Challenges

The defrosting was well and truly complete by the wee hours of Sunday morning. I had been starting to hope that I might have an easier time recovering this time. Denied. I slept very poorly, and had a lot of discomfort. I tried to let Krista rest but she could hear me downstairs. Her maternal instincts / spidey senses wouldn't let her rest either. That night I skipped my pill installment because I felt so poorly and I felt Krista should get at least one night off. Probably a mistake, in retrospect, because I had a low grade fever at 6am when I couldn't cope any longer.

Even relatively comfortable positions were next to impossible to find. I started taking the Percocet more regularly, and that left me groggy and feeling ill. Next trick, up the water intake. Over a couple of days of tweaking, I eventually found something close to a balance. I'm using my cell alarm to remind me every four hours to top up both water and pills - even during the night.

So much for having learned from the first experience.

By Tuesday, my fever was under control and I felt well enough for my parents to visit. We spent an hour or so, updating them on my status and experience in the hospital.

My appetite was getting better by this point too, and I hit another milestone: I actually went TO the bathroom. I had been "making water" in a plastic urinal we got from the hospital, but I hadn't yet beat the constipation inducing drugs in my system.

The journey to the bathroom was difficult, because although I had started finding pseudo-comfortable positions in bed, my knee's range of motion had been decreased significantly and was painful to move. I couldn't put the knee on the scooter, let alone put any weight on it, without a lot of pain. So there was a lot of hobbling and wailing as I made my way to the bathroom.

The next hurdle: this time it's the right leg doing the work, which means I am on the right side of the scooter while in motion. So everything is backwards now. I couldn't drive into the bathroom, because I couldn't perform a dismount from the other side of the scooter. So, get out, turn around, back in. Argh. The scooter had felt very natural while performing for the physio nurse, but now it is almost impossible to use. Not useless - because I can still get around, but nothing is easy. Hopefully, that changes when I'm to the point of being out and about.

The range and pain in the knee is quite a bit better now, but I still dread having to get around in the house.

My goal for this week is to get acclimatized enough to be able to actually work from home productively next week. Of course, since the surgeon wants to see me in the fracture clinic on Tuesday, I'll only have one work day before another off day and possibly a tough recovery from being out. Sigh.

In the mean time, other business continues as usual. We're still struggling to get the stove we paid for on Jan 23. On Wednesday, the delivery boys came by with the wrong stove. We have had little luck getting The Brick to take responsibility for it. That is, they say "sorry", and "we'll look into it" and like that but haven't produced results yet.

Today, Thursday, is my birthday. We're trying not to let anything get us down when we should be celebrating. And I had another milestone: I got my hair washed for the first time since 4am on Friday morning. What a relief. I've been feeling so oily and dirty. Thanks for the hose down in the kitchen sink, Krista. I also had a nice Thai dinner and some TV catch up time. Krista joined me on the bed for that.

Next? Tax time.

Doing it all again

At the hotel on Thursday night

The surgery has come and gone and I am back at home. Dr. Stevens said the surgery went beautifully. He was very proud of his work on the bunion. Apparently, when the small bones in the mid foot let go, the forefoot shifted and turned out. Now when the pin was established mid-foot, he was able to turn the forefoot back to it's correct position and pin it there. So no "ectomy" was required! Pretty cool.

Getting prepped

Also, I do have the same fiberglass cast like last time. The staff at the pre-surgery clinic had told me that they wouldn't be able to use a cast because the forefoot must be allowed to swell. I asked Dr. Stevens about that and he said the pre-surgery people don't know what goes on in surgery and they didn't ask him what to tell me. Interesting to experience staff dynamics as a third person.

In my room, feeling no pain

All the staff I interacted with were very good - pre-surgery, day surgery nurses, operating room, recovery room, floor nurses and physio. Even after I scared the day surgery nurse by telling her that for my first surgery, three nurses had tried to set up my IV and all failed after much stabbing and prodding. I wanted the anesthetist to do it because that had gone very well in July. She eventually relented and had an IV nurse give it a first try - and by golly, it worked.

It's easy to believe the bunion is gone

Another fun event was that they woke me up before surgery was complete. Apparently my breathing had become erratic. The spinal and nerve blocks were still in place so I felt nothing. It seemed as if they must be working on somebody else. When the cast was on, Dr. Stevens lifted my leg so I could admire his handiwork, and it still didn't fell like it was my leg he was holding.

Shepherd's pie

Some of the renovations in the hospital had been completed by now, so Dr. Stevens was able to find Krista to give her a status report immediately after surgery. After a couple of hours of "defrosting" I asked a nurse in the recovery room to give Krista another update. I felt better knowing she was informed.

Scooting for the physio nurse

They waited a bit longer before bringing me to my room because a bed wasn't immediately available. When they did bring me up, it was to a four person room. Having a semi-private insurance upgrade doesn't help when a room isn't available. My roommates were decent enough fellows though, and all was well. I even got a window corner.

Even so, my goal was still to go home at the earliest opportunity. The nerve block hadn't worn off all the way the following day by the time the physio nurse came to see how I would get around at home. We had brought my knee scooter, so I had to reschedule until Krista could bring it in. Anyway, I was fairly pain free and impressed the physio nurse that I would be fine at home. We made it home by 3pm on Saturday.

Round 2

I've been mute in this forum for four months. That doesn't mean that nothing happened in all that time. My right foot has been healing and strengthening steadily. Whenever I overexert my feet these days, the operated foot recovers more quickly than the flesh-and-broken-bone foot. That's a good sign. I still find myself walking on my heels, even on the fixed foot - I will have to work on strengthening the muscles in the forefoot.

Besides mending, I have been trying to schedule my second surgery. My left foot needs the same triple arthrodesis surgery, but it also needs a bunionectomy. So the surgery may take longer and the healing will be different. I'm told my foot will swell significantly, so I won't be able to have the same type of cast as before because it would be too confining. Anyway, back to the scheduling process. My surgeon's staff haven't been as available as I'd like and I spent over three months attempting to get a surgery date. His office moved over the holidays, and apparently their systems were down for three weeks, but in my mind that doesn't explain three+ months of inaccessibility. When the date did finally get communicated, I had a mere two weeks to prepare. I had seven weeks last time. Oh well, that's in the past and the surgery is TOMORROW.

We've got my home "hospital room" set up in the living room again. We're doing final preparations and packing now. Today is a work-from-home day for me so I'm checking my laptop at least every half hour to make sure I'm not leaving anybody waiting on me. And, apparently, I'm writing a blog post.

We're leaving for Kitchener this afternoon. The surgery is at 8am and I have to be at the hospital by 6am. Three hours earlier than last time. I'm still hoping to stay in the hospital for only one night and come home on Saturday.

Another difference this time around is that I was taken off my pain medication for five days before surgery. That has taken and is still taking its toll. I've also been diagnosed with high blood pressure. Too bad sodium tastes so good. More medication and diet changes in my life.

All in all, I think it's manageable. Again, I think it will be harder on Krista than on me. Somebody should give that lady a medal. Oh, I think that somebody is me. Thank you for your perseverance, my love.