Three days after I got back from vacation I underwent surgery again on my ankle. This time I had some bone spurs removed that were making it so I could barely bend my ankle at all. In my right ankle I have a normal range of motion think 70% in my left ankle I had 4%. Which makes a lot of things in life very hard to do. For example going up and down stairs, sitting down on the couch, or going up a hill (think walking flat on one foot and on your toes on the other ). It has made for some painful times. He also went in and cleaned out the never ending arthritis inside my ankle.
Surgery day is always a very stressful day for me. But to help alleviate some of the stress that I was going to be under and also my family I held a meal party where everyone in the family helped cut, chop, brown, and saute enough food to make 20 freezer meals. This started out as something that I was only going to make a few of. Top the 2 weeks post surgery that I would be non-weight baring. Then it turned into having enough extra food that I was able to make more dinners. On top of that the amazing ladies in my ward provided food for my family for 5 days. What a stress relief that was. And take my word for it I have some very good cooks in my ward.
The day of surgery arrived and I had to be at the hospital at 6:30 in the morning. My surgery wasn't scheduled until later then that but I had to get the prep and pre=op stuff done for the day. I changed into a gown and sat around in it for a very long uncomfortable amount of time. My sweet husband stayed with me until they took me into the pre-op room. After that he headed to work for a little bit and came back to wait for me at the hospital. In the mean time because Ella would be home and unable to take care of herself waiting for the bus Nichole stayed home with her and went to school when the bus picked Ella up. It's such a blessing having kids that can drive. Parents with kids who can't drive let me tell you what a joyous day it is when they can!
After they took me into the pre-op room I had a consultation with an anesthesiologist about my options of drugs during the surgery. Then the waiting game began. I waited and watched as patient after patient left to go and get their own surgery and I was still waiting for mine. My friend who works at the hospital who didn't know I was having surgery that day walked by me and stopped to say "hi" for a bit. That was nice to be able to get my mind off things for a while.
Finally it was my turn. They wheeled me into the surgery room and I drifted off into a drug induced sleep for the next however long it took for the podiatrist to do the surgery on my leg. When I finally came off the drugs I vaguely remember several people standing around me talking to me and about me. One of them was Andrew my friend that said hi to me earlier. I'm sure he just wanted to be around me to see if I said anything funny while I was coming to. I apparently told the nurse that I was going to have to hit her. But it was in a friendly way. If there is a friendly way to threaten to hit someone. They asked her when she graduated and she responded last year and they asked from High school and she said no. I said good because if it was from high school I was going to have to hit you. Like as in a your so young and I'm so old type of way. Anyway about 20 minutes later when I came to all of the way and I was much more aware of things I asked her if Andrew was around a little while ago and she said yes and that is when she informed me that I threatened her.
I got home from the hospital around 4 that afternoon. It was a LONG day! I have to say that I do have the most amazing family that is so good at taking care of me. They waited on me hand and foot and helped me out without complaining. The next afternoon I was in a sever amount of pain. My foot felt like it was going to fall off and none of the medicine that the podiatrist gave me worked. I tried to call the office to let him know. I left messages but he never called me back. The post op floor called me to see how I was doing and I told them what was happening. The nurse was very concerned and told me that he would hunt down the podiatrist right now to figure it out. I got a phone call back from the nurse and he told me that the doctor said that all he will do for you is tell you to go into the Emergency Room to have them rewrap my leg or if I can hold out until the next day I can go into the clinic to have them rewrap my leg. I was in so much pain but the thought of crawling up the stairs, going down the steps to the garage, they crutching it into the ER was just unbearable to me. I suffered with the pain and by the next day it was gone. I will tell you though that I was miserable that whole night. And I was one very unhappy patient.
I went into my 1 week post-op appointment and things were looking great. I graduated from my ugly cast thing as seen below to a boot. I was partial weight bearing at the time. I was not able to get my stitches taken out but was able to get the cast removed and moved into a boot. I was also allowed to be 50% weight bearing. It sure makes getting around the house and the stairs a lot easier that way. Although I do have to say that I had a pretty sweet set up. Marissa let me use her mini fridge and I kept it by my couch. I was able to keep my lunches in there. That made things so much easier. I went back to the doctor a week later and he took my stitches out and told me that I could walk. I also started Physical Therapy that week. Which was super easy and all done at home (and was that way for a month).
No comments:
Post a Comment