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!
(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.
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