Day 67: Pins Come Out!!!

Disregard the fact that I'm writing day 67 a couple days late...I felt exhausted the day of surgery and yesterday I moved back to college so I couldn't really find a good time to blog! So anyways....

My pins are out!!! WOOHOO! My mother and I left our home at 5 am to arrive at the Kaiser hospital at 5:40 am. I signed in and we waited to be called back into pre-op. About fifteen minutes later we were called back, and I got undressed and changed into my hospital gown. The nurse helping me was really nice and asked a few pre-surgery questions while another nurse put an IV in my hand (which is still a little sore might I add!). The main nurse also gave me an anti-nausea pill to take, and later gave me an anti-nausea patch behind my ear because they knew I felt very nauseous and threw up a few times after my first surgery. By the time the nurses were all done asking their questions and prepping me, it was only 6:30...I had to wait until 8 to go to surgery! My mom and I just relaxed until then. Finally, one of the residents who would be watching (and maybe assisting) my surgery and also the anesthesiologist came over to answer any questions I had. After this, a nurse wheeled me on my bed to the OR.

Once in the OR, my doctor/surgeon briefly answered my questions and then I transferred beds and was given oxygen. That's the last thing I remember before waking up in recovery! By the way, the surgery was ridiculously short...I remember looking at the clock in the OR and it being somewhere around 8 am, and when I woke up in recovery it was only 8:30!

Even the recovery period was relatively short. A man came in and took x-rays of my foot (which I barely remember cause I had just woken up), and another nurse sat near me asking how I was feeling and mainly just monitoring my vital signs. I guess my vitals were all really good, because the nurse called someone and described how "abnormally well" I was doing, and so they moved me into a different recovery room. The entire time I was in recovery, I felt absolutely no pain. I didn't need any pain killers until I was home, and even then I took a pain pill more for precaution rather than because it was really starting to hurt. I stayed in recovery from about 8:30-10:00 am. My mom came back and got to see me, and that's basically my second surgery experience!

So how am I feeling now that surgery is over? For starters, my foot is bandaged up again so I can't see the pin holes, and I was given a large black boot to wear at all times until my next checkup appointment in a week and a half. When I walk I occasionally get a dull shooting pain in my toe where the pins were. I've only taken three pain pills since the surgery, which is about one per day so far! The day that I came back from surgery, I rested all day and had my foot propped up with ice packs. The day after surgery was move in day so I didn't really get to rest...but not that I needed to! After moving a few things up and down stairs to my apartment (my friends moved most the stuff since I am not technically supposed to carry anything) I still felt no pain! The fact that I was able to move all my stuff in and organize the day after surgery is pretty amazing to me.

Sadly, I did throw up last night....I'm guessing it was because I had taken a pain pill, and they make me nauseous if I don't eat right around the time I take the pill. I feel fine now though! Another yucky thing is that I'm back to taking showers with my shower chair and a trash bag duct taped around my leg. I can't take this bandage off and it can't get wet, so my showers are gonna be a pain for awhile again.

All in all, I am so happy with my results and the timeline of everything! I never thought it would only take 67 days from start to finish. Of course there is still the healing of the pin sites and me having to slowly get my strength back, but I am just glad my ex fix was removed before school/work started again. I would totally recommend anyone thinking about this surgery to go for it! Even though my foot still looks gruesome (for now at least), I have so much more confidence than I did before this whole experience.

This is what my foot looked like a few days after removing the pins. I had to push the toe up because it was laying so low in this picture!

Day 66: Quick Update

This is a quick update of how I've been since day 53, which was my last appointment with the doctor. I'm writing this partly because some things have changed, but also because I get my pins taken out TOMORROW!

Since my last post, I've made a lot of progress. For about the past week, I have been completely off my crutches. I went grocery shopping by myself a couple days ago without crutches, and I've been packing and moving all my stuff to go back to college without crutches. I do walk with a limp because the pins holding down my toe are keeping me from moving my foot the whole range of motion. My foot gets swollen a lot faster now since I'm walking a lot, but it doesn't bother me too much. I don't have any pain, it's more of an uncomfortable feeling. With this huge increase in walking, the circulation in my foot is back to normal! I mentioned in one of my previous blog posts that my foot would turn a weird purple-ish color when I had my foot down on the ground, but this problem has vanished.

I've also noticed that since I've been off crutches, my toe has been sitting down lower and lower (as you can see from the previous three pictures on Day 53). I'm hoping that this problem disappears once the ex fix is off, because my other toes are having a hard time touching the ground now! It's like the complete opposite of my problem before I had the surgery. The other toes are getting a little stiff since they aren't doing their job of supporting my weight when walking, so I have to move them back and forth in my hand to make sure they don't get more stiff.

My surgery is tomorrow at 5:40 in the morning!!! This means I have to leave my house at about 5 am. I'll be my surgeon's first patient of the day, and the procedure should take less than an hour. I'll be asleep for the procedure, which I'm not that fond of...but oh well, not a big deal to me. I just want these pins out of my foot already! I'm extremely excited.

I'll make another post tomorrow afternoon/evening about how the surgery went. Wish me luck/pray for me! :)))

Day 53: Checkup Appointment

I'm posting this blog a couple days after the actual appointment, sorry about the delay!

Anyways, this appointment went AMAZING. As usual, I got X-rays taken first, and then I waited for the doctor to see me. He pulled my X-ray up on the computer and I cannot believe what I saw....a perfect parabola of my metatarsals! My brachy bone looks completely normal now!!! My toe is still short though since it's a 'hypoplastic toe,' but it looks much more normal than before! I wish I had gotten a print-out of my X-ray to put on the blog, but I'll ask for one at the next appointment.

Speaking of next appointment, the purpose of it is to take out my pins!!! The majority of the conversation between my doctor and I at today's appointment was about how well I healed. He said that out of all the patients he's done this procedure on, I by far was the best in terms of taking this procedure without complications. He called me a "textbook procedure" because it went that perfectly. Best news ever! Since my bone regenerate looks awesome and I've been in consolidation phase, my doctor says that I could get the pins out in one to two weeks, all depending on when we can schedule a trip to the OR. I did kind of want to get the pins out in his office without having to go back to the OR, but he feels safer and more confident with it that way. I'm not complaining though, I'm just so excited that this whole process went by without delays or complications!! I don't know how I got so lucky.

On another note, I have been doing really well with walking on my foot. I can now walk without my crutches for little things like going to the bathroom, getting something out of the fridge, etc. I no longer use my shower chair, as I am starting to stand up on my own in the shower (which gets uncomfortable by the end because my foot gets really red and swollen from standing so long, but it's manageable). Even when I'm out of the house running errands or something, I make sure that I'm putting weight on my foot when I walk as opposed to letting the crutches do all the work. It gets uncomfortable, but I have to push myself and make sure that my foot is getting used to walking again.

As you can see in these photos, my toe is starting to sit way below all the other toes. When I walk I feel that toe touch the ground more than any other toe, and I think the more I walk on it the lower it sits. I'm hoping that when I get my pins out (which is tomorrow! I'm writing this on 8/15) my toe will sit in line normally with the rest. 

Day 43

Hello to whoever is reading!

I don't have another checkup appointment until sometime next week, but I just thought I'd write a few updates on how I've been doing. I stopped turning my device for good on Friday, so today marks day four of no turning! Towards the end it was getting extremely difficult to turn the device; it didn't hurt me, but it was uncomfortable because the knob was so hard to turn that the whole device shifted when I moved it. I'm assuming it's because there's been so much tension building up on my toe and hadn't had enough time to stretch out at the rate I was turning.

I'm now starting to put more and more weight on my foot, but very slowly. After the little incident the other week when I tripped and harshly landed on my foot, it had been really sore and painful putting any weight or pressure on it. That held back the progress, but for the past couple days I've started to increase the amount of weight and pressure I put on my foot. It's not painful, it's just really uncomfortable a) because my body isn't used to it AT ALL, and b) because the device is still in my foot, so I can't fully step down with even pressure on my foot.

What's really annoying about the whole process is that every time I have my foot down (in what's called the 'dependent' position) my foot turns a really weird reddish-purple color. Obviously something is out of whack with the circulation to/from my foot, but I've noticed that the more I get my foot used to being down on the ground and gently walking, the weird color goes away. By the end of the day my foot is pretty swollen from all the increased walking and usage, but I listen to my body so I know when I've had enough usage for the day.

Now for some miscellaneous bits of info!
--I've been really busy with my two online summer classes, so the emotional impact of being stuck in my house all summer hasn't been too bad.
--Everyday I take a vitamin D 5000 IU (which says it's 1,250% of daily intake), two gummy vitamins (I'm a kid at heart, and they're so tasty!), and a Tums tablet for calcium. On top of this, I do not drink soda and I eat pretty healthy foods. I am convinced that these steps I take have been the reason why my bone regenerate looks so good on x-rays.
--I still elevate my foot, but now I think it's more by instinct than because I need to. My foot always just finds its way up on top of the table when I sit and resting on pillows when I lay down. I still occasionally ice my foot, but only when my foot is really swollen and/or uncomfortably hot and sore.
--I am starting to stretch my ankle, toes, and foot whenever I can. I have noticed that my foot and toes are starting to get a bit stiff from not being used, and it's always a good idea to keep my ankle moving.

I think that's all! Sorry for the long post, hehe. Like I've said before, if anyone is actually reading my blog and has questions, please ask! I wish I had asked brachy bloggers my insane questions before I had gone through the surgery, because once you've actually gone through with surgery and are healing, those insane questions don't seem so crazy anymore.

Day 36: Checkup appointment

Nothing but good news from my doctor today! I was worried about my foot because a few days ago I tripped coming down the stairs and landed all my weight on my brachy foot. I felt a shooting pain and one of the areas around the pin started to bleed a bit. It is still very tender to walk on but the doctor looked at the x-rays and said everything looked great!

My doctor pulled up the x-rays on the computer and showed me the growth since I saw him last. He says my metatarsal has grown about 13 mm in total! It didn't seem like much in the x-rays until he pulled up an x-ray from before the surgery; it was a huge difference! However, I have a hypoplastic toe which means the toe is physically smaller than normal. This can't be fixed with the surgery, so I'm going to have to live with a shorter than normal toe...I'm just happy my metatarsal is the correct size! Less pain = happy me. Doctor also noticed my bone regenerate, and says it looks really good and has already filled in the gap!

He took another x-ray after talking with me, and this time we looked for the parabola of my metatarsals to  see if I needed to turn anymore. We ended up agreeing that I could benefit from a few days of extra turning, so I will be turning for four more days, until Friday. This week also marks the arbitrary "week 1" of the consolidation phase! He said that by rule of thumb, however long it takes the person to turn the device, that's how long the device will need to stay on to consolidate the bone. Since I turned for about 4 weeks, I should now wait with the device on my foot for 4 weeks. Technically I'm still turning, but he said we can consider this week one of consolidation since everything is going so well and we see apparent bone growth. If all continues to go well, I could have this device off my foot in mid-August!!

Day 28: Checkup appointment

Hello! Today was another checkup appointment with my doctor. It was a quick in-out appointment, thankfully. Doctor came in and the first thing he said was "It's looking good!" He said he notices my toe growing, which is a relief to hear from someone who doesn't see it everyday. He mentioned again (as he does every time) about how my skin is stretching as my bone lengthens, and that is why I feel the  tight feeling on my skin.

As to my previous blog post and how I was concerned about the length, he definitely reassured me! He had originally told me (on the day of surgery) that it would take approximately 20 days of turning the device, but after day 20 my toe still looked super short so I was nervous and disappointed...today, however, he told me--quite confidently--that I should be turning for about a month to get the 10 mm of length I need for my metatarsal to be the correct size. I think he is taking a more conservative approach to the amount of length I turn each day, as to make sure my skin, ligaments, and nerves have time to catch up. He was going to wait until next Tuesday's appointment to take X-rays, but he decided might as well take some today! He personally took the X-rays and explained what he saw as he went along. He pointed to the "bone regenerate" which he was pleased with, and seems happy so far with how things are looking.

After I left, he called me and said he had just measured the X-rays and figured I need approximately 3 more mm of length in my metatarsal, so I should continue turning two clicks a day until Saturday (6 more days) and then we will check the progress on Tuesday! How exciting :)

Here are a couple pictures of how my foot looks as of today:

My toe is finally longer than my pinky toe! Even by just a littleeee

What the pins and incision site looks like. The two middle pins have that yellow-red film around them because they are the ones moving/sliding across the skin to lengthen my bone. Completely normal!

Day 22

Nothing too drastic has occurred since my last post. I did suspect that I was starting to get a pin tract infection around my two middle pins, because the area was much more swollen than the rest of the pins; it was also red and had been oozing some sort of liquid that ranged from clear to bright yellow to reddish. I emailed my doctor about this and he sent a prescription for antibiotics, which I have now been on for about four days now. The area around the pins looks much better than it did before, although it is still a bit more swollen and wound-looking than the rest of the pins because (obviously) the pins are sliding across my skin as the device stretches my bone...I'm not complaining about that, because it's doing it's job! Yay!

Two days ago I was at a family party and was standing, sitting, and crutching around, all the while in 100 degree weather (we've been having a heat wave here in Cali). Because of this, I was unable to rest, elevate, or ice my foot the entire day...by evening when I unwrapped my ace bandage, my foot looked like a balloon! I've never seen it so swollen. It was so swollen that the little strips of tape that had been holding the incision together had raised up and off my foot. I think the shock of this was worse than the actual pain and throbbing, but I took a pain pill to be safe. What a scare!

In terms of my emotional health, I have been a lot more emotional and sensitive than I normally am. I think the combination of pain killers, the pin tract infection scare, staying on house arrest all day everyday, my inability to swim in my own backyard or go to the beach, inability to go to parties with friends (summer parties are the best parties), not having a job all summer (I'm a college student...no job and still having to pay for rent and things? IMPOSSIBLE), or even something as simple as WALKING has taken a toll on me. I try to stay positive but lately it has gotten the best of me. I was feeling really depressed yesterday, but three of my best friends came over and hung out with me all day which snapped me out of it instantly. Anyone wanting to go through this surgery needs to be prepared for this...I told myself for YEARS that I'd be prepared for the emotional aspect of surgery and its implications, but I really had no clue what the reality of it would be like. I'm lucky to have my family and great friends around me to cheer me up and keep me occupied, which I have been very grateful for!

I go back to see my doctor next Monday, July 8th to check my progress. He had told me that I would be turning my device for about 20 days, but it has already been day 15 of turning and I am NOT near my goal length. I'm assuming that he will either ask me to turn three times a day instead of two, or that we will just have to keep turning longer than expected. I'm okay with turning longer, I'm just worried that I'll be going back to school with the device still on my foot, which was the last thing I wanted to have happen. Imagine crutching to class from my apartment off campus to get to my classes that are on the farthest corner of the school...not enjoyable at all. I'm just continuing to pray and think positive thoughts about it!

I'll add a picture(s) next Monday at my appointment, since nothing looks that different from the last set of pictures.