Progress?

Going back to work has been interesting for the foot.  So far, what I do to my foot at home (cleaning, shopping, puttering, etc.) has been much harder on it than work.  Of course, I haven't been doing much besides computer stuff so far at work.  I do still have a hard time with stairs.

Since I last posted, I have been feeling pain on the inside of my foot where I did before surgery.  I contacted the surgeon's office and they said as long as I haven't been jumping, running or anything else on it that is strenuous, it is highly unlikely that I have torn it again.  They said most likely it is physical therapy.  I am at the stage where she is giving me strengthening exercises and getting right into waking up those tendons.  So, it could be that.

I've also been getting a "walking on shards of glass" feeling under my foot in the middle toward the inside.  My PT said I really need arch support and gave me orthodics to pop into my shoes.  They took the shards of glass feeling away, and I wore them successfully for over a week.  Then, one day, the bottom outside of my foot started hurting REALLY bad, so I have taken them out of my shoes.

I skipped my exercises yesterday to give myself a break and found that my foot hurt MUCH worse not having stretched and warmed it up before taking shopping and cleaning around the house.  Interesting.

I have an appointment with the surgeon in mid-October.  He said to bring my orthodics and he will see if I need another pair of custom ones to support my other foot.  I REALLY don't want to have to do this surgery on my right foot, but it caves in badly.  So far, no pain in it.  I hope that will prevent it.  Interestingly, he said NOT to wear my orthodic in my reconstructed foot.  I wonder if the orthodics the PT gave me are OK or not?  Until then, I will ice, elevate and rest as much as I can, though it is getting harder and harder to carve out any time for rest.

Good to go!

I finally got my stitches out!  Wahoo!!  I can take showers again, but still need to keep the incisions covered and dry until the scabs fall off.  The Dr. said the x-rays looked good and the incisions looked good, so I am good to go.  I went back to physical therapy yesterday and the therapist noted I had better flexibility without the screws and I didn't seem to lose any strength or anything during my 2 week recovery.  I'm having a bit of pain, but nothing stopping me from walking quite a bit yesterday.  All is well.

I go back to the Dr. in October.  He said to bring my orthodics to evaluate if I should wear them or need new ones.  I'm nervous about my right foot now.  I would think it would need support to prevent this from happening to that one, too.

Some faint lines can just barely be seen where the screws were in my heel.  The x-rays just aren't as exciting without the screws!  LOL!  Sorry about the quality of these x-rays.  The computer in the room I was in wasn't working, so the tech took them for me on the Dr.'s terminal.  I'm lucky she was so nice!

Can't really see where the screw was in the side of my foot.  Guess that's a good thing!

Getting the stitches removed from the side of my foot.  Sutures were SO much easier to remove than the staples I  had in April.

The side incision without stitches.

What lies beneath

Blech...there's just something about looking at stitches in your own flesh that makes your skin crawl.

The temperatures are soaring and the thick cotton bandages are sweating to my skin along with bunching up under my foot making it really painful to walk.  The odd little shoe they gave me to wear has no support and my toes hang over the edge.  It was time to to change the bandage.  I called my general practitioner as they are much closer to my surgeon to see if they would swap out the bandage for a smaller configuration, but they said they would prefer I went through the surgeon's office.  Fair enough.  I called them again and the tech assured me it was a-ok to take the bandage off, wash down the foot (everywhere but the incisions) and go with band aids, a real sock and a real shoe (as long is it didn't irritate the stitches.)  So, I screwed up my courage and did it.

Layer after layer (I couldn't believe how many layers of bandage and cotton there was!) I worked my way down to my foot.  It felt sooo nice to have it exposed to the clean, dry air again.  But I have to say my stomach turned over a few times when I got down to the incisions.  The one on the side of my foot has 4-5 stitches and looked like it had bled/seeped a bit into the bandages.  It also looked a bit puffy.  The one on my heel has 3 stitches.  Both of them are larger than I thought they were.  I was very glad I had band aids big enough at home on hand to cover them up again.

I tried putting the foot into the "special" shoe, but the bottom of it hurt so bad to walk on it, I figured my sneakers would probably feel better.  Unfortunately, the sneakers aggravate the incisions some.  Sigh...  My stomach is not handling the feeling very well, so I hauled down a bunch of ibuprofen (which isn't doing much.)  I just want the stitches out!!

Another good thing about having all that bulk off is that I can now ice the area when elevating if need be.

The stitches come out on Wednesday 7/27 which is 5 days from now.

Of course, I took photos as I unwrapped the layers so interested folks can see how they might package up a similar surgery if anyone is interested.

Look at how much cotton is on the heel under the ace bandage!  No wonder it hurt to walk on it.

Bulky, puffy, sticky cotton.

This looked like some sort of liquid absorbing layer closer to the skin resembling a diaper texture.

Then there were these surgical mesh like squares stuck to the actual incisions.  Didn't know if it would hurt or not when peeling off.  Thank goodness it didn't!  It wasn't as stuck on as it looks.

4 or 5 stitches.  Not sure how you officially "count" stitches.  This was a larger incision than I thought it would be for just one screw.  It is a bit puffy underneath, too.  I think some ice on this nearly 100 degree day would do it some good!

The incision on my heel had 3 stitches.  A few days after surgery, this didn't hurt to walk on at all.  Now that it is all unwrapped, the sensation is churning my stomach a bit.  Blech.  You can see in this photo a little bit where the cotton was all stuck to my skin it's been so hot out!

Conflicting info

Dove into some photography this morning before the foot gave me troubles to make myself feel a bit better.

Monday, my foot hurt pretty bad.  My theory was that I walked on it too much on Sunday and the bandages were too tight and uncomfortable under my foot.  I called the Dr.'s office to see if I could take the bandages off, and the tech said that I could, but I HAD to replace it with another sterile cotton bandage (it didn't have to be as bulky) and that I must still wear the special shoe.  Ok.  Fine.  Then I asked her about all the pain I was experiencing and she said that my bones aren't supposed to move as they aggravate the stitches in the skin on top.  Oh.  Why didn't anyone tell me that post op???  Why did the discharge instructions say that I could be back to work in two days as pain and swelling allowed?  Why is everyone saying I'd walk out of there with a band aid and no problems?  She also said absolutely no physical therapy until after the stitches come out which is scheduled for the 27th of July.  Why didn't I get that message either?  I feel like this surgery is much more of a big deal than what everyone is saying with a bit more down time involved.  I felt like my freedom was slipping away.  I "gave up" the rest of the day, used my walker, babied it, stayed in bed and watched TV and read.  It felt much better in the morning, but is getting sore again as I walk around the house.  What is causing all this pain?  Mostly on the top of my foot.  I know now it isn't the screws!  My heel does feel better so far without the screws in.  At least I can tell that through the bandages.  I have come to find out that healing is a slow, slow process.  One that can't be rushed.  You are best off giving into it and letting your body heal without pushing.  Thank goodness I am a teacher and don't have to push to be back to work for another month and a half.  I don't think I could do it yet!  But another thought crossed my mind...maybe the hardware removal surgery happened too soon after my first surgery to correct my arch and I wasn't really healed from the first one.  Hard to say.  All I know is I can't wait now until the 27th to see what lies beneath the puff of cotton around my foot and what it really feels like walking again without it wrapped.

Pain, pain, pain!

Today is 3 days post surgery and my anti-nausea patch is running out.  I have taken myself off the pain killers and ditched the walker.  Lots of pain!  The thing is, I don't know if this is from having the screws out or if it is my foot being stiff from my last operation which wasn't totally 100% yet.  All I know is that when I step down on the foot, I'm bound to feel some sort of pain in it somewhere.  Either the incisions on the heel hurt, or this terrible stop you dead in your tracks kind of pain across the base of my toes on the top of my foot.  Not sure what's going on with that.  I still have my bandages off which are tight and don't let you get good movement out of your foot.  Not moving it for so long may have something to do with this pain. I don't know.  I almost don't dare touch the bandages, though as they are protecting the incisions and the whole foot very well.  I could never re-wrap it like this and these bandages are all sterile.  What to do???   I hope tomorrow is better.  I have to start physical therapy back up on Tuesday, then that afternoon face the horrors of walking a ways and climbing stairs to visit my dentist.  I've already rescheduled this appointment several times so I want to squeak it in, but I can already tell that it won't be fun.  :(

Surgery day! July 14, 2011

The outside of the hospital.  New, beautiful facility.

It is interesting to me how different this surgery was for the last one in April. This time, they couldn't find any veins to get my IV in!! I drank too much water and was too hydrated I guess. Anyhow...the surgery went well. My mother in law took me and she brought her camera, so we had fun with that. The surgery was 16 minutes long and went like a "textbook." I had nausea and some pain when I woke up. They gave me some good stuff though to make me more comfy. The foot is all bandaged up thick, so I haven't seen the incisions yet. The stitches come out in 13 days. When I got home, I took a 2 hour nap and felt ok. Went to bed early. When I woke up this morning, I was in much more pain than I expected. They put an anti-nausea patch behind my ear, so I figured I'd try taking more pain killers to see if it would bring the pain down and it has. They gave me a special shoe to wear on that foot. The discharge instructions said I could weigh bear as tolerated. Can't tolerate it yet! So I'm back to using my walker. It will probably get better in a couple days. Hopefully, even better than before since the irritating screws aren't there anymore! They didn't let me keep the hardware. :(

Anyway, here are a few photos from my adventure.

The hospital even has a piano in the lobby!

The wall of windows in the surgical weighting room area.

The kitchenette where you can get coffee and have computer access.

The view out the windows.  Water does the soul good!

The patient status board.  You wear a barcode on your wrist and they scan you as they move you around updating your name on the board with a different color depending where you are in the process.  Kind of like watching for a flight to come in at an airport.

Another wonderful touch at this hospital.  The johnny!  Believe it or not.

Nice, warm socks that are fun, too!

Me just hanging out waiting for some action.

Me reading discharge instructions.  The white hose coming off the side is blowing hot air into my johnny to keep me warm and comfy.  It even comes with a remote so I can turn it up or down as I like.

Starting to get drugs administered.

DONE!  Fresh out of surgery.  I was eating a cracker, had some vanilla ice cream in my other hand and ginger ale on the table.

After the IV came out, my skin was pretty irritated from the tape.  Not sure what was going on with that, but it is all gone now.

The bandaged foot in the special shoe.

The special shoe.  It has Velcro on the top so it will open right up and you don't need to slide your foot into anything.  Much less pain!  It has a good tread on the bottom of it, too.

The well bandaged foot complete with tootsies sticking out!

This was the arm they tried to get the IV into and something went wrong with the valve.  This bruising is what I found when I took the bandage off.

This is the arm that did get the IV successfully.  Minimal bruising.

After I took the anti-nausea patch off, I stuck it too a piece of paper to view it more closely.  I've never worn a medical patch.  It's amazing that this little thing did such a great job for 3 days.  It felt much bigger than it looks behind my ear.

More surgery! The saga continues...

I'm still having a lot of pain and my Dr. suggested I have the screws out.  The surgery is scheduled for 7/14/11 which will be 15 weeks since my first surgery.  He didn't think there would be a problem with stability.  Stay tuned for more updates and photos!

3 month check up (before and after surgery photo comparisons) July 6, 2011

I was starting to get really depressed before this appointment.  I had nothing to gauge how my recovery was going.  My foot was still very painful which made me want to give up physical therapy most days and never move from the couch again (hey, I could do it for 8 weeks, why not longer?)  The foot bulged out on the side and it didn't look like there was much swelling anymore, so I assumed this was "it."  The Dr. said it looked good and if I was having pain, then it must be from the screws.  He also said that he did not cut any nerves and that the numbness I was feeling on the outside of my foot would eventually come back, but the sural nerve was traumatized.  Evidently, it lives close to the skin and would be subjected to swelling, of which he said there was still some and that I would get more definition in my ankle bone in time.  Hearing all this was a great relief!

The surgeon also pulled up my x-rays from march and put them side by side with the weight bearing ones I had that day and showed me the difference in my anatomy.  This also made me feel so much better about it.  There is quite a difference as you can see.

Weight bearing before and after surgery.  Click on the photo for a larger view.

Weight bearing from above before and after surgery.  Click on the photo for a larger view.

The back of my feet before surgery.  The left one is the inured one, but the right one doesn't look that great either!

The back of my feet after surgery.

One more person I saw also made things feel much better and that was my chiropractor.  He was very impressed with the surgeon's work and what he had accomplished.  Usually, my hips are about 1cm off, but during that visit, they were only 1/2 cm.  I saw on the web where after having this surgery, many people have less back pain.  I'm all for that!! 

Physical therapy

I couldn't get a physical therapy appointment for 3 weeks, so I just walked and moved as much as my pain would allow.  (The Dr.s office said that would be physical therapy enough!)  I am opting to do this without pain meds as they suggested, and go with ibuprofen.  Very sore.  The first week after I had the cast off I used my walker to start getting a little weight bearing back as well as flexibility.  I was supposed to ditch the walker 1 week after the cast was off, but it was soooooo painful I couldn't do it.  I had to start weaning myself from my dependency on the walker by having my husband take my walker away from me and make me walk across the room for it like a child learning to walk for the first time.  The full weight bearing and balance was so sore.  Made me cry.  But the Dr.s were correct in that the more you use it, the quicker it will heal.  I was a week behind schedule to get rid of the walker, but I eventually did it.  I got rid of the shower seat a week after that. (those really help!)

I found that not only was my "new" foot painful, but it was sore and stiff stiff stiff.  I couldn't flex my toes the way I used to.  My big toe joint wanted to pop and crack so bad, but it wouldn't move!  I couldn't flex my foot enough to go down stairs and the ankle hurt really badly.  I could barely straighten my knee.

The day of physical therapy finally came.  Her first order of business with me was to decrease the swelling and start doing very gentle stretches.  She taped me up with kineseo tape which she said would work with my lymph system to start draining the fluids.

Kineseo tape applied to control the swelling.

The therapist also put me in some compression stockings for the swelling.  The combo of this helped greatly so I was able to move much more freely.

Compression stockings helped with the swelling.

After several weeks of therapy, I am finally able to do strengthening exercises as well as flexibility stuff.

8 week check up and cast off!! June 1, 2011

Oh my loving soul I couldn't wait for this day!  Get that cast OFF!!!!  They cut it off, examined the incisions (which were fine) and took more x-rays.  I couldn't straighten my leg, my knee hurt, my hip was messed up and I had no strength in my ankle/foot at all.  The Dr. set me up with a script for physical therapy (yup...gonna need that for sure!) and told me to wear the air cast until I felt strong enough to go without it.  It was sooo nice to not have ANYTHING on my foot at my discretion.

They did say I should take pain killers for this appointment as I'd be standing on it.  It wasn't too bad on the air cast, so I hobbled out with my walker. No more wheelchairs for me!!  The pain killers made me so sick though.  I wanted more than anything to take a real shower (after 8 weeks of sponge baths...phew!) and to shave the leg, but I was too busy vomiting and had to wait until the next day.  Needless to say, I didn't take any more pain killers and went with ibuprofen instead.

I felt I could ditch the air cast after 5 days, but none of my shoes fit, so I didn't have anything to wear but the cast!  I did an "emergency" trip to our local shoe store and they had some great New Balance sneakers that were fabric, not leather, that were flexible enough (and wide enough) to accommodate my foot and all the swelling.  I have dubbed the foot (and leg) to be called the "tree stump" as it feels so wide compared to my other foot.

The other thing that was quite shocking after I got my cast off was the skin.  When I finally did get a shower, the whole bottom of my foot literally fell off in my hands. ICK!  The rest of my foot and leg followed suit and peeled like crazy for about a week.  I couldn't believe how much skin was trapped in the cast for 8 weeks.  Wow!

Being June, the Dr. said to be careful not to sunburn my new incisions.  Never thought of that!  Glad they mentioned it.  I spent as many days out on the deck as I could when the sun came out as a break from the bed when I had the cast on.  I'd probably do the same thing without the cast.  I'm careful to cover all scars as much as possible.

Hair city!  YUCK!  But it was mine again and I could deal with that later.

My muscles had a hard time communicating with my brain.  They didn't know what to do with themselves without the support of the cast.  Freaky feeling!

Me and my x-ray.  I didn't bother to do my hair that day as I figured I could take a nice long, hot shower.  NOT!!

Thanks to my step mom for taking me to this appointment and taking photos.

6 week check up May 13, 2011

At my 6 week checkup, they were only changing the cast.  I HATED that cast.  I wanted it gone and never wanted it back.  I couldn't straighten my leg from all the pain and confinement and it was getting to me.  My hip hurt and was numb, too from the elevating.  Hard on the body!  I found that meditation, flexeril and doubling up on ibuprofen helped tremendously.

Cutting the cast off on the right side.

Cutting the cast on the left.  It comes off in two halves.

The incisions on the right side of my foot are healing nicely.  I couldn't believe all the leg hair!  YUCK!  I also noticed my toenails weren't growing.

The leg incision.

Incisions on the left side of my foot.

That horrible incision on the inside of my foot.  Close up and personal!

The technician stretching my foot to go back to a 90 degree angle for the cast.

She had mercy on me and put extra cotton on.  It didn't help.  It was still soooo uncomfortable!

The next layer of the cast material is applied.

The foot all snug in the wrapping once again.

Finishing the hard outer layer.  It would be on my leg for 2 weeks and 5 days.

Thanks to my step mom for taking me to this appointment and taking photos.