two days after hard cast removal

I didn't sleep very well last night. I just can't get comfortable since I'm used to having my foot completely supported by a hard cast. My incisions are still pretty tender so any bumping or touching them is very uncomfortable. I ended up taking my air cast off early in the morning and trying to get comfortable without it. I'm still sleeping with my little caterpillar pillow between my legs to try to keep from bumping my left foot with my right foot. It puts a little cushion there and helps support my foot.

I've been trying to move my toes as much as I can. I can flex my foot up and down a little but not side to side. I still have a lot of numbness in my whole foot and leg. It feels really strange when I try to move it. Flexing my foot up makes a pulling and tingling feeling up the back of my leg. I figure that is my Achilles tendon stretching.

I tried to put my foot down on the floor yesterday just to see how it would feel. I had my air cast on and was supporting myself with my crutches and didn't put weight on it but it made my heel hurt. My doctor told me not to start putting weight on my foot until I started PT so they could help me determine how much weight I should put on it as I strengthen it, but I just wanted to know what it would feel like to place it on the floor. I didn't like how it felt so I won't be doing that again until it is really time to do it.

I've got my air cast off today while I'm sitting so that I can just try to move it some and get it a little more flexible. I don't like the way it feels so stiff from not moving for so long. Tomorrow will be seven weeks since my surgery and that's a long time to keep it stable. Some days it doesn't seem like it's been seven weeks and sometimes it feels longer. Every day is getting better, but I told my doctor I didn't think I could do this again this year. My goal is to have my right foot done the week before spring break next year (2011) Easter is toward the end of April next year so I wouldn't have to be out of work as long as I was this year since Easter was in March this year. I'm going to talk to my boss soon to make sure she will give me the time off. I had told her I would let her know something by June so I still have a couple more weeks so see how things are going. I just want to make sure both of my feet will be good enough for me to walk all over Europe for 12 days next August (2011) with my girl scouts. My doctor told me I will still have a lot of swelling for my trip so I'll probably have to wear my braces, but I can handle swelling as long as I can keep up with them. We'll see how my healing goes with my left foot over this summer.

Cutting my hard cast off

I didn't like the feeling of her cutting my cast off. She told me that it couldn't cut me, but when I had a cast cut off of my arm a few years ago they did cut me. She told me that the thing they use now just vibrates instead of turning and there was no way for it to cut my skin. I didn't like the vibrations it made and when she got close to my incisions I could feel it and it wasn't a good feeling. I did live through it though. He had a lot of padding in there as you can see in the picture where she is cutting the gauze.
You can see in the picture where she is cutting the cast off that I was holding my leg trying to keep it from vibrating so much. I was pretty tense and trying hard NOT to pull my leg away from her.

My second Post Op appointment was three days shy of seven weeks from my surgery date. They removed my cast and said I was healing very good. His exact words were "well look at that perfect arch" That thrilled me since I have NEVER had any thing about me be perfect. They left the butterfly tape on my incisions and told me to let it fall off by itself. I told him he didn't have to worry about me pulling anything off. LOL After removing my hard cast they took me to x-ray to make sure my bone is fusing correctly. As you can see in the x-ray photo you can hardly see where he cut my bone and shifted it up. I included a photo of my heel where they put the screw in. I had been having a pain (it felt like I had stepped on a nail) in my heel for a few days. After removing my cast he found that they had accidentally left a stitch in my heel that was pulling and causing it to hurt. I feel better now that he removed that stitch.

Now if I can just get used to not having a hard cast on to protect my foot. They placed me in an air cast for at least the next five weeks and I will start PT next Monday. Not looking forward to that at all since I figure it will be uncomfortable and painful.

2nd Post op appointment

I have my second post op appointment today. I am three days shy from seven weeks since my surgery. I am REALLY nervous about this appointment because with my foot being in my hard cast it is kinda like my security blanket. I know he will be moving my foot around and I'm sure that will not only feel weird but will be a bit uncomfortable. I will be taking some Tylenol before I go to try and off set some of the pain I'm sure I'll be feeling.

They will be taking an x-ray to see if my bone has fused enough for me to go in to a air cast. He originally told me 12-16 weeks NWB and 4-8 weeks in a hard cast. I can honestly say that it will not bother me if he says I need to go back in to my hard cast for a few more weeks. I feel very safe in this one and I am quite honestly scared to come out of it. I just know that I can't hurt my foot while it's in here. I have banged it a couple of times and didn't even feel it because the hard cast was protecting it. I know that out of the cast if I bang it or hit it the wrong way I may hurt myself. Maybe I'm just being a BIG BABY, but oh well...I'm safe in this cast so booooo waaahhhh. LOL

I have had some tendon pain this week and have had to take some Tylenol a couple of times. The past few days have been pretty good. I've had some pain but nothing I can't live with. I have been a little more active...with the help of my family of course. I had the strangest feeling last night. I guess it was my nerves playing games on me. The bottom of my foot felt like it had fallen asleep and was waking up. I had the tingling feeling you get as it wakes up. It was mostly down around my heel part of my foot. I still have some numb feeling in my toes, but I'm getting more feeling in them. I guess it's just my nerves healing. It's not really a pain type feeling just an annoyance. I did have some pain in my heel yesterday. Almost as if I could feel the screw in my heel. It kinda felt like I had stepped on a nail and it went in to my heel. It was nothing I couldn't handle but it wasn't pleasant.

I'll be posting pictures of my doctors visit and how the visit went later.

One week survival in hard cast

Well I have survived one week in my hard cast. I have had good times and bad times, but it gets a little easier each day that passes. The hardest part about being in the hard cast is when my nerves twinge and twitch. There have been a couple of times that it actually felt like I had a bug crawling around inside my cast biting me. My doctor says it's just my nerves playing games with me. I still occasionally feel like someone is sticking pins in my toes and my foot. I can't get used to that because each time it happens it catches me off guard so I jump and squeal. LOL Michael and Kinlie have gotten used to it, but my mom still gets all "what's wrong?" It tends to happen more at night than anytime, but it does happen through out the day. I also have a sensation that my new tendon is jumping in my foot. It feels like when your eye jumps and you can't get it to stop. I'm not sure if it's really my tendon I feel or the nerves around it. All I know is that it's aggrivating.

I was so excited because I was able to FINALLY lay on my side for a while Saturday night. I am NOT a back sleeper so I have had a hard time having to sleep on my back for the last few weeks. I actually had to put pillows under my shoulders on either side so I would not try to roll over in my sleep. I have to put a pillow between my legs and rest my leg on that pillow to keep my cast leg straight. It takes me a while to get comfortable, but I have been able to sleep like that for a little while each night since then. Last night (Sunday night) I had a harder time getting comfortable, but I took my pain meds and finally my pain eased enough so that I could lay in a way I wasn't hurting as bad.

I did survive an out of town dance competition this past weekend. One reason I wanted to hold off on my surgery was because I didn't want to have it in the middle of dance competition season. It just got to the point I couldn't wait any longer so I sat Kinlie down and talked to her about me not being able to help her get ready for her dances. I am so proud of her because she did a great job at getting herself ready without loosing anything. The trip there and back was not as bad as the trip to Kentucky I took a couple of weeks ago. We only had to drive about two hours. Our hotel was nice and at least they had an elevator this time. They were a little more handicap friendly than the last hotel. My main problem and pain came when I had to sit in the auditorium for a few hours at a time. In all of the years Kinlie has danced I haven't missed one of her competitions yet and I didn't plan on missing one this time. When it comes to your kids sometimes you just have to do what you have to do....so I did...hahaha.

When we got to the auditorium one of the people that worked there told us that the aisles that were missing a seat on the end were for people in wheelchairs...well that's nice, except that by the time we got there all of those rows had people in them already. We ended up in an aisle behind a wheel chair accessible aisle so I sat in one of the auditorium seats and propped my foot on a backpack, dance bag blankets and pillows we brought in. Saturday was not as bad because Kinlie's dances were close together and I left as soon as she finished dancing. I went back to the hotel to lay down and elevate my foot. Now Sunday was a different story. I did wait until right before her first dance to go to the auditorium, but she had more dances and they were spread out longer for the day...then I had to get in the car and ride home. My foot swelled up pretty bad on Sunday so I did end up having to take pain meds when I got home. I have been trying to only take medicine at night when I absolutely need it.

I also volunteered at the school today. I actually felt good because it was the first productive thing I have done since my surgery almost four weeks ago. I had kids asking me if they could sign my cast...lol....I just thought I was too old for people to sign my cast. hahaha It made me feel good they cared and wanted to sign it. I'm supposed to volunteer at eighth grade day on Friday so I'm hoping for the best and praying that things will go smoothly with no problems. The main thing I'm concerned about is that it is supposed to be outside and I'm hoping I can get around outside in my wheelchair. I'm also worried about it being hot with this hard cast on me. I'm gonna stay positive and hope for the best. : )

Stitches out....new cast on

These pictures are out of order but if you start from the bottom you can see that I had a little friend that also has a cast LOL The cast room had a little stuffed animal that had a cast on it's arm...so cute. I also have pictures of my splint cast as she is taking it off. You can see her taking my stitches out of my foot and then applying butterfly tape before they applied my new hard cast. I had to put my foot on a metal support that helped keep my arch as he was putting my cast on. I think my scars look pretty good so far. Now I have four weeks in my hard cast then they will take another x-ray to make sure everything is looking good. If everything is looking good I may get to go into the air cast and start pt. I kinda dread that but hopefully it won't be too bad.

Stitches out...New Cast

I got my stitches out yesterday. I was so very nervous about a lot of things. I was unsure how it would feel to finally have my foot unwrapped after it has been stable for almost three weeks. It did feel VERY WEIRD to have it free from all the gauze and bandages that had been there since surgery. It wasn't as painful as it was uncomfortable. It felt very strange for them to be moving my foot around after it had not moved for so long.

I sat up and watched while she cut the gauze but when she started to take everything off I had to lay down. I'm the type person that doesn't mind needles (They're not my favorite things but I don't freak out if I have to have one) but I DON'T want to see them or watch them being put in to me. I just didn't think I could look at all the stitches in my foot. Better yet I didn't think i could watch her take them out. The best way I knew how to avoid looking was to lay down so I couldn't see. Michael took pictures of the whole thing so I did get the courage to look at the pictures after we left the doctors office.

It did sting a little on some of the stitches she took out. Not all of them, but some of them. For some reason it was mostly the ones on the outside of my foot. After she took out my stitches (I only had 10...wow I thought I would have had more) she rubbed medicine on my incisions to make sure they didn't get infected. I have NEVER been ticklish on my feet and I told Kris (my doctors assistant) that I never had that problem. As she was rubbing the medicine in to my incisions I was wiggling around and laughing. It really tickled. I had her laughing too. When she finished rubbing it on it hit me....oh man that stings!!! LOL She told me that it was probably stinging where the medicine was going down in to the holes where she had removed the stitches. That only lasted I'm sure for a few seconds, but it was like putting alcohol on a cut so I'm sure more aggravating than anything.

After she finished cleaning my incisions she placed butterfly tape on them. She said that was extra security. As she was doing that she asked me to choose what color cast I wanted. I asked her it she do a tie die cast. LOL She said unfortunately she couldn't. OH WELL...that's ok because my favorite color is purple so that is what I picked.

My doctor came in and looked at my foot and told me it's looking very good and healing up nicely. YAY...that's good news for me because usually if something can go wrong it does so with me. I was very glad to hear that I was on track in my healing process. He had me put my foot on a metal support to make sure that as the cast was curing it would keep my arch (which by the way is a very nice arch which I have NOT had in quite some time). That was not the most comfortable thing to do since nothing but gauze has touched my foot for some time.

This cast is quite different from my other one I had after surgery. My toes were exposed in the splint cast, but they are covered with this one. Since I hate shoes because of that fact this one is very uncomfortable for me. I told myself I could handle it for the next four weeks and I thought I may be able to. The problem is that I broke the outside bone on my foot several years ago and my small toe does not sit right. My doctor told me when he saw my x-ray he took on my first appointment that he could see where I broke it. I told him I had always had problems with it and he said it healed short (whatever that means) My small toe has always poked up for some reason and I have a HARD time finding shoes that don't aggravate me. Well now that I have this cast pressing on that toe it is VERY UNCOMFORTABLE. I kept trying to move my toes last night to get it comfortable, but nothing was working. The way the cast is sitting I can't move my toes freely at all. I have to actually move my last few toes with my hands. If I could have cut this thing off of me I would have. I begged Michael to just cut my toes out so they could be exposed but he wouldn't LOL I have left a message with Kris this morning in hopes they may be able to get me in and fix this. Yay....just got a call back and I have to bear with it until tomorrow morning but at least they could get me in to change it. My appointment is at 8:30. Lord help me make it until tomorrow morning without cutting this thing off of me. : )