The FrankenFoot Strikes Back

I've been so busy with the holidays these past couple of weeks, I wasn't able to blog last week!  But, all of the presents are wrapped, dinner is served, and the house is clean, and I found myself with some time to blog on Christmas Eve.  Wahoo!

I had surgery 9 days ago, on December 15th, to remove the remainder of my temporary hardware, which ended up being two screws.  I've done this surgery twice now, so it almost felt routine.  I called and got my surgery time the day before, which was 1:00 again.  The exact same time as the last surgery.  I was disappointed because it was so late in the day, and I was pretty miserable last time, since I'm not allowed to eat past midnight.  I asked the doctor's office, and they said that he liked to schedule the easier surgeries later in the day because he has a tendency to get behind on some of the harder surgeries.  And even though I was coming in pretty late at 1:00, I wasn't the last surgery for the day  That poor, poor soul behind me.

As I was getting ready the morning of surgery, at about 10:00, TOSH called me and wanted me to come in right away for surgery because there was an opening on the schedule.  They asked how long I'd be, and I'd told them about a half hour, just long enough to drive to the surgical center.  I scrambled to get dressed and get my stuff together.  As we were walking out the door, my phone rang again and I saw it was the doctor's office.  The nurse explained that there was a change and they would no longer need me to come in early, so I should just come at my regularly scheduled time of 1:00.  Dammit!  I'd had my hopes up of getting done early only to be smashed into little pieces.

So, I waited..and waited, and finally went to the hospital to check-in for surgery at 1.  Same routine at always, as soon as I was taken back, the nurse took a set of vitals, I changed into my sexy hospital drape, and gave a urine sample to prove I wasn't pregnant and was OK for surgery.  I met a flurry of nurses and doctors, had my IV started with liquid tylenol, and gave my name and birthdate about a dozen times.  Luckily my admitting nurse, who went over my medication history with me, knew what a NuvaRing was so I was saved of that embarrassing conversation this time.  I finally got to see Dr. Van Boerum right before surgery.  He wrote a YES on my right foot, and then started explaining to me how he has a set of tools and all kinds of gadgets to get my screws removed.  He totally creeped me out again....please just take my screws out; I don't need to know the details!  They were also letting me take home my screws this time!  The hospital didn't allow me to take home my pins from my last surgery because they were too sharp and were a liability.  Whatever.  

The last person I saw before surgery was my anesthesiologist a little after 3.  Instead of being hauled in a wheelchair, I walked by myself back to the surgery room!  It was cold.  I hopped up on the table.  They put a warm blanket on me.  I heard someone say that in 10 or 15 seconds I would be sleepy.  I was then waking up in the recovery room.  When I woke up from the last surgery, I had zero pain, but lots of anxiety thanks to a huge shot of morphine.  This time, when I woke up, no anxiety, but a pain level of about 4 - totally manageable.  I also could immediately feel relief in my foot from where the screws had been, no more pinching or pressure.  My recovery nurse gave me some ice water and honey graham crackers.  They both tasted amazing.  Shortly after, Nate and my mom joined me in the recovery room.  I felt nice and relaxed, and was quickly cleared to go home.  I laced up ye olde walking boot and started to get up and walk out. But, the nurse chased me down, made me get in the wheelchair and took me out to the parking lot.

There was a lot more pain and discomfort with this round of surgery than I expected with the next few days that followed.  Removing the screws is a little more involved than removing the pins.  My incisions are bigger, and my foot/tendons/bones were a lot sorer than last time.  I needed to take more pain medication than I wanted to or thought that I would need.  That led to the uncomfortable side effect of opioids on the digestive system. I finally started to feel better about 5 days after surgery.

One thing I didn't the surgery stop me from doing, was seeing Star Wars on opening night!  I had all of these grand plans to dress up as a sith version of Ahsoka Tano.  But, quite frankly, I felt miserable and taking a shower and getting myself ready completely exhausted me.  The thought of trying to put on a costume and paint my face seemed too daunting.  So, I didn't end up going in costume.  I was disappointed about that, and wish I'd felt better that night for the movie.  I still went though, and it was AWESOME and I am so glad that I went, even doped up on various pills, in a boot, and in some nagging pain.   I actually have seen it 2 times since, when I was feeling better!  And Rey.  She.  Is.  Amazing.    She is such a strong female character.  She inspires me to be a bad ass.  Cool girls don't look at explosions.

I will go back in to the doctor next week to get my stitches removed.  I was told not to remove my dressing until I saw the doctor again, but, full disclosure, I took it off already.  It was fraying, getting snagged on my boot, and there was no way that it was going to stay on for two weeks.  I've been in the boot during my waking hours ever since surgery, mainly to protect my incisions.  It's such a bummer since I've been used to walking in my tennis shoes for the last month.  But, once I see the doctor, I can swear off the boot for good!  Trumpy (my scooter) was placed in his final resting place this weekend.  The basement.  He was a good scooter and served me well.  

As for the hardware, this is what was inside my foot for 5 months.  Of what they let me take home anyway.  Just touching it and feeling it makes it hard to believe that this piece of metal was actually inside of me.  No wonder it was so painful.  I'm glad to be rid of it!

Das Boot

Today I graduated from cast to boot!

My mom has graciously taken on the task of being my caretaker while Nate is on his business trip to New York.  So that means she got to take me to my appointment!  We dropped him off early in the morning at the airport, and then made our way to my appointment at the TOSH Hospital for my 6 week post-op check-up.

The nurse brought me back to the doctor's office, and immediately got to removing my cast.  She wheeled in what looked like a Shop-Vac R2D2 type looking contraption with a saw attachment (eeeeep....Wanna play a game?) and set to work.  She told me that the saw would cut through the cast but it would not cut through the padding.  She said when the saw hit the padding, it would feel kind of weird.  And it did, it kind of tickled, but kind of didn't...it was an odd sensation.  

It took her all of about 2 minutes to get it off (she was a pro), and Frankenfoot 2.0 was revealed!

My toes and surrounding foot area are still pretty swollen.  Granted, the swelling has come down quite a bit, but they are still very visibly puffy.  I thought the swelling would have gone down more than it did, but the doctor said it was normal to have swelling for up to a year after the surgery.  Once the cast was off, it was time to get a set of x-rays.  I rode Trumpy down the hall into the x-ray room, confirmed I wasn't pregnant, and had 3 sets of piggy pictures taken.

(scooter shot!)

It felt so weird to have the cast off.  There was no resistance when I was lifting my leg up and down so it didn't take quite as much effort to do it.  But I also felt like my foot was vulnerable and exposed.  I was surprised that I could actually set my foot down on the x-ray table and not really have any pain.  I thought it was feeling and looking pretty good!

I got back into the exam room and the nurse then took out my stitches.  I was sitting up straight ready to watch her do her magic.  She told me that if I was squeamish at all that I might want to lay down.  Since I usually get close to passing out when I have blood drawn, or cut myself, I decided that she was right, laid back, and went to my mind palace.  It hurt way more than I thought it would getting the stitches removed.  I'd read online about how it feels (always a perfect source of reliable information) and most people had said they either couldn't feel it at all or it felt like a rubberband popping on your skin.  Well, maybe I don't have that great of pain tolerance because it frickin' hurt!

Once the stitches were all gone, I then got to see the doctor.  I got to see a new angle of the pins in my foot and it probably explains why it hurt so bad the other week when I lost my balance and came down on my heel.  There is a pin going vertical in my foot, and the doctor said putting any weight on it at all would be really painful.  The bad news is, I will have to have two surgeries.  I have a set of pins, and a couple of sets of screws.  The pins will need to come out first, and that surgery will happen in about 6 weeks (12 weeks post op).  I scheduled that appointment for October 12th.  The screws won't be ready to come out though, so I'm looking at another surgery mid-November.  I was really hoping to just have 1 more surgery, but 'tis not to be.

(that little guy - oh don't worry about that little guy)

The skin underneath my cast was pretty gross.  It was all dry and peeling, and still had mud from Spartan and that yucky yellow iodine disinfectant stuff that they slather on right before surgery.   My right leg also looked like a wet noodle.  A furry wet noodle.  

(furry wet noodle on the left)

The doctor said that the holes from where my stitches were needed to heal, so no showering or shaving for 24 hours.  WHAT?!?!  This was clearly the worst news of the day.  Of the century.  I was so looking forward to having a date with my shower tonight.  A nice, long, hot shower, washing, and shaving my leg.  Then lotioning it up with some lovely smelling body butter I purchased for this very affair.  But, 'tis not be!  Also, the doctor said not to use lotion for a little while where there was lots of dead skin.  Or it would just turn in to a dead skin slurry.  That's a lovely visual.

I got fitted for the boot.  There were no color options.  I clarified that and also complained.  But the doctor just told me to bedazzle it.  Bedazzle it I shall!  I am going to bedazzle the sh*t out of it.

The doctor also wanted me to work on range of motion exercises.  Well, 2 exercises.  Just pointing and flexing my toes (trying to get my foot into neutral position), and rotating my foot side to side.  We tried it.  It hurt.  Well, it hurt so good.  I could almost get to neutral.  I'll work on that.  He gave me a script for 2 sessions with a Lisfranc specialist physical therapist if I felt I needed help with the exercises.  I'm going to take full advantage of it, because I want the best possible outcome.

 All done!  We then headed off to breakfast place that I wanted to try (Penny Ann's Cafe) and I had a bacon waffle.  It was totally amazing and great cast removal food.  I'm not a food reviewer but my friend over at SLC Food Radar is!  He did a great review on Penny Ann's. Anyway!  Bacon waffle!!  Mmmm...Bacon.

Bacon makes everything better.