Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Drooling in my Sleep

Stitches out today -- well, stitch, not stichES -- one long spiral of prolene. On the last foot, the stitches were the worst part of the whole thing, hurt like hell!

This time, much easier. The surgeon took the stitches out a week earlier, and I took a valium before the appointment.

All I can say is, people take this stuff during the DAY? Oy. I fuzzed out half way through my appointment and fell asleep immediately when I got home. I woke up four hours later int he recliner, keyboard in my lap, and drooling. Not doing that again!

I'm supposed to take a wedge out of the boot in a week or so, and wait at least that long before soaking my foot. So far, things have been going well!

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Officially in The Boot again


First followup appointment today, 10 days out -- things look great, the surgeon thinks I'm ahead of the curve, and I'm officially in the boot and out of the cast.

He thinks that it's because of the ice-water circulator (a nifty little pad that pumps ice water around my foot instead of using ice packs or bags of frozen peas like we did with the first one).  I've been sitting with my foot up and the ice-thing circulated most of the day. My foot isn't swollen, my toes move easily, the incision looks great. He thinks he'll be able to take the stitches out at three weeks instead of four this time. Which means my Christmas present from my surgeon is A BATH.

This is a good thing, trust me! I desperately want a bath. Mmmmmmmm.

Tuesday, December 08, 2015

The Living Room look the Same

Did you know that there is a television show called Knitting Daily?

A television show. About knitting.

And it's just as exciting as you would imagine!

http://www.knittingdaily.com/

Sunday, December 06, 2015

I've been to the OUT!

I feel pretty bad that it is The Husbands birthday today and I'm pretty much not able to do anything for him -- I planned ahead a little and got him his gift earlier this week, but we can't really go out anyplace nice, etc. He's being really nice about it ("We'll just postpone and do something when you are able to get around"), but I feel awful.

We did get out of the house for dinner (just a local place we love), and it was enhausting for me. He's been hiding in his office for the day, and I feel like a schmuck.

But I CAN get out of the house, which is a plus!  Not quite able to do it by myself, but t least get in the car and be chauffeured around. :)

Happy Birthday, Adorable Husband! I promise to make it up to you when I can actually DO stuff!

Yay, Sports!

So, when people talk about watching "the game" over the weekend, I am always confused. What game? Which sport? Wha?

Is it the one where they do the thing with the ball?

This t-shirt sums up my approach to sports perfectly:


...and the boredom sets in

Well, five days in and I'm bored. Boooo-rrrreed. I have my computer setup in the living room, an endless supply of television shows on Hulu, and I'm still bored. This is going to be a long few months.

But I'm mostly off the pain meds, just relying on the ice-water pump for my foot, and things seem to be going well. I was worried for a bit, since it hurt a lot more than the other foot did initially, but it's settled down.

I've been rather compulsively reading travel books and websites for Iceland (we're going in May), and binge-watching recent tv shows and movies. I'm getting around a bit better -- still slow and a bit tentative, but I haven't had any issues.

So far, so good!!

Wednesday, December 02, 2015

Becoming an atomic clock!

Well, the nerve-block wore off completely overnight and when I woke up, my foot was definitely not numb, and definitely hurt. Ow!

For my left foot, the nerve block lasted almost 48 hours (which freaked me out a bit, since I couldn't move my foot at all), and by the time I finally got feeling back in my foot, things really didn't hurt too much. This time? Things hurt a bit sooner -- and I have developed the ability to track time down to the minute:  at four hours, the percoset wears off and I am summoning The Husband for more. He is doling them out, since I forget that I even took one.

The surgeon gave me percoset again, for a day or two and also prescribed Valium for muscle spasms, which is new. I haven't had muscle spasms, but I think it's his response to my normal complain of "it doesn't really hurt, just...can't get comfortable". Apparently that is my presentation of pain and they think that a minor dis-associative will help. I haven't taken it yet, so I don't know.

So I spent the day in the chair, binge-watching BBC documentaries and web-surfing. The ice-water pump thing is working admirably -- wish I'd had it for the other foot, it really is better than a series of ice-packs changed every half-hour or so. 

But so far, so good. Hopefully this one will be as straightforward as the left heel. They took off a bone spur "the size of a nilla wafer", according to my surgeon. My right heel was always the worse of the two, the bump on my heel was much bigger on that one, and I had problems with it earlier than I did the left foot. But it's also my dominant foot (which is one of the reasons we did surgery on the left foot first -- at least the working foot would be the good one!

Off to bed!

Tuesday, December 01, 2015

Second Surgery Done!

Dragged ourselves out of the house at 5:30, the same team that did my first surgery wrapped this one up in record time and I was back at home by 10:30. Mark is taking a whole week off to wait on me hand and foot!

This time, they wrapped an ice-water circulating pack around my foot, with a little pump thing to keep water cooling my foot (no ice packs!), so I'm sitting here tethered to the tiny pump and my foot is wrapped up to mimic an elephant's foot. It's huge!




The nerve block didn't "take" as well as the last one and I could move my toes and my foot hurt when I first woke up from anesthesia, but things have settled down. Remember last time? My leg from the knee down was totally, completely numb for two whole days -- freaked me out!

I pretty much slept all day in the chair. Snoring quietly, if my husband is to be believed.  I'm going with "snoring like a rhino", if my waking myself up is any indication, but he was trying to be nice! A bit of a sore throat from the intubation, but that's it. Not nauseous or anything, which is good. I have never had nausea from anesthesia (knock on wood!)

I can, with a bit of work and supervision, make it to the bathroom.  It's a bit more complicated (turn off pump thing -- for which Mark installed an actual SWITCH on The Chair, disconnect hoses, etc), but I can manage. I was worried that having my dominant foot being the "off" foot was going to be a problem but so far I seem to be doing ok.

Except....

I cannot get into our bed with my right foot out of commission. I sleep on the right side of the bed, and our bed is very tall -- getting in is a bit of a gymastic leap and I can only do it from my right foot. I tried getting in the same way on Mark's side...no go. Definitely not graceful. I may have to sleep in the other room until I'm a bit more agile. I practiced a bunch before surgery and while I might be able to struggle into the bed, it is not easy. Hmph. Mark is building a step that might help me boost my way up into the bed. Maybe. Although today I am a bit too uncoordinated to try it, I think.

Mashed potatoes for dinner (yeah! for Thanksgiving leftovers!) and napping in the chair. At least I got a free month of Hulu to watch All The Shows while I sit here, bored.