Day 22 post op

Ugh!!!! The soft material inside my cast has shifted. It is all bunched up around my ankle and feels like a sock that you just can't pull up from inside a winter boot. I have managed to squish some of the padding back down so my toes stop turning purple but I do need to call the ortho department tomorrow and see what they want me to do. It wouldn't be so bad if I couldn't feel the hard surface of the casting material on my heel.

Oh...a couple nights ago I was crutching around in the dark as I just shut the lights off and was heading into the kitchen before bed when I placed my good foot on what I thought was a bug. I ended up stepping straight on my left heel and it felt like an electric shock had gone right up my heel and into my lower leg. I reached over to the wall and flipped on a light switch only to see that I stepped on a stretched out Slinky. The way the plastic coil rolled under my foot really did feel like a multi legged creature of sorts. I ended up taking Ibuprofen and heading to bed with some pain.

Onto other news. Yesterday I finally started exercising. Since cutting out most all dairy, pops, artificial sweeteners and most things high fat from my diet, I have dropped just under 20 pounds since a week prior to surgery. I figured that I need to keep up the weight loss and kill some time during my days by exercising.

I am doing straight leg lifts in all directions, donkey kicks, co-contractions for quads and hams, push ups, bent over rows and cardio. Yes!!! Cardio without the use of my left foot. Here's the deal. The pictures are on purpose. Way back when I was a student athletic trainer at Wayne State College in Nebraska, I was fortunate to learn sports medicine under Keith Goetz, ATC. Everyone seemed to have a nickname for Keith but I still think "Go Go Gadget Goetz" was the most appropriate. Here's why. See the first pic at the top of my blog? It's an upright bike with the handlebars in the stationary position. If you tilt it back on it's seat and stand, it becomes a UBE, an upper body ergometer. UBE's are rather expensive and so I had to use whatever was laying around.

In college, Keith used to make us work with the budget and recycle things or re purpose items in order to allow the athletes to be treated and rehabilitated from injuries properly. For example, when we needed portable water supplies for practices, some of the student trainers worked with Keith to take old desk drawers from a storage area (now the new and improved stadium at WSC), cut the drawers down to fit a battery source and a pump, place this structure on a standard hand truck or dolly, strap on a water cooler with hoses and voila.... a portable water squirter that we could roll into the recreation center or outside to any practice that didn't have outdoor water supply. I still have some slicky pants with battery acid burns on the front hip and thigh.

Another example was wobble boards. These things are spendy!!! Keith cut a circle out of a board, cut a croquet ball in half and stuck it to the bottom. There was some sort of plastic tubing attached to the underside of the board as well which served as a bit of a cushion. Yeah...if we really needed a piece of equipment, it had to be something old that was re purposed. Good upper back/shoulder exercise would be to kneel on the floor behind a stair master machine and use your hands to press the pedals down. We did that, too. Funny thing is that most of the alternative workouts that I learned in the rehab room at WSC, I used at one time or another or got creative and devised my own killer workout for a client at Bally Total Fitness. It was a great experience I have to say. Thanks Keith.

So anyway, 20 minutes a day on my UBE and I will be able to stand my bike up correctly after this cast comes off for good.

I will be calling tomorrow morning about my ill fitting cast.

Day 19 post op

So...Friday the 13th I got to tell my doc that I fell multiple times while in my splint. Luckily he was pleased with the status of my healing. Yay! I did no damage!!! From the pics above you can see my incisions prior to having the stitches out (oh thank goodness as the ends of the sutures was the "bug in the splint" feeling I kept getting. I took a picture of my medial foot as the color was a deep dark purple and has faded nicely.

My X-ray image shows where my surgeon cut my heel bone to remove a wedge. The hardware will be permanent. I read about other surgeries where the screw needed to be removed after the bone healed sufficiently. I asked my doctor about this and he said that he did not feel this one should ever give me problems. He countersunk it so once the bone heals over the end, I will never ever notice it. Should I ever take up running or any other activities, this screw will still not be noticed. That's nice to know. Even if he lied to me at this point...I feel that the mental process is enough for me to never have a problem.

During my appointment I explained to one of the nurses that I wasn't on any pain relievers whatsoever. She said that it was rather impressive. Really?? It has been two weeks and other than a small amount of aching in my heel, I was doing just fine. She said that most people with this same surgery will still come in on narcotics for their suture removal and casting. I guess I'm impressive with my pain tolerance. Who knew? Wonder why a stubbed toe is like death to me, then. Anyway my doctor took a moment to press into the bottom of my foot to demonstrate my new non supinated ankle position. OK...THAT brought me to tears. I should have had some ibuprofen before my appointment. Fortunately the aching subsided and I was fine by the time I drove home. I also had to ask my doc why my pinky toe is dead. He could see that I could curl it but I lost all other function to move it laterally. He said that he did not cut the sural nerve, rather he moved it up and then moved it down to work around it. Sometimes the stretching and moving around will irritate it just enough to damage it. He also added, it could simply be the swelling present in my ankle that is affecting the nerve supply. I can feel touch to my pinky toe, I just can't move it to the side as the muscle that controls that action is fed by the sural nerve. He said that only time will tell if the nerve recovers but any and all normal function of my foot will not be altered. I will just have little to no sensation alone the outside of my foot and will have to rely on toe separators when polishing my nails..haha.

Since Friday I have been happy with my cast. It is a non walking cast as I am to resume non weight bearing until September 27th when my cast is to be removed. I will then be placed in a walking boot (mental note...gotta find the cam walker I loaned out last year...I don't want to shell out another 50 bucks when I have one laying around somewhere already). Still the cast is light weight and I have some wiggle room in there which probably means I have lost a little more swelling in the ankle. Either that or I have "broken in" my cast. The person who put it on said that would happen. If it gets too loose I will need to have it replaced. So far...I like the looseness I have since it helps relieve those itchy episodes.

It is finally cooler outside which means I am back in my own apartment and can start exercising. Wait till you see what I figured out!!!!

Day 15 post op

Yay, 2 weeks down, only 6 or so more to go without walking. Ugh! I wanted to start exercising this week but it has been so hot an humid that I haven't been in my own apartment for the entire week. Luckily our nasty weather only lasts for about 2 weeks; I will be home soon. I have only done some straight leg lifts on a daily basis. I want to do more.

This week I have been out of my mind with my splint and my sutures. I gave my primary doc a call to see if i could get my splint rewrapped as it slides all around during the day and night but my doc said that he didn't want to mess with anything as I see the surgeon on
Friday (tomorrow morning).

My pain level as been tolerable with ibuprofen, I do get some occasional aching in my heel or a sharp stabbing pain at the top of my incision. The most I can do is suck it up until it goes away as there is no bleeding through, no fever and my toes are of normal color. I find that even while my foot is elevated all night, I wake up with tightness in my splint (the lateral side is curved in and it digs into my incision line). There is so much wiggle room in my splint but in the mornings I cannot slide the splint until I sit up and move a bit.

Other than that I did drive this week. I had to go to my apartment and pick a few things up (as much as I could safely use crutches with a backpack). It is funny to drive my husband's vehicle as it is an automatic and my own is a manual. I rarely drive anything but my own jeep and everytime I come to a stop in his, I have a moment where I think I have forgotten to shift into neutral.

Tomorrow I head to Duluth for my sutures to be checked and for the doc to possibly put a cast on my leg. I hope to grab a pic or two.

Day 12 post op

Yay..I am nearly done with week 2 and I haven't fallen again. That right there is an accomplishment. I still feel rather worthless around the house. It is Monday and the little boys are in daycare till noon so I have a little time to just do whatever. I am going to be living for Monday thru Friday for a few weeks now. I love my boys and all....but man are they just a handful. Yesterday I got up to use the bathroom and when I returned to the living room I found one boy on the dog kennel and the other on a table...they were couch diving.

My foot is sore...the bruising on the top aches right now. Touching the bruised part on the top of my foot causes some pain. The bruise on my left hip has darkened considerably, too. Makes my husband feel bad...I can live with that for a little bit.

My splint is killing my foot, too. The incisions will stick and pull and wow does that ever hurt. I also get some odd nerve sensations from my heel to my small toe. It often feels as if there is a bug of some sort in my splint. I know there isn't one, I have looked for it through the sides of my bandages but my imagination and this sensation is just too much to deal with sometimes.

I keep thinking that I should call my clinic and get this thing rewrapped.

Week 1 continued

My first week was horrid. The bone pain did not subside until my 4th day post op. I felt so good that I grabbed a wheeled dining room chair and vacuumed the floors and furniture. The kids were at daycare so I ended up taking a nap on pain meds shortly after doing my tidy up chores due to swelling in my splint (I could feel the sides of the splint and every single bump digging into my ankle and foot). During the week days I had from 8 to noon by myself..well, no..with the dog and cat. The cat would be fine if he would move out of the way of the crutches and the dog...well...the dog requires outside potty breaks...for a 20 pound dog he has a lot of pull...I have fallen before and really didn't want to go through this again. However, it is the beginning of college football season and my husband will not be around much at all to help me. I will do my best not to take any narcotic pain meds during the day as my little boys are extremely busy and active. Oh the joy....

I fell four times in my first week of non weight bearing in my splint. The first time was while I was letting my dog outside to potty...I figured since I lived on the bottom floor and half my apartment was under the ground level, that I could take the screen out of my spare bedroom and simply lift the dog out and lift him back in. Well, the idea was brilliant until I lost my balance letting the dog back in and ended up tossing him to the bed, keeping my leg straight up in the air and falling flat on my back in the room. My crutches fell and one struck the dog who was less than thrilled. The second time was on the bathroom floor as there was water on the floor where my crutch touched...and slipped out from under me. I did land on my left foot....good thing it was night time and I was able to take pain meds. The third time I fell was in the living room. My husband was not coming over that evening after football meetings (summer football league stuff) and actually neglected to tell me that he was out of town that night. Anyway....my dog is so afraid of my crutches that I have to leave them by the couch and then hop to his kennel and drag him out. If he cannot see the crutches he will kinda come out willingly...kinda. Well...my mistake was that I put a shoe on my good foot prior to hopping over to the kennel and ended up catching my shoe on the carpet, landing straight on my bad foot (the toe) and putting a serious bruise on my left hip from the fall. I cried...I called my husband and well...to make a long story short, the word divorce came up quite a few times once he made it back into town.

The fourth time I fell was coming over to where my husband stays during the school year, the college dorms. He has 16 steps at the front door that I have to go up. Understand that I mastered these on crutches when I had knee surgery nearly two years ago. Difference is that with my knee surgery I was allowed to bear some weight and toe touch on my bad leg. My kids went ahead of me and my husband went behind me in case I lost my balance going up. I got to the 15th step and my good foot made it to the top but my crutches caught the edge of the step and I landed on my bad heel as it slid forward and hit the wall ahead of me. Oh my gosh...talk about some pain!!!! I ended up going straight to the bedroom with a full dose of pain meds. After each of my falls I had no bleeding so I figured I would let the doc know when I see him on the 13th of this month. Good grief!

He is frustrated that I can't sit still, he has no idea that I am not capable of that when the dog has to go to the bathroom and the little boys need help with things like...um eating dinner. AT ages 4 and 6 they don't yet prepare their own meals or get glassed down from the cupboards.

I have considerably less bone pain after day 4, even after I fell straight on my heel...I did feel the screw though...I had to feel that...I felt something just dig straight through my foot. I also get some odd sensations where the screw went into my foot...it has to be what I am feeling. There's nothing else there.

I am extremely uncomfortable in my splint. I have had to readjust my foot several times inside the splint as the nurses forgot to replace all the padding in my heel when they removed all the bloody stuff a few days ago. It now forces my foot to sit all the way back in the splint and the area where it curves to protect my sutures...well, that now digs into my incision. I really should call my doc and have it rewrapped but I keep telling myself to suck it up and wait till the 13th when I get it all checked out by the surgeon. Plus...I cannot drive my own vehicle as it is a manual transmission...my husband gets rather ticked off when I request to go anywhere...he has practice during the day...he may need his vehicle...and heaven forbid he just take mine.

I have learned my lesson not to take any chances on the dorm steps and now resort to sitting and climbing up them backward. It takes a lot longer but I just cannot bear to fall again...I am out of pain pills. Week two I plan to start some exercising.

Week 1 post op

Hmm..where do I start. While being wheeled into surgery I had a great discussion with "Mike the orderly" about motorcycles. He recently took a trip to Tennessee and rode the Tail of the Dragon in a full dressed Harley. That was awesome to learn. Oh and he reminded me that there is a helmet law in Tennessee...if you don't have on on you, you be forced to get a souvenir.

I woke up from surgery in pain. Deep, throbbing, just-cut-the-damn-thing-off pain. The anesthesiologist knew that on one occasion I woke up sick from a surgery. She said that they will be giving me things to alleviate that. I'm not sure what they gave me but I was sick for a few hours and then into the evening once I got home.

While in recovery I was given injection after injection to deal with the pain. Nothing seemed to help. I rated my pain at no less than an 8. Yes, it was that bad. The last shot was of morphine. I'm not a big fan of morphine....I was trying my best to wake up and feel better so I could home...but that just made me sleep more. Once again I was thinking of everyone around me....my children were bored in the clinic and my husband had things to do...I needed to get home. That last shot of morphine did help me sleep the entire hour long drive home...I did have one heck of a headache though. Still not a big fan of morphine. I never did get a nerve block that I have read about in other blogs.

The next day I had come to realize that my pain pills only lasted for 2 hours. It takes 45 minutes for them to kick in and I cannot take more for at least 4 hours. This sucked!!! I discovered a considerable amount of draining and bleeding on both sides of my splint that morning as well. I called the ortho department (wasn't open or staffed just yet) and was instructed to go to the ER in my town to have them evaluate me. Really??? It costs $800 to travel through the doors. While I work for my insurance company, I still have to pay for a lot of this stuff. I waited until the Ortho department called me and told them the scenario.

I was instructed to call my primary doctor and see if he will check it out. If he wouldn't, I would then seek help in the ER. I called my primary doc and his nurse told me, "I'm not sure why you are calling here, he didn't do your surgery, he's not going to know what to do with you or want to see your ankle." I mustered every single bit of kindness I could and explained to her that I would appreciate if she would at least ask him. She proceeded to tell me that she didn't know why she had to do this but she will call me back. There are things that ran through my mind that would scare old ladies and small children....I will keep them to myself.

Fifteen minutes later I got a call from my doctor's nurse saying that he did want to see me that day. I could be seen in 40 minutes or later if I choose. I chose to be seen early. I figured it would be best to just keep my opinions to myself with his nurse. I will assume that she didn't know any better.

Since I love my primary doctor...he's a fantastic guy to see...I felt it was important to be kind to his nurse. I can only hope that she knows she was quite the arse to me on the phone. What was really amusing is that while my doctor was in the room to check my incisions (he squeezed my incisions to check for draining...boy was that a not so pleasant feeling), the nurse asked me what I had done. I thought it was particularly fun to talk over her head. I still giggle over the dumb look she gave the RN and the doctor in the room. While I was being wrapped up, I described everything in lay terms I knew she didn't understand anything I said to her previously.

I went home with fresh, clean bandages on my lower leg, instructions to take a full 2400 mg of Ibuprofen in addition to the oxycodone during the day. I opted to take my meds in regular intervals to minimize the pain but really....this deep bone pain is something else!!! I really hope it stops soon.

Pictures are my waking up in recovery...my good leg was constantly stomping the floor...boy was that some pain I could live without! Also on here are my post op bandages that I bled through and my day one images before getting rewrapped. Fun Fun!!