Expired!

The other day I went out to do a few errands, and at the first stop I automatically searched for a blue handicapped parking spot, as I've done for the last six months since my June 17th surgery.  At that moment, as I went to hang my tag on the rear view mirror, it dawned on me that it had expired.  My temporary six month handicap tag expired at the end of 2013, and so officially, I'm not handicapped any more.

That is not to say that walking distances is not still a challenge.  It is.  But, thinking back to where I was one year ago, I'm happy to say that I've seen great improvement and I can almost sorta kinda maybe possibly say I think it was good I had the surgery.

Evening of the surgery

For those of you that are new readers to this blog, I had some extensive heel surgery done.  Some bone growth out the back of my heel was shredding my achilles tendon fibers little by little, and of course causing tremendous pain.  After months of trying every possible non-surgical remedy, surgery was the last recourse.

The surgery involved removing a chunk of my heel bone, along with debridement and repair of the achilles tendon.  Following the surgery I spent two weeks completely non weight bearing on that leg.  After that, I graduated to a Frankenstein boot and learned to get around using a knee scooter, followed by a walker, and finally a cane.

Healing from this type of surgery is a very looooonnnnnnng process, I've learned.  Longer than I had realized at the outset.

Recently I went in for my six month checkup, prepared to express my frustration that I wasn't nearly back to normal, in spite of doing months of physical therapy and regular stretching.

The surgeon surprised me, though, seeming happily pleased with my progress and flexibility.  He informed me that the general rule of thumb for this type of surgery is to be back to 60% by 6 months (about where I would put myself), back to 80% by one year, and possibly fully back to normal sometime into the second year post op.

I guess that means I won't be heading back to the gym just yet.  I will impatiently wait some more for this old body to do its healing, for I definitely have learned that I don't heal as fast as I did when I was younger.

The good news is that it is healing.  It is getting better and I am having less pain.

I suppose sometimes it's OK to be expired.