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.
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| Look at how much cotton is on the heel under the ace bandage! No wonder it hurt to walk on it. |
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| Bulky, puffy, sticky cotton. |
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| This looked like some sort of liquid absorbing layer closer to the skin resembling a diaper texture. |
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| 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. |
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| 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! |
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| 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! |
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