A successful doctor visit!

I went to the doctor’s office yesterday afternoon. He was very pleased with my progress. He said the x-rays looked good and he was very happy with the way my foot looked. He said I can start physical therapy next week to get weaned off the cast boot and he even said I can start swimming again anytime I want to. I was pretty surprised, I thought he’d make me wait at least a few more weeks before swimming.
No worries about trying to get through the airport or courthouse metal detectors…he said all the metal in my foot is stainless steel and won’t set off metal detectors. Yeah!!
As far as the ankle swelling and pain, it has gotten a lot better in just the last two days. So maybe one week is the magic time frame that it takes for your foot to get used to walking again. It started feeling much better on Thursday and Friday; that’s exactly a week since I started walking. The doc said the ankle is part of the foot and moving all the foot bones around causes the ankle pain; it’s all connected.  You can see in the pic that the swelling isn’t gone entirely but definitely looks much better. The doctor said the heel pain was due to the screws and, like everything else, would go away with time. I’ve been using “Mederma” scar gel on my scars 4 times a day and it’s already beginning to make a noticeable difference. They seem to be getting flatter and smoother already.
                             
            11/07/09                        vs.                             11/03/09
As far as getting the second foot done…the doctor blew me and Rex away when he said we can schedule it for December! Next month!! I thought he’d say 6 months or something! But he said there will be a big difference in the next 4 weeks and I’ll be ready by then. So…they’re gonna schedule me for December and we’ll get it over with. I’ll be so glad when it’s all done and over with!