I haven't posted in a long time, but it has been a mostly unpleasant several months. Here goes. We did drive down to Florida for Christmas at Mom's. That was a good visit. Prior to that trip I had x-rays of my long painful left heel and a visit to an orthopedic surgeon. The diagnosis was
Haglund's Deformity. Mine also had a line of calcification up the Achilles tendon that was debrided and a nerve ganglion that was excised. I think the surgery went well but my recovery was delayed by the giant bloody blister and wound left behind by my tremor working against the splint I had to wear for the first 2 weeks. Mom had ridden home with us and stayed most of January and February to help us while I was on one leg. I used a
kneeling walker for a couple of months. I had a large pediatric aircast to wear when up and about for a few months too. Waiting for the big wound to heal before they ordered me to physical therapy caused a 2 month delay. I've now had 17 of my insurer's allowed 20 visits, which is 3 fewer than the surgeon ordered. In the meantime, Clay's employer changed health insurers and we have been in a coverage hole, so that was the end of PT. I have a follow up visit with the surgeon next week. I don't have full mobility restored but the last time I was at PT, the therapist said I may have gone as far as was possible. I think that means that they've broken up all the excess scar tissue that they can and the PD rigidity is working against a full range of motion. I am out of the boot and walking without a cane. The pain is mostly tolerable without daily Tylenol. Unless the surgeon says otherwise this is probably what my finished recovery looks like. Coming down stairs leading with my left foot only. I am back to cycling with
the machine 30 minutes a day. I have also returned to doing an earlier PT-designed
LSVTBIG series of exercise that takes 15-20 minutes each day. I do achilles tendon stretches after every exercise session!
In March, I had a bad mammogram. That bought me a
sterotactic breast biopsy on the left side. Now this is sometimes called a needle biopsy, but I'll tell you it felt and sounded more like a dentist's drill. It was cringe-worthy and it made me cry. I was in pain overload for a few days. Good news the anomalies they removed were benign.
We've each had 2 booster COVID-19 shots since I last posted. The global COVID pandemic rages on with the virus in about the 5th or 6th worldwide mutated variant. I think we'll still be needing at least another vaccine that addresses the latest variants probably in fall or winter.
I have changed neurologists since I last posted. I was refered by my Raleigh neurologist to one at Duke in Durham. The deal is they offer
DBS surgery to people like me with drug-resistant PD. Especially now, I am not looking for more surgery, but I am moving forward with the screening process to see if it is actually an option for me.
The impetus for finally posting today after my long hiatus is pictured. Year 2 for us of
Dix Park Sunflowers. If you scroll down a few entries, you'll see last year's flowers were twice as tall and therefore twice as impressive. Not sure what happened between years!
That just about brings me up to date. Between my condition and COVID-19 we are continuing to stay close to home. Travel is still too uncertain for us at this point. So, our
Global Entry expires soon and we decided not to renew it since we didn't feel we got value from it already, and it would require making another interview out of town to renew. Instead we are applying for
TSA Pre-Check status. We can have that interview here in town. We are both scheduled for next week. So, we'll see how that goes.
