Monday, November 26, 2007

An (almost) clean bill of health...and shocking pictures of bare ankles!

Today brought a few pieces of good news on the health front. First, a visit to the lab at my doctor's office for a cholesterol test the day after Thanksgiving should have portended doom. However, I'm glad to say that after 14 months of Cheerios and oatmeal, my cholsterol dropped an astounding 40 points from 197 to 157. Boo-yah! However, my work is not done: my HDL (good cholsterol) was barely in the good range and my LDL (bad stuff) was a little high. So alas, Shorty has more work to do. It would help if I could cut out the Coffee-Mate flavored creamer every morning...but how I love it in my coffee....

In other news, this afternoon brought about trip #2 to the physical therapist, who continued to be mildly astounded at my progress. Today, I went through a round of balance exercises that involve strengthening my ankle without really moving it. The PT also said to keep going with the massage and icing of the ankle, so Guy is still not off the hook for rubbing my ankle.
In the meantime, I've had some requests for pictures of the Ankle In Question. Let's go to the film, shall we?




This is about one week after the spraining. Note the purple bruising below and above the anklebone. I chipped the end of my fibula off, behind that anklebone, and a chipped or broken bone often provides more bruising because there are indeed blood vessels to be disrupted. You also can tell how fluffy the ankle looks compared to the bonyness of the left ankle.


This is about two weeks after the spraining. There's still a lot of discoloration above and below the anklebone as well as a fair amount of bruising up the calf. I've had bruising spiraling here and there almost up to my knee for most of the past month. I'm sure the bruising the day or four after I did it was brutal, but it hurt so bad it couldn't be held or looked at--I was in a splint for four days before I even saw the ankle. Now, let's fast forward a bit.

You can see bruising still, five weeks later (the sprain happened on October 22). The bruising has become less speckled and intense, but now it's a little more faded mixed in with some yellow tint of old brusing. You can still see some swelling in the right ankle, but not near what you saw in Week 1 and Week 2. However, it's really really improved. I've been given the okay to get a lighter brace to wear both in the gym and at work, and I've been greenlighted to spend some time on a stationary bike and 5-10 minutes at a time on an elliptical. Just before I go back in two weeks, I'm supposed to try jogging on the treadmill a little bit (like 5mph for a couple of minutes, as opposed to the 40 mins of 6+ mph I used to do before the injury).

God, I'm looking forward to getting back into some cardio. I never realized how much I relied on aerobic exercise as a sleep aid, a mood stabilizer, and an antidepressant. I can't wait to get at least some of the old me back.



6 comments:

Lilylou said...

Wow, Pixie, that was a bad injury! Glad you're making such great progress.

Miss Kitty said...

BLEEHHHHH!!!!

That looks gross, even long after the injury. At least it's better now. Put Squaddy on it--her would wuv to "help" Mama get better. >^..^<

Anonymous said...

The pictures show how much damage you did. The bruising is really extensive. In spite of it all you still have nice ankles.

Mile High Pixie said...

Rev Kit: Thanks for the good wishes! It sure hurt like hell.

Kitteh: Look, I told yo aiss that it looked really bad. And Maddy wouldn't help me at all--she'd rather lay on Papa.

Faded: I bet your wife the physical therapist has seen this sort of thing, and it sure hurt. And thanks for the compliment--they're looking nicer all the time!

Anonymous said...

My wife is a nurse who works at a nursing home. She spends much of her day trying how to keep keep peopel from falling and breaking bones. the fact that you are all bruised up tells me you have strong bones. The bone absorbed the energy and the tissue took the damage.

As you get older this will be a very good thing for you. Keep exercising, it will keep your bones strong when you are older. My wife see old ladies who are in excelletn health execpt for the fact that theire bones are weak. These folks are literally colapsing before our eyes.

Also as you get to be about 45 pick up about 20 or 30 pounds. Having the extra weight gives a benifical increas in stress on your bones slows calcium loss as you age.

Mile High Pixie said...

Faded: Ah. That explains how she knows about bad lower-body injuries; she sees them all the time in the falls around her place of work. And you're telling me to put on weight when I get older, after all my docs made me lose it? Oh, if I knew where to send you beer!