Hospital: New X-rays: Gap in tibia.

Today I was back at the hospital for X-rays. It's now a month since the operation to fit the frame, and all 12 adjustments of the frame are complete. I was expecting therefore to be able to see the big gap that's opened up in my tibia. I wasn't disappointed!

Today's X-rays. Top view (left), side view (right). Note gap :)

I knew my consultant wasn't going to be there today, but he will see these X-rays on Wednesday and tell me whether or not the bones are in the right positions now. If not there'll be some more tweaking to do.

Here's a comparison between the last X-ray (after 3 adjustments; left) and the current one (after 12 adjustments; right).

My leg is getting quite swollen when I spend too much time with it vertical, so I think what I'm doing on days like today is the limit at the moment. I imagine that now that the adjustments have stopped, it will have a chance to settle down - after all, I've been moving my broken bones around so there was bound to be some swelling. Sometimes at one point it's almost touching the frame, so I'll have to keep my eye on that.

#12 - The 'Final' Adjustment

OK so today I made the 'final' adjustment. Whether or not it really is the final one or not depends on the results of my X-rays on April 30. We might be able to get a bit more length out of it, I think the consultant said, so we'll see. Needless to say it looks a lot more of a normal shape now than it did before!

Day 0 (left) - Day 12 (right).

Day 0 (top) - Day 12 (bottom).

Apple Time Machine wireless backup no more?

** see below - it does work! **

Today I discovered that under OS X Lion, backing up with Time Machine to an external hard drive on another computer over wireless is no longer possible. This worked under Snow Leopard, but apparently now Apple have decided not to support this any more. I guess they want us to buy Time Capsules, which are hard drives with their own wireless base station built into the shell. They are ridiculously overpriced and I won't be getting one! So I guess I'll have to just periodically plug my external hard drive into my laptop and back up like that. Not very impressed with that one Apple!

UPDATE: hmm maybe you can do it over afp shares, let me check that...

UPDATE: OK it does work over an afp share, so it will backup over wireless, but now of course it wants to start over, so it says the initial backup will take 3 days. sob!

UPDATE (30/4/2012): OK well the initial backup of 183 Gig took 4.5 days (!) but it did finish and now it works perfectly with the little incremental backups.

So, the answer is, set your backup directory on your external hard drive as am afp share using System Preferences > Sharing. Then when you can see it on your laptop, you'll be able to use it in Time Machine. The initial backup will take an age, but then it will work! Great :)

Adjustment 11

Here's today's pictures, plus one I tried to do showing both pictures on the same image... which was more difficult to do than I expected... I guess it's more difficult than it sounds to always take a picture from the same position!

Day 0 - 11.

Day 0 (left) - Day 11 (right).

Day 0 (top) - Day 11 (bottom).

Adjustment 10/12

Just done adjustment 10 as well as my pin site cleaning / dressings etc. I feel like I made a bit of a dog's dinner out of my dressings today.. oh well.

Day 0 (left) - Day 10 (right).

Day 0 (top) - Day 10 (bottom).

Adjustment 9/12

We're at 75% now :) When I looked at today's picture, I was struck by exactly how bent it was at the beginning! When I move about now my left foot feels a lot flatter on the floor too. And I don't know if it's my imagination but I think I can move my ankle a bit more now than last week...

Today it has been a bit swollen and sore though. Have I done anything strenuous? Well, I went down to the shop to get a chicken and some bread and stuff, and then I was standing in the kitchen a little bit today - nothing major, maybe for half an hour, but clearly that was still a bit too much for it at the moment.

Day 0 (left) - Day 9 (right).

Day 0 (top) - Day 9 (bottom).

In other news, Boro managed to win today despite being typically useless and conceding a goal in the first minute of the game! Honestly, today was a must-win if we want to have a chance still of reaching the playoffs, so you'd think they'd have gone out steeled with at least keep it tight for the first 15 minutes. It's hard work being a Boro fan sometimes. Now we have to rely on Cardiff losing at Crystal Palace next Saturday lunchtime, while we have to beat Watford on their ground. So it's not likely we'll get there, but it's not impossible either.

Adjustment 8/12

Today's adjustment and dressings change completed. Two-thirds of the way there now... It's still quite painful in my ankle on the left side. It's going to take some serious work to get my ankle working again I think...

Day 0 (left) - Day 8 (right).

Day 0 (top) - Day 8 (bottom).