Recovery Week 7 - STITCHES ARE OUT!!!

Oh my goodness! It has been a busy week! But on to the important things...

I GOT MY STITCHES OUT!!! 

So I went to the doctor on Friday morning and went in. My foot was so gross! I still had an old lady foot, so I was excited to hopefully be able to wash my foot! As you can see, you can totally tell where Katie scrubbed my heel. My foot was so gross like skin was flaking off... bleh! 

Anyways, my doctor came in and was looking at my foot and was pushing really hard on it to double check to make sure it would hold. He then told me that he thought he could take the stitches out. He started out slowly to make sure it wouldn't open again. He then started pushing really hard on it again, once the stitches were out, to see if it would open again. It held. He then started to scrape some of the dead skin off. As he did that he pulled off the big piece that was the outer layer. He then said, "You are the slowest healer, who is not diabetic, that I have ever seen." It started bleeding lightly, but not much. He put Steri-Strips on it and then a bandage, so my sock wouldn't get bloody. Not much blood, but enough to put a bandaid on it. He told me not to put any weight on it until after our next visit, which was to be in 2 weeks. He said the part he dislikes the most about it is that it is gonna scar. 

I then went to work all day and went home. My doctor told me I could wash my foot so as soon as I got home, that's exactly what I did! It was such an exciting experience! I was able to scrub a ton of dead skin off and oh my gosh it was disgusting but so exciting at the same time! The area around the incision hurt so I tried to keep the water off that area. I scrubbed all the dead skin off except for right around the incision area. The Steri-Strips were attached to the skin around the incision area so to keep them on for as long as possible, I left the skin in that area. Its gross looking, but it could be worse right?

Its been an adventure. The first night it hurt so so so bad! The following days haven't been too too bad... but still sore. I can't put weight on it yet so I'm just waiting... 

Recovery Week 5-6 and The Dream

Sorry I've been slacking. I haven't had much to say so instead of just talking your ear off about nothing, I just haven't been writing like at all. But these weeks were pretty uneventful, except for my awful dream!

Awful Dream
So my dream started out with me waking up and getting in the shower. I accidentally got my bandage wet and it disintegrated. So I got scared and went to the doctor so he could check it out. When he looked at my foot it was completely healed except for one little spot. So he stuck a bandaid on it and told me that I could start walking, but to take it easy. So I left so excited to be walking again!

Raw Chicken Foot!!!! 

Somehow I all of a sudden was home with my family in Colorado and my dad asked me to go help my mom (since she is in a wheelchair), So I went and helped my mom inside up the three steps we have from the driveway to inside the house. I looked down cause my foot was sore and I looked at it and it had split from one end to the other. However, it wasn't bloody. It looked like raw chicken. I was scared and went right back to the doctor's office. He walked in looked at it and said, "I don't know why this isn't healing, but you're going to have to get used to it cause that is what your foot is going to look like forever." Then I woke up.

OLD LADY FOOT!!!!

I was so out of sorts and just worried. It was so bad! I was so nervous. I know that's silly but it was just so crazy and bleh... I don't want a raw chicken foot!

My next appointment with the doctor was the next day and when they took the wrapping off my foot looked so gross! Its all dry-skin covered. GROSS! I was complaining about having an old lady foot before I told him about the dream. He laughed and told me that he will do his best to not let me get a raw chicken foot. He also checked my incision area and scraped some dead skin that had formed a callus off and told me that he was going to wait a week to take the stitches out just in case. He asked about my diet and I told him that I had been eating a lot of cereal because its easy and I don't like cooking on one leg. Its tiring. He told me to eat more protein, so goodbye cereal dinners. Then he wrapped it again and I asked about the post-op shoe he had mentioned during my previous appointment. We talked about it and I decided I wanted to get it. I really really really dislike my boot that I got after the surgery. I actually blame it for putting pressure on my incision area and causing the incision to open up again. Silly I know but that's the only possibility I can come up with. It also is super uncomfortable. The only upside is, it keeps my foot left warm.

Look how gross all the dead skin is! I want to scrub it off!

So I got the shoe and I have been using it for the last couple days. Its not super comfortable either but it is SOOOOOO much better than the boot cause it doesn't put pressure on my cut.

On Saturday night, my roommate came home and told me she had always wanted to buy a pedicure set thing with the dead skin scraper thing (not sure what they are called). So she did cause she had heard me talking about how gross my foot is. She asked if she could use it to scrape the dead skin off my heal, since that is the only part of my foot that is visible. I told her... YES PLEASE!!! She then scraped all the dead skin off my heal. It was gross. Pretty sure there was pretty close to 1/8 cup of dead skin in that thing! I have the best roommate to offering and then scraping dead skin off my foot. She made my day and not I'm not as embarrassed by my heel. It feels so nice to have at least my heel back to normal-ish-ness. Now if only everything would return to normal?

Well hopefully the next post will be about me getting my stitches out, and keeping them out. I think I am just a slow healer, or maybe the cereal diet has slowed my healing. Who knows.... I am going to eat protein like there is no tomorrow so I can heal this thing so I can start walking again, someday... My calves are different sizes so I may start walking in circles if that day ever comes....

Until next time! :)

Recovery Week 4 - Happy Halloween!!!

Well... its been a pretty uneventful week. Since the weather changed I've been feeling a cold coming on, but now my symptoms are gone. My cut has started to itch so bad! Its so hard not to scratch it. Its a good thing its still wrapped!
This week was also Halloween! I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out what I should be for Halloween. I considered being Crutchy from Newsies, Mr. McNeally from Mr. Rogers, a pirate with my scooter being my ship. Last year I was a Newsie, and I didn't want to use my crutches. Since I can't drive, I scooter 5 blocks to the trax station. I didn't want to walk using my crutches all 5 blocks... so a Newsie was out. I just wasn't feeling Mr. McNeally so nope. I thought it would be fun to be a pirate, but I didn't have the time to build a pirate ship for my scooter. Also, I didn't have time to buy a costume. Its hard depending on others for rides and stuff.
I decided to be an injured hockey player! I did my own makeup and everything! My co-worker stated that I would be a perfect advocate for domestic violence. Oops! But it was fun! I had to keep telling people that it was just makeup not real. Even my friends, whom I had told of what I was gonna be, thought something had happened to me. It was funny!
So for Halloween night, I stayed at home and sat at the bottom of my stairs and waited for the little kids. It was super fun to give them candy and see the excitement on their faces. Two friends were over and we just hung out. It was fun!
Saturday I just chillaxed and it was great! On Sunday, Gabriel came up and we went to church, had dinner, watched a great fireside and just enjoyed each other's company. It was nice. I have two of the bestest friends who take such good care of me and I am just so grateful for them. Kayla is always willing to take me wherever I need to go and make sure I get to where I'm going. Gabriel calls me frequently to make sure I am doing okay and comes up whenever he can.
On Monday morning, I went to the doctor to get my foot checked out. There was no infection and it seemed to be doing well. He said he was going to leave the stitches in for one more week, just to be sure. Not sure when I can start walking, my guess is another two weeks. It looked good. There was dried blood from when they cleaned it and stitched it all up after. Thankfully it seems good so far, Hopefully, I can walk again soon and that everything will continue to heal correctly.

Stitches or No Stitches? That is the question...

So today has been an eventful day! I woke up early, showered, and got ready for the day. Kayla came and picked me up and we were off. She dropped me off at the podiatrist's office and went to work. I went in and everything went normal. The doctor took out my stitches, which was painful, but he said everything looked good.

After he had taken the stitches out, he told me that I couldn't walk on it for another week. After next week he told me that I could slowly start walking on my foot with my boot. He also told me that I couldn't soak my foot but that I could wash it! I was so excited! I haven't been able to wash my foot since the morning I had my surgery and it was still orange so I was ready to wash that thing! I scheduled an appointment for 3 weeks from today to see how it was looking and how walking on it was going. I left feeling pretty excited. The only problem now was my foot was really really sore from getting the stitches out. But that wasn't gonna ruin my day!
I left the doctor's office and scootered on over to hop on trax so I could get to work. I called my parents and the bishop's wife to let them all know that everything had gone well. I got to work and people were asking how my foot was and they were coming over to see what it looked like. After they left I
I gathered everything from work so I could work from home if needed and headed to the doctor. I didn't know what was wrong. I didn't know what had happened. I didn't know if this was normal or not but whatever was going on I was just nervous. All I was thinking was what did I do wrong. I hadn't put weight on it, I had done everything I had been doing before. I didn't know what had happened. The trip over there helped calm me down.
started working and then went to my meeting at 930. After the meeting, I showed another coworker and that was when I realized that something was right... There was a little bit of a liquidy, bloody something on my sock and coming out of my incision. It also looked like it had slightly split open. That didn't seem good so I called the doctor just in case. They told me to come in to have it checked out just to make sure everything was okay.
When I got to the doctor, I sat in the waiting room and started talking to a woman there who had a boot on her foot too. She had Plantar Fasciitis and was recovering from that. We chatted for a couple minutes before she was called back. While I was sitting out waiting, this woman and two children walked by. One had just gotten a cast off. The little girl looked up and said, "Grandma can I go to the doctor later today?" the grandma said "No. You don't need to. Why do you want to go there?" the little girl responded, "Cause I always want to be healthy!" It was super cute! Right after that I was called back.
I sat down in the chair and took off my boot and sock. It didn't have a lot of blood on it but there was some. The nurse looked at it and said oh wow, okay I know what happened, he'll want to see it just in case. I smiled and waited... wondering what had happened... haha
The doctor came in and asked what had happened. I told him what I knew leading up to me being back in there and he asked if I had stepped down on my foot. I hadn't and told him so. I almost felt like he wasn't believing me. I felt like a little kid who had done something wrong.. He was frustrated, pretty sure not at me but at the situation. But it almost felt like at me at times. He said it had split halfway open again so he was gonna try to put sterile strips on it to hold it together. After trying he said it wasn't going to work and that he was going to have to put stitches in it again. So they prepped everything to put stitches in it. He said the numbing stuff would hurt, and oh man he was right! It hurt so bad! But it worked pretty quickly. They then proceeded to clean my foot and flush it out and turn it orange again, haha. We joked about how people pay for that. He then put 5 stitches in.
They wrapped it all up again and told me come back next week. I got up and called the bishop's wife to ask for ride home cause I wasn't in the mood to ride trax home. She came and picked me up and took me to lunch at Cafe Rio. Then dropped me off at home. She was super sweet and made sure I was okay before she left.
So... basically, I'm like back at square 1 1/2. No trying to walk next week like I hoped and no washing my foot... Oh well... I always have been that friend that has the most random things happen to me so this would happen to me. Anyways, hopefully my next post has better news.

Note to self: Don't Fall on Your Injured Foot

So last night I was getting ready for a wedding reception. I had gotten dressed and pretty much all ready, I just had to run back and grab something from my room and then we were gonna all be ready to go.

First, let me say who "we" was. Kayla had come over and Gabriel and Chase had come up for this wedding reception of some good friends. We were gonna go show our support and just have a good time. So Kayla and Chase were sitting on the couch talking.

Anyways, I was on my crutches on my way back to my room when I slipped. I was trying to hurry and think I was going to fast, but my good/left foot went down and slipped and I started to go down. However, my bad/right jumped right out and caught me. HOLY WOW!!! Talk about painful! I screamed and Chase and Kayla asked if I was okay. I was but my foot was throbbing. I'm not exactly sure how I landed, but I think I landed on my toes and caught myself with the balls of my foot. Maybe not my best idea since I'm still healing and it hurts. I just stood there at the door to my room cause I couldn't move. My foot was throbbing. It felt like I had stretched the stitches or something when I landed. Gabriel had come back in at some point (lost track of everything except taking deep breaths and working on not screaming or crying but was slightly failing cause tears were still falling down my cheeks) and he came over to see if I was okay. I wasn't but didn't want to make a scene and also we had to leave soon for the reception.

It took a moment, but I grabbed my things and went back out to the living room. I finished getting all ready and put a smile on and was ready to go. We went to the reception and had a blast! After we got home, we put a movie on and I put ice on my ankle to help with any possible swelling that had happened. I wanted to like, cut off the bandage and see if/what had happened. But I didn't. It didn't hurt too bad after I got home, so I was just icing it and keeping it elevated just to be safe.

After the movie, I went to bed and I woke up a couple time during the night cause it was sore but nothing to, to bad. However, when I woke up the next morning... HOLY HANNAH! My whole foot hurt! I'm thinking that when I landed on it I bruised it or something... but wow! Talk about painful! Like parts I hadn't landed on hurt! It was weird..

When I woke up, I did my best to ignore the pain until I finally decided to get up and going for the day. I took a deep breath, and some ibprofen, and went about my day. It is still really sore right now, but not too bad. I figure, there is not blood I can see, and I'm going to see the doctor on Tuesday morning, so I can wait till then. I will let you know what happens! I hope I didn't do anything too bad and that I can still get my stitches out! haha :P

Recovery Week 2

This last week was super chill. Nothing new or exciting to really talk about. So this will probably be super short post... I have found it fun/annoying to ride my scooter to trax every morning and evening going to and from work, but whatever. Its fun cause its nice to be out... its annoying cause the sidewalks aren't super even and so I'm afraid of falling.

This week I have also gotten to that point where I am so tired of hopping. My left leg is exhausted all the time but there isn't much my right leg can do... But it's hanging in there.

This week a friend of mine taught salsa dancing on Monday. I love latin dancing so it was frustrating to just have to watch. I did try and help some but still I wanted to jump up there and join in.

Oh I remember what I wanted to talk about. Showering/bathing.... Oh my gosh! Talk about so unenjoyable and so annoying! I got a wound/cast protector thing for showering, that works well. However, having to balance on one leg the whole time is so tiring! I have almost fallen over quite a few times, so I'm waiting until that day. I have tried taking baths (which I hate btw) and they are just as unenjoyable. I find it so awkward and uncomfortable and ugh... What used to be a nice calming thing had turned into an awful chore. Lets just say, I look forward to the day when I can take a shower with BOTH of my feet again!

Anyways, until next week! I get my stitches out next Tuesday! Wahoo!

Recovery Week 1

So the first day I was okay. Not a lot of pain yet. They told me that Thursday or Friday would be the worst but guess it wasn't gonna be Thursday. I laid on the couch and worked from home for about half the day. I also watched a lot of Criminal Minds. I'm excited that it is available on Netflix finally. Nothing really exciting to talk about...

On Friday, they were right. It was so sore!!! The numbness had worn off and I could definitely feel my foot! Ow... I was taking my pain pills religiously but it was still sore. I tried working from home but it didn't work so well. I decided it was nap time. Nap time and I became such good friends during my few days. My pain pills made so sleepy so I "watched" Criminal Minds and slept... It was so nice to chillax but at the same time I wanted to get up and not hop anymore.

Saturday was uneventful.. My friend Gabriel came up from Provo to get my car. I am letting him borrow it while I can't drive so he can come visit me and so I have less of a temptation to drive. While he was here he made me and Kayla dinner and just hung out. He is so great. One of my bestest friends for sure!

On Sunday, my foot was super sore and the pain pills were struggling. I decided to stay home for 2/3 of church. Gabriel drove up and took me to Sacrament Meeting and then we stayed for the food after. I have learned that I am so sick of crutches. They hurt my palms... So I am so thankful for my knee scooter. Best decision ever! After dinner we came home and I took silly quizzes while laying on the couch and Gabriel was on the computer. We are super exciting when we hang out. hehe.

On Monday, I went in for my first post-op appointment. The nurse took off the bandage and I was able to see what it looked like for the first time. It looked kind of gross. Like a worm under my skin... or some bug thing... Bleh... I wanted to touch it and cut the extra skin off. But I didn't do either. The doctor came in and said it looked like it was healing well. We discovered I still couldn't feel half of my big toe and half of my second toe. He said that could be because a nerve was damaged or because I was still healing. I'm not too worried about it yet. He wrapped it back up and said that in two weeks I can come in and have my stitches out. He let me choose what color the wrapping was, so I chose purple!!! I also learned that my fear of my boot was silly. I was afraid cause it would put pressure on the balls of my foot, but I was doing it wrong. He showed me how to put it on, which helped. After scheduling my next appointment I scootered my way to the trax station and went home.

I live about 5 blocks from the trax station. So I scootered home and it was exhausting! I was going to go to work but I was so tired and sore that I decided to work some from home and just relax one more day. I mean... I had only have surgery 5 days earlier. So Monday I took it easy, worked some, napped some. It was great. I did go to FHE to be supportive, it was fun but that's another story...

Tuesday, I actually went to work. When I walked in, so many people were shocked to see me. Especially since I was on my scooter. I didn't want to bring my crutches, I really don't like them. anyways, work was pretty uneventful. Everyone is jealous of my scooter cause i can zoom past them. Katie dropped me off and picked me up, which was nice. That night we went to a friend's house to say goodbye (it was her last night before she left for bootcamp) and I had to use my crutches, ick. But all went well.

Day of Surgery

So I had my surgery on 8 October 2014.

My roommate dropped me off at the hospital at 9:35 am. I was supposed to check in at 9:45, so I was totally on time! I checked in and got all the paperwork done. They called me in around 9:50 am. I got all ready and they went to put my IV in. She went put my IV in the left side of my left wrist. It hurt! that was not a good place to put the IV cause any time I moved my wrist it hurt! But it worked I guess...

After they put the IV in, she told me that they were running late so it may be awhile before I went in. There was a TV in the room, so I turned it on and watched just over 2 hours of NCIS. It was fun but I kept seeing commercials for pizza and since I hadn't eaten since the night before, I was hungry too! The nurse gave me 2 blankets and I just was relaxing in the recliner I was sitting in.

The surgeon came in after I had been watching TV for about 2 hours and he was looking at my foot and explaining what he was going to do. He drew on my foot to mark different areas and answered all my questions. Then he left to prep for the surgery.

Enter the anesthesiologist... He was so nice. He came in and introduced himself and started to ask me questions about past surgeries, reactions to anesthesia, etc. I told him how nauseous I had been when I got my wisdom teeth out so he decided to give me propofol and something else and we walked to the just outside the OR. All the people who were gonna help out with the surgery came to introduce themselves before I walked into the OR and climbed up on the bed. (I thought it was really funny that I walked into the OR and climbed up on the bed. I was expecting to be rolled in or something, like all the movies

or tv shows, but no I walked in! hahaha)

After I climbed up, the nurses helped position me on the bed and put a strap across me so I wouldn't fall off. Then they put my arms out and took my glasses off. Then someone started to wrap something around my shin. I keep thinking why didn't I look to see who it was but it was because I couldn't see anything at that point. In case you don't know, I'm super blind. So then the anesthesiologist asked how I was feeling and I told him I felt fine except my arm was burning. He said that was the propofol. I'm pretty sure I passed out after that.

When I started to come to I was in the recovery room and my surgeon handed me a little jar with the bone in it. All I remember is thinking it was really yellow and looked like corral. Then I fell back asleep.

Not sure how long I slept but when I started to come to again, I realized where I was and decided I needed to wake up. So I kept my eyes open, it was so difficult! A nurse noticed me and came in to check on me. She found my glasses and gave those to me and went to get me a cup of water. I know this sounds silly but... they put my glasses in a bubblewrap bag thing and it was really hard to open... maybe cause I wasn't completely conscious but still! The nurse came back with water and told me if I needed anything to hit the button. I laid there for some time until I realized I was awake... and HUNGRY! I also had to go to the bathroom. That was when I started to realize that my foot was in this huge brace thing. I couldn't feel my foot at all; I'm grateful it wasn't hurting like my sister said her knee was after her surgery.

I called the nurse in and she helped me to the bathroom. She was impressed that I was so good on the wheel chair and that I was able to go by myself without any help. Thanks Mom for all the practice! Afterwards, I laid back down and waited for Kayla to come pick me up. Another nurse came in and told me Kayla was on her way, they called her when they realized I was really awake, so she went and got my things and helped me change into my clothes. She then went and got me juice to drink! She totally got me half cranberry and half orange juice, my favorite! It was so refreshing!

Kayla showed up shortly after and the nurse explained all the important stuff to both of us, in case I was too drugged up to remember. Then they wheeled me out and we left. They were so nice, I'm so grateful for the kindness of everyone at the hospital.

Kayla left and she asked if I wanted to go home and I told her I WAS STARVING!!!! So she stopped by Chipotle and got me a salad. The nurse had said don't eat heavy foods, so I got the salad. haha. We went home and I scarfed it down. It was delicious, even tho Kayla forgot to get pico de gallo on it.

Then I assumed relaxing position forever more...

Why the surgery????

A lot of people have been asking about my foot surgery. So I thought I would just tell everyone who cares about my foot.

So... When I was in the pow wow a couple years ago, I did something to my foot. I was practicing my dancing one evening and my foot was really sore. After that night, every time I danced my foot would hurt so I would just power through it. After the pow wow, I decided to wait for a while and see if it would get better on its own. I couldn't wear heels, which was annoying, but after some time the pain went away and everything returned to normal.

Fast forward to March or April 2013, I was on my way to work one morning. I took public transportation to work at the time so I would get on the light rail, called trax here. I was getting off the trax train and felt a shooting pain in my foot. Then my foot was in pain forever more... 

I hoped that whatever had just happened would just go away, like it had before. Finally, after trying to ignore it for a long time, I decided to go to the podiatrist in October. On 28 October 2013, I went to the podiatrist and learned what had happened. After getting an x-ray, they discovered that I had fractured my sesamoid bone. I had no idea what a sesamoid bone was. So they went on to explain what it was. There are two in each foot and they act like a knee cap to your big toe. They are positioned between tendons to provide protection and leverage to go up on your toes. Who knew? So they decided that to fix it, I should get an orthopedic insert for my shoes. They said that would hopefully fix the problem. 

I got the shoe insert and wore it faithfully, except to church. I still wasn't wearing heels, so I came to accept my height. I embrace my just under 5'5"-ness now. My foot started to feel a little better but remained slightly swollen. I went to the Bishop's house for a ward party and was walking across the backyard and I dropped to the ground. I had stepped on a sprinkler head and had hurt my foot again. My foot continued to hurt like it had before for some time. I went back into the podiatrist's office and they decided I should have an MRI. 

I got an MRI (it was so cold) and the results came back with..... My bone had healed wrong and was deformed. So it was putting pressure on parts of my foot causing the swelling. They told me my options were to just deal with the pain, get steroid shots to help with the swelling and pain but it would just be a bandaid on the problem, or to have surgery. I really didn't like the idea of steroids, the last time I had had them, I didn't like what they did. I missed hiking, running, exercise, walking long distances... I hadn't been able to do them in two years from healing or hurting... and I couldn't do it until something was done. 

So after much thought and prayer... I decided to have the surgery... on 8 October 2014!