All is on the improve
. My ankle fusion surgery has proved to be the best thing I could have done. No more pain and I'm now walking, albeit with the help of a stick. If it wasn't for my dicky knee I wouldn't need the stick at all.There have been a lot of setbacks that I won't go into right now but the last week or two have produced shitloads more mobility. If the ankle was the only problem I'm having to deal with I'd be well on the road to recovery.
Unfortunately the kidney problem I described back on page two of this thread hasn't improved all that much.
As I described, I've been fitted with plastic tubing stents to both of my ureters (
the tubes running between the kidneys and the bladders) in the hope of clearing them of the kidney stone obstructions but they don't seem to have worked. The left kidney ureter is still totally blocked and the right one is 40% blocked. My kidneys are riddled with kidney stones and even though I'm going through the pain of passing stones 2-3 times daily they're not passing because of the blocked ureters. I'm awaiting the phone call to go back into hospital to have the stones lazered and to inspect the kidneys for further damage. The worst case scenario is that I may lose my left kidney but if all is OK the lazer treatments will obliterate the buggers to a small enough size to enable me to piss them out and the kidneys will start working again. According to the specialist, my left kidney's been out of action for a few years so whatever happens, I should feel a lot better.
One good result of my two months of recuperation is that I've knocked off 25kg
. The downside is that I've lost a lot of strength from inactivity which I hope to eventually get back when I start physio and aqua therapy next Monday. I've had a therapy program especially written up for me by the sports physiologist wife of a mate and with her being a good friend, it'll be harder to cheat or chicken out, I'm really looking forward to it. I've also given my mountain bike a going over in preparation for my returning to the local cycle paths in a month or so, depending on surgery schedules.
Last week I slowly started back on my bikes...at first an hour here, an hour there up to the current 2-3 hours per day. I'm gradually getting the Cheney back together for the Nats and if the current progress continues I should have the Hindall RT2MX built and entered as well. One of the
unfortunate aspects of being housebound is that I've had way too much computer access to eBay, Marks Swapmeet and vft.org which now sees me with all sorts of flashy gizmo's and trick bits for my bikes that I wouldn't have needed any other time
.
Thanks to everyone for your emails, phone calls, PM's forum enquiries and home visits. They helped me through the low periods more that you could ever imagine. The support from within the vintage movement has been truly amazing.
Thank you all very much.
