We went to the doctor again today. It has been 13 days since the surgery. The assistant removed my cast. I guess I've never actually had a cast on, or at least I don't remember, because having her use that vibrating cutter that they use to remove a cast was quite bizarre! I've seen this tool used on my children's casts and I know it does not harm your skin and is simply vibrating at high speed to cut through the hard material. But it tickled so badly on the first cuts that I had to really concentrate not to allow my foot to fly up and smack her in the face. When she went down the other side there was some flexibility to the cast, so it wasn't so ticklish.
So here is my leg/foot all bandaged up. It was swollen quite a bit, which surprised me. It shouldn't have, though. Despite my faithfully using the cooler on my foot for more than half of each day, this poor foot had been extensively renovated, and what should have been surprising was that it was only swollen this much.
Next, she carefully removed all the bandaging. It is reassuring to see that they'd wrote "YES" on the leg and the side of the leg that needed the surgery. I'd forgotten that the pre-op nurse did that while I was still unmedicated after consulting with me that this was, indeed, the procedure, and the foot, I'd come in to have messed with.
Then, she had to pluck out the staples on my incision. There were a lot of staples. She used a tool that functioned rather like the instrument I use in school when changing out a bulletin board. The point is set under the staple, and then she closes the handles and it just plucks out the staple...except that these sharp staples are fastened to your skin with all of its nerve endings...ouch, ouch, ouchy, ouch. I practiced Lamaze by rubbing my knee and talking to CoolGuy and keeping my eyes open and my leg relaxed. There were about fifteen of them, too, as I recall. It's a pretty long incision.
The long, curved incision is where the tendon piece was removed and then the ends grafted to the other tendon in my foot. The smaller stitches up on my calf are where he went in and "lengthened" the gastrocnemius tendon/muscle so that my foot will sit correctly on the floor. The whole back of my leg is very tender and hurts severely with even a teeny movement right now. There is also an incision on the outer part of my foot, parallel to the sole where he cut into the heel bone to insert the titanium wedge, but the photo didn't turn out. So, there are all the injury points that must heal. I did notice, however, something that looked weird to me. Then, I realized that actually it was how my foot was supposed to look all along. The heel was straight under my foot. I mean, I couldn't seen any part of my heel shoved over to the right, like it has always been, most of my life. Yes, I will now be standing (well, when I can stand) on my heel instead of on the side of my foot with the heel shoved over to the side. Cool.
Then, the doctor came in and he declared that it all looked fine and dandy and he consulted the X-rays and approved of all he saw. He said I can actually get into the tub, take off the boot, then fill the tub, and soak my foot. Then, I should drain, dry foot, replace boot before trying to get out. So that is awesome! Tub time! I'm working on how to enter the spa in the back yard without actually moving my foot...but I won't even think about that for a week or two. I want all the wounds to be totally healed--no open skin at all.
We planned to see him again in four weeks and this time bring crutches to replace the cart. He agreed that I could probably go back to work on May 9th as I hoped, providing I continue to be a really good patient---stay off the foot, wear the boot, rest.
Of course, I'll be in the boot still and possibly on crutches going back to work, but the idea is to gradually introduce my foot to having weight put on it. I know that PT will start about then. That should be excruciating. You can't believe how flabby and wobbly my calf muscle is right now. It had already atrophied just from the month I'd worn the boot before the surgery. I measured each leg and the right leg was one inch smaller then. So, this journey is only just begun (cue The Carpenters...) and, yes, as a matter of fact, I am tired of it. But--I was thinking...I should practice my Spanish language skills with Rosetta Stone every day. Or I could practice the guitar every day. In a month, think of what I could accomplish! Stay tuned!
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