Rich is going to see his orthopedic doctor on January 11.

We’ve been counting down towards that day since October 2.

October 2 is the day he broke his knee.

And January 11 is the day he hopes to begin walking again.

That’s 101 days of not putting ANY weight on his right leg.

None. Not one teeny-tiny bit.

He’s been using his walker to get around.

We bought that walker to use when he had hip replacement surgery a few years ago. Bought it at the Idaho Youth Ranch Thrift Shop for $5. That’s the best $5 we’ve ever spent. That sucker’s been a lot of miles…

The walker’s a lot easier to use than crutches, especially because it was so critical that Rich didn’t trip and put weight on his right leg. That would have meant another complete round of surgery and recovery.

For some strange reason, neither one of us Googled what the next step will be in his recuperation. It was almost like we didn’t want to know.

So the other night, I went down an Internet wormhole while Googling Tibial Plateau Fracture recovery.

I found a message board where people talk about their experiences.

There’s a whole lot of acronyms that are used.

NWB–>non-weight bearing
PWB–>partial weight bearing
FWB–>full weight bearing

And here’s the first post I read:

There’s no need to read it all.

But please take a look at the fifth line from the bottom. It reads:

NWB 48 days – 12 hours – 55 minutes

So this guy counted the days, hours, and minutes he was NWB, and he was NWB for HALF the time that Rich will be.

It’s been a long 101 days… 🙁