12 Months (March 18)

Stayed up until 1245 am in order to get all of my meds at the same time (dilaudid shot, oxi pills, valium pill).  At that point, I was starting to get some pain in the Achilles.  Probably a 1 or 2 but getting worse.  I fell asleep at 1 and slept until 2:15 when my heel woke me up.  It's a pretty deep ache and seems to be getting worse.  Probably a 6.  The side of my foot is still numb and so are my toes.  The block is still wearing off.  I did get a shot of dilauded at 230.  Going to try and sleep.  There is no way oral medication would be good enough on its own.  


Update 1.  Resident woke me up this morning for another worthless visit.  Still doesn't know what my doctor did in surgery.  Not sure why he even comes by.  Pain was bad but not horrible this morning.  I did take a shot around 9 and slept until almost 11.  My brother came in with his family and hung out with me for a bit which was really nice.  I finally got up to use the big boy bathroom which caused my foot to throb a bit and hurt.  I took the dilauded shot again at 1:25 pm and have never been so uncomfortable.  Couldn't think straight, talk, watch tv....anything.  I slept until 3:15 and woke up in more pain than before.  I've asked my nurse for something else that wont knock me out. She's suggesting that we try half of a shot.  Don't know what to do.  The pain is miserable but I don't want to be knocked out again.

12 Months (March 17 again)

View from hospital room....not bad!

Here are the screws that were taken out.

12 Months (March 17 again)

Pain in my shin was a bit up and down but seemed to be escalating overall.  I was wide awake all night and didn't fall asleep until about 7:45 this morning.  The nurses came through for rounds at 8:30 and asked how my shin was.  I told her it was about a 2 or 3.  However, 4 minutes later, the pain was a 7 creeping on an 8.  Couldn't believe it.  It was a horrible burning pain that seemed to be moving down towards my ankle.  The nurse shot me up with some dilauded and gave me more oxy.  It wasn't helping too much.  Eventually, one of the docs stopped in and took off the cam walker and said that he thinks the ace wrap may be causing the pain.  He unwrapped the ace and started tearing the gauze.  My shin was really bruised and red.  He accidentally put pressure on it when tearing the gauze and it was excruciating.  He didn't really give a reason for the pain but said the tight ace wrap was aggravating it.  He reapplied everything very loosely and I haven't really had any pain since.  Very happy about that.  I crashed for about 3 hours and feel a million times better.

The main nerve block in the back of my leg is still active.  Can't feel anything or move toes.  The nurse wants to keep me on oxi until it wears off just in case it's painful.  She will keep the dialuded on hand in case we need break through medication.

I did get some clarity from my mother regarding her conversation with my surgeon last night.  Turns out that he did tell her that everything went as planned and I should have relief from pain.

Will update when block wears off.

Update: foot started tingling around 8 pm and I could start to move my toes at 10 (just barely).  Nurse gave me dilauded so we can start out ahead of the pain.  It's 11:50 now and I'm starting to get pain the achilles.  Can have dilaudid again 12:15, valium at 12:30, and oxi at 1 am.  A bit nervous now as the block is wearing off more and the pain is building.  Will post an update in the morning.

12 Months (March 16)

Got my screws out today.  It was a long day.  My surgery was scheduled for 4:30 pm so I had to be at the hospital at 2:30. I couldn't eat all day.  Miserable.  I got to the hospital on time and the lady registering me was having problems with her computer.  Ended up taking about 20 minutes but I was finally led into my own room for pre-op at about 3.  The hospital did a major addition about a year ago and they ended up converting the old ICU to outpatient care and the old burn unit to pre-op.  So, all the rooms are pretty huge and only one patient per room.  Kind of nice.  Anyway, the nurse came in right away and ran through all the usual questions.  She made me change into this new kind of gown that seems to be made of paper.  Then she connected a tube to it that blew air right into it for temperature control.  Very fancy.  Think I prefer the old way though.  Right before she left, she mentioned that my doctor was running about 2 hours late.  Sweet.  I was sooo hungry at this point.  The anesthesiologist came in at about 4:30 to start my IV and said my surgery was probably going to be at 6:30.  He also reviewed the nerve block procedure.  Since he was going to be in a different surgery at 5:30, he wanted to do the nerve block a bit early rather than risk there being a delay.  He came back in at 5, gave me some valium (Versed) and did the nerve block.  Very simple and painless.  What was different this time is that he block a second nerve as well.  The first was behind my leg, just above my knee.  The second was in the front, just above and to the right of the knee.  The block slowly settled in and my foot kept getting more heavy.  At 5:30, my doc came in to review everything and make sure I was comfortable.  He then left to perform a different surgery. At about 6:15, the operative nurse and another anesthesiologist came in to take me to surgery.  The operating room was pretty cool, it's only a year old and had some very fancy equipment.  Anesthesiologist gave me some more versed and had me start breathing through a mask.  About a minute later, I was out.  I woke up at 8 pm in recovery and was very groggy.  Was there for about an hour and then was wheeled up to my room.  Unfortunately, I never found out what my doc did to my foot.  He called my house to inform my mother and she didn't ask many questions.  It took about 2 hours for me to become less groggy and started feeling better around 10:30.  One thing that is really strange is that I began to develop a burning pain in my shin (maybe a 2 out of 10).  There is no way the nerve block should be wearing off so fast!  The pain was getting worse (4/10) so the nurse gave me a couple of oxy at 10:30.  Didn't do anything for the pain.  At 11:30, the top right part of my calf is no longer numb and the pain in my shin continues to escalate (5/10).  The nurse called Ortho and they said to give me  dilauded and valium.  I held off until 12:30 am and had to take it.  Pain was about 6/10.  It has helped a little but not much.  Kind of concerning.  So, now it's 1:30 am and my shin still hurts.  I can't move my toes yet and the left side of my calf is still numb.  Really hope this is a temporary pain.  If the dialuded isn't helping for this, I'm really nervous when my heel fires up.    


So, long rant.  As mentioned, I'm on the dilauded so excuse typos or if this doesn't make sense at all.  Will update again tomorrow.


Oh, I did get my screws.  They're probably a good 2" - 2.5".  Crazy.

11+ Months (March 8th)

Surgery got pushed due to an old lady wrecking her ankle.  Doesn't help my anxiety but I'm sure it's easier for me to handle the pain and inconvenience than her.  Doc briefly reviewed the MRI results and said everything looks fine.  The plan is to continue with the original surgery next Friday.  He will remove the screws, view the bottom of the achilles, and shave the bone on the lateral side where he did the osteotomy since it may be contributing to the pain.

My appointment was for 3:15 and at 4:15 one of the nurses came out and announced that he is running about an hour and a half behind schedule.  What can you do.  When I finally got back there, he was great.  I told him of my anxiety regarding surgery and he spent a fair amount of time with me putting my concerns to rest.  He even offered valium.  I should have asked about the two parts of the MRI report that mention scar tissue and the inflamed tendon.  Really not sure why I didn't.  Regardless, we reviewed my concerns and I feel much better.  Says there is no reason for my foot have gone up by a shoe size. Oh well. I am feeling much better about this after meeting with him again.

11+ Months (March 7th)

I got the results from the MRI of my achilles and there is mild tenosynovitis of the posterior tibialis tendon and scar tissue in the region of the inferior peroneal retinaculum.  Imaging of the most distal portion of where my achilles attaches to the calcaneous is not well visualised due to the screws in my foot.  I see my doc tomorrow and have surgery scheduled for Friday to remove the screws and possible shave the bone on the lateral side of my calcaneous.  I don't know if these results will impact what the surgeon needs to do.  Really not looking forward to weeks of recovery.

11+ Months (March 1st)

I saw my doc today for the first time in 180 days (due to pre-existing condition clause with my insurance).  He said the burning pain I get in the back of my ankle is most likely caused by the screws and wants to remove them.  Since my achilles continues to swell and be painful, he has ordered an MRI next week to make sure it is not deteriorating.  If it looks okay, he will extend the incision up to my achilles to clean out any fragments etc.  Since I have also been having pain on the lateral side of my foot where he cut the heel, he would like to go in and shave some of the bone down as well.  Since I had so much trouble controlling the pain in my foot after the last surgery, he would like to do this surgery in the hospital and plan on me staying until the nerve block wears off to make sure we can control the pain.  I'm nervous as I really do not want to go through the same experience as last year.  I'm also very hopeful that the MRI is negative as that could add a whole new complication.  

Oh yeah, insurance will only cover 80%.  I can't imagine what two days in the hospital is going to cost me.