Hurting from head to toe

Okay, I have to admit it, in the last few weeks of craziness at my work, I've thought dreamily about these first few days after surgery, when I could just lounge in my recliner in a drug-induced haze.  Although I typically take as little medication as possible, this time I was going to just let the pain meds do their job and enjoy the mild euphoria.  Sounds like a plan, right?
So much for best laid plans.  For some reason, the effect of the hydrocodone this time has been very undesirable.  For the first couple of hours after taking it, I have a weird sense that I have to take the act of breathing to the conscious level, or I might forget.  That's not a comforting thought!  And then the next two hours, as it wears off, are filled with a pounding headache (I guess this is what being hungover feels like?).  Headache is a common side effect of hydrocodone, so I called the doc on call to see if there was an alternative drug for pain.  His only suggestion was that I add ibuprofen on top of the hydrocodone, to treat the headache. Yikes. He asked if I might be dehydrated, and I said I had been drinking a ton of water. He also said that it could be the effects of the anesthesia causing the headache, rather than the drug.  
I really couldn't continue on in that cycle last night, and my head was killing me, so at bedtime I switched over to only ibuprofen.  Taken every four hours, it seems to be keeping the foot pain at a tolerable level, but my head still feels weird and hurts. 
So . . . patience.  I know that I'll feel better as time passes.  But I can't help feeling gypped out of a few crazy hazy days of drug-induced happy non-responsibility.  I get that chance so seldom in my life!
     

I think my surgeon owes me a pedicure

Just following orders . . . but I really hated to take off the polish from this week's pedicure.  Do you think I can bill the insurance company?

Round Two--Here We Go Again!

Although I would much prefer to wait about FIVE years before going through foot surgery again, I'm heading back in for surgery on the other foot in a week and a half.  I decided it would be better to get it done on this current insurance year, which ends on July 1st.  So I've scheduled the surgery so that all of my follow-up visits will be complete before July 1st (that's assuming everything goes as it should!).  This means that I can't wait until school is out, so I'll be going back to work for 3 days after Memorial Day, less than a week after surgery. Should be interesting! 

Here's how the feet are looking now:



I think my right foot is looking amazing!  It is 6 months post surgery.  The scar is really faded, and the 4th toe is soooo straight, compared to how it used to be.  I have good range of motion, thanks to all that physical therapy.  The pain level is pretty low, only hurts occasionally, and I can wear any of my shoes (that's more than I can say for my left foot!).  There are still little peripheral nerves waking up, as evidenced by the tingly pain I get about every few weeks along the scar. 

I'm REALLY not looking forward to going through the entire process again.  Although I'm very happy with the results, it's still so recent that I haven't forgotten any of the yukky parts (sort of like having a baby just six months after the first one--it doesn't happen that way for a reason.  We have to get all forgetful and sentimental before we are willing to go through THAT again!).  I remember lots of pain from the first foot surgery.  I remember becoming so impatient with the lack of mobility, thinking, "if I could JUST get up and walk across the room right now I'd be so happy."  I remember how hard it was to get things accomplished.  I remember lots of icing, elevating, wrapping and rewrapping my foot.  But mostly I'm not happy about becoming so immobile just when school is letting out for the summer.  With a little more time on my hands, there's so much I could get done around my house and yard!  Relaxing Julie is not my strongest self, as you can tell.  I'll have to channel her again and again in the coming weeks. 

So . . . here's my I'm Grateful For list, to help me get in a good frame of mind for surgery:

• a good surgeon, and the opportunity to get my other foot fixed by him
• a caring and supportive mate
• teenagers who will help
• a comfortable recliner
• good books to read on my Kindle
• a long summer to recuperate
• a trip with my mom and sisters coming up in July--good motivation to heal well in June
• time to relax!

That's all for now.  Going to try to figure out how to reset the countdown timer on this blog for the upcoming surgery.  Here we go again.

  

Physical Therapy--No Pain, No Gain

I'm now 10 weeks post-surgery.  At about four weeks out, Dr. B had looked at my toe and said, "You need to start working that toe--it's going to freeze up on you."  So he showed me how to do my own physical therapy, stretching it downward at the joint at the base of the toe with my hand.  I've been trying to do this for weeks now.  When I first started, I would sit there stretching, with tears running down my face, because it hurt so bad, even on pain meds!  Poor Jon, sitting across the room from me, felt horrible.  In time, it became less painful, but not much more flexible.  Finally last week, I called Dr. B's office and asked for orders for physical therapy.  I had a feeling I didn't really know what I was doing, and also wanted to have someone else look at the fourth toe, which is still very sore (hurts with every step) and pretty swollen.

Today, because we got a snow day from school, I was finally able to make a call for a PT appointment. The receptionist said, "Can you come in now?"  Craig, the physical therapist I had seen a few years ago, happened to have an opening.  

I'm so glad I went!  When he evaluated the foot and took his measurements, it was clear I have a long way to go to restore an acceptable range of motion to my toe.  And Dr. B had only told me to flex the toe downward, but Craig pointed out that it's the upward motion (like standing on your toes) that I need in order to walk correctly, because I should be extending through and pushing off that toe with each step.  Right now, my toe doesn't even extend enough to allow for that.

So he had me do four things, all of which hurt immensely, even though I had taken a precautionary hydrocodone!  

1) Stand and lean my hands against a wall for support, then lift the heel of my foot so that the foot was positioned like standing on tiptoes (although no weight was on it, just being in that position caused lots of pain), 

2) spill a cup of marbles on the floor and pick them up with my toes and put them back in (ouch),

3) put my foot on this device he had with a spring-loaded lever, and flex my toes to pull the lever back (yep, ouch),

4) then Craig spent about 15 minutes manually stretching my toe both ways.  He got busy doing this and then started chatting with one of his regular patients who had come in and started her exercises.  So he's mashing away on my toe, pretty oblivious to my wincing and breathing, and squirming in pain (or just pretending he wasn't noticing).  When he looked back up at my face, he gave me this questioning raise of the eyebrows.  So?  I just expelled all that breath I had been holding, and said, "I can assure you I have NOT been doing any stretching of that sort at home."  I thought he was going to just go ahead and snap the toe right off, he was pushing and pulling it so hard!  It was so red when he finished that I had to take a picture for the blog.  And here's a pic of the deceptively cute little pink marbles--demons!

I'm really glad that I'm going to PT now . . . it makes me feel more confident that I'll be able to have full function of that toe when I'm done.  And I talked to my therapist about the fourth toe as well, since it is still so painful, and I showed him the one on the other foot to get his opinion about whether it had been a good idea to get it done.  He said yes, and it will eventually heal well and not bother me anymore, which was a relief to hear.

When the shoe's on the other foot . . .

Check it out!  Five weeks out, and I was actually able to cram my right foot into my regular shoe!  I went to the store in it, came back, and took it off promptly, but it was a good first run.  It's still too tight and pressing on sensitive incisions to be comfortable, but it's definite progress.

4-Week Checkup!

I saw Dr. B today for a one month check-in to see how the healing is going. They took new x-rays. The verdict: the bones look good, the incision looks good--go ahead and walk on it! Yay! He said I could also start putting Vitamin E oil or Mederma on it so that it will heal with a minimal scar. I'm so glad--I've been itching (pun intended) to rub something on it. It gets so tight and dry and is begging for some treatment.
Then I directed his I'm-pretty-proud-of-my-work self to that poor little fourth toe that he turned. It still looks the same as it looked right after surgery 4 weeks ago! There's a big old blackened area that just hasn't changed, and the skin around it is looking kinda gray and turning tough. Gangrene??? Just kidding, but it really doesn't look good. He took a look at it and hemmed and hawed and threw around some medical terms: "Yes, well, uh, this here is vacuum edema and this part of the skin isn't getting circulation, that will eventually slough off . . . , but I can get some of that scab off for you" (pointing to the black part).
"Okay," I said, "yeah, that would be great."
So he rooted in a drawer and came out with a little scalpel and said, "Hold really still--this is very sharp!" and proceeded to DO SURGERY without anesthesia! I immediately reverted to my Bradley method of childbirth breathing (it's well ingrained, thank goodness). Well, the scalpel wasn't cutting it (pun intended), so he got a clippery thing and started pruning away. All the while I'm cringing and breathing and thinking, "That's what I get for questioning a surgeon's work!" The surgeon's solution is always to cut, no?
Actually, when it was all said and done, I was glad he gave it some attention. He had the nurse clean it all up and dress it with Neosporin and a Band-aid. Hopefully, it will start healing more quickly now.
Walking update: putting weight on the foot in my surgical shoe is going well! The foot tires quickly (and my calf muscle is killing me from non-use!), but it's exciting to see such progress. Wonder how long before the swelling goes down and I can stuff it back into a regular shoe?
Here's an updated picture--I'll spare you the fourth toe for now. Check the incision now, because I'm going to be massaging it with Maderma everyday to create a magical disappearing scar!

Stinginggggggg!

My foot has a new trick--the incision stings and burns and stings some more!  I googled it and also called my surgeon's office and found out this is good news.  It means the nerve endings around the surgery site are "waking up" and regenerating and healing.  For something good, it sure does hurt!  I thought I had an infection at the incision site; that's how intense this new kind of pain is.  Glad to know it's actually just part of the process.
Here are updated pics--Day 18 out from surgery.