At the time I took that picture, the swelling was about double the normal width of my knee (it started out even worse- when the dressing first came off it was grotesque, like my knee had eaten a soccer ball). It is now almost completely normal, except for the two particularly big holes on either side of the knee where there are lumps- but the lumps are now prominent only because the major swelling is gone, and soon, they will be too.
That which doesn't kill Guttermouth makes her stronger.
Glad to hear that things are moving in the right direction with your leg.
Hopefully your father is just a bit off balance as a result of the move and will settle in with time. Good idea to get him out and engaged as much as possible, even if it's to run errands.
Happy Thanksgiving to Guttermouth and Othermouths.
That's my feeling too. I've seen his functioning bounce wildly up and down over the past year solely because of his living conditions. I remain optimistic.
We'll see each other again before Thanksgiving, fear not :)
Thank you. You take me away from the, not as much of a shit show, that is my life.
Though haven't seen preop photos of your leg, it looks like you are healing well. I do know your pain. I shattered my ankle and had four surgeries. Sent the surgeon a pic of me doing a flying side kick to my training partners face :), as a thank you. He said I would never do TKD again.
Congrats on getting your fathers paper work for selling the house, for getting your farm ready for winter, and for handling your father with kindness. My father loves to wake me. He pays no attention to the fact that I am sound asleep.
Speaking of shaving. I was in a cast for 8 weeks. The surgeon was awesome and awfully handsome. When he cut the cast off, I was absolutely mortified by the wolfman appearance of my leg. WTF. I had never seen my hair grow like that. And of course, the surgeon was so kind and pretended not to notice.
Honestly, going back to college in a walking boot was the most painful part of the whole thing. I didn't think I would ever be able to kick and jump again. Though I did train in class, from an office chair with the back taken off, so I could wheel myself around. I would do the hand portion and stand and kick with the casted leg in my hyungs. It was great fun. So much better than feeling sorry for myself.
Yay!!! This must be why I was thinking of you a couple hours ago 🤔
I'm sorry you went through so much pain! I'm glad you had Husbandmouth and a pup to help with the worst few days. I'm thankful I'm not a addictive personality... I've weaned down dilaudid very quickly after each of my two major surgeries, due to two reasons: I hate not being in full control of my faculties, and I appreciate being able to poop. You'll be down to having oxygen to sleep on much less frequent occasions soon. I think I take dilaudid maybe twice a month to sleep now.
Really good PT is a blessing! Charge hard,but try not to be stupid. I say this from experience. Surely I'm talking bout the " Charge hard" part of that... yeeeahhhh...
Jupiter turns direct in less than 2 days. I'll just leave that here.
Piglets, coffee, sausage ,and a worrisome Fathermouth. Did your dad not have a social group of other codgers as I recalled?
Space will be priceless.
Ok...enough jibber jabber...I'm just glad to see from you. I've been trying not to hover.
Omigosh...dont try to read Mat Crawfords giant thesis on. FTX until you have more continuity...it hurt my brain reading it tired last night.
Ok...good Moonday! We are almost out of fucking Scorpio season!! Ffs...finally!!! Ugh
Dad has some old friends that still live in NY that he tries to make trips up to see, but his most recent one was a disaster: every single one of them begged off due to various medical complaints. In any case, I don't see him making the 4-5 hour drive to NY for more than another year or two... but I don't want to be too pessimistic. He joined the Lions Club around here but has only been to one or two meetings. He is not fantastic at meeting new people.
I actually already read the FTX thesis- I had advance knowledge he was toiling away on it and was eagerly awaiting its release. I'll be mentioning it in the follow-up post.
I occasionally visit the CIA World Factbook, if only to reassure myself that for most topics, Wikipedia remains more useful. And, that the entire US intelligence community is a toilet fire.
Best of luck on PT, rehab, re-homing Fathermouth, and Hubbymouth's job hunt.
BTW ... it's very rare for a mere concussion to result in more than a few seconds to minutes of blindness or paralysis. I worked ER for 15 years and never saw that once. Was that before CT scans? You might have had something worse than a concussion.
I'm pretty sure it was, this would have been around 1983 (or so??).
Whatever it was, it ultimately went away without incident. I don't remember any follow-up treatment beyond checkups. My vision has been excellent- beyond excellent, honestly- since, and I never had any loss of muscle control again. Like I said, my vision returned the following day (I fell asleep in the hospital and woke up with it returned), and the other symptoms declined over about two months. I'll ask my parents the next time I speak and see what they remember of it.
The scary thing about the US intel community isn't that they're not a toilet fire, it's that they're incredibly powerful and have vast resources and have an above-average representation of psychopaths. Even an incompetent group of assassins can erase an average powerless citizen from existence purely on a sadistic whim and suffer no consequences for it.
CT scanning was invented and introduced in the '70s but wasn't widely available outside major medical centers for years afterward. So it would have depended on where the hospital was and how well-equipped they were as to whether you got scanned. There could have been a couple of things going on. It turns out that transient blindness - while I never encountered it - is far from unheard of: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3598126/ and https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM196803212781203.
This is weakness, paralysis or other symptoms typical of spinal injury, absent injury seen on x ray or CT. In short, maybe you tweaked your spinal cord when you hit your head.
SCIWORA does NOT exclude subtle injuries visible on MRI. But MRI wasn't widely available to emergency departments until this century, so you wouldn't have gotten one.
Well, it was the back of the head/brain, so when I looked back on it as an adult, I assumed it was loss of motor control due to brain injury that healed.
The first study you included in your comment (Kaye & Herskowitz) sound exactly like my case.
I could comment on a lot, but I'll keep it to three thoughts.
1. We just saw my MIL off for her return to stardust after a 12 year long goodbye. I understand how difficult it is. But you need to be realistic about these things; the pace will accelerate and I recommend planning. We didn't until the end and it caused a lot of unnecessary static.
2. You're leg will be like new in 6 months. Probably stronger than before. Glad to see you have a good PT.
3. Thank you for shaving your legs for the pics...:)
1. I don't want to overplan because a lot of what has happened to dad has been unpredictable (think back especially to his vaccine injury, coma, and other stuff in one of my inaugural posts "The Father Person" about how wildly wrong everyone was) these past few years, and he's only now addressing long-standing health problems that may have been impacting cognitive function. That said, he's living just a few hundred feet away, and he's nowhere near in bad enough shape that I worry about him burning the house down or hurting himself. I've had friends of the family who lived with low-level dementia for years and were adaptive enough to care for themselves. But don't worry, I have considered contingencies.
2. I know! And it's incredibly exciting to see it keep getting stronger. When I went in for my first post-op with the surgeon this past Thursday I saw photos from during the procedure of my old ACL (holy shit it was destroyed) and the donor ligament that will become my new ACL. It's an amazing process. And yes, I'm really grateful for good PT. Grateful for so many things.
3. I'm one of those obnoxiously lucky women who never has to shave body hair. Those photos are my legs unshaved since, I think, summer 2021 when I was wearing some skintight thing for a gymnastics class. I do need to shave my pits, though, which I am happy to do for all concerned. :)
Your dog is a Good Dog. Guarding leader when leader is hurt, ready to bite whatever hurt leader.
They are amazing animals, really. Our old female, a prize bitch if ever there was one, always knew where you hurt.
She would sneak up on you and paw the spot that hurt the most, claws first, with an expression saying "There! That's where you hurt, just so you know!"
Goo of your dog to guard you like that, really. Is it the leader dog?
it is nice to have you back...how I miss your writing, I hope you are writing a book.and for the record this boy loves hearing about the farm life...magically real....
Well, I'm late to the party here but glad to hear you are doing well. I was waiting for the 'gross pictures' and nothing even close materialized. Was expecting maybe a couple of bones sticking out of your leg with the dog chewing on one and maggots in the open wound. I've been around and operating room a time or two so your leg is really looking good. Glad you are getting mobility back quickly also. Not sure if husbandmouth checked out the employment suggestion I sent you a while back, but they have now dropped their vaccine requirement so even better. Remote work is the norm there. Good to have your writing back. Don't have time to read much but your stack is top 3 for me.
I had 2 dental artificial bone grafts 3 months ago. Last week I went to get the implants screwed in, ready for crowns to be installed. The grafts were the most unpleasant procedure I've ever undergone, so I was pretty happy that the worst was over.
Except that one hadn't bonded to the bone at all and basically came loose as soon as Dr Le G opened the gum, so it will have to be done again.
Reading about your fortitude with the leg has made me realise how stupid it is to be worried about another graft.
Sorry for the earnest and dull comment. There's no pithy pay-off.
You're easily one of the most unique and interesting reads on Substack.
#notsarcasm
#healup
Also, for what it's worth, when the shit show that we call the midterms happened, I thought "I can't wait to read Guttermouths take on this"
Welcome back!
Coming in the next post.
Leg is looking good. No swelling from what I can see. Is brothermouth single? 😊
He IS single, in fact!!!
At the time I took that picture, the swelling was about double the normal width of my knee (it started out even worse- when the dressing first came off it was grotesque, like my knee had eaten a soccer ball). It is now almost completely normal, except for the two particularly big holes on either side of the knee where there are lumps- but the lumps are now prominent only because the major swelling is gone, and soon, they will be too.
I could use a handy man around the house too.
Got any pics 😁
There's a few ones in recent posts where you can see him working on the cattle fence.
I just commented there to brothermouth.
He has a good sense of humor too.
Brothermouth is an outstanding human being, and I aggressively promote more widespread appreciation of his awesomeness.
I have four fantastic brothers.
That which doesn't kill Guttermouth makes her stronger.
Glad to hear that things are moving in the right direction with your leg.
Hopefully your father is just a bit off balance as a result of the move and will settle in with time. Good idea to get him out and engaged as much as possible, even if it's to run errands.
Happy Thanksgiving to Guttermouth and Othermouths.
That's my feeling too. I've seen his functioning bounce wildly up and down over the past year solely because of his living conditions. I remain optimistic.
We'll see each other again before Thanksgiving, fear not :)
Thank you. You take me away from the, not as much of a shit show, that is my life.
Though haven't seen preop photos of your leg, it looks like you are healing well. I do know your pain. I shattered my ankle and had four surgeries. Sent the surgeon a pic of me doing a flying side kick to my training partners face :), as a thank you. He said I would never do TKD again.
Congrats on getting your fathers paper work for selling the house, for getting your farm ready for winter, and for handling your father with kindness. My father loves to wake me. He pays no attention to the fact that I am sound asleep.
So glad you are back at it!
Thank you! Knowing that you were able to fight again is heartening.
Speaking of shaving. I was in a cast for 8 weeks. The surgeon was awesome and awfully handsome. When he cut the cast off, I was absolutely mortified by the wolfman appearance of my leg. WTF. I had never seen my hair grow like that. And of course, the surgeon was so kind and pretended not to notice.
Honestly, going back to college in a walking boot was the most painful part of the whole thing. I didn't think I would ever be able to kick and jump again. Though I did train in class, from an office chair with the back taken off, so I could wheel myself around. I would do the hand portion and stand and kick with the casted leg in my hyungs. It was great fun. So much better than feeling sorry for myself.
You will be a great warrior again!
Yay!!! This must be why I was thinking of you a couple hours ago 🤔
I'm sorry you went through so much pain! I'm glad you had Husbandmouth and a pup to help with the worst few days. I'm thankful I'm not a addictive personality... I've weaned down dilaudid very quickly after each of my two major surgeries, due to two reasons: I hate not being in full control of my faculties, and I appreciate being able to poop. You'll be down to having oxygen to sleep on much less frequent occasions soon. I think I take dilaudid maybe twice a month to sleep now.
Really good PT is a blessing! Charge hard,but try not to be stupid. I say this from experience. Surely I'm talking bout the " Charge hard" part of that... yeeeahhhh...
Jupiter turns direct in less than 2 days. I'll just leave that here.
Piglets, coffee, sausage ,and a worrisome Fathermouth. Did your dad not have a social group of other codgers as I recalled?
Space will be priceless.
Ok...enough jibber jabber...I'm just glad to see from you. I've been trying not to hover.
Omigosh...dont try to read Mat Crawfords giant thesis on. FTX until you have more continuity...it hurt my brain reading it tired last night.
Ok...good Moonday! We are almost out of fucking Scorpio season!! Ffs...finally!!! Ugh
Okok...I'm really going to go now. Honest.
Prayers continue for your speedy recovery!
Dad has some old friends that still live in NY that he tries to make trips up to see, but his most recent one was a disaster: every single one of them begged off due to various medical complaints. In any case, I don't see him making the 4-5 hour drive to NY for more than another year or two... but I don't want to be too pessimistic. He joined the Lions Club around here but has only been to one or two meetings. He is not fantastic at meeting new people.
I actually already read the FTX thesis- I had advance knowledge he was toiling away on it and was eagerly awaiting its release. I'll be mentioning it in the follow-up post.
Great to see you. :)
Really glad you're back.
I occasionally visit the CIA World Factbook, if only to reassure myself that for most topics, Wikipedia remains more useful. And, that the entire US intelligence community is a toilet fire.
Best of luck on PT, rehab, re-homing Fathermouth, and Hubbymouth's job hunt.
BTW ... it's very rare for a mere concussion to result in more than a few seconds to minutes of blindness or paralysis. I worked ER for 15 years and never saw that once. Was that before CT scans? You might have had something worse than a concussion.
I'm pretty sure it was, this would have been around 1983 (or so??).
Whatever it was, it ultimately went away without incident. I don't remember any follow-up treatment beyond checkups. My vision has been excellent- beyond excellent, honestly- since, and I never had any loss of muscle control again. Like I said, my vision returned the following day (I fell asleep in the hospital and woke up with it returned), and the other symptoms declined over about two months. I'll ask my parents the next time I speak and see what they remember of it.
The scary thing about the US intel community isn't that they're not a toilet fire, it's that they're incredibly powerful and have vast resources and have an above-average representation of psychopaths. Even an incompetent group of assassins can erase an average powerless citizen from existence purely on a sadistic whim and suffer no consequences for it.
So I don't love that part.
CT scanning was invented and introduced in the '70s but wasn't widely available outside major medical centers for years afterward. So it would have depended on where the hospital was and how well-equipped they were as to whether you got scanned. There could have been a couple of things going on. It turns out that transient blindness - while I never encountered it - is far from unheard of: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3598126/ and https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM196803212781203.
Paralysis after a 'minor' head injury (meaning no skull fracture or spine instability on x-ray or CT) is less well-attested. But there is a syndrome called SCIWORA, 'spinal cord injury without radiographic abnormality.' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinal_cord_injury_without_radiographic_abnormality
This is weakness, paralysis or other symptoms typical of spinal injury, absent injury seen on x ray or CT. In short, maybe you tweaked your spinal cord when you hit your head.
SCIWORA does NOT exclude subtle injuries visible on MRI. But MRI wasn't widely available to emergency departments until this century, so you wouldn't have gotten one.
Well, it was the back of the head/brain, so when I looked back on it as an adult, I assumed it was loss of motor control due to brain injury that healed.
The first study you included in your comment (Kaye & Herskowitz) sound exactly like my case.
Sending a hug. 🤗
I love hugs. Right back at you. :)
Glad to hear your leg is fixing itself up nicely, and you are starting to get some feeling. Things will get better, just don't rush it.
Thanks for the update. Glad you are doing well
I could comment on a lot, but I'll keep it to three thoughts.
1. We just saw my MIL off for her return to stardust after a 12 year long goodbye. I understand how difficult it is. But you need to be realistic about these things; the pace will accelerate and I recommend planning. We didn't until the end and it caused a lot of unnecessary static.
2. You're leg will be like new in 6 months. Probably stronger than before. Glad to see you have a good PT.
3. Thank you for shaving your legs for the pics...:)
1. I don't want to overplan because a lot of what has happened to dad has been unpredictable (think back especially to his vaccine injury, coma, and other stuff in one of my inaugural posts "The Father Person" about how wildly wrong everyone was) these past few years, and he's only now addressing long-standing health problems that may have been impacting cognitive function. That said, he's living just a few hundred feet away, and he's nowhere near in bad enough shape that I worry about him burning the house down or hurting himself. I've had friends of the family who lived with low-level dementia for years and were adaptive enough to care for themselves. But don't worry, I have considered contingencies.
2. I know! And it's incredibly exciting to see it keep getting stronger. When I went in for my first post-op with the surgeon this past Thursday I saw photos from during the procedure of my old ACL (holy shit it was destroyed) and the donor ligament that will become my new ACL. It's an amazing process. And yes, I'm really grateful for good PT. Grateful for so many things.
3. I'm one of those obnoxiously lucky women who never has to shave body hair. Those photos are my legs unshaved since, I think, summer 2021 when I was wearing some skintight thing for a gymnastics class. I do need to shave my pits, though, which I am happy to do for all concerned. :)
Your fan base has expressed grave concern re your pits.
Welcome back.
(Gardner beat me to the legs comment. I'll get even. Soon)
I really don't get the need for shaving body hair off. Unless it's some kind of bother. Like itchy or in the way or so.
I mean, I even have tiny trollish tufts on top of my ears. Doesn't bother me any.
Mother usually remarks that the only thing visible is my nose and my eyes, the rest is hair and eyebrows and beard.
Here I thought one of the girls had spilled a jar of picked eggs in the house and didn't tell anyone...
Your dog is a Good Dog. Guarding leader when leader is hurt, ready to bite whatever hurt leader.
They are amazing animals, really. Our old female, a prize bitch if ever there was one, always knew where you hurt.
She would sneak up on you and paw the spot that hurt the most, claws first, with an expression saying "There! That's where you hurt, just so you know!"
Goo of your dog to guard you like that, really. Is it the leader dog?
it is nice to have you back...how I miss your writing, I hope you are writing a book.and for the record this boy loves hearing about the farm life...magically real....
Happy to see an update from you. Hope the recovery continues well.
Well, I'm late to the party here but glad to hear you are doing well. I was waiting for the 'gross pictures' and nothing even close materialized. Was expecting maybe a couple of bones sticking out of your leg with the dog chewing on one and maggots in the open wound. I've been around and operating room a time or two so your leg is really looking good. Glad you are getting mobility back quickly also. Not sure if husbandmouth checked out the employment suggestion I sent you a while back, but they have now dropped their vaccine requirement so even better. Remote work is the norm there. Good to have your writing back. Don't have time to read much but your stack is top 3 for me.
I had 2 dental artificial bone grafts 3 months ago. Last week I went to get the implants screwed in, ready for crowns to be installed. The grafts were the most unpleasant procedure I've ever undergone, so I was pretty happy that the worst was over.
Except that one hadn't bonded to the bone at all and basically came loose as soon as Dr Le G opened the gum, so it will have to be done again.
Reading about your fortitude with the leg has made me realise how stupid it is to be worried about another graft.
Sorry for the earnest and dull comment. There's no pithy pay-off.
There doesn't need to be one.
You strike me as someone with mental toughness. If you do the benefit analysis for yourself, you'll see the sense in getting through it again.
Sounds like a very uncomfortable experience, though...