It’s Going To Be a Long Winter

Part 2 of my “journal” related to my Lisfranc injury to my left foot.

December 20, 2019
Surgery

The medical records staff at the hospital in Florida got my records, including the x-rays and CT scans, into the hands of my personal physical in Cedar Rapids (who then got it to my surgeon) all before my appointment with the surgeon on the Tuesday after I got home to Iowa.

If it looks to you like this foot will need surgery, you’d be correct. This is what it looked like at my pre-op exam 3 days before surgery.

As with the ER doctor, he couldn’t be certain whether I had done the damage that would necessitate hardware installation, so he explained that my surgery could be very short, but I should expect to get the full treatment. And that’s exactly what happened.

He also explained that there were currently two schools of thought on how best to treat this sort of injury. One was to insert a plate with screws to stabilize the middle foot. The other would be some sort of fusion of the bones. He said that he preferred the first approach.

While I appreciated knowing about the options, I honestly wasn’t feeling like delaying things to do more research. I wanted to get on with things. I signed up for the hardware.

The surgery only took a couple of hours and not too long after that, I was headed home (with my wife driving, of course) with a fresh calf-high splint/dressing on my foot and another prescription for Percocet. This one I got filled.

I still wasn’t in much pain, but I suspected that would change once the nerve block they gave me before surgery wore off. They strongly urge you to stay ahead of the pain, rather than waiting until you are writhing before you take something. That sounded like a sensible strategy to me.

The protocol also called for a two-week post-op check-up appointment with my surgeon, which I also had scheduled by the time we left the outpatient surgery center. I noticed, however, that my appointment was set for January 8… just two days short of what would be a full three weeks after surgery.

I’m sure that probably had something to do with the Holidays, but all it meant to me was that I’d have to wait almost a full extra week before getting that splint off.

I knew two weeks sitting (and even sleeping) in a recliner, unable to go much of anywhere or do much of anything unless I was prepared to maneuver stairs, sidewalks and any other obstacles, would be challenging enough. I figured that tacking on an extra week would just add to the frustration.

I figured right. It turns out I’m not always a very patient man. Who knew?

Xrays taken after surgery. One plate with three screws. Apparently, the plan is to leave the hardware in there permanently, unless they give me trouble. I haven’t yet asked how to define “trouble.” Not sure I want to know.

I found out very quickly (before I even left Florida, in fact) that I suck at using crutches. I feel like I’m going to fall on my face every step, especially when I’m not supposed to put any weight at all on the injured foot.

I ordered a knee-scooter that arrived three days after surgery and that’s a game-changer for me. Things that you take for granted like getting up to get a drink from the refrigerator or answer nature’s call were adventures that I dreaded when they meant having to use crutches to get around.

But with the knee-scooter, rolling from room to room is relatively easy and, with the basket attached to the front, allows me to carry drinks, food, etc., to and from my recliner.

I was still bored to death, but at least I could move around home much easier. After a few days, I thought I could sleep semi-comfortably in a bed, rather than sleeping in the recliner. Sometimes it worked, sometimes I had to get out of bed and back to the recliner. That “club” on my foot was just a giant pain in the ass.

Ice packs and elevation remained the rule, of course, and that got old. But the pain (which still was remarkably low most of the time) was almost non-existent when my foot was up. It wasn’t non-existent at all, however, whenever I would lower the foot from the elevated position. The several seconds after doing that was literally the worst pain I had that entire post-op period.

The ice pack thing made no sense to me, however. The splint/dressing on my foot was a good inch thick above the top of my foot, so there was no way the cold was getting through that. When I mentioned that to one of the nurses, she me to apply ice to the back of my knee – that there are nerves that run from there down to your foot and icing behind the knee will help your foot.

I’m sure I looked at her like she was nuts. To say I was skeptical is an understatement. But it worked. So, I not only kept my foot up, but also kept applying ice packs to the back of my knee, above the top of the splint.

After surgery, it’s back to the wrapped and padded splint.

That three weeks, though, was long. Very long. Almost intolerably long. I was just glad I wasn’t wearing that thing in the middle of the summer. It was uncomfortably warm, especially for someone who typically can’t sleep without at least one of his bare feet sticking out from under his sheets.

This is where I want to mention how much help my wife was and has continued to be through all of this. Well, not ALL of it… after all, if she had been with me in Florida, maybe she’d have been nice and gone to the bedroom to get my inhaler for me and I could have avoided the whole damn thing! I suppose it’s unrealistic to blame her, though, isn’t it? Guess I’ll have to take responsibility for this myself.

Other than not preventing this, though, she’s been a trooper. Picking up meals and groceries, not to mention having to haul the knee-scooter around every time we go somewhere. I probably don’t want to know what ring tone she’s associated with my name on her cell phone at this point. She has to be tired of the, “hey can you pick me up some…” calls/texts by now. She’s probably more anxious to see me get into a walking boot and able to run my own errands again than I am.

Until then, though, it’s just binge watching TV and relying on her to keep me from wasting away due to lack of food.

I got all the way through all seven seasons of The West Wing again, though. And started watching the Marvel movies in timeline order (rather than the order in which they were released).

It’s going to be a long winter, isn’t it?