11 Days P.O. - Back to Work!

This is a slightly delayed post, I managed to get back into work Monday.  I am lucky with my job in that while it does involve quite a lot of carrying things full of liquid between rooms I can swap this for desk type work at my will, its all very flexible.  Also, should I wish to carry things around I have an array of lovely people who are willing to help out, even if only to get me to stop whining!

Things that should be noted should you wish to return to work at this point:

- By around 3 in the afternoon your foot will be really quite sore in a persistent-achy kind of way.  The best way to cure or prevent this is to lie on the floor with your foot on the desk.  I've found the higher the better!  Fortunately, again, I have very understanding colleagues who don't find it peculiar when they enter the office and find me lying on the floor with my legs in the air!

- Sleep will not have happened very easily over the past week and a bit.  The main problem is the midnight stretch.  When you're unencumbered by a large plaster and a variety of pins, if you wake up at around midnight and have a bit of a stretch you pretty much instantly drop back off to sleep.  As it is, the pins and the fact you can't stretch one of your feet tends to wake you up and then you remember you've got a cast that rubs the back of your knee and that's you done for for about an hour!

- Bearing in mind point number two, try to be patient at all times.  VERY small things will start to irritate you because you haven't slept a full night in about two weeks.  These include, but are not limited to, the fact that crutches, no matter HOW carefully you prop them up, were not designed to be balanced on the edges of tables/worksurfaces and will slowly slide sideways, occasionally hitting you on the way down.  It doesn't matter how much forward planning you try to do, sometimes you're just too close/too far away from the door you want to close/open and you'll have to hop around on the spot trying to manipulate your crutches and possibly falling over.  Sometimes you wander somewhere to fetch something and remember that what you actually wanted, you can't carry, even with your chin/two finger/pockets and that you'll have to return, find a bag and THEN go back and get it.

Remember, it is not for long and try to stay calm.  At least that's what I'm telling myself!

Despite my 'weight bearing as tolerated' rule, something, somewhere in my head says that I should not be trying to weight bear until my stitches are out.  This may be complete rubbish but since I spent the first 5 days P.O. in hospital and the next 5 days basically napping and working from home and stitches come out 14 days P.O. its not much beef on my part to have to hop around work/home for 4 days at the end.

Stitches out soon so I shall update with pics!

8 Days P.O.

Another pin down!  Being told to keep an eye on my toes I duly kept an eye on my toes and became somewhat paranoid when one of them appeared a rather bluish black colour at the only angle I could see it at.  I rang this in and was told to pop by that afternoon and had the pin out of toe number 2 'just in case'.  This, unfortunately, resulted in a horrible stubbed toe feeling for the rest of the evening that no amount of paracetamol would get rid of.  This had faded by the next day but most definitely put a downer on my evening!

Slightly blue second toe that was making me paranoid

Probably for no reason since it's not blue at the front!

1 Week P.O. Update

So I'm working from home this week.  I tried to go in the immediate week post-op last time and just got tired and achy.  This way I can work to my own schedule and take a break when I need to.  No pain in the operated foot to the extent that I was sent home with enough pain killers to fell a horse (paracetamol and tramadol, enough for 4 doses a day) and am currently only using them to get rid of the headaches I'm getting through not drinking enough because I can't carry glasses of water around!

Am struggling slightly with the concept of what was previously my 'bad' foot now being my 'good' foot.  The stairs were just confusing at first but I think I've got the hang of them.  The shower is a particular struggle.  The previous leg was on the left and the exit to our shower (bath with shower in really) is on the left so I simply hopped forward, swung the bad leg over the side, sat on the edge and swung the good leg out.  This time the good leg is closest and to be honest I'm just confused as to which leg I should be swinging and which I should be putting down!  I'm going to try again today and see how it goes.

Re weight bearing I am apparently 'weight bearing as capable' which means whenever I feel like it doesn't hurt as far as I can tell.  This means right now, 1 week P.O., I can stand at the sink with my foot on the floor quite comfortably with not very much weight going through it.  I can also use it for balance at the sink and the oven.  Further experiments with weight bearing will be carried out today and I will let you know my progress.  Previously I didn't weight bear at all until after the stitches came out but I had a check over everything yesterday and they seem to be coping with my experiments thus far.

I'll try and get the toes out for a more detailed pic later today.

5 Days P.O. - Release Day!

After watching my toes overnight they've decided to let me go home, which is a blessing because I'm getting very bored.  No real pain today, a little in the night but nothing really worth mentioning.  Again, some tips for when you go home if you're thinking of having this done:

- Its possible to carry quite a lot round your neck, fresh clothes, bags, etc.

- If you've got a handbag or something similar you can carry around its great for getting things from one room to the next.

- For carrying heavy things, a dressing gown cord wrapped around things to drag them along works well.

Finally, remember quite a lot of travelling can be done on your bum, on your knees or by hoisting yourself around on bits of furniture!

Unless something dramatic happens I shall check in with more pictures next week!

Mobility - Part 1

For all of you on here contemplating this op just remember one thing - crutches are HARD to walk on!  Did my first trip out just now.  Apparently if you've already done this they don't care, they still want to make you practice climbing stairs and watch you walking so I foolishly volunteered to crutch to the stairs which is approximately a minute and a bits' walk away.  This is a LONG WAY on crutches.  Made it there and back but am sweaty and have shaky arms.  I realized I never really introduced myself as a person so now I hasten to add I am not a chain smoking, alcoholic, 22 stone man.  I am a relatively fit, active, 27 year old female.  We are simply not designed to support our entire weight on our arms so when we have to start its a challenge!

4 Days P.O. post-script

My lovely doctor Mark Rogers came in AGAIN just as I was about to drop off for a nap.  Its always just as I'm dropping off or just as I'm waking up. I swear the man thinks all I do is sleep!  They were concerned about toe number three which was looking a little purple (you can see this if you check out yesterdays blister picture).  Anyway, on advice from the top dog (Mr Cooke) they decided to take the pin out of toe three.  This, as usual, involved the enormous pair of pliers, or possibly a mole-wrench, and quite a lot of pulling which was uncomfortable, but not painful.  So I'm a toe-pin down.  On the up-side the toe then bled quite profusely all the way down the back of my foot so despite their worries about under perfusion its apparently functioning quite well.  Its been strapped in with a set of plasters to stop it coming back up again and everything is back in place...hopefully they'll check on things tomorrow and I'll be free to go...

4 Days P.O.

Was tortured into a leg wash again by the nurse this morning.  I don't know why.  Last time I had this done my leg didn't really get washed for two weeks and nobody suffered for it.  AND she told the doctor about my blisters which means he wants me to stay for the night again so he can check on them in the morning!  Admittedly, they're pretty sore but it comes and goes (right now I can't feel them at all) and if I was at home and I noticed them I would have been straight in there with a sterile needle and a bit of gauze but apparently they don't do that here.  They just like you to sit and see what happens.  Yawn.  On the up side I have oozed slightly into my cast and it means I might get something that isn't pink!

New set of pics from this morning showing you the types of dressings that come with the op....

And some of the stitches that go down the side of my feet...

And the latest progress on toe scabbing...