Stretching & strengthening...

It was my first trip to the physio in the township just up the road from us, today.

My mom dropped me off at 7.30am for my appointment, but with the usual administration system and then the wait to get seen, it was only around 11am that i finally got thru to see the physio.

She prodded and poked and we chatted about what the MRI results were, and what exercises i was doing.

And that was about it.

She booked me in for a return visit in 2 weeks time, and just said to keep doing my exercises at home.

To be honest, i cant see much good of even going to the physio, as it is basically up to me now how well i progress.

I have been researching all the muscle groups of the upper and lower leg, and also exercises that i can get thru with my limitations i have, and have built up a program of stretches and exercises to do each evening.

Stretches are done every night of the week, and strengthening every day except for thursday and sunday.

So, we'll see how well i progress on my program.

I am setting myself a goal of walking again by xmas. So, lets see how things progress.

As far as the insurance payout in the DR is concerned, it is not a happy picture.

I received a mail from my lawyer in the DR 2 weeks ago, demanding another $400 from me in order to make my case with the insurance company!

A case that has apparently been made for the last 5 months or more! I was told that i have a "good chance" of winning the case. I am not quite sure why it is only a "good chance", as i was totally innocent in this accident, and the driver was totally in the wrong. This should be cut-and-dried!

So, he has requested another $400 in order to take my case further otherwise he will drop the case entirely!

Something that i find very strange indeed, as the case is for 4 000 000 peso, roughly about $100 000!

Take from that the lawyers 30% share, which gives him $30 000, and it boggles the mind as to why he cannot invest another $400 of his own money into the case?!

So, this is where i stand at the moment. In no man's land. I do not have the money to send him, which i have told him in a return mail, but he only replied with a deadline to send the money over Western Union style or else!

It sounds like a damned Nigerian scam!

At this point, i am just concerned that the hospital receive their money for saving my life and fixing me up. If there was ever going be anything left over for me, it was going to be a big bonus.

2 weeks on, and no further contact from him. Another lawyer getting rich off of the pain and suffering of a foreigner to the DR. The vicious cycle continues...

Post MRI comments...

Well, today was another long one.
A 6am start and the usual pick up of 7.15am, then the drive thru to the clinic in George to get my MRI done.
I was expecting it to be much the same as a CAT scan, but whereas a CAT is done in a few seconds, the MRI takes around 40min.
After the scan was complete, i phoned the bus service, and they picked me up outside the clinic, and i was taken back to the hospital.
I only had about 20min before my physio appointment, so i spoke to Pieter, the quality control manager, and he phoned thru to my physio, and he came down and helped me jump the queue in order to obtain my file.
Then we headed up to the physio rooms, and he set about examining me to see what we had to work with.
He has taken a few of the exercises off the list of one's i was doing, as he said they were a bit too advanced for me at the beginning stages, and has given me a couple of alternative exercises to do to the one's that were giving me pain in my knee.
My next physio appointment is booked in at the township just up the road, so at least i wont have to be going all the way back to George anymore.
Then i was off to sit in the queue to see the specialist with my MRI results.
They were all out on lunch, and i sat and waited about 3h to be seen.
I saw a different doctor this time, a woman specialist, and she told me that she had looked thru the results and found that the only problems they were showing was a small tear to the miniscus on the inside of the knee, and that the titanium pin that was inserted in my tibia, was a bit shallow.
She said that the miniscus tear would never heal itself, but that it was quite possible to carry on a normal life with the tear that i have.
She also said that the tear was not the reason i was feeling pain in my knee.
The shallowly inserted titanium pin may possibly be, coupled with a slight misalignment of the hip fracture changing the dynamics of the leg and putting excess strain on parts of the knee that normally would not have any.
The pin could not be removed until 1 year after the operation, so i will have to wait until October this year in order to have it removed.
Possibly it too may be contributing to the pain, as the head of the pin may just be catching on the knee when it rotates.
But, even with the MRI, they could not pinpoint the exact problem.
So, the prognosis is 12-18 months of physio, and an expected return to functionality of around 80% at best!
Not exactly the news that i had wanted to hear, but then again, it is what it is, and doctors only make educated guesses on these things.
It is very much down to the individual how long the recovery process will take.
So, back to the physio exercises then, and we will see what the future holds in store...

Playing the game...

It was an extremely long day out, but, no complaints here. All part of the process.
I was picked up at 7.15am after about a half hour wait at the local clinic. Thereafter it was a couple of stops along the way to pick up others, and we arrived at the hospital around 9am.
The last few times i'd been thru with my mom, we'd been in the queue at 7am, so i was expecting it to be a long wait.
I was not wrong.
3h later i reached the front of the queue and collected my file and headed up to the orthopaedic section to wait to see the specialist.
An hour or so later i was sat in front of him discussing my ultrasound on monday.
He checked the results and read the docs notes from the visit, and said that he would sign off on the MRI that i needed.
This MRI costs over R8000 if i was to have it as a private individual, so i am very fortunate to have finally gotten it signed off.
I can fully understand the system involved, and the expenses incurred in the entire process that i have been thru, and as such am very happy to have finally gotten my visit rubber stamped.
My investigation on the internet whilst still in the DR led me to the fact that i would need an MRI to fully ascertain what was wrong with my knee, but i was aware that there would have to be a process that would need to be followed in order to get to this point.
The ultrasound had detected some fluid build up in a few places which could not be explained, that indicated that there were underlying problems. Also some irregularities on the surface of the patella (kneecap). So i am very happy to be booked in next thursday to see what needs to be done.
After my visit, i went and waited outside for our transport to return.
Being Easter weekend, our driver had collected a lot of traffic on his runs up and down the Garden route, so was the last bus to arrive back to the hospital around 6pm.
The hospital runs a policy of dropping everyone at their doors if they are later than 6pm, so i was dropped off outside my front door around 7pm. The entire transport system for the day was for free! Like i said before, no complaints here!
In the meantime i continue with my exercises, some evenings having to cut them short because of the pain, but most, managing to get thru my entire routine.
5 more days until i find out what lies ahead...

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today was my dad's birthday, and he decided to join us on the trip to the clinic.
After the clinic we had plans to go out for a birthday lunch.
So, with a midday appointment, and a later start, we headed off to the clinic to see what the scan would reveal.
I signed in at the reception desk, and was taken to a room which had dimmed lighting, and was asked to sit on the doctors bed thing that you sometimes have to lie on when you visit the doctor.
After a 20min wait, the doctor arrived and we chatted for a while.
It turned out the scan was an ultrasound one.
So i sat and watched fascinated as the doctor ran a little scanner over my knee that he had just covered in a KY jelly stuff, and the ultrasound showed pictures of my knee and the muscles attaching the various parts together.
I asked him a lot of questions, and he compared the 2 knees in various places, and at the end of it all declared that the scan had been inconclusive, and that the only real way to see what was wrong, was to undergo an MRI scan.
So, he wrote a letter to the specialist in George, and suggested an MRI be the way to go.
I have an appointment with him in George thursday to set a date for my MRI now.
After the scan, we headed off to the waterfront area for lunch.

Thursday i have to be at the pick up point at the clinic in town here at 6.30am. I get taken, along with a taxi full of others, to all the stops along the way, until we arrive in George, and then when everyone is done for the day, we head back again, arriving back around 5pm tomorrow evening.
It is all provided by the hospital as a free service, which is quite brilliant really.
George Hospital is setting standards of excellence in South Africa, and has been chosen as a pioneer in a new NHS type system that the UK currently employs.
Lets see what tomorrow holds in store. I am praying that my next appointment with a certain MRI machine, will be in the not too distant future.
In the meantime, its exercises 6 days a week, slowly strengthening my leg muscles and knee.
The range of motion in my left knee is now about 110 degrees, a massive improvement from a month ago when it was only around 70 degrees!
As directed by my physio, i have been trying as much as possible to make a normal walking motion using my crutches, with my injured foot touching the ground with as much weight as is comfortable.
My quad is very stiff most of the time, but i am sure this will diminish over time.