I think my orthopaedist will now realise I am a klutz, if he hadn't before.

I had an incident Friday after PT where I went to get into the car and instead of getting in like they tell you by sitting down and then swinging your legs in, I did it like i normally do, by putting a leg in and then easing myself in. However, this did not work. My steering wheel was set too low, so when I got in, my right thigh somehow got caught between it and my body and for a moment or two I struggled to free it, and it hurt. I went on for the rest of the afternoon, but since then it's been swelling more, and whereas my pain had fallen to a 0-1, it's been a 2-3, mostly due to the swelling, and a little sharper around the actual kneecap.

So, I did what any patient with anxiety would do. I went on MyChart and sent a message explaining this, asking if I needed to come in before my appointment that is on October 14th and have my x-rays early just to make sure everything is in place. It's probably fine, but I know there's a lot of cement used and there hasn't been enough time for the bone to heal over it much. So someone will read this Monday and go, 'really?' and pass it on to a PA, I'm sure. But I figure it would be better to speak up rather than to say nothing. If I have done something, I don't know what to do. I'm out of FMLA for the year. Hopefully, that is not the case. Sigh. Only me. Can't even get into a car gracefully and without injury.

I work for a non-profit

that gives free orthopaedic care to children, sometimes as far away as Guatamala or the Pacific. I wonder if children can be sponsored to the US for health care, depending on what would work best in their culture, cooperation among aid organisations, and our own resources?

Haiti: as gangrene sets in, the amputations begin

The earthquake did not kill Youseline Paupilaire, but gangrene nearly did. She was brought to Haiti’s only functioning children’s hospital early yesterday with a festering double fracture to her lower left leg, and anaesthetised at 10.40am.

The first smell of amputation was that of burning flesh, as an Italian surgeon cauterised the blood vessels that he had severed with a neat incision around the leg. Then he pulled back the muscle and asked a colleague to hold it steady. At 11am he cut off Youseline’s foot with a hacksaw blade.

Youseline is 11, without parents or any known relatives. She is permanently disabled in a country that can barely look after the fully fit, yet she is alive. Stefano Calderali has lost count of how many amputations he has performed since landing in Port-au- Prince last Wednesday. “Thirty-five, maybe forty,” he said. “My own saw broke after the first ten.”

The scope is so large. But perhaps some children can find the care they need. I'm sure people are working on it; we're based in Florida, where many Haitian-Americans live. I think I'll ask a few questions up the ladder.