Many of you know that I had surgery on my right Achilles Tendon last month. I had a bone spur growing and tearing into the tendon which was causing pain when I walked or wore shoes with a back. It has been bothering me most of the year but the pain was manageable. I finally went to the doctor in June as it was becoming too much. My doctor told me flat out that surgery was the only way to 'fix' my pain but I wanted to try a conservative approach first. After several months of Cortizone shots, physical therapy, stretching socks, hot and cold soaks and numerous doctor visits I still couldn't wear shoes; the surgery was scheduled for October 6th.
In order to remove the bone spur my doctor detached the tendon at the heel, shaved down the spur, repaired the tendon and then reattached the tendon. The soonest the doctor could schedule the surgery was six weeks out, which is way too long for me to read and research making me so nervous that by the morning of the surgery I had worked myself into a huge ball of anxiety. Dave took me to the hospital, we checked in and walked me back to day surgery where the nurse told me it was time to get changed into the gown and start my iv where I promptly burst into tears. Seeing how scared I was the anesthesiologist gave me a nice cocktail of drugs and the rest is all a blur until I woke up in recovery asking for some water. Apparently I am quite chatty :)
I was on 'strict' non weight bearing for four weeks, followed by crutches for two and will be in my walking boot for another ten weeks. I rented a knee walker from a local medical supply company and got around pretty good. Claire really enjoyed riding on my scooter. She would sit of the first cushion and held on to the handlebars while I would place my knee on the back cushion and pushed her around the house and even the store. She's be grinning from ear to ear saying "weeee weeee"! The crutches on the other hand sucked. They made my arms sore, my under arm sore and even my wrists sore. Not mention I had a harder time getting around with the crutches then when I had the knee walker and my hands were tied up too. My walking boot makes my foot hurt even more. It is large, bulky, uncomfortable and the plastic presses on my wound. However, I totally get why I suppose to wear it at all times. I have fallen a few times (when I wasn't wearing my boot) and WOW-O- WOW did it hurt. Luckily I haven't done any damage and my foot is healing nicely.
My prognosis is two be 80% healed in two to four months and 100% at a year. I am slowly getting better and am looking forward to walking normal again. Thank you to Laurie, Mom and Corky who took time out of they're busy schedules to come and help me with Claire. I couldn't have done it without you!
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| Before (notice the large bump on my right heel) |
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| 7 days post op |
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Black and blue cankels
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Nasty and my legs are hairy since I couldn't get it wet. GROSSSS!
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| Two weeks post op |
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| Still black and blue but I shaved. Just don't tell the doctor |
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| 6 weeks post op |
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| Weeeee! |
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| Claire and mommy rockin the scooter! |
I'll post some more after pictures once the swelling has gone done completely for a true before and after comparison. Oh yeah the doctor tells me apparently I have also have a bone spur on the left side and bunions on both feet. He was very generous and let me know he would gladly operate on those anytime I wanted. No thank you!
