An Olive

The olive wire came out today. This is not a reference to the sexual preferences of Popeye's wife.

The loose segment of bone was tied into place by the olive wire during the second operation in early February. The blob of metal soldered onto the wire pressed up against the bone and preventing it moving any further out of alignment. It was extremely painful! The olive has to press against the sensitive sheath that surrounds the bone, and until that erodes it is like a nail in the leg.

So at this week's clinic, Debbie unbolted the complex structure that was holding the wire in place. It seems so odd getting the tool-kit out when you're doing something medical... After donning the rubber gloves she prepared a dish of iodine and wash, cotton pads etc. She soaked the wire cutters in the iodine and then prep'd the leg.

She carefully snipped off one end of the olive wire, then clamped the snips onto the other end and yanked it out! I really wasn't ready. I have got used to pain, but to have the olive pulled straight out and burst through the skin without warning was a fairly extreme experience. I was not very thankful.

On the good side, the x-ray shots show the callus forming. Last week Naveen had mentioned that I might need a bone graft. We'd been discussing the previous x-rays and the fact that Mr Lahoti wanted to get a clearer view of the gap between the bones. Naveen thought this might be to understand "the timing for the bone graft".  So by this week I had settled myself to the likelihood of another operation.

The size of the callus shows that it is extremely unlikely that a bone graft will be needed. So I am thankful, breathing a gasp of relief.