Test

Hello! Goodbye 2010!!!

13 Stitches!!!

Finally, I got the 13 stitches out!!!

I couldn't believe how busy the doctor's office was at this visit. I mean I had to wait for an hour and a half to see the doctor. It took 3 people to take out all 13 stitches! The first nurse got 9 out and the second nurse got 2 more out BUT... the last 2 were a pain! The skin had over grown the knots of the last 2 stitches making removing them very difficult. They had to call in the Physician's Assistant to come in to remove those stitches. I have to say I didn't mind that at all. See, I like the Physician's Assistant. He is really nice and not to mention easy on the eyes! :)

So, all the stitches are out and I can take showers now. YAY!!!!! I did find out that I do have a little bit of cartilage left in my ankle and that this last surgery should buy my another 2 to 3 years of hopefully "comfort". I will still need to have the back side of my ankle cleaned out eventually. I hope that I can put that surgery off a little while longer now.

2.5 Weeks Past Surgery

I'm still not putting any weight on my foot and I still have about 10 stitches. I have been able to wash my leg to get the iodine and writing off of it. The skin has gotten very dry and is peeling. I'm glad to see that the pressure sore is looking a little better and that the top of my foot is less sensitive. I'm not wearing my BIG BLACK BOOT while I am at home and sitting around. I use it for when I have to leave the house. I'm trying to keep all pressure off the back of my heel & top of my foot. I have found that I need to keep it wrapped in a small ace bandage. I do that for the swelling as well as it just feels good to have it wrapped.

I am tired of the sitting all day. I do get up and help get dinner going or fill the dishwasher. I even make it into the laundry room (when the floor is clear) and fold clothes. I can't really get a load going in the washer too easily. I leave that for Courtney to take care of. She's pretty good about it even though some times she does it on her schedule and not mine. Ian has become a lot of help lately with fixin' dinner. He loves to make fresh tea! Chloe is my go get it girl as well as dog walker most days. I try to make sure Ian takes Trixie out at least once every day. I.B. has actually started making both Ian and Chloe go out together after it gets dark to walk Trixie. I.B. has done OK as far as helping out. He has had to do ALL the grocery shopping. I'll make a list and he goes to the store. I have to say I do miss going to the store and strolling the isles. Usually, I.B. will come back with exactly what is on the list and whatever junk he sees and is in the mood for.

I know that all this is good for my family. I mean good as in the sense of they all need to know how to do everything that I do on a daily bases. I am so ready to be back to being able to jump up and do as I please. At least I go back in 3 days to get the stitches out!!! AND it will be time to start putting a little weight through my foot!

Pressure Sores

I have been very happy living without that hard splint. It's nice to have it where I can see my foot and move my foot & ankle. I have a nasty although not open pressure sore on the back of my heel. I also have the beginnings of one on the top of my foot. It's along the long bone going to my big toe.

I have no feeling on the skin but I do for deeper pains along the top of my foot. My heel is completely numb. It's like my foot is asleep in most areas. It feels very odd. I'm hoping that the feeling will come back as I exercise my ankle. I will have to ask the doctor about this next week.

The Splint is Gone!!!

I finally got the hard splint off my leg!!! I found that my leg did shrink in size and that the doctor wrote a lot more on my leg than I remembered him writing. It was so nice to get that thing off and see what was done.

Here is what my ankle looked like when all the bandages were taken off. If you were wondering, I am not purposely holding my foot cocked-eyed. It's just how my foot looks. :/ I haven't counted the stitches yet but I think there are close to 10 nylon stitches.

Here's a closer view of the stitches. I will have to keep those in for 1 more week. So that means I will have to keep it dry and no showers until after next Weds. Yes...I will be bathing...in the tub until next week. The doctor was able to remove the large bone chunk, bone spurs, damaged cartilage and the second "deck screw" from this one incision.

In this view, the doctor made a small incision to remove that "deck screw" that was working its way out. Luckily, dissolving stitches where used here. I use the term "deck screw" because on the X-rays these 2 screws looked very big like deck screws!

Here is the surprise I found when all the bandages where gone. I knew my heel hurt very bad after surgery and during that first week. I still think that initial pain was from the surgery and all the trauma I have done to my ankle. I do remember my heel hurting in a different way sometime during the last part of the first week. Now I know what "Pressure/Bed Sore" feels like. It is very OUCHY!!! It's like a bad bruise that is always being poked. Needless to say the doctor was not very happy with me. He told me I should have called and come in the office and not have lived with the pain. Luckily for me this looks to be very superficial. However, I am to keep a close eye on it and if it starts to look infected then I am not to wait until my next appointment, I am to go into the office immediately.

So I am still in a non-weight baring mode for another week. I can take off the boot for sleeping and to do my exercises. I have to keep a gauze pad over the stitches and keep my heel very well padded so that sore can heal. It looks like I will be in my boot for the next 3 weeks. I will gradually start putting weight back thru my leg a week from today. I know that it is going to take more time than I want to get back to walking without the aide of anything or anyone. I am just happy to be on this side of the healing. I hope by March that I might be able to get back on my bike!

One Week Later...

So one week has passed since I had my 6th surgery and I'm in alot of pain. Which is very odd because I haven't had alot of pain from Friday thru Monday. I got a new prescription for pain meds on Friday and only had to take one pill and that was on Saturday. I didn't like how it made me feel all wigged out and all. So I just went to taking one pill at bedtime and that seemed to be working fine until last night.

I had a good day yesterday. I felt great even if I was bored to death. I broke my day up into getting the kids off to school followed by a little bit of computer time then I took a nap. When I awoke I got me some lunch and did needlepoint in bed for 3 hours. It was time to move on out of the bedroom and into the den until time to pick up kids from school. Courtney helped with making dinner and it was soooooo gooooood!!!!! Everything was going good until some of my family members decided not to use common sense to do things that needed to be done without being asked/told to do them. (That really pisses me off when they act like that!!!) So I believe it was that inconsiderateness of my family that set me spiraling back into the pit of pain I had worked so hard to get out of.

I went to bed with my standard one pill and tried to go to sleep. I slept some but the pain kept mounting. It felt like my leg/foot was swelling so much that the splint/cast was cutting of circulation. I'd wake up to get the pillows fixed to keep my let propped up. I had to give in and take another pill in the middle of the night. Still that didn't really give much relief besides helping to fall asleep and stay asleep until time to start the day. I was OK during the day and in the afternoon the pain came back with a vengeance!!! I've had to take 2 pills at one time at 5PM. It's almost an hour and a half later and I don't have much relief. My head is feeling really loopy. I don't like what these pain meds do to me.

Let's hope tomorrow is a better day....

A Few Days Later...

I've been doing OK these last few days. Besides the obvious pain in my ankle I have found out that I am allergic to Percocet. I have been ITCHY ever since I started taking those pills. Luckily, I don't have a rash (that I know of). I called the doctor's office today to see if I could get a different pain medication called in. So we will see....

I have been surprised that the majority of my pain has felt like it is in my heel. It would get to throbbing/aching so bad, I couldn't handle it. I've had minor pain where I know the doctor made his cuts but the heel is just awful.

I'm getting new medicine. YAY! Me!