Another fall

I fell again today. That's my second fall in 2 weeks.

The first fall was last week. I was walking down some stairs, and while swinging the stiff leg down to the next step, the socket came off my stump. This left me putting weight on a leg that was not lined up with my stump. Fortunately I was hanging on to a strong banister with my right hand. I quickly grabbed it with my left hand, but I was already most of the way down. I hurt my right elbow. It took lots of twisting strain.
Since then I have gotten a different socket.

Today I walked to get an ice cream cone. As I entered the fast food place, there was a guy eating an ice cream cone, and two families waiting for food they had ordered.  I reached the counter, and was ordering, I had both hands resting lightly on the counter top. 
All of a sudden my face hit the credit card machine, then my chin bounced off the counter, and I fell on my ass. My knee had collapsed, and  as it collapsed, it went forward and hit the counter front, and that made the socket go rear ward about a foot. This unexpectedly pushed me backwards, and I fell on my back, with my head under a table.
I slowly sat up, and started to check if my knee had failed. My sore right elbow was the only thing that felt hurt.
The lady with a small girl grabbed the crying girl and yelled, "Come we are leaving now. Come!" and she dragged the crying child around me and out of the shop.
The guy was still licking his ice cream cone.
I slowly managed to get up, and walked to the counter. The girl behind the counter had not moved. She said "That's 5 rand 50."
The woman of the other family then asked. "Are you OK?" She hadn't moved, in fact none of the family had moved. I said I was OK.
I took my ice cream out side, and worked on my knee. I looked at those people, and thought..."I bet they all go to Church on Sunday."
 I don't know why it collapsed. I am sure I am to blame.

CT scan results

My last few weeks bounce rate on my blog web site has been 100%. That means that 100% of the people that looked at my blog stayed on it for less than 5 seconds. Either fast readers, or computer bots.
This past week has been a medical week.
On the 19th I did a Parkrun. Lots of stump pain. I walked a very slow 1:26:14. My stump swelled up afterwards, and I couldn't get the socket on for 2 days. The week before, I had done 5 km walks, 3 times. I think my stump needs more than a day or two to heal, and recover.

Wednesday I went to see the Prosthestist. We chatted lots, and decided not to cast a new socket. Because my stump swells so easy, a new socket should be bigger, yet I want one tighter for walking. My current socket is too big, but I can easily shove foam into it to make it smaller. A loose socket is a pain in the ass, but a very tight socket is unusable. I'll keep my "too big" socket.
He gave me some new putty like stuff. It feels like play-dough. I am supposed to put it in the bottom of my socket, and walk. It should squish and flow around the end of the stump, and form a perfect fitting pad between the end of the stump, and the bottom of the socket. It takes about 24 hours to set, and then it should feel like a soft silicone sealer, like you use to seal around your bathtub.

Thursday I went to a Podiatrist. My good foot is having typical problems due to my increased distances I walk each week. When I used to run I had the same problems. Toenails and nerve pains. The second toe on my good foot, has a nail I thought was going to come off. It now grows almost 90 degrees to the left. The nail grows mostly up and gets thicker. I have been using a Dremmel tool to grind it down.
He said that the nail had become detached on the side, so only half is growing, which makes it bend as it grows. He said the solution is to use the Dremmel tool weekly.
I also get a pain in my middle toes that feels like they are broken, but I can twist and massage the toes with out pain. There is a nerve that is in the pad of the foot that causes the pain. He touched it and my toes really hurt. It is fairly common, and called Morton's Neuroma.

He added a pad under my shoe innersole to keep pressure off the nerve, and that helped.

The receptionist came in with a handwritten file, and said that I was an old patient. I had seen this doctor in 2008 for the same problem. Increased running distance, and Morton's Neuroma. They had been in Pretoria then. 

If my brain remembered things better, I could have saved the trip.

Friday was an Oncologist day. First was blood tests. Then I had to drink a liter of liquid.  Then lay in a metal tube, while they injected radioactive Iodine into me. It made me feel hot, and like I had peed my pants. After they were done they asked me to lay still. Then they re-did some of the photos in my pelvic region.

Last CT scan in February 2018 showed swollen lymph nodes in my right groin. They said they must be from an infection. Well, the lymph glands in my right groin are still swollen. The Doctors agreed that this is not a cancer related event, but also agreed that it isn't good. So I am supposed to go see a Lymph Doctor.

On Saturday I did another Parkrun. I had not done any real walking since the previous park run, so I figured I would be out of shape. It turned out to be my fastest ever, 1:10:44, and I finished with no pain or discomfort in the stump. So now I think that if I don't walk during the week, and let the stump rest well, then I can do a faster Parkrun. Maybe some time on my Exercycle to get a cardio workout, and rest the stump.

 I was feeling better than after any other Parkrun, so went over to a friends house. On arrival there she pointed out that I had damaged my good leg in two places, and it was bleeding from both wounds. I had not felt a thing. She also pointed out that my calf was very hard and swollen. I fear there is something wrong with my good leg. It is red and hot, numb, swollen, and the lymph glands are swollen. 

Sigh :-(

Settled in Africa...sort of.

I have not blogged since arriving back in Africa. Again there has been no real hits on my blog for 2 months except from China. The bounce rate is 98%. That is when the person stay on the web site for less than 5 seconds. Since nobody could read my blog in a few seconds, that means they disconnect quickly. So all the hits on my blog are probably Chinese bots.
I don't really have anything to say, except I have been walking lots. I walked 15 km last week. 5 of those was at a Parkrun. I finished in 1:14:11. I beat 8 other people. I am always last, so now I feel like a real athlete.
Today I walked to a restaurant nearby. It is 2.51 km away. I walk there, have a cheap breakfast, and walk back. On the way back, about half way, my knee must have blown a seal, because I lost all hydraulic resistance, (both extension and flexion) and there was oil everywhere. I walked the rest of the way home with zero resistance.
It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Before the last Parkrun, I had lowered the extension resistance to almost zero. The extension resistance determines how fast the leg extends from behind to all the way in front. As I am walking faster now, I need the knee to allow the leg to swing forward faster. This is to allow me to use a faster cadence.  Today with zero extension resistance, the leg slammed forward, but was not dangerous. More like a big distraction.

The oil leaked from one of the top bearings. I don't know how to fix that. I just put the brand new, (but bad) 2100 I have as a spare. I'll need to transfer the extension assist spring assembly to this 2100.

The knee that blew today is one my Brother bought off Ebay. It has served me well for 2 years. I'll miss it's reliability.
The 2100 I just put on, is a brand new one, but it has a manufacturing defect. One of the adjustment screws threads in the main body, looks like my dog drilled it. So every o'ring gets shredded every time the screw is inserted. I cleaned it up as best I could. It is tiny. the o'ring is 1 mm. Maybe I will set the screw where I think it should be, then glue the screw in, with glue all around the o'ring to stop it leaking. getting all the air out is difficult, but possible if I take a few days to do it. I also have an old beat up Ossur 2000 knee. Maybe I should have put it on the leg.

I need to read my Instructable about how to remove and replace the fluid in a 2100. Maybe thicker fluid will fix the one that blew it's seal today.

Later