.

"Plaster" (fibreglass or some version of) bandage going toe to top.

The nurse was learning how to bandage. Thankfully due to this she was anal about how neat it was, so I now have a perfect cast!

And bandage 2 going top to toe! Then some moisture on the gloves - rubbing it all over and smoothing the edges.

Joshy came for the ride. Very interesting to watch. Most of these photos are by him. Ta!!

Rubbing in the moisture, to set the cast.

Cast complete... touch dry in 20 minutes, completely dry in 45! Amazing.

Note the new cast... see the FAT toes!

This is my life for the next 6 weeks!

Im cut!

Well, Friday morning I went in to hospital to get my reconstruction done, so I sit here today (Monday) with my foot in a cast, the laptop on my good leg, the dog asleep in the sun in front of me and the lifestyle channel on TV showing me how to make cakes...
The surgery went well, but despite people telling me that it was day surgery when I arrived the nursing staff were very surprised to hear I thought I was heading home that day. However, on minimal painkillers (about half the recommended dose) I managed to convince them I'd be ok to go home and not need to stay in overnight.
Day 1 - great, only a little nausea, not too sleepy or painful. Day 2 - even better... no nausea, not sleepy - went to the dog park, went to shops, went to volleyball... Day 3- OUCH! Bit me on the bum for the two days before. So Day 4... I sit resting, like a good patient. Without much patience. :-)
So people, stay tuned. Photos will follow, I have my backslab cast now till the end of this week at least, maybe till the end of next. THEN I get a full cast to round out 6 weeks... all on crutches. NO WEIGHTBEARING.  Then moon boot and shuffling round for 6 weeks more...
Watch this space hey?

Time ticks away... ITS nearly here

Well in a little under 2 weeks, I get to go for my final appointment before my reconstruction... then under the knife I go, 10 September. I have to say, I am a bit nervous, having never had surgery before, but to be honest, Im VERY ready to go... its been nearly a year since I booked in, and Im over it - the wait...

What does frustrate me though, is that just as Im about to become the one left sitting on my bum, Josh - my other half (oooh... I can now excitingly say fiancee) is just getting back up to speed... he hurt his ankle filling in for a social team... SOCIAL ... its always the way.

Never the twain shall meet it seems...

Still, now for me, the search begins in earnest... I need to find things I CAN do while my foot is in a cast. There is this odd looking machine in the cardio room called a 'grinder'. The way it works is you sit on a seat and like the hand pedal bikes, you spin two hand grips around and around (think hand pedals....). Doesn't sound too amazing does it? However thinking further there is no reason I can't do upper body stuff in the gym, boxing might work after a few weeks too... time to put my thinking cap on - to ensure I can do the same with my pants after 3 months!

1m and fluffy!

No, Im not talking about my dog, or my favourite teddy bear, or a great pair of ugg boots... Im off to the snow. In under a week our big trip to Mt Ruapehu will finally become reality. I have NEVER spent more than 2 hours in the snow. To say Im excited would be an understatement...
Packing at present - so many choices about what to take... but given a) the cold & b) my dodgey ankles... and therefore calves.... and therefore knees ALL my compression gear is the first to go into the bottom of my bag. Yep, all my linebreak gear will be padded out with other less important(?!!??) things such as thermals, beanies and layers and layers of jackets.
We are going snowboarding - its what all the cool kids are doing right - so instead of being a cool kid, I will be the one on my butt on the ground with everyone wandering just what Im finding so funny. I don't care that I might be terrible at it, I carry no expectations of myself, and as such if I suck - completely and utterly suck - I don't mind!
Stay tuned... photos will come, blogs will be posted!

I have a date

Finally, after all this time, I have a date for my ankle surgery. I originally booked in 4 September 2009.... .... .... .... .... .... 12 months later - surgery date 10 September.
What a wonderful advertisement for our private healthcare system in Australia. As happy as I am with my public experience, I have HATED WAITING. Timing isn't great either, as now I miss Uni Games - the hilight of my working year (for the first time since 1999!!!) and I will be in a cast for my brothers wedding. GREAT.
Still I am completely and forever thankful that I haven't paid a cent for the whole experience. That I have my choice of surgeons... and that he is the surgeon of choice for one of our local AFL clubs here.... so quality is assured.
Well, I'll leave it for now, but rest assured its the beginning of greater things... or more accurately... posts.
My aim?? I want to do the kiddy ride for the TDU this year... Sad isn't it?

They keep teasing me!

Emails from the tour down under, emails from the melbourne marathon, emails from triathlons... join now, sign up, register soon, don't miss out.... well sorry people... but I will be missing out. AND whats more - your emails don't help any.

I don't want to miss out, and I don't want to sit this one out. However unsubscribe?? - nope not me. I plan to keep my subscriptions there - they keep rolling in.

Why - one might ask? Well it keeps me motivated. It keeps me remembering the light at the end of the tunnel! Your pesky emails ensure that I keep my goals, keep my plans and just remember they are delayed, not destroyed!

Thanks technology. Keep pestering.

Getting the itch...

My pooch is getting older. He's now 9 months old, and over 30kg... gone are the days of a 3 month old 13kg staffy cross something...

However Im getting the itch. Walks really don't cut it for the "little" bloke - as much as I walk him every day, without fail, and he LOVES it, I can tell that both he and I would just love to go for a run.

They say you're not supposed to run with puppies until they're 12 months old right... however Im quite convinced of the fact that he runs himself ragged, and would deadset run circles around my injury riddled body.

Im seriously getting the itch. I want to take my pup out for a run, nothing long - I can't manage it physically - but just a k or two... would that be so bad?? :-)

Scratch away Suey... scratch away!