This is an xray of my left foot before surgery. Look at how the the big toe's long bone is totally out of alignment!
Here's the foot after surgery. Check out the screw and the staples! Gnarly, huh? Notice also how much smaller my leg is! Michael says I've lost my muscle mass. I hope in addition it's because I'm eating more healthily!
The first day back was full of medication and sleep and Michael running around getting said medication and the new wheelchair and knee scooter that I needed to hobble around in and out of the bus.
The next day, Michael took me out for a stroll in the wheelchair! I have never been in a wheelchair before so I didn't realize how schnazzy it was until Michael pointed it out. The short walk around the campground actually pooped me out and my foot's pain started returning.
What I didn't know, however, is that the pain of the foot was not associated to running around. It was because I had not been advised to take ibuprofen in between the percocet to relieve the swelling! Once Michael's mom Karen told me that (she's been a nurse for 46 years!), I started to feel so much better.
Raising my foot was of prime concern every hour of the day. Apparently at night I had been lifting my leg up in the air to relieve pain. One morning, Michael set up this contraption to help. In the picture above, I still have the boot that the surgery resident doctors put on. It came off 1 week after the surgery. When Dr. Phipps took it off, he remarked at how much gauze was used to wrap my foot.
After the boot came off, I still could not get my foot wet. You can see my foot is orange from the antiseptic (?) and there are marks on it. Before yesterday, I had to write the word, "yes" on the foot to be operated. The doodle below my "yes" is Dr. Phipps's indiciation that he knows on which foot to operate.
Michael rewrapped my foot a couple of times in the week after getting the soft boot off and before getting my stitches off. You might notice my big toe is now shorter than it used to be. It is! Some people try to put gauze in between the big toe and second toe to create more of a space between them. I would have liked to do that, but the gauze kept coming off. Oh well. I'm just glad I don't have a bunion anymore.
Here I am running around in the bus with my knee scooter. It was really a great choice for indoors. But running around outside was another matter because I can't lift the scooter into and out the car. So this is when I knew we had to get crutches before Michael returned to work. Without them, I would be confined to the bus and we were already running out of milk and frozen dinners! Luckily, they're only $25. I ended up getting the youth size because it fit my height and we get the feeling the kids will one day be needing them - escpecially roughhouser Max.
I enjoyed a few days without stitches and without kids. This was my time to get back into the groove of being the household manager. I'm able to wash the dishes and make food with the scooter. When I was determined to make some salmon on the grill, I figured out how to bring the scooter down the bus. I just sat down, propped it on its hind wheels and used the brakes to slowly drop it step by step to the ground outside. It's similar to one's controlling a bike down steps while standing behind it - except I was sitting on my butt and the scooter was several steps below me. Getting the scooter back up required some grunting and profound upper body strength. I don't think I can do it in the car because I had to be sitting on my butt and needed all the width available. Well, maybe I could if I were desperate enough. Maybe I need to do extra grunts.
The scooter outside is not really terribly needed. My crutches do a fine job because I can stagger to wheelchairs that supermarkets and the Exchange provides.
It was great that the kids were not here the first two weeks of recovery. I may not have healed so well!
The first night they returned was a little nerve-wracking. They slept in the bed with me because we had been apart for 3 1/2 weeks. Luckily neither moved around too much nor kicked their feet wildly. In the morning, however, the kids were moving around interested in the snow flurries falling down outside, and at one point, Max put pressure on my lame foot! It was a good thing my other foot was there to push Max off! This told me however that while the kids are here, the boot is my insurance against their natural, youthful energy. I've already told them to not jump around on the bed, which they've nicely complied these first 2 days.
My dad was a big help when he came! I was able to keep all the trash and recycling out of the bus. Michael had a business trip so our sleeping arrangements were actually quite satisfactory. Simone and Max slept with me on the big bed and my dad fit cozily in Simone's bunk bed! He even said he had more restful sleep there than in his king-size bed at his house! He thinks it's because he was restricted from moving so much and thus didn't startle himself awake as much.
Michael has a lot of business trips in the next few weeks, but with my three mobility aids and my two strong kids who love to run to the trash bins and to the laundry house, we'll get this house back in order despite my lame-ness!
