“Enjoy the little things, for one
day you may look back and realise they were the big things.” – Robert Brault
When I read Robert
Brault’s famous quote from 1985, I think of walking; such a simple daily
activity I used to take for granted.
I haven’t written a
column for Behind the Barr for nearly
five months and I haven’t walked more than a hundred metres in nearly six
months.
Way back in early
December last year, I was carefree and having the time of my life, cycling
along on 2014 Great Victorian Bike Ride. The third day of riding saw me
peddling across the top of Victoria’s Great Dividing Range, 93km from Bright to
the tiny township of Moyhu.
After relaxing with my
fellow cyclists and enjoying the exceptional Moyhu hospitality, my cycling
buddy Trish and I decided to ride the couple of kilometres to the local
swimming hole on the Kiewa River.
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| Moyhu Swimming Hole |
What a magnificent
spot it was and the deliciously cool, clear water felt great on our tired legs.
We relaxed, treading water and chatting with a couple of Melbourne blokes,
Brett and Stuart.
While we talked, I
looked across at a group of school kids making good use of a rope swing. Looking
at that rope swing I was transported back to my teenage years; you know, that
time in life when you know everything and nothing?
All I could see was
fun, fun, fun.
STOP RIGHT NOW!!! (If
only I could have shouted this to myself back on the 2nd December
2014.)
Completely
disregarding my wise friend, Trish’s advice, I swam over and lined up for a
turn. Like the boy in front of me, I climbed the old dead willow to get extra
height, for what I envisaged would be an adrenaline fuelled flight, through the
air and dropping neatly into the cool, deep water below…
I miscalculated my
swing by about five centimetres.
As I swung down, I
failed to lift my right leg quite high enough and slammed my heel into the bank
before momentum flung me onwards to the water.
For a few moments, my
leg felt completely numb from below the knee and I felt a sense of dread that I
had done some kind of serious injury. Brett and Stuart swam over and towed me
across the river to the glowering Trish.
“You’ve broken your
bloody foot, haven’t you?” said an understandably, cranky, Trish.
“’Tis but a scratch.”
I answered ruefully in my best impersonation of the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
After about ten or
fifteen minutes, I felt as though I had a reasonable range of movement in my
ankle and if I could just make it to my bike, I would be ok. A short and
painful hobble and I was on my bike and peddled carefully back to the evening
campsite, where I spent a couple of hours sitting on a plastic chair outside
the first aid room with a bag of ice on my swollen and bruised ankle.
The next morning after
breakfast, I hobbled back to the first aid room and had my ankle firmly
strapped to enable me to continue riding. As luck would have it, cycling is a
non-weight bearing activity and I was relatively pain-free peddling my bike…
which was just as well as I still had more than 350km to ride.
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| Smiling post x-ray, thinking it was just a sprained ankle |
The following day was
our official “rest day” in Mansfield where I soaked up some fine dining
experiences at The Deck on High and the Mansfield Coffee Merchant… as well as
some electromagnetic radiation from Mansfield Hospital’s Radiography
Department. The lovely Dr Laura declared the x-ray of my ankle clear but
advised me to follow up with an MRI if I wasn’t walking properly in three weeks
time.
Three weeks later it
was Christmas and the festive season was in full swing – who has time to think
of MRIs?
Weeks went by and I hobbled
along in a state best described by my eldest son, Max, as mindless optimism.
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| Eight days after the rope swing... |
Finally on the 12th
January, I had an MRI taken of my right ankle. The subsequent diagnosis and
prognosis was bleak: osteochondritis dissecans (OCD) in the form of a 14mm lesion
to the lateral talar dome on my talus (ankle joint) bone; a significant injury
to the cartilage and bone underneath with a less than ideal outlook for
healing.
A CT scan at Olympic
Park Sports Medicine Centre (OPSMC) in Melbourne on 9th February
showed the injured underlying bone had broken down leaving a hole in my talus
bone. A medical miracle was now looking like my preferred option.
Under the guidance of
OPSMC Director, Dr Andrew Jowett, more than eight weeks of non-weight bearing
followed. I scoured the internet to find a device that would enable me to keep
working as a remedial massage therapist; as a self-employed single parent of
three, not working wasn’t an appealing option.
Fortunately my “Googling” paid
off and I discovered the iWalk 2.0; a clever hands free crutch that kept my
ankle clear of the ground and looked like a pirate’s wooden leg. While not aesthetically
pleasing, it did an excellent job of keeping my ankle completely non-weight
bearing.
In the last few months
I’ve learnt a lot about the talus bone and I’ve shed many hot, angry tears over
the frustrations of not being able to walk. I feel as though my wings have been
well and truly clipped, excellent epic adventures have been shelved for an
indefinite period of time and my daily early morning walk has become a distant
memory.
On the plus side, I’ve
been able to continue my work as a remedial massage therapist five days per
week, ride my trusty touring bike 15 – 20km each morning before work and swim 1
– 2km a week.
My recovery plan includes
taking supplements of calcium, vitamin D, glucosamine,
chondroitin, msm and fish oil; getting regular massages on my legs; rubbing comfrey
ointment onto my ankle; using a circulation booster (an electrical pulse
machine you put your feet on); wearing heavy duty compression stockings to
minimise the swelling in the ankle; praying and inviting my friends to pray for
me; I’ve also included healing energy therapy in the form of reiki sessions and
an EFT tapping session. Who knows if any of this works but I’m willing to try
anything. So if you're reading this and have additional healing advice, please
feel free to share it in the comments section.
Although I still can’t walk more than 100
metres and my doctor has cautioned me that I have a long way to go, my latest
CT scan in April showed “progressive healing”! The bone appears to be growing
back where the hole in my talus is.
Some days I find it a huge challenge to
stay positive and believe in my body’s ability to heal itself. (Manifesting
medical miracles can be exhausting work.) I constantly have to remind myself to
focus on all the things I can do, instead of grieving over all the things I
can’t. Instead of excellent epic
adventures, I’m now focussed on planning excellent microadventures and
enjoying the little things… stay tuned!
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| Can't walk but can do wedding photography! |
Annie Barr
