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.