Post Surgery #3: Week 1 and 2

Some pre-op photos and one of me on a lot of drugs

Weeks one and two have come and gone since my ankle fusion.  Aaron and I started off the day bright (dark) and early by leaving the house at 4am since I had a 5am check-in time. Once I was checked in, we moved to our pre op room so I could put my sweet hospital gown and socks on. Aaron's sister Rachel is a nurse at the hospital, so she came down to visit us before her shift was over. She works on the teeny tiny babies, otherwise I would have requested her to be my nurse.

I met with 100 different people who all looked the same in their scrubs. The anesthesiologist came and explained the nerve block to me. He said I had to be awake for it so that I could tell them if I was in any pain (aka if they hit the nerve). I had one injection near my sciatic nerve and one near my femoral nerve. I honestly don't remember having it done, or even leaving my pre-op room. Yay drugs, right?!

I was in recovery for quite some time since they were waiting for a room to open up. Unfortunately for me, there was some miscommunication between two nurses and Aaron. One told me that she called him and left a message so that he could sit with me, and when he called back, another told him no. So I sat there alone and in and out of sleep for what felt like hours. I couldn't even call him  myself because he had all my belongings. I finally made it up to my room. I remember the guy who moved me telling me how pretty my toenails here painted. I tried to tell him that I wish I chose a more "autumn color" but I don't think he understood what I meant.

Aaron met me in my room at some point. He did some work on a video, and I did some work on catching up some zzz's. I was STARVING and nauseous at the same time. I was a clear liquid diet until the nausea passed, so I had some delicious chicken broth for lunch. Honestly, after all the food I had at the hospital, the broth was the only hot and tasty thing I ate. I did eventually switch to veggie broth after a recommendation from a nurse that it had more flavor.

My mom came by after work while Aaron went to have dinner with his sister, and my sister came by shortly after that. We chatted and watched TV, and my sister showed my this ridiculous video. If you want to know what the fox says, watch it.

I was only supposed to stay over one night, but due to the insane amount of pain I was in and the fever I couldn't break, I ended up staying two nights. I left Saturday afternoon and stayed at my moms until Sunday. Since then, I've just been hanging out in bed/on the couch. I play Lego Harry Potter on the xbox for half the day, and watch TV the other half. I'm thankful that all of my favorite television shows started up last week. 

I spend a lot of time snuggled in my blankie. 

Some times I nap backwards on my ottoman.

On the 4th, Aaron and I headed to the burbs to get my foot unwrapped and casted. I was (of course) hysterical getting my stitches out. I am pretty sure I counted 12 snips and pulls, but the lady that put my cast on pulled one more out. Aaron said the bandages were pretty nasty. I couldn't look. After the stitches were taken out, I had steri-strips put on and was sent to x-ray. I wish I would have taken a picture of what the inside of my foot looks like now. I have 6 screws and a plate! 

Before xray, and getting my cast. 

The cast is not as bad as I anticipated, but it's only been less than 24 hours. Talk to me in a month when I get my next one. Dr. Senall was very optimistic when he saw my films. He said I will get my next cast in about 4 weeks, and after another 4 weeks we might try a walking boot. WOO!

In non-foot related news, I got to see the Stanley Cup twice in two weeks. There was a photo-op at Millennium Park the day before my surgery, so I waited in line for about 3 hours. Thankfully I had nice line neighbors and my Kindle to keep me occupied. The second time, I happened to catch something on Twitter about the cup being at a restaurant down the street from our apartment. Aaron has never seen the cup before, so I treated him to a nice dinner, and we got to have our picture taken professionally with the cup.  

we are a pretty good looking trio.

That's all for now! 

- Vanna

Surgery #3

.....I am having an ankle fusion!

After meeting with Dr Senall, I not only decided on an ankle fusion, but I also decided to continue my care with him. I think Dr. Arndt is a great guy, but when I had two other doctors tell me I have too many risk factors that would cause an ankle replacement to fail, I need to go with who makes me informed. Dr. Senall was very straightforward with me. Like my second opinion, he said that my tibia would not hold the replacement hardware.  The turn around time of this is pretty quick. I am having this done on the 19th of September. Just over a week away. I'm pretty lucky actually. The hospital is making special arrangements to let Dr. S operate on a day he normally doesn't. If this wasn't possible, I would have to wait until October 8th.

Aaron turned me into a Packers supporter

In the next week, I need to do some major grocery shopping, tons of laundry, clean the apartment, see my friends, go on a shopping trip to look for bridesmaid dresses with my sister, and of course have a date night with Aaron. We try to go out once a week, whether it's going out to eat or ordering a pizza and relaxing at home. What ever it is, it has to involve neither of us cooking. It also always includes fro-yo.

Outside of my foot issues, the last few weeks have been pretty good. Aaron and I had a very busy weekend! We celebrated our first anniversary (clearly what a crazy year it has been!), Aaron ran the Chicago half-marathon, football started (not that I really care), his friend Connie was in town from NYC, and I went to a taping of Windy City Live (a Chicago talk show) and Giada De Laurentiis was on!

Had a casual dinner at Maggianos, and was presented with this cheesecake

He's been training all summer for this. I'm very proud!!!

Yes, I geeked out the whole time. 

Too Many Cooks?

Greetings.  I have not had surgery yet, nor have I scheduled one. After enough pestering from my mother, I scheduled an appointment with a bone and joint specialist in early August. After scrambling to get my medical records for him, I met with Dr. Kaz of the Illinois Bone and Joint Institute here in Chicago with 48 pages of medical gibberish. 48 pages. For one year of treatment. That didn't even include any physical therapy notes. Anyway, he was a very nice guy. I had some x-rays taken. When I say "some," I mean like 20. While I was standing on JUST my bad foot. It was an awful experience, but he needed to see what the heck was going on down there.

What he noticed was more bone spur formation on my tibia and fibula that was probably causing my ankle to not get proper dorsi/plantar-flexion. He suggested that instead of a total ankle replacement, an ankle fusion. He wanted to cut my ankle open, shave down the bone spurs, and fuse the ankle closed. He said that later in life, I can choose to have it "taken down" and replace it at that point. Sounds pretty fucking awful, right? Ugh. 

He also suggested a cortisone shot for the pain. Now, I have been kind of avoiding a cortisone shot for the last year. I have heard several horror stories about the pain involved in getting the shot, and that sometimes it doesn't even work. Dr. Kaz left me in the room for a few minutes while I calmed myself down, as I was having a full blown panic attack. Vanna + Needles don't mix. After about 15 minutes, I finally agreed to it. He had his assistant come in and set up. I politely told him that I don't do well with needles or pain, and that I may shout several expletives while being injected. He gave me a tissue to cover my mouth. It was over in less than a minute, and that's the only good thing I will say about it. I was in more pain for that minute than I was post fixator removal. It was like fire, acid, and 100 bees were being injected straight into my joint. 

Pre-injection, post-injection, and me wearing cute girly shoes!

It's been about 4 weeks since the cortisone shot. I am kind of pain free, but not enough to walk on my own. Bummer, right?

I have an upcoming appointment with a third (and final) opinion at the end of the week. His name is Dr. Senall. My neighbor by my mom's house had foot surgery a few weeks ago, and had been talking with him casually about my situation. He told her to have me make an appointment to see him. Since the first two doctor's had given conflicting advice, I figured one more would break the tie. I had to scramble (again) for my medical records, this time including all radiology images. Since I lost my MRI CD, I had pay for all those images to be sent as well. Unfortunately, I had to send my mom to pick up the MRI/X-ray CD and drop them off at Dr. Senall's office since it was so far out of my way. As soon as I have that bad boy in my hands, I will get a nice photo update of all my x-rays. 

Hopefully all of this won't be a case of too many cooks in the kitchen. I really need to figure out what to do with my foot before I take a knife and cut it off. 

Outside of my foot nonsense, life is pretty good. Aaron and I celebrated his birthday with a fantastic dinner at RPM Italian, and then gambled our night away at Blue Chip Casino in Indiana. The next day we hit up the dunes on the way home. 

I am bummed that the summer is getting close to being over. I mean, if I am going to be home all day doing nothing, at least I can do it by the pool. Once the summer is over though, I'll be banished to the couch again. I will say that I have done a lot of reading so far. I have read the Crossfire Series by Silvia Day (Bared to You, Reflected in You, and Entwined with You), Divergent and Insurgent both by  Veronica Roth (looking forward to the Divergent movie in March 2014!), Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman (the book the show was very loosely based off of), and I have just started reading Rush by Maya Banks. It's the first book in the Breathless Trilogy, and also the first book I am reading on my new Kindle! So far I am very impressed with how little my eyes strain to read it and how portable it is!

My summer of smut (books)

That's all for now. As soon as I get my next move figured out, I will update again, Until then, don't go wasting your summer, fools!

- Vanna