CAVEMAN Down

[Abster]

(Hopefully this is the right spot for this..)

Many of you know UNFROZENCAVEMAN (Steve) and he is currently confined to a wheelchair after undergoing surgery on both feet.

This was his decision to do both feet at once and he is well and recovering quickly.

Just wanted people to know in case they wanted to drop him a quick note...he might be a little bored.

Hanna

 

[Artex]

I don't think I've met him, but if he's seeing this, I hope you have a speedy recovery.

 

[MEB]

Hey Steve,

I remember you telling me about this on our solstice hike. I hope all goes well and that your recovery is quick.

-MEB

 

[Tom Rankin]

Hey UFC, hope those feet are up and around soon!

 

[lumberzac]

Best of luck to him. I hope he has a fast recovery.

 

[sli74]

Best of luck and I hope you are back on your feet soon

sli74

 

[dug]

What surgery? I had bunyon surgery on both feet at the same time. Horrible surgery, painful as all hell. Spent a winter semester + with both feet in casts. I never had to walk across campus, though. Played the "ow, my feet hurt" card to it's maximum

Anyhoo, here's to a speedy recovery

 

[una_dogger]

Good luck, Steve-O. Keep those dogs rested and you'll be back on the trail in no time.

S

 

[sugahjohn]

Best wishes!

 

[coldfeet]

Feel better and a quick recovery!

 

[cbcbd]

Ouch! Can't imagine!

Get well soon, and back on those unfrozen feet

ps-you know, the CT AT has the only section of the AT that is accessible by wheelchair, you should plan a hike down here

 

[poison ivy]

Well, if anyone could tackle the 4Ks by wheelchair, I suspect it would be you, Steve. Hope you recover quickly and back on the trails soon!

- Ivy

 

[DougPaul]

Well, if anyone could tackle the 4Ks by wheelchair, I suspect it would be you, Steve.

I suppose he could work on bagging the huts by wheelchair. At least one is known to be doable...

Steve:
Hope you are up and leaving your footprints in the snow/mud soon.

Doug

 

[bobandgeri]

Steve - hope your up and about soon. Looking forward to many more hikes with you!

Hey - got to visit the place you, Charles and Melanie camped at in East Burke - very nice! Had a great time chasing Mel all over the mountain. Hope you up in time to do a ride with us!

 

[UNFROZENCAVEMAN]

Thanks for the support and "best wishes" everyone.

As Abster said, I voluntarily underwent double foot surgery on October 12th to fix tailors bunions that were causing me quite a bit of pain. I'm not usually one to complain but I have been dealing with them for years and after stepping up the amount of time I spend in boots they became quite unpleasant. I took the plunge to have them both done at once to minimize the downtime even though it's a bit inconvenient, as opposed to doing one at a time which would have had me down for 6-8 months - can you imagine? The surgery involved doing "Z" cuts behind the second knuckle on the pinky which effectively created shelves so that they could reallign the bones and screw them back together then shave off the excess bone. Sounds like fun doesn't it?!! They told me to plan on AT LEAST 6 weeks in a wheelchair, with light hiking (hopefully) in eight, and "full on" in 10-12 with any luck.

Anyway, a lot of thinking and carefull planning has helped to make this fairly easy to deal with (I am single and live alone - might as well add to the challenge right?!!) and things are going better than I imagined they would. The worst part is not being able to drive anywhere, those of you that know me probably realize that I'm usually going a million miles an hour, and my job has me driving 1000+ miles a week, so this is a big change of pace for me.

If you happen to be in the area of Okemo Mountain (or Ascutney, or Killington) stop by and take me for a ride! I'll even put you up for a night or two if you happen to be up skiing and need a place to stay in exchange for getting me out of the house!

Steve

 

[audrey]

I cannot imagine you sitting still, Steve! I have several friends who need the surgery too and they keep putting it off - it's not going to get any better, so good for you for jumping in with both feet and hoofing it to the doctor.

Best wishes from Pat too.

 

[UNFROZENCAVEMAN]

Thanks Audrey (and Pat)!

You know how the saying goes....sometimes you have to take a step back to go forward. And they got these things called pain pumps now that are pretty slick, they actually insert a tube into the incision sight before sewing it back up and it periodically drips pain medication (sensocaine - the same family as novacaine) directly on the nerves in that area. It worked really well for me, a couple of days of percocet combined with those and I wasn't feeling anything - the day they took the pumps out which was 4 days after surgery I stopped taking anything for the pain and they haven't bothere me since. Obviously it's too early to tell how hiking is going to be but so far I think this is going to make a huge difference and I'm glad I did it.

Steve

 

[MichaelJ]

Good to hear all is going well so far ... enjoy being a 'net potato as much as you can and before you know it the time will have gone by!

 

[Neil]

It must be hard to keep a good (cave)man down. Nothing like a little foot carpentry/surgery to do the trick I suppose. Heal well and heal strong.

 

[UNFROZENCAVEMAN]

... enjoy being a 'net potato as much as you can and before you know it the time will have gone by!

True true Michael, a lot of people have been pointing me in the direction of some pretty "interesting" sites that can eat up a lot of time. I'm also working from my house since our company has an ASP that we telnet our traffic to and fro with an IBM interface allowing us to run pc's on an AS400 - it's the same working from home (or "borrowing" service wherever people are gracious enough to "lend" it out) as it is sitting in the office. My customers are keeping me busy.