Our last couple of days have been filled with post-op visits, and physical therapy appointments for my leg. As I explained in the last post, my pain levels have been high. By the time we get up and get ready to go to my appointments, and then actually get to my appointment, plus the time we spend at the hospital during my appointments, wow...it just completely kicks my butt. Once we get back to our hotel I'm down for the day. When we get to Prof. Erdogru's office he is excited to hear of any progress, his first question is "Can you sit?" I then watch the disappointed look on his face when I say "It still hurts." My pain concerns him, but we have talked, and both agree, that the pain I am experiencing is mostly from the surgery. We also discussed that I probably have a very low pain tolerance, I just tend to be more sensitive to pain than probably most people. With this we have not ruled out a success or not for my surgery. I now fall into the category of his patients where we have to wait and see. Prof. Erdogru and I believe that with time I will see some good results. But remember, we are talking nerves, and nerves can take a long time to recover, repair, and heal, possibly up to six months or longer before we will know anything for sure. I will still keep my progress posted on my blog, and don't worry Prof. Erdogru you will be the first to know of any big news, the first...I promise. Thanks for being such a wonderful doctor, and making our experience in Turkey worth while.
On Wednesday when I woke up I noticed my pain had eased up some, when I first started to experience pain a couple of days after surgery, my pain level was at a 8-9. I was very uncomfortable, and I relied on ice to relieve my pain. On Wednesday my pain level was at a 6-7, which made things a little more tolerable, I felt a little more comfortable and got through my whole day without ice, Yay! So, a sign things are slowly getting better, however everything in my in-betweens are still very numb.
As far as my leg goes, Dr. Dilek, the physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist who has been working with me this last week, seems to think that it could take up to two or three months before I regain full use, and feeling back in my leg. This has been a very slow process, but every couple of days, I do notice a slight change. I hope to prove her wrong, and hopefully after a couple more weeks I will have a fully functioning leg again. We are scheduled to go see a specialist on Monday after returning home, hopefully we will get a better understanding of exactly what's wrong. On Wednesday, she had my boot modified with a rubber sole, so the plastic bottom would not cause me to slip and fall, this also makes walking around a lot quieter.
This is our final post-op update in Turkey, as we are going home tomorrow. Thanks for following my recovery progress, I have had such amazing support throughout our journey to Turkey. Thanks to all for following along.
Still hoping and praying for you Shirlayne for as long as you need it.
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