Day Three

Got quite a bit of sleep last night. Foot and leg pain was once again manageable. Same routine as the last two days. Getting ready for the big new years eve party that I'll be stuck in bed for tonight. It will all be worth it though if the recovery goes as planned. Just thinking about how nice it will be once I can walk again. The months of recovery just can't be over soon enough though.Work is also going to be quite the chore. Not looking forward to going back for that, but maybe that will make the days go faster. I'm definitely always looking for new things to take up some of my time. It would be nice if I could find something that was monetarily plentiful.

Day Two

Feeling a lot better today! Taking two Percocet every 4 hours, 800mg of Ibuprofen every 4 hours, and icing a half hour ever 1=2 hours. Percocet definitely makes me drowsy and i have been sleeping a bit here and there. I got up today and washed up, brushed my teeth, washed my hair, etc.. Feel much better, but just everyday tasks really take it out of me. I'm sure it will get easier. My aunt brought me over a walker with brakes that I can roll around on with my leg up. Looks to be much easier and more stable than crutches. We will see how it goes. Definitely getting a bit bored, but this blog and the bowl games are keeping my interest. My pupster is back over by me and that makes me happy. He is such a good boy and provides some much needed company. Watched a show last night on TLC called Coupon something. People would buy like $900.00 in groceries and literally only have to pay $4 or $5 for them after all the coupons. Crazy!

Bar Close

It's 2 am and I've finally gotten a little bit of sleep. It has been a rough night. By about 10pm, my foot pain was unbearable and the pills were seeming to have absolutely no affect on the pain. I added 800mg of Ibuprofen, but that did not help either. I was contemplating going into the ER and either getting a shot or being admitted and getting morphine. I called the on-call nurse from the surgery center to ask her opinion on what to do. She had my surgeon call me back. He told me to take 2 more Percocet immediately and see if that helped. If not, he explained that I could go to the ER or hold out until morning when he could prescribe another pain medication that may prove more effective. Luckily the extra dose of Percocet put the pain back into a much more managed state. That was the worst pain I have ever experienced in my life. I guess the point here is that you must try to stay ahead of the pain at all times as it can quickly get out of control and become unbearable. First lesson learned.

Day One - Cont'd

I thought I was done writing for the day, but the pain keeps getting worse. It has to be at about a 9 out of 10 right now. Tried to nap a little, but that really didn't work too well as I could never get comfortable. Whole foot and ankle are just intense, deep aching. Hopefully this will be the worst day, but there isn't much I can do. Will just have to find a way to deal with it.

Day One

Didn't get a lot of sleep last night. No pain really, just uncomfortable from having to lay flat on my back and have my foot up all the time. The nerve block started to wear off about 7:30 this morning. Pain increased dramatically and has become quite intense. I started taking two pain pills every 4 hours. The pain is still intense, but it is manageable. It is the constant deep bone pain, much like the pain I had from arthritis, but a bit deeper and covers the entire foot, heal, and ankle areas. Some what afraid to get up to go to the bathroom as I am thinking the rush of blood is going to cause increased pain. Probably will go when I take my next set of pain pills in about 45 minutes. I'm not a big pain pill person and like to stay off of them as much possible, but I really don't want to get behind the pain on this. I think I am just going to keep taking my two pills every 4 hours for at least the next couple days. No reason to be miserable. I am still icing every 2 hours and trying to keep myself busy. So glad i have a laptop. I am moving my toes around a bit and sometimes it seems to help with some of the pain.

I have spent a lot of the day looking up alternative options to crutches and am definitely thinking about getting a knee walker. Seem like they are much more stable and easier to get around on. I'm thinking I will definitely look a little funny and maybe take some flack at work, but I figure that's better than having sore armpits and possibly slipping and falling in the parking lot.

Introduction

Hello everyone. I decided to make this blog to go through a step-by-step process of how recovery goes after having a Triple Arthrodesis. I was looking for something like this and really couldn't find a lot of information before surgery. If anyone has any specific questions, please let me know and I will answer them to the best of my ability. My surgery took place yesterday, 12-28-10, in Appleton, WI by Dr. Todd Derksen. I needed the surgery as I had a severely flat foot that became deformed and full of arthritis. My foot was turned out to the left and I consistently walked with a limp. I was in constant pain.

For my surgery I was given general anesthetic and a nerve block from my knee down. My surgery went well and much arthritis was cleaned out. I also had my calf lengthened to allow more up and down movement of foot after recovery. As I awoke from surgery, I was in no pain. I was however nauseous from the anesthetic. I let the nurse know and was given medicine that took care of that immediately. After about an hour I was very awake and was given juice and a snack. I was then allowed to leave. I am staying at my mothers for at least the first few weeks as I have a lot of stairs to get to my apartment and I basically need to be in bed with my leg up at all times. I need to ice for a half hour every 1-2 hours and I was given Percocet for the pain. The first night was not bad as there was no pain because of the nerve block. The leg is completely numb. Starting to try to get crutches down. Took one pain pill before bed just in case block began to wear off.