After 11 days of what seems like eternity I am being prepared to be sent home, I am shown some x-rays and I get to see my leg for the first time.
I don't really know what to expect but I assume it's disgusting.
First up the x-ray.
This was the first xray taken while I was out of my mind in a k-hole. I have zero recollection of it but clearly you can see that I wasn't kidding about tearing my foot off.
The there was a second one after surgery showing the plates and screws that were holding my foot back onto my leg.
and front on...
I'm no expert on x-rays although I've learnt stuff over the past few years. I guess the pictures tell the story here, but nothing can really prepare me for the horror of what my leg looks like when they take the bandages off and start to prep me for going home.
I'm lucky in that my accident is covered by state based insurance called the TAC because the bike I was riding was registered, so none of my incident is going to cost me anything; if it hadn't been, we would have been not only medically ruined but financially as well.
We are told that we need a hospital bed at home and to keep the leg elevated at all times. A nurse will come and visit every day and change the dressing on the main wounds as necessary and dress the 'pin sites' daily as they are open wounds with the pins going directly through flesh into bone.
When they take the bandages off to show me the wounds and pin sites I just wanna puke cheeseburgers in a projectile fashion across the room. This is my body but it isn't the body I remembered having.
It looks disgusting to me, but I'm sent home with lots of painkillers and I just want out of this asylum so I can rest in peace and think about what I've done to myself, maybe eat something other than cheeseburgers and hospital food.
The pin sites are wrapped carefully after being soaked in a thick ooze of Betadine ointment then wrapped in a pyramid fashion starting from the wound, around the pin and up to a point.
It's kind of fascinating and kind of disgusting and a nurse will do this for me every day until the next visit so I watch tentatively so I understand what is happening.
This is going to be a lot longer recovery than I first thought.
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