Yucky to Yippee!!

Today was my first physiotherapy appointment. I was mentally mentally prepared for what lied ahead. My appointment wasn't until 8:30am, but I had to be there at 8am to fill out paperwork. Well, my grandmother likes to be early, and I understand that, but we were there WAY too early. We arrived and checked in at 7:20am. I filled out my paperwork which literally took 30ish minutes to do. So we sat around until I was called around 8:40am. My therapists name is Chris. Well, he's one of them, anyway. He started out by measuring the degree in which I can plantar flex (point foot downward), dorsiflex (bring foot up towards my leg), invert (turn inward), and evert (turn outward). I didn't do so hot. I, along with my doctors and pt'ist, were expecting that. I still have so much edema (fluid) buildup I had to get a compression stocking. It makes my foot feel all squeezed together securely. I like it. Anyway, after he took the measurements he began to push my foot forward and pull it down. It didn't hurt at first, but it didn't take long for his movement to get wider and wider. Then it started to hurt. When I began to let out a shy, low voiced "ahh!" he would stop. Next, it was on to the inversion/eversion exercise. Moving in and out really made my stomach turn. I honestly felt like I was going to vomit. As you may remember, the ankles shattered and are still VERY tender. Then he did the heel slides. Those were easy and were the least painful out of the exercises. Basically, I lay on my back and slide my right heel toward by buttocks until I feel a gentle stretch, hold it for 15 seconds, and then relax it. After that it was time for the ankle circles. For some reason, my body isn't communicating with my foot and allowing me to do this. It kind of looks like when people try to pat their heads and rub their belly's. It just wasn't working without help. After all of the exercises I could do like that we moved over to bicycle machine. I had to bicycle the best I can for six minutes. OUCH! Six minutes might not seem like that long of a time to you, but it felt like an hour to me! At least when I was done we went back over to the table/bench/bed thing and he gave me a nice foot massage. He said when the scab comes off on my lateral side I'll be able to use the Whirlpool for my foot exercises. This scab cant all off soon enough! Chris did say that my tendon seems to be shrinking due to lack of use and we really need to be proactive to avoid a future tendon surgery. Sounds scary. He gave me the above exercises to do at home 20 times/set, 2 sets, 5 times a day. I felt sick all day because of the inversion/eversion one. I have to go to PT 3 times a week at least until March 3.

While we were in proximity of the hospital I coaxed my grandmother into waiting in the Radiology department so we can pick up my records from the ER visit on 12.26.10. Here are three pictures that best show my injury. The rest are posted on Facebook if you care to see more. (Click image to enlarge)




When I got home I received a call from a classmate of mine. She and another classmate wanted to stop by and spend some time with me. I didn't turn down that offer! They hung out for a few hours and headed home. Shortly after I received a text from my friend Amanda asking if her and a few other of our friends could stop by. Again, I didn't turn it down. They showed up around 6ish and hung out for 45 minutes or so.

It's really good to have visitors. It breaks up the day or week and makes my "house arrest" more tolerable. I'm not looking forward to what PT brings tomorrow. He said he went easy on me today. Whatever that means.

ღ mmv

Good news?!

Today was my 5 week check up. I am still unable to bend my foot to the proper angle to wear my boot so I was really not looking forward to today's appointment. I explained to Dr. Rod my situation and was anticipating a "scolding." That didn't happened. He wanted to get some x-rays so he can see if there was a bone blocking another bone from moving to the position required for the boot and later, walking. He had the x-rays taken while I moved my foot back as far as I could bend it back with the aid of a towel. This view allowed him to determine what was going on, if anything. After he reviewed the images he concluded that I was just stiff and there wasn't in fact something blocking it. I would just have to work it harder, he said. Harder? How do you want me to do that? There's only so much I can do, and the minute it hurts or I think I'm doing something wrong I stop. He wants me to go back in 6 weeks to see my progress and then figure out when I should start physiotherapy. I'm not sure if what I'm doing to even try to get it bent is what I need to be doing. I'm not a PT'ist. I know nothing about how to get my foot to bend properly. Ok, I thought. I'll just keep doing what I'm doing. As we were checking out, I was hoping there wouldn't be a repeat -almost death- situation like last time. You see, my grandmother was wheeling me down an incline and said she had me and I could let go of the wheels. So, what did I do? I let go. What shouldn't I have done? Let go. She didn't have me, she was on the phone talking to my aunt. Down the incline I rolled almost ending in my head being decapitated. Nice. REAL nice. So, I said a little prayer and asked for someone to help her guide me SAFELY out of the clinic. Not a second later she took grab of the wheelchair to begin our "adventure" back to the car. She swung my right foot into the wall! Ugh, not once, but TWICE. I don't think she likes me.......

A few hours ago I received a call from my Dr's office setting up an appointment for NEXT week for physiotherapy. Next week? Why? Oh, upon a second look at my x-rays Dr. Rod felt it was necessary to get me in as soon as possible for my ankles to be realigned and help aid me in getting my foot to bend again. As much as I appreciate the fact that he's trying to get me walking sooner as I have a deadline of being able to walk BY May (without the use of walking aids) so I can finish school instead of being dropped I'm not looking forward to them realigning my still very tender ankles. This is going to kill. I called Matty and told him what was going on and he gave me a silver lining. He said, "Well, that's better news than him saying you'd have to go in for more surgery." However, he quickly traded my silver lining in for a rain cloud, filled with very large hail and lightning by saying "It is going to suck when they have to twist your foot to where your joint realigns and you pass out from the pain...." Jerk. Well, actually, I'm not sure if I'd quite mind passing out from pain. At that point they would be able to do whatever they needed to do and I wouldn't care because, well, I'M PASSED OUT! I'm sure you'll have a lovely update to read after that appointment.

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A long overdue post

Wow, it sure has been a while, eh? Sorry about that. And it's not even like I'm doing something way more important, either. After a suggestion from my dad, I decided to make this one long post in chronological order instead of going back and post dating entries. So, here it goes!

The following Saturdays in January: 1st, 8th, and 15th:
Mathew, my husband, decided to take a few Saturdays for himself and go out with his friends. This caused a lot of tension between us as I felt he should be here for me seeing as during those weeks I really wasn't used to the walker and couldn't do much by myself. However, he had a different view. Why should he have to sit here with me just because I had to? We both thought the other person was being selfish. It seemed everyday we were fighting and the stress levels for both of us were REALLY high. There definitely wasn't any walking on egg shells to avoid arguing. Everything would cause a fight. A look in the wrong direction, a simple favor, etc. It's not exactly what I needed or wanted. After all, our vows did say "in sickness AND in health" as well as "for better or worse." This just so happens to be the sickness and worse those vows were talking about. So where was my husband? To this day I still feel he should have been here more, but I do understand where he was coming from. Besides, before all of this, he never hung out with his friends. Guy time is important, I suppose.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011:
My sister, Erica, texted me on Monday asking if I wanted to go over to my parents house for dinner. Really, I thought? Leave the house and not for a doctors appointment? I jumped (not really) at the opportunity to do so. She said she would swing by after work on Tuesday around 5p.m. and take me over to their house. As promised she arrived at 5p.m. and got me loaded in the car. Car rides are much easier and less painful for me now! My dad was coming home around 6ish, and dinner was 30 minutes later. Erica made us taco salad and refried beans. We hung out for a while after dinner and played Jeopardy. I can't really remember who won because they play with some really weird rules. Guessing the answer of the final question BEFORE even seeing it? Unheard of! So, we'll just say it ended in a 4 way tie. It was getting late and I wanted to get home before Matt went to bed so he would be able to help me up the huge step leading to the front door. It was really nice being able to get out of the house! Ahh....I looked forward to more outings.

Thursday, January 20, 2011:
My grandma brought over a wheelchair that she got from a friend of hers. Yes! A wheelchair! I will be able to get out of the house and go for extended periods of time without getting easily tired because of my walker! Super exciting! Watch out, I'll be hell on wheels! Ahh, things are starting to look up!

Saturday, January 22, 2011:
My father-in-law was in town and came over to hang out and take us to lunch at Steak 'n Shake. I didn't bother taking the wheelchair because I would just be walking from the car to the restaurant and then back to the car. Easy enough. Lunch was over and it was back to the casa we went. After another hour or so he left. Matt had to go grocery shopping and I wanted to get out of the house. After what seemed like forever (it was actually only like 20 minutes) I convinced Matt to take me with him. We went for a drive on the beach. I had my head out the window like I was a puppy dog! I was so happy to be out of the house and to be hanging out with my husband. It had been a while. Like I said before, he had been hanging out with his friends on the weekend leaving me home by myself. What a change. He realized it was okay to let me out of the house, and by then it had been 4 weeks post so it was easier for me to get around and I wasn't in as much pain anymore. After the drive on the beach we arrived at Publix. He got the chair out of the trunk and helped me get out of the car and pivot into it. The minute I sat down the right arm rest popped off! This chair, I have to tell you, is quite old. Both breaks are broken, there is rust of the frame, cobwebs in the wheels, and now, it's missing an arm rest. But hey, I was out of the house and I'm not going to complain about the looks and age of the chair. It works and I'm happy to be able to borrow it. Grocery shopping was completed and our evening was spent watching a movie. It was really, really, REALLY nice to be hanging out with the hubby again. My weeks are spent by myself that it's nice to have something to look forward to.

Saturday, January 29, 2011:
We went to Tampa to visit Grandma Varisco, use her Sam's Club card to get some stuff, and have lunch with her. We went to Sam's Club. For this outing I used the wheelchair. I was in the chair for quite some time but at this point in time I wasn't hurting. Back to the house for lunch. We picked up a Rotisserie chicken from Sam's and made yellow rice to accompany it. It was really good. I had been CRAVING rotisserie chicken for a longgg time. By the time we got home, my foot was purple and swollen and hurt fairly bad. Too much too soon, I suppose. The rest of the day I spent with my foot elevated and only got up when I had to.

Today, January 31, 2011:
My steri-strips finally fell off on Tuesday, January 25th. The scar looks like it wont be too bad, but I will want to find a decent working scar removal cream so I wont have to be reminded of this horrible event in my life every time I look down at my foot. I would actually like to pretend it never happened at all.

Last Tuesdays appointment was cancelled because my doctor had surgery. Not sure what for, only know my appointment was moved to tomorrow. I am absolutely not looking forward to it. I am still not able to get my foot bend enough to put it in the boot. There is a bone not allowing my foot to bend. I am scared Dr. R might say I need to have additional surgery to shave the bone down or to adjust the placement of the hardware. If it is one of those options I hope it just needs shaved down. The only recovery I'll have to do with that option is to allow the new incision to heal. It shouldn't add on to my existing recovery time. Tomorrow will be 5 weeks post op and by this time I should be able to bend it and hear that I am able to put weight on it. However, it doesn't look like that's going to happen. :( I don't know, I could just be over reacting. Either way, I'm still not looking forward to the appointment.

Matt should be getting home in 30 minutes. We picked up this Raspberry Chipolte marinade from Sam's and I am eager to try it out.

I will post more often, I promise.

ღ mmv

Ahh, so that's what a full nights sleep feels like - I almost forgot! I feel super refreshed and I am in much better mood today.

I worked on my newly assigned foot exercise this morning and will have to do it again this evening sometime. I have to start flexing it. The better I get at this, the better my foot will heal and aid when I start doing PT. I did pretty good this morning. I would pull my foot back using an exercise band (It's the only Christmas present I am able to use so far....) and hold it there for a minute. I would then slowly let my foot down and then repeat the process. I did this for 20 minutes. My foot started to swell so I had to stop. I was expecting this to hurt quite a bit seeing as it hasn't had the opportunity to move. To my surprise it didn't! After I did it with help I tried to do it on my own. I can move my foot back but not nearly as far as it needs to get. Practice, practice, practice!

It's amazing how quick atrophy sets in. It's only been 2½ weeks and I've already lost 1⅓ inches in diameter from my right calf muscle! I'm hoping these foot pumps (Forget your fist pumps, Jersey! Down here we do the foot pump!) I'm supposed to be doing help my calf from diminishing any more than it already has.

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I'm having somewhat of a "great" day! And I'm not even being sarcastic! I was visited by my Aunt Sherry, an RN, earlier this morning. She brought me some medical supplies such as an ace wrap (for some reason Matt threw ours out a few months back because nobody was using it... I guess he doesn't get the concept of a medicine cabinet?!) some 4 x 4's and something to take the pressure off of my foot while in the boot or while it's elevated. I showed her the problems I was having getting into the boot and asked her opinion. She said it's simply not ready to be put on. We ace wrapped it using a figure 8 and I bent my foot up as far as I could. After I realized (well, after Sherry made me realize..) I have to stop thinking in the mindset of a patient and think like a nurse I was able to remain calm about the situation.

I absolutely LOVE my new bath chair!! I was able to get into the shower COMPLETELY allowing me to wash everything. See, before I received the chair, I would have to wash my legs and feet with a baby wipe. I don't think this got me too clean and left me feeling a bit miserable. But today I was able to get in, wash, AND shave my right leg (the best I could, anyway)!!

It is now 2pm and I'm feeling fine. I didn't necessarily like the pills Dr. Rod gave me to help me sleep. I still twitched (which these were supposed to end) and didn't get much sleep. I did sleep for four straight hours instead of an hour here and there, though.

Gizmo has taken to a new spot in the house. He has to be right next to my foot at all times. He wont allow anyone near me as he thinks they are going to hurt me. This is cute, but can get quite annoying.

My foot is swelling up quite a bit so I think it has seen enough excitement for today. I better go elevate it.

ღ mmv

Oww, oww, owwwwwwwwwwwwww! I had my stitches removed today, a few hours ago to be exact. I had asked around as to whether or not having sutures removed hurt - the reviews were mixed. I can see where both parties were coming from. A few sutures had to be dug out due to the skin growing around them and in this situation it hurt. Badly. For the other sutures it was a weird sensation, mostly uncomfortable. However, I'm not going to lie - I held my breath, closed by eyes, and held on to my grandma's hand really tightly for both the stuck and unstuck sutures. They steri-stripped the incision site to protect it and make sure it's still held together nicely. The doctor said I don't need to wear splint full time from now on, just when I sleep and I feel my foot start rolling inward. I'm also able to start getting it wet and washing the area. Oh! And most importantly, I'd be able to shave that leg! The MA came in and said they were going to hold off on the boot and put the splint back on. I didn't like this idea, because quite frankly, its a pain in the butt (and rather painful) to unwrap and rewrap a splint with the amount of gauze they have to use to secure it properly to my ankle. And now that I only have to wear it to sleep and such, this would be a time consuming process. I asked Dr. Rod if I could just get the boot now instead of in two weeks (my next appointment) and he said it wouldn't be a problem. The MA fetched the boot and instructed me on how to put it on. This procedure hurt entirely waaaaaaaay too much. My foot has been stuck in the same position for two weeks and any movement hurts it, much less the bending it to a 90 degree angle. My heel kept popping out the back so she would have to start over. This was repeated 3 times before she said that its as good as its going to get. We left the doctors and went to Walgreens to pick up a Rx for some pills that will help me sleep. Yay for that! Meanwhile, I tried adjusting my boot 2 times trying to get it perfect. With no avail, I gave up.

I am now home and just got off the phone with my Aunt Sherry, a RN, and asked her how imperitive it is to have the bars on my boot parallel like the MA was pushing for. The response was what I thought it was, if its not working, don't worry about it - its not even weight bearing, its no big deal. She also said I could simply just wrap it with an ace bandage in a figure 8 and get the same effect, but more comfortably. With that being said, I am leaving my boot on to get used to the position, but tomorrow I will be taking it off until bed time. I also received my new set of exercises. This will make my foot stronger and will make getting in and out of the boot much easier.

I saw my parents on Sunday. It was really nice to see them! They brought me some homemade spaghetti sauce and some fabric scraps so I can do something crafty. My grandma brought me some word searches (why are those things so dang addictive?!) to work on. So, I have lots of things to occupy my days with. Matt's vacation ended yesterday so it was back to the grind for him today.

I'm not feeling quite well and will now find my way to the couch. Matt should be home soon :)

ღ mmv

I....need.....sleeeeeeeeeeeep!

Another sleepless night. I don't know why this is, but during the day I'm pretty comfortable but the minute I get ready for bed and lay down, WHAM, I enter uncomfortable land! In total, I believe I got 1.5 hours last night. Nice, right? As soon as I fall asleep, not a minute more, my foot does this twitching thing. It forces my foot off the pillow and slams it back down onto the pillow. Recently, a new twitch developed. It now twitches my foot left or right. This is very painful as my foot still is unable to go that direction. Then I'm up for a while, in tears and pain, until I can go "back to sleep." Rinse, repeat. When I wasn't twitching, I wasn't breathing, (hey, thanks sleep apnea!) so Matt would have to nudge me awake (I guess he isn't sleeping too much lately, either. This will most likely lead to nothing good). I still have to sleep with my foot elevated above my heart, thus, making me sleep on my back. I am a side sleeper and cannot sleep comfortably on my back. So not only am I going stir crazy from being a prisoner in my own home, I'm also getting delirious from lack of sleep. Wait a minute, this is like that movie... you know the one... The Shining! "Heeeeeeeeeeeere's Megan!"

I've developed a new habit. I take off the splint and dressing and re-wrap it constantly throughout the day. I did this 19 times last night from 12am-5am. I do this in hopes of landing a position that is at least tollerable. It hasn't felt secure or comfortable since Tuesday, before my appointment. The MA that re-wrapped it after it was taken off didn't do it right. She didn't use enough padding around the ankle area, which, duh, that's where the injury is, and well, duh, that's where the most padding should be! That and the split is a little too big, so more padding was necessary than usual to fill the larger areas, which she declined to do. In attempts to fix it properly, I sent Matt to the store to buy more gauze like they used so they wouldn't know I was fiddling with it, however, the type they used was uber expensive so I told him nevermind.

I'm not allowing myself to take a nap today. I need to be fatigued for tonight. Maybe that will give me the sleep I need. Here's to hoping, anyway.

ღ mmv