Trimalleolar Fracture Week 1 & 2

I just wanted to warn all of you before you start reading this post there will be surgical pictures of my ankle.  Not actual surgery but the aftermath of the surgery.

OK.. so two weeks ago today was the initial accident.  I did not have surgery that day but the next day Friday.

I was told that I would need a plate and screws in my ankle to put it back together.  OK first of all I don't like surgery.  It's not really about the surgery as it is waking up.  I have a hard time waking up from anesthesia and then I vomit.  I do not like it. PERIOD!  Of course I have no choice in the matter if I want to walk again with a normal gait.  

The surgery itself took 2.5 hours a little longer than anticipated.  My family was a little worried when they thought it was suppose to only take an hour. The doctor came out an told them it was a little worse than he first thought and that I would have this hardware in forever.  So off to recovery I went.  This was by far the best surgery I have ever had!  I elected for the spinal only.  I woke up with no grogginess and did not vomit!  This anesthesiologist was awesome!  And not too bad to look at either!!! lol  He came to my room and checked on me throughout the day.  I was brought back to my room to finish recovering.  Now, there is a down side to having a spinal.  You can't feel mid abdomen down.  I could sorta feel my legs enough to get up to a bedside commode with the help of two nurses, BUT I could not feel that I had to pee.  Let me back up I could feel a pain in my groin HOURS later that made me think I had to pee.  So I asked to get up and try.  Nothing more embarrassing than as soon as you stand up your bladder starts to leak...ok open up... and pee runs down your legs.  So you sit on the bedside commode and keep going.  You apologize to the nurses one being male of course that you couldn't help.  They try to make you feel better but you can only think that a 40 year old should not be doing this,  Now I not only did this once but TWICE! UGH!!!! They ended up having to change my dressings because of the flood.  When they took the bandages off this is what I saw...

ewwwww.... my poor leg will never be the same... oh well I will consider it a battle scar... My foot is swollen as is my leg and ankle.  They bandaged me back up and I was given my Dilaudid pain pump back until Saturday morning.  My nurse was so good to me.  There were only two of us on the entire surgical floor so I got special treatment.  If I hit the nurse call light he would just come to the room instead of asking what I needed.  He would stand in there and talk with me.  But as soon as the 90 year old lady in the next room heard him she would hit her call button.  He would go see what she needed and then come right back.  He tried to make me feel better by saying that he loved taking care of great patients like me.  I guess it was because I rarely hit the nurse call light unless I had to pee.  I had to have an escort. LOL. The doctor came in Saturday morning and said that as soon as I got off the pump I could go home.  It was Valentine's Day and I wanted to spend it at home with Mark.  I already had to cancel our plans to go away for the weekend because of this whole mess.  So, I told him to disconnect it and I would try Norco.  Well, there was a mix up and I did not get any pain medication for several hours and the pain was so intense I couldn't stand it.  I talked to my nurse and he told me that he would call the doctor for another order for Dilaudid to get it back under control.  The doctor said no and since it was so bad I bought myself another night in the hospital. NOOOOOO!!!! Luckily Mark was a good sport and brought me dinner from a local BBQ restaurant and we sat and ate together in the room.  He even brought me flowers.  :-)  It was a long night, but I got through it.  My favorite nurse came back in Sunday morning and told me to get the heck out of the hospital.  I was calling Mark at 8:30 and waking him up to come get me.  He picked up my son and they came to pick me up.  

I got picked up with this little soft cast... I have to keep it up and not put any weight on it at all!!!

Skip ahead to the following Thursday 4 days later.  I was not allowed to remove this cast until I went to the doctor.  So, my son took me to the doctor and once the cast was removed this is what my leg looked like.  I took these after I got home from the doctor's office.  Pretty colors...  I am popping Ibuprofen every couple hours still and Norco at night.  Sometimes the pain is still unbearable and I can't sleep.

And this is what is in my leg... we counted 10 screws and one plate...

I was then sent home is this beautiful, heavy, annoying, crappy... boot  This thing is so cumbersome and rubs my leg wrong in all the wrong places.  That blue circle is a pump that I can add air to it to make it feel better.  Let me just say I have not used it and it doesn't make it feel better.  I am told to sleep in it and keep it on all the time unless I am watching TV or taking a shower then I can take it off.   

After a week of complete and utter inconvenience of trying to sleep with this stupid thing on brings us to today.  Today I was suppose to get my staples out.  Those darn things catch on everything and pull sometimes.  I am ready for them to come out.  I have never had staples so  I had no idea how it felt to have them removed.  I was a sissy and took a pain pill before I went.  Other than that I am down to taking only Ibuprofen at night.  Otherwise the pain has subsided quite a bit.  My ankle is very stiff at this point from not being moved.  So, after all 36 staples were removed this is what I ended up with.  Oh you are wondering what it felt like to have them removed?  Well there is a slight pinch when they put the staple remover under the staple, but that is it.  Plus there are still places on my leg where I have no feeling so it didn't hurt at all.  LOL.  I still had to have steri strips for awhile until the incision is completely healed.  Still some bruising, but much better.  The swelling is just about gone too.

I have an ankle!!!! woohoo!!!!  I still have bruising up near my knee which is really weird...

I know it's hard to see, but even harder to take a picture but you can see a dark spot that is a bruise.

I was told today that I can drive and put partial weight on my foot.  I am so thrilled.  I am going to do ankle therapy on my own to get it loosened up.  Yes, the doctor said that is fine.  LOL.  I am finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  Stay tuned next week for an update.