THREE WEEKS POST OP! Yippie! I don't have much to report, I don't feel any different. :) Although my larger than life screw doesn't look as big in this photo, that's kind of nice.
Pain: 1.5
Quote: "Try and fail but don't fail to try." -Stephen Kaggwa
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Day 20+
Almost 3 weeks since surgery. I can't believe it's only day 20.
Feels like forever has gone by! I feel pretty good! I still can't have it hang for long, but there has been a definite improvement though. I'm up to a couple minutes from 10-30 seconds. I guess that proves it really has only been 20 days, I have plenty a ways to go so I won't over react just yet that it cant hang for hours on end.
Yesterday was my first day of work since Oct. 24th. It was great to be back, I'm so tired of being in my condo alone all day! Much better being here. Only problem, not very comfy. I mean, I am posted up on our couches, but for some reason my foot goes numb and my heel hurts like crazy. I did a decently long day yesterday, a full one for sure, which made it really sore. Then we headed up to Plano for Juan's mom's bday party, it hurt! Why, every time I see them, must I be in the worst shape?! I feel so bad! I came home last night and passed out the second I layed down. Woke up a few hours later to actually wash my face and brush my teeth!
It feels better this morning, I'd like to be able to last all day. At least its a short week. I'm happy to be back, I don't really want to leave! I was contemplating calling the Dr., my cast is sooo loose already, and it's only been 1 week. I'm worried that in another 3.5 it will be much too loose, and my ankle will have been banging around too much in the cast. I'm wondering if I should come in at the halfway mark and get a tighter one? Eh, whatever. I'll be fine.
Pain: 2
Quote: "The delay of our dreams does not mean they have been denied." - Sarah Ban Breathnach
Feels like forever has gone by! I feel pretty good! I still can't have it hang for long, but there has been a definite improvement though. I'm up to a couple minutes from 10-30 seconds. I guess that proves it really has only been 20 days, I have plenty a ways to go so I won't over react just yet that it cant hang for hours on end.
Yesterday was my first day of work since Oct. 24th. It was great to be back, I'm so tired of being in my condo alone all day! Much better being here. Only problem, not very comfy. I mean, I am posted up on our couches, but for some reason my foot goes numb and my heel hurts like crazy. I did a decently long day yesterday, a full one for sure, which made it really sore. Then we headed up to Plano for Juan's mom's bday party, it hurt! Why, every time I see them, must I be in the worst shape?! I feel so bad! I came home last night and passed out the second I layed down. Woke up a few hours later to actually wash my face and brush my teeth!
It feels better this morning, I'd like to be able to last all day. At least its a short week. I'm happy to be back, I don't really want to leave! I was contemplating calling the Dr., my cast is sooo loose already, and it's only been 1 week. I'm worried that in another 3.5 it will be much too loose, and my ankle will have been banging around too much in the cast. I'm wondering if I should come in at the halfway mark and get a tighter one? Eh, whatever. I'll be fine.
Pain: 2
Quote: "The delay of our dreams does not mean they have been denied." - Sarah Ban Breathnach
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Day 14+
Yay! I got my cast yesterday! It's been two weeks today since surgery, and I feel pretty good. Not too much to report. I suppose that is good news in itself!
Pain: 1
Quote: "You won't realize the distance you've walked until you take a look around and realize how far you've been." -Unknown
Pain: 1
Quote: "You won't realize the distance you've walked until you take a look around and realize how far you've been." -Unknown
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Day 13+, splint removed, casted
Well, today was a big day. The first follow-up. 13 days post-op. Wow. So, it was a little worse than I thought it was going to be, I guess in some ways, in other ways not.
Several hours were spent at the dr.'s office today, first, they removed the splint, which probably took 30 mins. I can't believe how much gauze was under there! Glad it wasn't my leg that was that big and swollen! My leg is actually very tiny already, *tear*. What I wasn't prepared for, was all of the blood and drainage that was going to be in the gauze. Dried, and stuck to my foot. Gross and ouch. So they finally got all that off, and we went to xray. Another 30 min. And I had my foot hovering over each xray film, b/c I couldn't bear to put my foot down. Any slight touch to my heel was unbearable.
Then the doc comes in. I'm soooo happy to see him. He's a great guy and doctor. Dr. Royer. He's a good man. So he looks at me, says I look good, answers a couple questions for me, clarifies exactly what he did in surgery, and says he'll see my back in 4 weeks when hopefully, I will be through with the cast and will be in a walking boot, whoot whoot! That is definite progress, I thought I would be casted for 6-8 weeks, but Dr. didn't do the tendon xfer he thought he would need to, so maybe I saved a couple weeks there.
Surgery: cut heel bone, move over 10mm (1cm), insert screw, LARGE screw! Repair torn tendons and repair/reattach stretched out ligaments. I have 3 incisions, 2 huge ones on the outside of my ankle, and one tiny one on the back of my heel. Lots of stitches. Yes, that was the next phase. Stitches have to come out today. NOT FUN. At all. So once those were removed, another 20 min, with 5-10 minutes in between each of these events while different people were in and out of the room...this is sounding like a horrible experience but it really wasn't, although it was painful and even Juan felt faint when they were removing the stitches. It didn't help that I was squeeling b/c of the pain. I actually said out loud, "geez, how do kids handle this?!" oh yeah, KIDS dont have to have this surgery! ha! duh. it takes years to do the kind of damage i have done. :)
So I finally get my cast, I ask him to put a ridiculous amount of padding in, which he says won't do me any good but be uncomfortable in the end, so i have this pretty black cast that is so small compared to the big splint i was lugging around!
All in all, it was a successful day, and I am progressing very well. As I was laying on the xray table, I was thinking about the last day I left boxing class, when I told the instructor I was out for ankle reconstruction, and she told me I was hard core. Lying there today, I began to understand a whole new level of "hard core." I'm raising my leg in the air, looking at these ginormous incisions thinking, "all those years of soccer, I can't believe I did this, that I played through all this, that I'm actually laying here looking at this, and I'm not even playing college ball anymore..." It was just really, really, weird. I grew up a little more today. I'm not exactly itching to get back on that field...I'm just happy that I will be able to walk and run again. :)
Pain: 2
Quote: "Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional." -M. Kathleen Casey...Well, M. Casey, I'm not so sure I agree with you today. :) Those stitches were stingers!
Several hours were spent at the dr.'s office today, first, they removed the splint, which probably took 30 mins. I can't believe how much gauze was under there! Glad it wasn't my leg that was that big and swollen! My leg is actually very tiny already, *tear*. What I wasn't prepared for, was all of the blood and drainage that was going to be in the gauze. Dried, and stuck to my foot. Gross and ouch. So they finally got all that off, and we went to xray. Another 30 min. And I had my foot hovering over each xray film, b/c I couldn't bear to put my foot down. Any slight touch to my heel was unbearable.
Then the doc comes in. I'm soooo happy to see him. He's a great guy and doctor. Dr. Royer. He's a good man. So he looks at me, says I look good, answers a couple questions for me, clarifies exactly what he did in surgery, and says he'll see my back in 4 weeks when hopefully, I will be through with the cast and will be in a walking boot, whoot whoot! That is definite progress, I thought I would be casted for 6-8 weeks, but Dr. didn't do the tendon xfer he thought he would need to, so maybe I saved a couple weeks there.
Surgery: cut heel bone, move over 10mm (1cm), insert screw, LARGE screw! Repair torn tendons and repair/reattach stretched out ligaments. I have 3 incisions, 2 huge ones on the outside of my ankle, and one tiny one on the back of my heel. Lots of stitches. Yes, that was the next phase. Stitches have to come out today. NOT FUN. At all. So once those were removed, another 20 min, with 5-10 minutes in between each of these events while different people were in and out of the room...this is sounding like a horrible experience but it really wasn't, although it was painful and even Juan felt faint when they were removing the stitches. It didn't help that I was squeeling b/c of the pain. I actually said out loud, "geez, how do kids handle this?!" oh yeah, KIDS dont have to have this surgery! ha! duh. it takes years to do the kind of damage i have done. :)
So I finally get my cast, I ask him to put a ridiculous amount of padding in, which he says won't do me any good but be uncomfortable in the end, so i have this pretty black cast that is so small compared to the big splint i was lugging around!
All in all, it was a successful day, and I am progressing very well. As I was laying on the xray table, I was thinking about the last day I left boxing class, when I told the instructor I was out for ankle reconstruction, and she told me I was hard core. Lying there today, I began to understand a whole new level of "hard core." I'm raising my leg in the air, looking at these ginormous incisions thinking, "all those years of soccer, I can't believe I did this, that I played through all this, that I'm actually laying here looking at this, and I'm not even playing college ball anymore..." It was just really, really, weird. I grew up a little more today. I'm not exactly itching to get back on that field...I'm just happy that I will be able to walk and run again. :)
Pain: 2
Quote: "Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional." -M. Kathleen Casey...Well, M. Casey, I'm not so sure I agree with you today. :) Those stitches were stingers!
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