Two weeks post-op: Suture removal

Unlike many other surgeries, where doctors have moved to staples or glue to close the incisions they create during surgery, Podiatrists usually use sutures to close the skin; the logic is that the bony structures are so close under the surface, they require the extra support of sutures, rather than glue, and staples...well, metal and bone, ugh!! Kinda seems not really flexible enough. 

Anyway, as a nurse of a certain era, I've done my fair share of suture removals over the years, so I gave a fleeting thought to taking them out myself, but one look at the S-shaped incision from my 4th toe to the top of my foot, and the scabbing and all that...well, let's just say, the thought of doing it myself was rapidly filed away for "I'll let the pro do it!"...the pro being Dr. Ritchey's nurse in the office.

Again relying on friends, since driving is still not an option, I toyed with taking a Percocet before going, but I know the small pain from the tugging on sutures compared to the in general much harsher pain I had already gone through, for such a short period of time, really didn't warrant the itching that results. 

And I was right. Mere minutes it took her to remove the suture, even the wonky incision on my fourth toe. There were a few cringes, but ultimately she had them out and steristrips over the incisions lickety-split. 

The end result: not bad. The toes are still bruised, as is around the heel and the arch, where all of the blood pooled from the surgery...but it's looking much better. And Motrin is all that's really needed, when they get sore.

One thing that continues to be uncomfortable is if I let the foot dangle, don't keep it elevated continuously, it swells. It just takes time....and I knew about the discoloration that can happen when the foot is dependent, not elevated, for example, when you are walking around on crutches or a knee scooter. Even forewarned, though, it's disconcerting to look down and see a purple, swollen foot....but elevate it for a while and it goes back down. Best thing to do is to wear your boot as much as possible when you are up and around, the compression can help decrease the swelling.

Comparing feet when foot is elevated...both the same color, not much swelling:



And when I've been around the house a bit, on my knee scooter, without putting my boot on tightly; that discoloration. It's quite common in limbs that have been operated on for a few weeks afterwards, but still not pretty.

All in all, healing well. First trip out of town this weekend, and because I tend towards motion sickness in the back seat of a car, I'll probably just sit up front...and my almost 6 foot tall frame means no foot up on the dash for me. We'll see how that goes.

Post-Op Day 11

Mom and a family friend, Annice, have been here for a few days, so we've been getting out of the house...Wednesday was dressing removal and boot receipt day, so after the reveal of Frankenfoot (see that day's post) we drove around Knoxville a bit....We had iced tea on Calhoun's patio, where I camped out while Mom and Annice took a walk down the waterfront...I tell you, the knee scooter makes things MUCH easier, but still is hard to get around, and after shopping a bit the day before, Wednesday I was a bit worn out....thank you the the lovely waitress on Calhoun's patio who didn't charge us for our iced tea, what a lovely girl.  (my view from the most easily accessed part of Calhoun's on the River's deck...yes, the river IS out there somewhere!!)

Mom, Annice and I did Dollywood yesterday, and although it was fun as always (the train was not running, though. :( ) it WORE ME OUT...talk about a new perspective, being stuck in a wheelchair/scooter all day, having to THINK if able to go to certain places, or find a bathroom...I was exhausted by day's end. I am every SO thankful that for me, this is a temporary thing. This experience is really opening up my eyes.



BTW, if they read this by some weird coincidence, Dollywood REALLY needs some automatic doors on their family/handicapped bathroom doors, I tell you...I didn't have my crutches with me, so had to drive the scooter right into the bathroom, and getting in and out of manual doors in one of those scooters is almost impossible without help. 

Today we opted to skip the Biscuit Boulevard downtown Knoxville...Missing it again this year, but I just wasn't up to the logistics of getting around downtown on my knee scooter or crutches, and in those crowds, nonetheless...and did the simple, tasty breakfast at Horn of Plenty...then we braved the rain showers to Crab Orchard so, on their last day here, Mom and Annice could see Ozone falls, one of our favorite sights to show people who visit....I had my books, and camped out in the back seat with my foot up while they hiked a bit.....finally finished a book I started several months ago!!

Even after an afternoon riding around I'm the car, foot down, in my boot--well, we DID stop at Riverside Grill in Oak Ridge, TN, enjoy some of the rowing from their patio with a cold beverage:
 

a couple of hours elevated and a bit of ice, and I have to admit, it's looking better. 



That long, bruised, second toe sticks out furthest in my boot, and when it gets shiny and swollen, I know it's time to get my foot elevated a bit!! Looking good now.

Pain-wise, Motrin is enough. Oh, it throbs a bit when I put it down, but really I don't need anything else. 

Will post a pic without dressings tomorrow. Dr. Ritchie just put gauze over the stitches with an ace bandage loose over it, saying he knows anything tight can be uncomfortable, but I've found that, even loosely wrapped just to hold Gauze on over the stitches, it feels like the ace bandage makes my foot joints lightly but constantly grind together. So I dug into my first aid kit, and this is what I've come up with. Still did the ace bandage loosely inside the boot today, but taking it off to relax and sleep.

I can still see the faint outline of Dr. Ritchey's Happy face foot. :)

Post Op Day #8 - It's free!! Frankenfoot, it's free!!!

I have never been so afraid and so glad to get dressings off at the same time. Try living and sleeping with a boot on your foot, never taking it off, for days on end. Extremely uncomfortable, even as it protected my foot. 

Actually the whole process, getting the dressings off and viewing the stitches, the bruising, and the happy foot that Dr. Ritchey had drawn on my foot to mark it as the one they were doing surgery on that morning,  the straightness, was so liberating, yet at the same time I was afraid. Without the splint and any dressings, my foot felt so..delicate. I immediately nicknamed it Frankenfoot...for obvious reasons:

BEFORE:

AFTER DRESSINGS OFF:

Dr. Ritchey's nurse had me scoot into the other room for x-rays (putting my foot down flat on ground, although not bearing any weight on it, since the surgery...weird) to make sure everything was healing well.

The whole process took 30 minutes, and he wrapped me up in my splint with just an ace bandage and just gauze over my dressings...after brunch at Crackerbarrel, Mom, Annice and I made a trip to Hanger's, the place that distributes boots for those of us with Humana insurance. Anther $120 (danged deductibles) out of my pocket. For the next few months my foot will spend much of my awake time in a boot, one of those big, black boots that braces a broken or otherwise operated on foot...eventually it is what I will bear weight on my foot in for the first time, but for now it protects my foot and allows me to use my heel to move around...up and down stairs, I can bear weight on my heel.

And I can wash it!! Not the boot, my foot!!!  Oh, I'll still be sitting in the shower, and I won't be submerging it in water (no swimming for me the next month or 2), but I can lather up and wash between my toes...and remove that Happy face foot Dr. Ritchie drew on it. Hallelujah!

My second day straight of running around outside on my knee scooter (went shopping the day before) had my leg muscles and knee protesting, so we drove down to Calhoun's on the river and had cold tea there...I relaxed on the part of the deck it was easy for me to access,

while Mom and Annice took a walk down the river...Annice has never been to Knoxville before, so it was nice for her, but I was tired. Yes, the Tennessee River is out there. Somewhere. But the chair was comfortable and the iced tea was cold!

Pain-wise, I took a Percocet before my doctor's appointment, just in case, but really Motrin is enough. Ice, elevation....the bunions themselves hurt the least...the most painful is at the base of the incision on the top of my foot, extending from the hammer toe he broke, straightened and pinned, that was for exploration and possible removal of the tentatively diagnosed Morton's Neuroma in my foot (diagnosed based on symptoms, only way to confirm the diagnosis: surgery), and I think maybe that it is just bruised...

But about the neuroma, I almost forgot the GREAT news Dr. Ritchie gave me today: he got in there and found NO NEUROMA!! This is good news...he said the nerves to the toes feeling so much pain were smooshed and tangled and basically all wrapped up amongst the tendons and structures of my mal-formed feet...he just lysed a bunch of adhesions, tried to free everything up, basically unstuck everything, and stitched me back up. What does this mean?? The numbness I might have had in those toes, and the possibility of different pain in the ball/arch of my foot related the nerve stump he left after the neuroma (nerve tumor) was removed, the risk of those are gone. And hopefully, with fixing the main problems in my feet, the pain will resolve. I'm so relieved at THAT little turn of events. 

Tomorrow, we'll do Dollywood, and I will pay the $40 to rent an electric scooter....I want to do Dollywood, but my leg will fall off at the knee if I have to roll around there on my knee scooter, and crutches...fuggedabout it!!

Post Op day 7 - Surprising pain

Well, I'm pretty much down to one Percocet in the morning and one in the evening, just Motrin through the day. However, despite the horror stories about how painful bunion surgery is, it's not my bunions that are hurting so much as the incision from my hammer toe to the top of my foot, where he removed the Neuroma. I don't know if the dressings are just rubbing wrong on that, or what, but I'll be ever so glad to get rid of the dressings tomorrow morning, see if that helps the pain.

The knee scooter ended up being the best investment....I use that daily, and the crutches rarely....but my knee, where I bear the brunt of my weight, has become inflamed and almost abraded. I have ordered a knee pad to see if that will help protect that knee. Thanks to Amazon, it should be in tomorrow, so I can try it out around town tomorrow.  Thursday we'll do Dollywood, and the hardest part of that will be not having my foot elevated on the scooter I plan to rent for the day. 

Post Op Day 5.....ARRRRGH!

Have you EVER worn a shoe for a week, without taking it off, not even for a second, not even just to scratch your foot? That's what I feel like with these dressings/splint/ace bandages on...they feel like they are sliding down, the splint shifts, and it feels like I have a shoe on in bed. And my foot is just ANNOYED. It's irritating...Can't WAIT until he takes it all off on Wednesday: no matter how Frankensteiny my foot looks, it'll be a relief to have it off and wiggle my toes.

No one told me the pain wouldn't be the worst part....it would be the DRESSING/SPLINT!!



Oh, and stop reading here if you don't want to know about the on-going GI issues that Omnicef and other antibiotics can cause.

The diarrhea is gone...which has me paranoid that I'm working on getting constipated from the Percocet. Which I've only taken one this morning, and one last night to get to sleep, because the foot was throbbing so much, but still....but let me just say, if there were a windmill in our bedroom, I could generate our own electricity!! The gas WOKE ME UP THIS MORNING! Not that stinky (IBS, remember, I've HAD smellier)...just copious amounts!! And I've NEVER made such disgustingly LOUD noises on the toilet!!

Only 3 more doses of the antibiotics, then hopefully I'll go back down to my regular level of gaseousness.

O-kay, enough on that.