Adjusting to Life in Bed

Adjusting to life being completely dependent on other people has been one of the most challenging aspects of this surgery. Due to the intense remodeling that occurred, it is crucial to recovery to stay in bed and keep your foot elevated above heart level. This means no getting up to prepare your own meals, no showering or bathing without aid, not even getting up to refill a bottle of water or brushing your teeth.

Aside from adjusting to a new way of life (however temporary it may be) the third week also brought the replacement of my splint and my new cast and my first trip outside the house since my surgery. At the three week appointment, the splint was removed and I got to see my new foot for the first time. Now I warn all of you potential surgical patients out there, the first time seeing your incisions can be a little scary. Luckily my incisions have been healing well, so as the medical assistant began to remove the splint, I was not met with the gruesome image I had been imagining for the previous weeks. I was met instead with 5 clean incisions and some decent bruising and swelling and my mind was set at ease.

After the splint was off, they began to remove the 49 staples from the incisions. Having the staples removed has been, by far, the most traumatic procedure that I have had to endure during this entire process. Unfortunately they do not numb the area around the staples before removing them, so it can be quite painful! A tip for all you potential surgical patients, ask for stitches if possible.

For a brief hour, my foot went without support so they could x-ray, remove the staples, and examine my progress. In that short span of time I realized how insecure I was with my own foot. When the nurse asked me to follow her to the x-ray room on my crutches, I was terrified! Thankfully I managed not to trip and the journey to the x-ray room was finished without incident.  From that point on, the trip to the doctors was fine. I was put into my very first cast and sent on my merry way with the help of my mom. The cast made everything easier, and with the staples gone, the itchiness of the incisions was dramatically better. Oddly enough, the security and support of the cast was incredibly comforting. And so begins the next phase of my healing process...