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| Tom's Achilles Page |
Well, things are looking pretty good. I put in 8 hours working from home
yesterday and 10.5
more today. Yesterday was pretty painful and exhausting but I’m feeling good
today. I’m
going to try going to the office tomorrow.
I got hold of my doctor today and he said, “I hear you have amnesia about our
post-surgery conversation.” After admitting that I did, he admitted that he
never talked to me. I asked if he was the model for the Patch Adams movie.
After more witty banter, we got down to business. I had a 100% rupture made
unusual by the fact it was a “Z” tear. As you might guess, that means it was torn
half way through, then split down the middle, then torn the other half way
through. Not the cleanest break possible but still a pretty easy repair.
There was a small bone splinter attached to the upper tear but it wasn’t big
enough to reattach so he discarded it. While we were talking about the short
term outlook and when I
might be out of the splint and able to start some flexibility exercises, he
brought up the question of whether I had a stationary bike. I told him that
before surgery, I thought about
drawing a picture of a cleat in the right location on the bottom of my foot so
they could embed some pinch-nuts in my split and he said the idea had some merit
(I think he was
toying with me). Ultimately he said we’d know more when he sees me next week
but don’t expect any weight bearing activity for 6 weeks with an additional 6
weeks of very gradual weight bearing. The biggest danger during that period is
overconfidence and a stumble that
results in a new tear.
On the uvula front, I see an ENT next week. Most indications are that I’ll get a
uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (I think that’s Greek for Uvulaectomy). The
anesthesiologist I talked to (not the careless b@st@rd that maimed me for
life) had the procedure done by the same group I’m seeing because of an
enlarged uvula resulting in choking and sleep
apnea. She hasn’t noticed any real drawbacks as far as breathing, talking, nasal
regurgitation, etc. I will have trouble speaking Arabic, French, German, Hebrew,
Ubykh,
and Hmong as well as languages utilizing click-consonants. Clicks occur in all three
Khoisan language families of southern Africa as well as in several neighboring
Bantu languages which borrowed them from Khoisan languages, such as Nguni
(Zulu, Xhosa, Swazi, Phuthi and Ndebele, and the Zulu-based pidgin Fanagalo),
Sesotho, Yeyi of Botswana, and the
Mbukushu, Kwangali, and Gciriku languages of the Caprivi Strip. Clicks also occur
in the Sandawe and Hadza languages of Tanzania, as well as in Dahalo, an
endangered South
Cushitic language of Kenya, which may retain them from an episode of language
shift. The only non-African language known to employ clicks as regular speech
sounds is Damin, a
secret ritual code used by speakers of Lardil in Australia. Fortunately, I never
learned to ululate so I won’t miss that either.
yesterday and 10.5
more today. Yesterday was pretty painful and exhausting but I’m feeling good
today. I’m
going to try going to the office tomorrow.
I got hold of my doctor today and he said, “I hear you have amnesia about our
post-surgery conversation.” After admitting that I did, he admitted that he
never talked to me. I asked if he was the model for the Patch Adams movie.
After more witty banter, we got down to business. I had a 100% rupture made
unusual by the fact it was a “Z” tear. As you might guess, that means it was torn
half way through, then split down the middle, then torn the other half way
through. Not the cleanest break possible but still a pretty easy repair.
There was a small bone splinter attached to the upper tear but it wasn’t big
enough to reattach so he discarded it. While we were talking about the short
term outlook and when I
might be out of the splint and able to start some flexibility exercises, he
brought up the question of whether I had a stationary bike. I told him that
before surgery, I thought about
drawing a picture of a cleat in the right location on the bottom of my foot so
they could embed some pinch-nuts in my split and he said the idea had some merit
(I think he was
toying with me). Ultimately he said we’d know more when he sees me next week
but don’t expect any weight bearing activity for 6 weeks with an additional 6
weeks of very gradual weight bearing. The biggest danger during that period is
overconfidence and a stumble that
results in a new tear.
On the uvula front, I see an ENT next week. Most indications are that I’ll get a
uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (I think that’s Greek for Uvulaectomy). The
anesthesiologist I talked to (not the careless b@st@rd that maimed me for
life) had the procedure done by the same group I’m seeing because of an
enlarged uvula resulting in choking and sleep
apnea. She hasn’t noticed any real drawbacks as far as breathing, talking, nasal
regurgitation, etc. I will have trouble speaking Arabic, French, German, Hebrew,
Ubykh,
and Hmong as well as languages utilizing click-consonants. Clicks occur in all three
Khoisan language families of southern Africa as well as in several neighboring
Bantu languages which borrowed them from Khoisan languages, such as Nguni
(Zulu, Xhosa, Swazi, Phuthi and Ndebele, and the Zulu-based pidgin Fanagalo),
Sesotho, Yeyi of Botswana, and the
Mbukushu, Kwangali, and Gciriku languages of the Caprivi Strip. Clicks also occur
in the Sandawe and Hadza languages of Tanzania, as well as in Dahalo, an
endangered South
Cushitic language of Kenya, which may retain them from an episode of language
shift. The only non-African language known to employ clicks as regular speech
sounds is Damin, a
secret ritual code used by speakers of Lardil in Australia. Fortunately, I never
learned to ululate so I won’t miss that either.
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