Once more I find that an unplanned gap has occurred between my blog posts. The cause is, has it has been for most of this year, the surgery that I am still recovering from. The fact is that it seems to have failed. My surgeon does not seem to want to admit this, but then he is planning on operating on my for the third time this year in a little under a week. He is going to do the same procedure again in the hope that we might get a different result.

I know that I have the right to refuse any more surgical procedures and I did not consent to the latest proposal without several days of contemplation. I had a simple choice, have a ‘frame break’, which basically means removing the external fixator with a view to fitting it again some time next year, or have the lower ring replaced by one that is actually horizontal and should not interfere with my walking as the current offset ring does. To be honest, I was  leaning towards having the ‘frame break’ and then refusing to have the fixator refitted ever again. Such has been the awful experiences that I have gone through with it this time around.

It was my wife who talked me into trying the new ring instead. She is a nurse so she knows what she is talking about. She is also my wife and she wants to go places and see things with me. I can do that and for much longer if my foot decides to heal. That was the original hope of course, however, it seems to me that we hoping for different results despite repeating the same process and I find it difficult to be inspired by that approach. Nevertheless, I am committed to it now. I hope that this works as I want my next surgery to be the total removal of the external fixator and to never see its like again!