Something's missing

I've been following my post op instructions to the letter. I rested with my foot up for three days. I took off the crepe and cotton wool dressing after three days. Then I hit a problem. I was to leave the clear dressing on until day 10 but someone forgot to put the clear dressing on. I had ooze all over the crepe and cotton wool but fortunately it didn't stick. Then I had a healing but not yet close wound open to the air. I had to put on a temporary dressing until I could get a better one.

The heel is very hard to put a clear dressing on! I had to sort of wrap the op site round and it has wrinkles and crinkles at change of direction points. Still it's on and covering the wound and stopping any ooze getting out and hopefully any germs getting in.

The wound looks quite nicely done. There's a couple of whacking great black sutures sticking out but it's not much longer than the original. I'm at day 7 and can quite happily walk short distances on it. I'm not sure how long distances would go but we'll see. I have a bucket load of Tramadol left. I'm sure they gave me more with this little op than they gave me for the original. 

It was very handy getting the screws out because the following day I got an appointment for a head MRI. No need to enter big discussions about my foot metalware.

One year on

Everything had been going peachy keen for ages until about 6 weeks ago. Then the screws started to make themselves more apparent. Then the ankle suddenly went unstable and started clicking. 

I went to my GP and got a referral back to the orthopedic department. It was about six weeks wait including a cancellation of one appointment and then getting a new one.

I had X-rays and they felt that the screws were still stable so unlikely to damage any tissue. However the orthopedic surgeon agreed that they are palpable. She also examined my foot and decided the best thing to do was get the screws out and then do an MRI to see what else was happening. 

I went in on Tuesday and on Wednesday got a call to see if I could show up for surgery on the coming Monday! So tomorrow, Friday, I'm going in for a preop appointment with the anaethetist. Then I'll get sorted for the op and find out what to expect.

Ouch!

A month ago I started to develop pain in my ankle and a burning sensation at the back of my heel. The pain is around the end of the scar where my ligament was resectioned. It's always been really painful to touch at that point, massage was torture, but now it hurts even when I'm not touching.

I've gone back to doing my physio exercises and get some relief when I do the eversion exercises, like it pops back in place.  It's pretty similar to the pain I had due to the split but further up my foot. I'm hoping I haven't split it again! The screws are feeling more evident, that's the burning sensation but its copeable at the moment so I'll give it a while longer before I ask for removal. Unless things get more sore, then it'll be NOW!

I'm presuming it's not caused by my running again because I was told it was fine to do. Since I have my year planned out training for New York I'd rather not have anytime off my feet unless absolutely necessary. I'll give it a month and then if it's still not responding to physio and massage I'll have to bite the bullet and follow up. The earlier the better, I guess.

Who operated on my ankle?

It seems weird that at this point in time the only discomfort I have is in my ankle. It's verging on feeling like a sprain. It also feels really stiff but actually has normal rotation. I put it down to being six weeks in a cast and not being totally conscientious with some of my physio exercises because when I'd get home and look at the drawings I'd sometimes forget what I was actually supposed to do.

The last lot given to me I remembered and they were actually quite fun. I've even graduated from balanced on a folded towel to balancing on a pillow. I have my discharge review with the surgeon in ten days time so I'm hoping I'll be much looser by then. 

I have discomfort walking down stairs and I tried a pair of limousine shoes on today and could barely step forward with my right foot. When I rotate my ankle in a clockwise direction it clunky-clicks at the nine o'clock position but doesn't when I turn it anticlockwise, go figure!

I bought a new pair of running shoes yesterday and was so excited because I got a normal fit pair. With my wider previous foot I had to buy wide fitting but now the heel is all realigned I fit a normal pair.

They are also very pretty so I should fly in them. I did a 25 minute run in them today and was really happy. The laces didn't need re tightening or any adjustment. I still can't understand the whole being able to run comfortably but still walking awkwardly business. I guess I'll just accept it.

Improving every day

I'm in that golden period now where the swelling as stopped, the sharp twinges have petered out and life is returning to normal. I still get a searing hot pain in the side of my foot around 9 or 10 at night and I end up balancing on the other leg to relieve it. It usually happens when I'm cleaning my teeth! It is totally unrelated to how much I've pushed my foot that day. All day on my feet or feet up most of the day - no difference.

Returning to running is going really well. Yesterday I went than Achilles New Zealand training session and had an excellent fartlek session. I had gone in planning on walking and ended up running. It was the start of my journey to the New York Marathon 2015. I'm really going to try out the handling of my new foot.

I'm still trying remember to massage the scars as much as possible but they don't seem to cause any problems in shoes, which is what I was concerned about. 

They're still pink but are quite unobtrusive and definitely not worthy of gross out status. No one runs screaming when I reveal my naked foot.

Time seems to have both flown and dragged. I'm surprised at the speed of recovery but I'm also surprised that the six month mark is still so far out. It seems so long ago I was hobbling around in my shiny pink cast.

Four months post op

Well, it has been a while! Up until recently I wasn't sure how it was all going but now things seem to be going really well.

I've been having physio with all sorts of interesting exercises - picking up marbles with my toes, pressing a ball against the wall with the side of my foot, balancing on one leg on a towel - tricky!, bent knee calf raises and subtle movements with a stretchy band. At first my foot was not happy but it is starting to relent. I no longer need the bed cradle to keep the sheets off my foot. I wear an ankle support when I need to be on my feet for a while or put them under pressure. Finally the swelling has subsided and the cankles are gone - most of the time. I was on my feet for over five hours cheering on all the entrants in the Auckland Marathon on Sunday and it was a bit puffy at the end of the day.

But my piece de resistance is I am starting run again pain-free. It's really baby steps. I'm doing something very like the couch potato to 5k program. I'm running all of three minutes in one go but repeated and it is actually more comfortable than walking. The reason I am doing this is I may have the opportunity to run the New York marathon next year and I want to be ready. I definitely wouldn't be running it in its entirety but I'd like to be able to run walk and feel fit enough to finish.

My bicycling has had the benefit of not only building my scrawny calf back up again and helping the ankle to be more mobile but also building up my leg strength. I'm really glad that I had it there to help me. It was certainly a sanity saver when i could barely hobble around post cast removal. 

The scar under my heel where the screws went in is barely noticeable. The one up my leg is quite smooth and causes no problems. The one along the side of my foot still causes me some annoyance. It's rough and tight and can feel like it's on fire at the end of the day. I'm rubbing it with balm in the evenings to try and help break up the scar tissue and give some relief. It is soooo painful to rub. When the physio does it I am nearly in tears. Fortunately it doesn't seem to rub in shoes or anything so it is really mainly about aesthetics - it is ugly. I look like someone hacked at me with a blunt knife. 

So am I pleased I had the surgery? I think so. Occasionally my arch complains about being in its new position but nothing major. My foot looks better and I've got used to seeing it as a new streamlined version. The screws have caused no problems after the initial discomfort. I don't have the ongoing pain from the torn ligament and I can feel that once my heel settles down I'm likely to be pain free. Hopefully the realignment of my heel will stop me from being a so much risk for the inversion injuries. So yes, I am pleased!

Three months post op

The three month mark is nearly here. Tomorrow I have a check up with the orthopedic doctors. Hopefully they'll be happy.

My foot still swells if I even think about walking but not to the bursting point any more. I have pretty much ditched the moon boot apart from longer distances. While it definitely stops any pain in my heel while walking it is doing back things to my knee. I think the lack of ankle flexion means that sometimes my knee is forced to try and bend the wrong way and the knee cap protests.

I have had one Physio appointment which we both thought was a waste of time. She had instructions to not touch! She was only allowed to give me stretches. Considering that it was 11 weeks after the op and I'd been on my own until that was pretty redundant, I had already been doing them on my own. Tomorrow I am charged with begging them to let her touch my foot.

The ankle is almost fused. There's very little movement through it and I can barely point my toes. It's calling out for a bit of manipulation! I still feel like I have a bad case of plantar fasciitis with pain focussed on my heel. What I discovered the other day is it hurts just as much when I run as when I walk so I'm hoping that I'll be moving faster sooner rather than later. The idea of 'some patients are able to resume running after 9 months' is not a cheery one. Particularly since the ligament repair is causing no pain, it is only the "bonus" surgery on my heel that is causing any ill effects.

So hopefully tomorrow I'll get a new set of instructions and have some idea of where I am on the continuum of healing. Watch this space!