Ever so slightly distracted

my photo of the Venus de Milo in the Louvre

I'm feeling every so slightly distracted at the moment.

Some of you are aware that I've developed severe osteoarthritis in recent times and have been in quite some pain for quite some time (both chronic and acute). 

For me it was just "pain" - getting more pronounced and more irritating as it progressed in terms of intensity, longevity and resistance to painkillers. Not to mention grinding to a literal halt and being unable to walk.

I was supposed to be getting things sorted earlier this year - and then covid struck!

Having spent quite some time recently fighting my way back into the outpatient system at my local hospital now they're back in "we're still doing normal operations" mode, I've had two recent appointments with the medics.

The Monty Python Foot 
in the Bronzino painting of 
"An Allegory with Venus and Cupid"

At my first appointment in October, what I thought was the need to take out three broken bone shards floating around in my ankle has turned into 

• a valgus hindfoot
• I've got no cartilage left; 
• I'm walking bone on bone and 
• the rear of my foot is out of alignment 
• which makes me walk in a weird way
• which is VERY painful
• the need for an ankle fusion operation (i.e. 3-6 months recovery of which up to 3 months is non weight bearing on that ankle). Apparently after they've cleaned out all the bone (and bits of bone) which is causing problems and bolted bits of grotty bone together my body will think I've had a break and make new bone which will cause the vertical bone to fuse (knit) to the horizontal. So the flex of my ankle will be much more limited - but hopefully will create an ability to walk without pain.

The second appointment this afternoon confirmed my suspicions about my increasingly painful shoulder.

An X-ray taken back in May shows that the cartilage has disappeared in my left shoulder and I'm grinding bone on bone. This is the reason why my shoulder currently prevents an awful lot of routine movements due to a total inability to move in the socket - and causes an awful lot of pain and some interesting bone grinding noises right next to my ear.

The statue of Venus de Milo
in the Louvre Museum in Paris

Which means I need a shoulder replacement operation.

This apparently has a longer recovery than the ankle operation. 

Hence the Venus de Milo pic. I looked back at my photos from the Louvre. I'd not realised besides having a problems of her own with her left shoulder, she has also got a problem with her right foot!! ;) 

So my main priority now is 

• absorbing all of this
• doing some more research about both operations
• deciding which one comes first
• losing a lot more weight to make life easier when I'm recuperating (I've lost 20kg so far!) and trying to move around with a foot which cannot go on the ground and a shoulder which is rather useless!!
• getting my home sorted to cope with the demands of having one and then another limb out of use for some time

Blogging is not my top priority right now - so if there are some gaps that's why.....

(PS I wonder if you can do two handed typing when you're recovering from a shoulder replacement)