Something is still not quite right.....

It's now been almost four years since I fell and injured my left ankle and knee. I had the ankle surgery in March 2010 and the knee done in about August of the same year.

I have been working as an Owner Driver Courier here in Sydney, as well as doing country work for two seperate companies. Sydney traffic is a hard slog on a good day, and when a driver is being paid by the delivery, and not by the hour it can be very difficult to make a decent wage after expenses. Anyone who does what I do will understand.

I have been deliberately staying of the tramadol medication as much as I can, and only give in as a last resort. That's usually when the left ankle & knee, and the right lower back, buttock, thigh and knee all start giving me grief at the same time. Then I get re-acqainted with tramadol :-/

I was recently given an opportunity to regain full time employment as an Employee at a local company driving bulk tip trucks. Would have been perfect, ten minutes from home to the yard, no manual handling at all, no parking hassles or CBD traffic. I have been driving my manual utes for hours a day and just tolerating the pain by days' end.

I thought I could still drive  trucks OK even with the left ankle and knee how they are but I was wrong, I don't have the stamina or the fine motor control to engage the heavy clutch smoothly-and I didn't want to damage the vehicle. Bummer.

So I was only away from the Courier work for two days, I'm back into it again. :-(

Current situation....

It looks as though my ankle has healed as much as it's going to. In my work as a long distance Courier, it starts to ache after about 2 hours of driving. Stability is still an issue, it tends to 'roll' outwards with the slightest provocation, and wearing joggers makes no difference. I have started motorcycle riding again on a full size bike but I am yet to do any serious time in the saddle to see how it holds up. I'll find out this coming Saturday.......tramadol will be on hand if needed.

A little update

A little update. I've had to sell my little Honda, on longer rides my knackered left side didn't cope to the point pain and discomfort became unbearable. I could have dosed up on tramadol but it does affect ones mind to a certain degree when taken at a dose that works and that's a dangerous combination when riding a motorcycle!

It's four years now since the fall that nearly destroyed my left ankle, and every day it swells up and gets painful. Stability has not improved and the fact I've gain 20kg since the incident does not help. Some days just walking is uncomfortable, and the cold makes it worse. Pain starts at the left side of the knee and runs down the peroneal brevis tendon that was torn, into the ankle joint. It fills with fluid and feels like I'm walking on 'jelly' at times.

I recently changed the type of Courier work I do, mostly because I could not cope with the constant gear changing doing City based work. Now I'm doing Country work which is less gearchanging[good]but as I'm usually only doing one pick up and one drop I don't get any excersise at all. I've been doing this new job since the beginning of December 2012 and with no more heavy lifting it's much easier on my injuries, and that's a good thing!