I saw your post and wasn’t going to log on tonight to answer until tomorrow… until I saw your question about stairs. I feel I am about to save you a lot of pain and misery by answering that question and I feel ethically required to give you the best advice possible as soon as possible.
1. My PT sessions and rehab didn’t feature that much weight bearing. By putting 150-160lbs down directly (75-80 per per nail… I NEVER took a single step and won’t for a while, without offloading at least half my weight, because that’s a one step trip to a broken nail) that might have helped bone generation, but vitamin D high doses and protein will do a bigger job of it. It’s actually better to take a lot of vitamin D and eat chicken breasts without getting up from bed, than to eat crap and weight bear a lot, for good bone formation. I recommend being safe and relying more on vitamin D and nutrition as a baseline. My bone growth is very average which is exactly what someone should want — no risk of mal-Union or early consolidation. PT was and should be for your exercises and stretches sitting down or laying down or on a stationary bike that promote muscle laxity. The hamstrings and quads and to a lesser extent the sciatic nerves are the biggest obstacles for a healthy young male much more than bone growth. Bone growth won’t be an issue for the average young healthy male. For women it can be a bigger concern.
2. DO NOT USE STAIRS
Any surgeon will cringe if you even mention stairs. You cannot traverse them without putting almost all weight on one leg. Even if you’re a skinny 17 BMI short guy which I assume you aren’t at 171cm, it is still dangerous on the nail. In particular your leg muscles will be SO TIGHT that you have ZERO coordination. For the love of god don’t use even one stair until you can walk easily after consolidation, that could be 8 months. It is not worth the risk. I strongly suggest you look into stair lift machines, like the ones old people have. compared to cost of surgery or revision if you bend a nail, it’s cheap. Please get a stair lift. If you can’t, then you must find some way to avoid stairs. You will have a revision surgery if you incorporate stairs, 100%. I had one and it was a nightmare.
3. A great PT will be confused about the intricacies of CLL but many have been trained on internal and external fixators and broken femur cases. Youd be surprised how quickly they will adapt to what you need if you are vocal and your surgeon gives them the right info. My PT had never seen a case like mine but he was within a week doing a great job on my specifics, doing Range of Motion measurements weekly, etc.
4. Honestly, it’s a few things. The first is just how little I bathe now. Showers standing up are always a dance with chance, they’re very dangerous and I rarely do them. Baths are better but not everyone has the luxury of a bath tub. They’re also hard as hell to get in and out of. So I probably wash myself only once or twice a week.
You wake up every morning very sore but this disappears as you get up and move and/or take pain killers. I actually recommend taking a good dose of painkillers since they will allow you to get rid of the pain that would keep you from stretching as rigorously as you need to. Downside is that they’re often opiates which are addictive and slightly mind altering which might affect your job or general sense of being.
I probably only go outside a few hours a month so this is the first summer I haven’t had a tan.
Peeing at night is extremely annoying so I recommend portable urinals. They last 2 weeks each before they start smelling horrific, as long as you wash them out each morning. Keep one near your bed.