Category: ankle

I was able to get my foot into the boot yesterday and crutch/walk around the kitchen a couple times. That’s better than I’ve been able to do since surgery (almost a month ago now). Unfortunately, I could only handle it for about ten minutes before everything revolted and I had to take it off.\
My food really doesn’t like being at 90 degrees (you know, where it’s supposed to be). All the tendons on the inside of my foot revolt if they’re held there too long. So, I’m doing a lot of stretches and still writing the alphabet with my toes a hundred times a day.\
I have an appointment in a couple hours to see how things are going. I’m supposed to start physical therapy this week, but I’m not sure I’m ready for that yet. It’s still swollen right around the ankle (you can’t see the bone still), and it’s still puffy around the incision (bad sidekick photo). We’ll see what happens.\
In other news, I’m working on the couch, which is really not the most “inspiring” place to try to work. I hope to be up on the boot next week and back in the office. I hope….

There’s really not much to talk about when all I do is sit on the couch… I had a lovely Thanksgiving over at my parents’ house. I think the infection is gone, although where the doc re-opened the incision is healing kinda funny. I’ll take a picture when Jen gets home, or if I can find the sidekick. Ok, the infection’s not gone, it’s moved to my sinuses, but I’m not really worried about that because I’m on really good antibiotics.\
I have a new goal. It’s to be walking without crutches, cane or boot before I go to France at the end of February. At the rate I’m going, I’m not sure how easy this goal is going to be to reach, but I’m going to do it. I don’t want to be hobbled for that trip or SxSW the week after I get back. I probably won’t be playing kickball next year, but I don’t want to miss out on anything because I’m gimpy.\
Jen and the boys get home on Tuesday, and then I’m sure you’ll get a ton of Hawaii pictures and stories. I’ve talked to Max on the phone a couple times, and I think I’m going to try to get him to write some too.\
I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow. Hopefully, it’ll be all good news, because I’m tired of the other kind.

I slept from 10:00 PM until 1:30 AM, and have been up trying to get comfortable ever since. There’s an uncomfortable moment any night I don’t sleep where I resign myself to being awake. It usually happens around 5:30. It’s a horrible feeling, being exhausted, but knowing that I’ve just made the decision to get up anyway and do something (usually that involves checking e-mail and finding something to eat).\
Last night (this morning?) while I was sitting there trying to ignore the stinging in my foot, I realized I forgot to tell you the grossest part about yesterday’s trip to the doctor. Since my foot’s infected and the previous antibiotic wasn’t doing the job, they wanted to do a culture (stop reading now if you’re eating or feeling squeamish). You know how they do a culture on a surgical wound? They slice it open and jab two giant q-tips in the wound. I had no idea a q-tip could go so far into my foot without me passing out (this is where Dr. Wilson found the “live nerve” he didn’t kill off during surgery).\
And an added bonus, this morning when I went to change the dressing, it was stuck to the incision so I got to open it all back up again. Hooray for mornings!! Hooray for gore!! Hooray for stinging pain that never goes away!! Hooray for sleeping on the couch!! Hooray for pop-tarts!! Hooray for Dr. Pepper!! Hooray for crutches!!\
Hooray, hooray… yeah.

First, there was the contamination. Now, it’s an “infection”. I have a fever, I have puss. I have new antibiotics, cultures at the lab, incredible pain that’s making me watch the clock (two hours until I get to take more pain killers), and a slowly creeping disdain for my right foot.\
I got to watch Dr. Wilson cut into my foot today, which once I got over the weirdness of seeing it happening and watching the blood come pouring out, it was kind of cool. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, although the numbing stuff they put on it didn’t quite do the job.\
It just feels like moving backwards. I was progressing. The steri-strips were off, and I thought things were healing. And then, the puss, the red, the white… it all came back, and here I am again with an open wound (no staples this time, it’s just sitting there under 8 layers of gauze – oozing).\
I’m ready to walk again. I’m actually longing for the stupid black boot. My foot is still too swollen to fit in the boot, which means no walking. It means more crutching (my biceps and abs are getting a workout – the one positive I can think of). It means more helplessness. It means creating ways to carry things from the fridge to the couch (under the chin, in the pockets, held in a grocery bags, etc).\
I’m sorry, there are good things happening. I think. The family’s having a great time in Hawaii (look forward to pictures… be grateful I don’t have a camera in the house). Yeah, that’s about it.\
update – Feeling blood seeping out of my foot feels really really gross.

When you sleep for thirteen hours, that means you miss three doses of pain medication. That probably means you’ll wake up in a good deal of pain (probably because you moved wrong and woke up swallowing a scream). But, part of you is happy and shocked that you got more than two hours of sleep at one time.\
Trade-offs, man, trade-offs.

Falling down hurts. Falling down hurts even worse when you’re on crutches and have a bum foot.\
I wish I could sleep.\
I wish this pain pill would kick in.\
That is all.

I have bacterial contamination!! No, it’s not an infection, it’s “contamination”. Well, that’s what Dr. Wilson says, and boy is it pretty. Lucky for you, I forgot to bring the camera. Stupid, stupid, stupid! The green discharge around the bloody staples, bruises and redness was impressive. I get to take a really good antibiotic for a while to make sure it doesn’t turn into staph, and keep my foot elevated for another week (although the bandage is getting progressively smaller).\
In other news, my sleep schedule is completely out of whack, thanks to the pain pills. I usually sleep from 5:30pm-6:30pm, sometimes until 8. Then, from 3:30pm-7pm when everyone else gets up. Sometimes, it’s much later, like today, I slept from 4am until almost noon.\
It’s really weird to be awake in the middle of the night. The feeds all go to sleep and nothing gets updated except Flickr.\
Sorry I forgot my camera… it was really impressive. It’s naptime!

I went to see Dr. Wilson this morning for my first post-op appointment. I took pictures. Warning, they’re pretty cool (cool = gross).