w2 / 50% PWB

w2 / 50% PWB

Relief for the hands … but showering is real scary!

Relief for the hands … but showering’s scary

(2025.10.27-11.02)

Whilst Donald Trump was busy having the East Wing of the White House demolished for a $350m ballroom (during a shutdown leading to some people not getting badly needed food support), my life in Gemany started to slowly return from an ’emergency situation’ to a vague semblance of reality. One thing that had to go (into storage) was my trusty red rucksack – the hip pockets, as practical as they had been, just really got in the way of the crutches; plus, I just don’t have to carry nearly so much around … no bike pump, inner tubes, or other tools, etc. It was replaced by a more ‘normal’ rucksack from my partner … and really, a rucksack is THE most helpful thing I’ve found; in fact, I have a second small-pack one stuffed into a net pocket of the main rucksack to, for example, carry my laundry downstairs on the way out, when the other one is full with other stuff.

Also have been getting more and more into not just going through medical studies but also individual experiences via the (Reddit Sub) r/AchillesRupture … when I see pictures as shown above and hear reports of rejected sutures (even 8-12 years later!) I am soooo glad that I was given the ‘green light’ to go with a non-operative treatment.

Naturally, I know there are still risks (specifically: potentially higher re-rupture risk as well as elongated tendon) but I still feel MUCH happier with leaving my body to deal with it. This is not saying that surgery doesn’t have its well-earned place in general, also specifically w.r.t. this injury … just VERY glad not to have to make use of it!

Wednesday saw me making the first ‘official’ trek via train (again with lifts to and from the station at both ends) to work; for the first and currently only time I got an itchy foot on the train … again, an advantage of the VACOped over a cast: I could use my Leatherman (NOT the knife ^^!) to go through a hole in the boot and scratch my foot … aaaah, relief! Additionally, I got the second inlay … FINALLY I could wash that stinky foot and change the sock/inlay! That evening I hung up the (machine-washable) inlay to dry at the end of my bed … laughed in the morning as a grey fish / android grinned at me as I woke up ^^!

Before I took the shower, I took precautions including a seat in the bath tub (a walk-in shower would have been nice, but as a climber, getting myself in and out of the bath tub was no problem – I thanked the heavens for the umpteenth time that I was fit and not too heavy so that I could do everything I needed to do on my own); I also put the clean dry sock and inlay close to hand, plus a hair dryer to get between my toes completely dry; during that first shower, the only time I’d taken off the boot other than for a medical exam, I took the first photos of my foot:

A continuous ‘pasttime’ of mine at this point was scouring the web for medical reports, watching individuals battling their way through the various challenges on their journey via youtube as well as scrolling through the long list of reddit entries (see footer for links to resources, when done!). Most of it was pretty uplifting and / or informative – thank goodness for the Age of the Internet!!

Friday was Halloween: was REALLY nice to have all of my kids (except for my youngest daughter, who simply lives too far away) around me; preparations had been made to do some ‘pumpkin artwork’ as well as watch some appropriate Tim Burton movies: “Corpse Bride” and “The Nightmare Before Christmas“; generally chill (with aforementioned dog) at the end of another tiring week / return to work was my personal motto:

Through the week and into the weekend, I was beginning to step up the loading of my injured foot, as the protocol said: I used the (suboptimal digital) scales I had to get a better feel for how much weight I was putting on it – it varies a bit, the ‘measurement’ is not terribly accurate, but it certainly looked like I was getting to around 35-45% body weight (boot weighs approx 1.4kg); this really helped ease the pressure on my hands as well as keeping my pelvis more even and reducing the stress on my back as I stepped through the crutches; going slowly, I was getting a bit closer to a ‘normal’ walk: