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

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Figuratively speaking, of course. There are no literal steps involved with this blog post.  That being said, this post is written with a lot of frustration. My apologies.

I went to see good ol' Dr. A a few days ago for a long overdue follow-up. I have been going once a month to see him, but missed June due to the passing of my grandma, and having to spend some time in the "great" state of New Jersey. So, it had been about 2 months since I had seen him. I was very, VERY nervous to see him. I knew it would be a long appointment because I had a lot of concerns about my progress.

Q1. Why am I not walking on my own?
Q2. Did the ex-fix work?
Q3. What happens next?

A1. So yes, I am STILL on crutches. Some times one, sometimes two. If I am home, I usually one-crutch it. If I fall, at least the floor is carpeted, and there is usually a bed or couch within falling distance. If I go out, I almost always two-crutch it. Unless I'm going to the corner Starbucks. I need a free hand to carry my coffee. With the help of my awesome physical therapist Lindsey, I learned that in order to walk properly, I needed another 10 degrees of dorisflextion (the UP motion of the ol' footie). My foot was stuck at neutral 90 degrees, and it was like hitting a brick wall trying to get passed that. This is why I am not walking on my own. The pain I have when that foot hits the 90 degree mark combined with my full body weight is around a 5, which isn't bad compared to the 20 I was having this time last year. Still, it prevents me from walking crutch-free. I can't even walk with my cane more than a few steps.

A2. I learned that yes, the ex-fix did do what it was intended to do. My tibia and talus are separated and, I still have about 4mm of space left. Those pesky bone spurs are also gone. However, it opened our eyes to another problem. Although I am pain-free in the original area, I am full of pain in another area (see A1 above).

A3. Every time I start thinking about this, I get very emotional. I started crying in the doctor's office. Some tears were out of frustration, some where out of fear, some were because I'm an over-emotional female. Ok, all were because I am an over-emotional female. I guess I should say why I was crying. I have to have a total ankle replacement. That's right...a third surgery is in the works. I am currently looking to get a second opinion on this all. It's not that I don't trust Dr. A, I just realize in hindsight that I should have gotten one before all of this started.

On an unrelated note, Aaron and I recently saw Book of Mormon. I HIGHLY recommend that if it is in your area, you see it immediately. You will laugh your butt right out of your seat!

Stay tuned for more updates on surgery #3!

- V