Wait... What? 3 Weeks since my Surgery!

So hey. It's been 3 weeks since my surgery. I'm downstairs sitting at my kitchen table without any cast or boot on. Barefoot. I love being barefoot, but I digress. So I guess I should tell you all about everything so here goes...(also look how big my dog is) 

Surgery Day. I was weirdly excited. All the normal surgery things happened. They brought me back, got undress and in a fancy robe. (See picture) About 70 people asked me which leg they were operating on- which again y'all should really know, but whatever. Then my doctor came by and had to sign his name on my leg, (yeah I don't know) went over what he was going to do and at this point I'm just like shut up and do this. I was so ready. Then I got to meet the McSteamy anesthesiologist. He said we were going to do a nerve block to "help manage my pain". This is when it got real. I was managing pain everyday, is it going to be worse? They said that is would help with surgery pain and could last for a couple of days and then I would have pain killers and life would be good. I was filed this away under suspicious, and got ready. They gave me relaxing drugs at first then wheeled me into the operating room. I had to get on another bed and then they gave me a mask and said breath normal. So I did, and the next thing I remember is waking up. Oh and the pain. Holy crap my leg hurt!!!!! But the nurse was able to give me big drugs. Hooray. Lowery tells me I said some unpleasant things to the recovery nurses- like their cookies were just ok and that surgery really sucks. I do not recall such things so who knows if they actually happened. Anywho, we went and got food and medicine from the pharmacy (which was a huge hassel but that's a story for my husband and it apparently got ugly). But I was at home and in my bed FINALLY.

This cast that I had looked very similar to the other soft cast that I had previously but was supremely heavier. So I did the best I could with sleeping that first day. And the second day after surgery my nerve block wore off. I  know exactly when it happened because I was laying in bed and suddenly I was in intense pain. I increased my pain medicine, and sucked it up. Well really I cried, and cried and cried. About 3 or 4 days after surgery where easily my worst. I was so depressed and I had to take the pain meds every 4 hours on the dot. I could feel 3 1/2 hours and knew when I needed more. I was really scared. I told Lowery that I thought I would become addicted to these pills because I couldn't even try to go without one dose. A couple of days after that, slowly I started feeling better. And eventually better and better. I used all the pain pills and didn't need them and I started managing my pain with Advil. Soon it wasn't pain anymore and just discomfort.

So 2 weeks after surgery I got to see the surgeon and make sure everything is ok. My first mistake was thinking I could use my crutches all day. I live to regret that. I wasn't used to them and didn't have the strength or the energy to do that. But anyways I got new Xrays and they cut off my new cast- which was a plaster cast underneath the ace bandages. (Explains the heaviness) So let's talk about my frankenstein scar. It's crazy right?! I normally am pretty vain. I have no problem saying that but after this ordeal I just want my foot to work and I don't give two flips about what it looks like. But it's pretty gross. So the Doc says everything looks good. Plates and screws are good and bone is growing. Yes! Good news. And in even better news, he gave me an Aircast. That means I can take it off and shower! PRAISE JESUS! You have no idea what it is like to have what I call a partial shower. But he says we start PT the following week (which was this week) and he wants to see me again before we leave for Christmas vacation.
Hooray.

So PT. I'm kinda excited. A little nervous- I just started feeling good. I can spend the whole day downstairs now- this is something I'm only able to do this week. My energy level have been so low and now I'm seeing improvement. So is PT gonna jack with my good feelings? Am I gonna be sore? Oh geez. So I went and it was totally fine. It didn't "hurt". But Bill my PT says it's all in my brain. I've spent 6 weeks guarding this foot, making sure no one (and no puppy) comes close to this foot. But now is the time to get moving. I am flexing it, stretching it, massaging and best of all showering. So it all really starts this week- because last week was Thanksgiving and I could only go once. Next week is 3x. Yowza.

Day Before Surgery...

My sweet boy!

So it's the day before my surgery and I feel pretty darn good (except the whole broken ankle part...) I am finishing up any school work, and few odd and ends for my office and my friend is bringing me a yummy lunch. Things are looking up :) I also had 2 family members have surgeries and they both got good reports so you could say I'm floating on cloud 9. I think this is the 1st day I've really felt happy since the accident. It's so easy to get caught up in only thinking about myself, but I always feel better when I am focused on other people and good stuff. So yeah I went to the doctor yesterday and got cleared for surgery so I'm on the upswing. Here's a picture of my puppy Cooper to brighten your day.

Monday came and went...

*** Caution This Blog post contains pretty gross pictures of my broken ankle****

Ouchy!

I was so happy for Monday. 2 important things were happening. 1. I talked with my professor at grad school and I will be able to complete my semester. Praise the Lord!! And 2. I was going back to the surgeon. So I took a quasi-shower and got dressed. It took so much longer than that sentence gives it credit for... Anyways got looking decent and my girl, Kayla came and picked me up to go. So first there are the stairs-my sworn enemy. I have found the best way to deal with those jerks is just to "scoot" on my butt. Not glamorous but it gets the job done. So Kayla pretty much pulled her car up to my front door- what would the HOA say? (The answer is I don't care) and we got me into the car. She has glorious leather seats and I was able to slide in without much problem. So we get to the surgeon's office and I have just resigned myself to riding in a wheelchair. Because crutches suck- it takes so much energy for me to just get out of bed much less use crutches.

The Death of me

My Xray- all jacked up

 So I get wheeled to my appt and the nice tech started unwrapping my foot- not so bad... then we saw how super disgusting it really was. Zombie foot. That's what it looked like- But the surgeon, Dr. H comes in and the first thing he does is touch my foot. To which I said "OKKKK! you are touching my foot" He looked at me like I was crazy but seriously just say Hey I am about to touch this brace yourself... Anywho he says I am good to go for surgery- when do I want it? I said what are you doing in 20 minutes and he said seeing patients... Geez at least humor me. So I said tomorrow is good. Fine- he sent his nurse in to schedule everything.  Done and Done- Oh wait they have to re-wrap my ankle.  BOOOOOO! This part really hurts because they make me dangle my foot off the bed. In my defense I only called the guy who was wrapping it a jerk- there were a lot of other names I was considering. But now that I'm home in bed I realize he really wrapped it good. So thanks jerk guy :)

Super Gross and Smelly

So as it turns out I have to have a pre-op from my family doctor. Dr. H's nurse said they didn't even want to give me an appt for this week. I am  about to lose it. The only thing standing between me and surgery is my family dr's office?? So we schedule surgery for Thursday and I have an appt today @ 1:45pm with the family doctor and boy howdy are they gonna hear it from me. I did call yesterday after we were leaving to see if there was anyway on planet earth we could get in yesterday. I even started faking crying, which soon turned into real crying when they just couldn't get me in. So alas, today's gonna be fun.

Just a gnarly bruise

The bright side in all of this is Dr. H's office is right across the street from my favorite restaurant Carabbas. So we picked up some dinner to go and finally made it home. This whole process, going up and down the stairs, talking with the dr, the car ride were just extremely exhausting. And I have to do all that again today and Thursday, but Thursday I'll be coming home with new hardware in my foot and be on the road to recovery. So that's something.

1st Blog Post...

Pre-Injury Dana

Clumsy girl- That's me. My whole life my family has called me "Grace" or some version of that because I have just a hard time even walking straight. It's something I am relatively used to honestly. I fall a lot. I moved to Pennsylvania about 5 years ago and experienced snow for the first time. I have fallen in the snow just about every time it has snowed. Last year I slipped on the ice and gave my self a concussion. Seriously. That was ridiculous. I thought that was the extent of my clumsiness, but alas last Monday happened.

A little puffy...

Let me set the scene... I have a 4 month old puppy, and puppies, like children wake during the night to use the restroom. My husband and I had a system worked out where he walked Cooper during the day and I would do the night. No problem- I am a light sleeper and every time he whines I wake up. So Monday was no different, it was a regular 5am morning walk, we woke up, I grabbed the leash and we both wanted to get back to bed. I walked outside and took one step on the wet grass, and fell. Immediately, I knew my ankle was broken. I heard (and felt) the POP and was on the ground instantly. I let go of Cooper's leash and I had no idea where he went. Then the pain hit. I have no idea what I screamed but I yelled something, I really hope the neighbors didn't hear. But Cooper came running back, and I realized I was gonna have to crawl back to the front door because my husband was fast asleep upstairs. So I pushed my little puppy in front of my body(who was extremely confused), and army-crawled back to the porch and threw the front door. Once I got to the porch, I was yelling for my husband, Lowery to come help. He ran down the stairs and I can't imagine what he thought when this scene unfolded in front of him. This was when I began barking orders. Take the dog to the basement and call 911. My husband did just that. I had him grab my some clean clothes, and some deodorant (it was literally the first thing I thought of) and we waited. Did I mention I was just screaming and crying? Because I was. I, then texted my boss to tell him that I had broken my ankle and that the ambulance was on it's way. He is a chiropractor and accustomed to treating sports injuries so his opinion means a great deal to me. I texted him the picture up top.

So anyways I don't have the strength to tell you how obnoxious the ambulance ride was. The EMT's were at least 70 years old and the man weighed about 100lbs soaking wet and I just couldn't imagine how they were gonna get my big butt on the stretcher. Well they didn't I had to crawl over to it and my husband and I got myself onto it.

*******The ride to the hospital was the worse pain I have ever experienced. Easily. ***********

After pain meds in the ER...

Absurd 1st cast

But we made it. And one of the perks of riding in an ambulance is that you go to the "fast track". That means when they rolled me into a room, there were 3 nurses there and ready for me. They gave me warm blankets and got me ready for drugs! Yay! Pain meds! The doctor came in a took a look and said he was going to send me for an xray and that I couldn't eat or drink- which lead me to believe I was gonna have surgery- but I pushed that out of my head and waiting for the good, good drugs. Xrays confirmed what I already knew, that my ankle was broken in 2 places and that it would require surgery. He was going to talk to the Ortho Surgeon and would let me know what was next. After waiting a little, (I was definitely woozy) they told me that they couldn't do the surgery right away due to other surgeries that were taking place and that they would discharge me and I should go see the Orthopedic surgeon's office immediately. But first an ER aid had to put a cast on my ankle so I wouldn't injury myself in the mean time. This was the 2 most painful thing that's ever happened to me. He had to bend and manipulate my ankle to get it in this cast. It.was.awful. Also he put it above my knee. They expected me to walk out of there on crutches. I couldn't bend my knee at all. Awful. I went home via taxi-cab (My husband doesn't drive) and got settled on the couch. I believe the only reason I was able to get to my couch was because I was on so many pain meds. I had a terrible time getting back into the house after the ortho visit- but that's a little later.

So my wonderful boss came over on his lunch break and helped me get into his van to get to this appointment. They took off my awful hospital cast and looked at my ankle and finally showed me the xrays. I look at xrays pretty regularly at my job, but when it's your ankle and it looks crazy broken things get weird. I can't remember if I mentioned how much I was crying but it was a lot and at anything and everything. So anyways the PA was telling me about what was going to happen and the surgeon came in and told me the same thing. We had to wait a week for the swelling to go down, and then they were going to cut open my ankle put a metal plate in there to make it stable and put in some screws, and then later they will take out the screws (that's 2 surgeries) and in 8-12 weeks I should be able to walk again?!!!!! 8-12 Weeks Holy crap.

My first question- and I know this is going to sound silly- was can I snorkel in December? I go on vacation after Christmas and despite being extremely busy it's the thing that is keeping me going. "I'll be on vacation soon, get to see my niece and nephew and then snorkel" It's my manta, I've been thinking it for weeks. But the good doctors pretty much said no. Boo. But he does think I will be able to go on the cruise just not snorkel and I can live with that. So that brings me to where I am now... Sitting, waiting, sleeping and just being - waiting for my appointment tomorrow. I will hopefully get scheduled for surgery and get to healing.

Kayla cleaning me up!

It's already been such a long road and I haven't really done anything. My office is being amazing. They are coming by my house 2x per day to make sure I can go to the bathroom while my husband is at work, bringing me dinner every single night-which is a huge blessing! My friend Kayla is coming by and bringing me things I need and just keeping me sane.

Halloween With the Office

And my sweet husband... he is probably feeling this the most. He is having to take complete care of our overgrown puppy, me and also go to work and do every day normal things. I guess I started this blog to document this process. I have been watching You Tube videos going through similar things and I just want to tell what it's all like for me. I've been very depressed. Losing complete mobility is a harsh slap in the face. I am so independent. But not now, and not for a while. I am trying to accept help gracefully and I know it's gonna be a long journey.