Week 2 Post Op

Well, the pain finally caught up to me.  Maybe it's because I'm really starting to heal, or maybe it's because I haven't had the Oxycodone regularly in my system. Whatever the reason, it sucks.

The last two nights, I've had pain substantial enough to keep me awake at night.  It feels like electrical taser shocks entering my foot at regular...45 second intervals, until it finally decides to stop.  Coupled with that, I've started to have the aching feeling in my heel/ Achilles area.  It's not too pleasant of a feeling.

I am excited to get my cast next week.  It will be better fitting on my foot/ lower leg, not as heavy,and it will be much prettier and cooler looking!  I already have my design picked out. I hope they can actually do it. I will post pictures =]

I've been steadily watching One Tree Hill on Netflix.  I have nothing else better to do.  It's a pretty decent show ;)

Thanks for reading!

This recovery is nothing like the last

So, after being with out the pain ball for 3 days now, I can confidently say that this recovery is NOTHING like last year's.  I think it's time to detail the differences between the two surgeries.

Details about the Left Foot:

The left foot was much worse than the right foot which is why I decided to have that foot operated on first.  For this foot, Dr. Nunley performed a calcaneal slide, cotton osteotomy,  lateral column lengthening, and achilles tendon stretching.  This is what my X-Ray looked like after surgery:

I stayed over night in the hospital for this procedure and went home with the pain ball that lasted two or three days.  Once the pain ball ran out of medicine I. was. in. AGONY. The pain was terribly excruciating.  There were times where I had to take three oxycodone at one time (one pill more than the recommended dose) because the pain was so unbearable (and don't worry, we called a pharmacist/ orthopaedic resident on call to make sure this was okay).  Bottom line, the pain on the left side was on the daily between a 7-8 on a scale of 1 (no pain) to 10 (the worst pain of my life).

That screw is ~2 inches and it induced so much pain after I was out of the walking boot and back into a shoe, that I had to have a second surgery for them to remove the screw.  This surgery happened in December of 2012.  At that point I was a 21 year old female in college who had to get around campus on a mobility scooter and with a walking cane in my black and pink cushioned tennis shoes (I was the coolest, let me just tell you). So I was incredibly thankful the surgery worked and I didn't have any more heel pain!

Details about the Right foot:

For this surgery, Dr. Nunley performed a calcaneal slide, lateral column lengthening, and cotton osteotomy, but NO ACHILLES TENDON STRETCHING.

The pain level is a complete 180- Last year I was begggggggging for medicine.  This year, mom is beggggggging me to take the medicine.  There are two noteable differences to the procedure.  a) The Achilles was left untouched and b) to account for the screw complication last year, they used a headless screw this time.  I honestly chalk the no pain up to the fact that they didn't stretch my achilles because most of my pain was in that heel area.  I'm certainly thankful to be having a much different experience this time around.

Some other differences: preparation of my body before surgery

Before the surgery in May of 2012, I went to the gym 2 to 3 times a week for cardio and weight training.

I noticed my muscles atrophied pretty quickly and did not feel all that time in the gym helped at all.

Before the surgery in May of 2013, I did not go to the gym.  I did a little bit of strenuous activity in Physical Therapy for my left foot, but that's it.  I will admit I am more winded crutching from room to room, but I don't feel less strong.  I don't think I did a disservice to myself by not going to the gym is what I'm saying.  However, it is only day 6 since post op.

Speaking of Physical Therapy, you need to be prepared to undergo lots of Physical Therapy.
At first, I went to PT for Gait Training and Muscle Strengthening (because walking is totally different and your leg's been immobile for basically 3 months.  He helped with my gait training but muscle strengthening was limited due to the screw pain. So that was put on hold. He massaged and ultra sounded the tender areas of my foot which seemed to help.

Then I under went surgery

Then I went to PT at a different place that specializes in balance and a technique called the Graston technique (google it). That helped me a. LOT. as far as the pain management.  We then shifted the focus towards balance improvement and strength training to prepare me for surgery. I didn't get to go as often as I would have liked, but the little bit I did go seems to have helped a bit.

I also got to shower yesterday for the first time.  It was nice and refreshing and I don't feel like a dirty hobo anymore! Yay!  I think that's all for now.

Day 4 Post-Op

The night was unpleasant. The pain got worse and I could not seem to get comfortable.  My foot felt like it was on fire and that vulchers were picking at my foot.  I'd say the pain was at a level 5. Still, not as bad as last year, which I'm not complaining about but I'm stilllll waiting to celebrate because it could get drastically worse at any moment.  The dressing is already super loose so that must mean the swelling has gone down drastically.  I just stayed in bed all day and continued to elevate.  Tomorrow I get to shower so I am extremely excited about that.  I also pooped twice today (the pain medicine really constipates you so you have to supplement with laxatives and stool softeners).  So the night was rough, but the day hasn't been too bad.

The week of surgery so far..

Pictures included at the bottom of this post.

May 20, 2013

The surgery center gave me an information packet a while back that details how you should prepare your body for surgery in the weeks and days prior to surgery.  For instance, I was given a prescription for Vitamin D to take once a week, beginning 8 weeks before surgery. I was given a prescription for Celebrex to take two days before, on the day of, and two days after surgery.  I was instructed not to eat after midnight (my last bite was around 9:20pm) and I could have up to 16oz of water the day of surgery.  I was not to drink any alcohol 24 hours prior to surgery.  The surgery center gave me this special soap to use the night of and day of surgery. I had to shower the night of surgery and use this soap and let is sit on my skin for 3 to 5 minutes.  In the morning I had to do the same thing.  They don't want you putting in deodorant, lotion, make up, contacts in, etc. for your surgery.

May 21, 2013

Today is surgery day.  First off, you should know I am having my surgery performed by one of the inventors of the procedure itself: Dr. James Nunley, head of Orthopaedic Surgery at Duke University.  He has performed all of my surgeries to date.  He developed what is called The All American Procedure (because it's basically three operations in one, Cotton Osteotomy, Lateral Column Lengthening, and stretching of the ligament or tendon to make the arch higher).  Dr. Nunley is ranked in the top 1% of the nation!

I took my morning shower, gathered my things and went to the surgery center at 7:30am.  I checked in and almost immediately they called me back to prep.  This is vital information for ladies- I was on my period so they gave me special underwear, kind of like men's boxer briefs, and they were very comfortable, to wear because you have to wear a pad during surgery, NOT A TAMPON :(  So that was the first thing I did was put all that on. Then I put my gown, red cap, and socks on.  A lady came in and started taking my vitals.  She left.  Then the nurse came in and set up my IV, she missed the first time and it ended up leaving a huge bruise on my arm, but I bruise easily (I hadn't had problems with this the last two surgeries so I just think she was a shitty nurse).  She reviewed some paper work with me. She left. Then Dr. Nunley came in to talk to me and my parents. He initialed the foot he was to operate on, answered some of our questions, then left.  Then Anesthesia came in to talk to us and we made sure they were repeating exactly what they had done to me last May- they weren't and they didn't know I was staying over night so it's a good thing we crossed our t's and dotted our i's with them.  Then they left to get all the materials.  After 20 minutes, anesthesia came back in and reviewed the paper work with me one more time, then they inserted the nerve block into my right butt cheek, then put the twilight sedation mask on me and that was that.  I had the surgery. It last ~2 hours.  I woke up shivering and super cold and they piled warmed blankets on top of me.  Once I finally settled down, they wheeled me back to the recovery room.

In the recovery room, they run a constant supply of the numbing medication through your IV. They helped me pee in a bed pan too.  After surgery I was able to put tampons in so I did that.  They also monitor your vitals and administer your medication too.  It's not common that you stay over night, after all, this is what they consider an outpatient surgery, but we don't live close to the surgery center, so to be safe, we decided it would be better for me to stay over night.

It's super important to elevate your foot the first week after surgery and to also wiggle your toes and move your leg some up and down so that blood gets to it and you don't develop a clot!

May 22, 2013

I was woken up at around 6:30 or 7:00am and my vitals were checked and medicine was given to me and breakfast brought to me.  The nurse went over all the care instructions with my parents and then she disconnected my IV and hooked me up to what they call a "pain ball" which has numbing medicine in it to last for two days.  I changed out of my gown and into street clothes.  I was finally able to use the actual toilet today so that was nice.  Then I was wheeled out to the car.  I was pretty tired from all the narcotics so I slept most of the way home.  When I got home I peed and got straight in bed and slept. My parents administer my medication in a timely fashion.   Since I'm hooked to this pain ball, you have to carry it with you wherever you go, but it's put in this purse like pouch you can put over your shoulder.  But your leg feels like dead weight and it's incredibly hard to walk on one leg and not let that foot drag, for long distances, so be prepared for that.  That only lasts until the pain ball runs out of medicine.  I mainly slept all of today.

May 23, 2013

Pain is still managed by the medication and pain ball.. I'm a little more awake and alert and coherent today.  I still slept a lot but there's not been much change in my pain level.  

May 24, 2013

My pain ball ran out of medicine and was taken out of me at around 12:30pm.  It didn't hurt at all.  The tape coming off my butt was itching me like crazy though.  It was nice to be able to have more control of my leg.  I feel stronger crutching to the bathroom now.  Still haven't left the bedroom yet.  Still haven't showered.  Probably wont' tackle that until Sunday or Monday.  I am starting to feel the pain where the incisions are.  Right now on a scale of 1 to 10 I'd rate it at 2.  My foot feels like it's on fire, like it's sitting in Icy Hot- waaaaaaaay more Hot than Icy.  The pain is an aching feeling.  It hasn't really ramped, vamped, amped? up yet.  We'll see as the days go by.  

Before Surgery- Prepping Me

Dr. Nunley's initial 

Wrapped in warm blankets after surgery

Failed IV insertion

At home elevating the leg- The dressing is as heavy as it looks.

How and Why this journey began

I am creating this blog to chronicle my entire reconstructive foot surgery experience.  I have already had my left foot operated on and reconstructed in May of 2012 and I wished I had created a blog then, so I am doing that now with this operation on my right foot.

Through out this blog I will post pictures, reference things from my first surgery (compare and contrast), etc.

A little history about why I needed these operations:

I was born with flat feet.  I had terrible inward pronation and had what some Doctor's called a, "negative arch."  This has caused me problems my whole life.  My entire body has been out of balance.  Some Doctors even speculate this has caused my TMJ in my jaw!  I cannot stand for long periods of time with out knee pain setting in, then foot pain, then hip and back pain.  For example, I tend to take long showers ~20 to 30 minutes.  In that time, my knee pain would set in.  Running has been impossible because it just takes a toll on my entire body, knees, feet, hips, back...everything.  When I worked at my retail job, after the first hour and fifteen minutes my arches would start bothering me and this was after the knee pain had already set in.  After each summer (3 total) working there, the pain would get worse and come on quicker than the previous summer so I decided at this point that something had to be done. 

After talking to several doctors, and being told that if I didn't get the surgery on my feet now, I'd be looking at hip replacements when I'm 30, I decided to have the operations (I was 21 when I had my left foot operated on and 22 when I had my right foot operated on).

I am a healthy, female, 22 year old, non-smoker.

Here are some pictures of both my feet pre-op 

Left Foot

Left Foot

Right Foot

Right Foot

My goal is to keep up with this each day or every other day...basically as new developments in my recovery come to light that I feel I should write about in this blog.  So here we go!