Stitches out...

I'm so glad, the last of the stitches are out! Hooray! I still don't get to take a bath until Saturday... but it's nice to not have to wrap my legs anymore. I've started back to work, but only part-time. It's amazing how much my legs still swell and how tired I get, despite having my legs up at work as much as possible. And my poor little legs are SO dry!

Oh well, soon enough it'll be all healed and back to biking, hiking, swimming and skiing! :)

I had something else I was going to say, but now I can't remember what it was....

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Turkey Day everyone! :) Let's see...what am I thankful for? Everything, but especially that I can finally walk around the house without pain. Whoohoo!!!!! I see the doc tomorrow morning for my 10 day check up. We'll see if they want to take out the stitches. I hope so, so that I can take a shower. Ick, 10 days without a shower or bath...not too fun. So here I am a couple days ago getting ready for my leg/foot massage. My mom was a PT, so I got lots of nice massages. They really are feeling much better, but there are some odd twinges, and my left leg down at the bottom is numb.

My mom headed out this morning. She probably would have left a day or two ago, but she was nervous about the weather on the pass. Looked clear today. It really was great having her here. Not only did I get massages, but I got to see the pictures of Mexico!!! I got to see what I missed. :) My cat Loki decided that she LOVES my mom. I've never seen her all over someone like that. She's usually really shy, but she was seriously ALL OVER my mom! If we were sitting down she chose mom's lap over me. Now that's unusual.

My mom had never seen any of the Harry Potter movies, so we watched #1-4 while she was here. She really enjoyed them and wants to read one of them. Hee hee.

Welcome Vahla!

One of my best friends Sylvia and her husband Spiro had their first child this weekend. Her name is Vahla Elyse and she's just BEAUTIFUL! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Here's Spiro with Vahla on day one.
Syl and Vahla at home.
And I LOVE this one, Vahla and their dog Twitch. Twitch is SUCH a "mother" dog...you can already see how much she loves her new baby! :) I can't wait to meet her in person. I was supposed to go up this weekend, as Syl's sister Serena is getting married, but since I'm on bed rest that can't happen. Oh well...Christmas.

Pictures of the incisions

Ok, I decided to not post the pictures here, 'cause I know some of you are complete wussies! :) But I've made a Flickr gallery of both surgeries. The ones from this surgery are at the end. See, lost longer and they're going to scar really good!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chandravan/sets/72157603189421875/

Home from Surgery

I spent the weekend setting everything up in my house for when I came back from surgery. I decided to rent a hospital bed, since getting up of the air mattress on the floor was difficult enough last time. I also shopped...I don't think you could fit one more thing in my freezer or cupboards! :) But I got it all set up to my satisfaction, and it's pretty good if I do say so myself.

My surgery was scheduled for 12:20 on Monday, which meant no food after midnight and no fluids...nothing, after 6:30 am. Heidi and Derek took me to the hospital at 10:50, I checked in, had my pre-op blood taken and all that. Then I sat and waited for the nurse to come take me back to the surgery area. And I wait...and wait...and wait. Finally at 1:00 I asked one of the admitting nurses. She checked and found out that Dr Smith was really behind. She'd had some serious complications with her first surgery and everything was behind.

So they sent me out to wander around, but gave me a pager. They'd page me when Dr Smith was ready. All I could smell everywhere I went was the cafeteria. I was SOOOO hungry and thirsty. But I still could not have anything. I sat in the lobby and did crossword puzzles. Finally I got beeped at about 3:50. They took me back, but by the time I actually got into surgery it was about 5:30.

The surgery went well, but my coming out of the anesthesia was a little more difficult than last time. I was really nauseous, so I had to stay until I felt ok. The nurse opened up an antiseptic wipe and used that as smelling salts. Worked really well! :) By the time Barrie and Kate were able to take me home it was after 9:00. I spent the night there and I gotta tell ya, they really took care of me! :) Here I am on the couch just after getting there. Icing. The doc wants me to wear those soft casts/walking casts on both legs. At the hospital the pants I had wouldn't go over the big boots, so they game me some scrubs. Hee hee.

This time around, it's much more painful! Dr Smith warned me that it probably would be, since she did two muscles in each leg not just one. Well, she was right. OMG! Last time on day two I could do a little walking...sure as a hobble, but I could do it. This time I can shuffle a foot or two...but only if I'm holding on to something. Sigh. This was me yesterday morning.

My mom is going to come down and take care of me on Thursday or Friday. I'm looking forward to that...some times you just need your mommy to come take care of ya! :) So that's my update for today.

Getting ready

So, this weekend is all about getting ready to sit on my ass for a couple weeks! :) I decided to rent a hospital bed, instead of sleeping on the air mattress. It was really really difficult to get up! I had to turn over, crawl to the couch or wall and then find some way to haul myself up. Someone suggested a hospital bed...duh!!! It's $170/month and my insurance will pay for 80% of it. It's electric, so I can put my feet or head up, and best of all, getting out of it will be so much easier! :) It was delivered yesterday and I think I got the room set up pretty well.

So, today is shopping and getting all the things I'm going to need. Tomorrow is cleaning, cooking so that I don't really have to for the first several days, and then arranging everything close to the bed. Everything within arms reach...

No heel surgery needed

I saw the podiatrist yesterday and I don't need to have that bone fragment removed. In fact, she thinks it's incidental to the pain. What there was, was a huge abscess inside my heel. For whatever reason. I have a hard time believing that it would have nothing to do with the bone spur...but then again I didn't go to medical school! :) She still says it' a really good thing I didn't go on the Mexico trip, as it probably would have gotten really bad. So all I have to do is continue taking antibiotics for another 2-3 weeks and all shuld be well. If it happens again she said they'd go in and do a fasciotomy at that spot to relieve the pressure.

As for my other fasciotomies...they're booked for Monday Nov 12. Hooray! :) It'll be amazing to have it all done and have legs that don't hurt anymore!!!!

Surgery #1 scheduled...

I saw Dr Smith yesterday and she agreed that we should go in and do the compartment release surgery for the backs of my calves. Two muscles in each leg, but she things she can do them through one incision. It'll be a bigger...or, well, a longer one anyway, than the one in the front. But since we now know everything I'm allergic to (knock on wood!) the healing process should be really fast.

I see Dr Schweger on Friday after my MRI today and that'll tell us if they need to go in and remove that bone fragment. Dr Smith did say that if I do need surgery they'll do their best to arrange them to be at the same time. The fewer times I have to go under general anesthesia the better! So if that does need surgery that'll be five surgical scars on my legs. If it does require two incisions on each leg for the compartments that'll be seven! Oh well, so long as they heal! :)

What a weekend!

Friday I did manage to get into the podiatrist. They scheduled me for an MRI this Wednesday and sent me home with anti-inflamatories and instructions to STAY OFF my feet as much as possible. During the day my foot got progressively more painful, to the point where by the evening all I wanted to do was lie there and cry. I took three percocet...and it took the pain down from an8/9 to about a 6...for an hour! That's it! I only slept maybe 30 minutes total Friday night. I spent most of it either sitting on the couch rocking back and forth trying to ease the pain, or lying on the kitchen floor curled up..except for my leg, and crying.

Not a great night. I thought about going to the emergency room...but didn't. I did call BMC Urgent Care though. If they'd been open at night I would have gone. But they opened at 8:00. So at 7:00 am I called Julie and asked her if she'd drive me there. She did...and I spent the next five hours there. Sigh. It hurt SOOOOOO friggin' much! It was pretty obvious by then that there was something really wrong...more than just a simple bone spur. What's really funny is that it was the doc I saw over at the westside BMC that I also saw at the main clinic on Sat! :)

He came into the room, asked me what I was doing there, looked at my foot and said "Oh, that's not good!" It was quite swollen and red. He thought that there was probably a big infection along with the bone spur. So, he sent me off for a CAT scan...but it wouldn't be as effective, 'cause I'm allergic to the contrast dye. But anyway, we did it, did a ton of labs and yes, there is infection and inflammation in the tissue around the bone spur. Not really surprising.

So...he sent me home...finally, with antibiotics and more percocet and further instructions to stay off the foot as much as it hurts. So anyway, I spent the rest of the day resting. I wasn't planning on going to the drag show, but when everyone showed up for our pre-drag show drinks...I changed my mind. Everyone just looked so great all dressed up, and I knew it'd be a blast...so I went! :)

Here I am strapping on my boot. I went as Bad Kitty...again. I really wanted to go as Columbia, but the costume is just too complicated with a walking cast and crutches.
So it was myself, Ana, Julie, Barrie, Kate and Paige that went together. April wasn't going to go, but wound up going with some derby girls. Wish I'd gotten some pictures of them too. So here we are at the drag show. Most people were dressed up. This is me, Paige as the pixie and Julie as a 1800's brothel madam.
This guy was quite...ah, interesting! :) He and his girlfriend were in "matching" costumes and spent a lot of time making out. LOL. There was another guy that came dressed up as Snow White. They were both great!

See, I did have my crutches! I used them when I was walking around. After the show, I did "dance" without them...but by then the percocet and two drinks definitely dulled the pain. Hee hee. Luckily though, I really think the anti-inflamatories and antibiotics were starting to work 'cause they already felt better...and continued to feel better Sat night and all day today.
As aways, Poison Water was EXCELLENT! Those ladies are amazing. And so funny too! :) Here they are introducing themselves.
I do have quite a few from the show, but you'll have to check out my Flickr site for them. Julie was killing me! She's such a....librarian! :) Hee hee hee hee.

Then after the show the chairs were all taken out and the dancing began!

I hung out and danced for a while, but I knew I shouldn't push it. So Barrie and Kate took me home. I wanted to stay longer, but it's good I went when we did. It was almost midnight by the time we got home, so it's not like we left early! :) I'd set my bed up on the main floor 'cause I just could not handle the stairs another night. But I had Ana's keys, so I stayed up for them. They eventually rolled in around 1:00...stayed until after 2:00 trying on various other costumes I have. I've got quite a few good ones! :) The whole night was a complete blast.

Then today, Sunday, I slept pretty much ALL day. Not 'cause of last night, but just because I was so tired! Not sleeping at all Friday night, and then all the stress and pain of the last three days just caught up to me. I crashed today. So, Tues I see Dr Smith about getting the compartment release surgery done earlier, then Wed I have the MRI for my foot and then see the podiatrist again Friday to talk about what we should do. So...we'll see.

I'm still very sad to not be going to Mexico!

THIS !$*^!!^#*& SUCKS!!!!

Well, for those of you who don't know yet, I won't be going to Mexico on my trek that I've been looking forward to for the last 10 months. Sigh. Last night the side of my foot down by my heel was sore to the touch, but not to walk on. This morning when I tried to get out of bed I couldn't put any weight on it at all!

So I headed off to the new BMC clinic over on the west side. I was hoping maybe it was a spider bite or something. Maybe a bone bruise. I haven't fallen or hit my foot on anything...at least not that I can remember. They took x-rays and the doc came back in and asked if I wanted to go look at my x-ray with him. I figured that wasn't a good sign. Sure enough, it wasn't.

I have a bone spur that's snapped off. So I'm in a walking cast and on crutches for a couple weeks. I have to go see a podiatrist to see if there's anything they can do about it, and why I'm having bone spurs anyway. The doc figured I'm a bit young for how big it was. Sigh. This really sucks!!! I asked him if I could hike on my walking boot. He just looked at me like I was insane. I'm still holding out hope that maybe the podiatrist can work a miracle by next Tuesday... you know, in five days. Not likely.

On the bright side, I guess it's better that it happened here than in the canyons of Copper Canyon. Our guide said that they have to shoot horses that break their legs 'cause there's really no way to get them out. The nearest medical services are like 500 miles away. I'm trying to find the silver linings. Oh yea, and I was probably going to have surgery again in December to release the muscles on the back of my calves...I'll see if I can get in to see the surgeon sooner and maybe have the surgery now, while I'm going to be off anyway!

THIS SUCKS!!!!!!