Your leg

THe leg has healed well medically, however it will remain an aesthetic disaster... there is a large, deep pit (skin all gown in) just below my knee that I still have problems even looking at. The leg works alright, but the injury has caused me to suffer from serious edema, so i am having to wear a pressure stocking, and I am told that while the 'pit' will fill up (somewhat, but not all), I probably will have to continue to wear the damn pressure stociing!! I have moments when I wish I had broken the damn thing... the healing would have been 'cleaner'... and the OT agreed. He told me that tissue wounds are the hardest and slowest and nastiest to heal... SIGH.... I still can't swim, and the energy level is still low from having sat on my fat fanny for so long, but with spring coming I am getting out nearly daily and thinking about the next trip...

OK, not great but workable. I'm glad you're 'thinking spring.'

It WILL get better Canayjun. As part of my ankle fusion 2.5 years ago they dug all the old hardware (11" steel plate and 7 screws) out of the side of my leg. It looked AWFUL. Just this huge cavernous hole in my leg that was so black and bruised and scarred. It took about two years but it has filled in and I don't think most people would really notice it now.

The swelling improves greatly too. What was explained to me is that when you have so much trauma to your tissues, all the tiny little capillaries in the area are torn and destroyed. These are just tiny little rivulets, far too small to be repaired surgically. BUT they carry the load when it comes to streaming fluids up and down through your legs. So these little capillaries are very important when it comes to edema. They just have to heal and regenerate on their own and that can take a year or two. But they will. Especially if you massage the area - get back into the pool. Swimming is great for "massaging" those legs and pumping the blood up and down so that the area heals faster.

It has been nearly ten years since I broke my ankle and acquired various pieces of metal. And it is still improving. At first the improvements were noticeable nearly every day, then every week or so I'd notice I was doing something with ease that had been a struggle the week before. Cosmetically, the scar faded but I was left with a dark 'stocking' where the venous system had been damaged. Then, about seven years in, it got lighter, and a few weeks later, it disappeared altogether. And I was just telling someone that in the last year the near-permanent swelling and decreased dramatically. Your body will always be working to make it better. So just keep on living your life as fully as possible and let it take care of itself.

Thanks so much for the support, and really optimistic reports of similar injuries healing up. I am not so concerned with aesthetics, as the edema. I HATE wearing the bloody support stocking. I am now finished with the twice weekly dressing changes,and am on my own, and glory be - I can take a shower without plastic bagging my leg!

Most people do hate those support stockings, but they do the trick, so perservere with them. It will heal; the body is quite miraculous that way. An upbeat and positive attitude is half the battle and you have that. You need to put this adventure into a book.

It really doesn't look so bad to me. A bit dry around the edges, perhaps!
But then again, I have two sisters who are medicos so I grew up on gruesome sights...like at my sister's vet college. She really tried her best to gross me out.

Yeah, I was wondering. Wanna 'nuther post card?

lol gawk... sure... however I am still trying to decipher the last one! You actually write worse than you type :-)