Miss me much?

I KNOW!!! It's been forever!

I have some pictures to show what I've been doing for the last month or so. Just so you know I haven't been slacking.

I went in for my ankle tendon reconstruction surgery on February 2nd. Groundhog day.

Here's what my ankle looked like right before heading off to surgery. We made sure to use a sharpie to mark which foot to operate on:

And what it looked like afterwards in the splint:

Lucky for you, I couldn't find my camera the day I went back to Dr. Doogie Howser to remove my splint and get my ankle casted. It was the nastiest, gnarliest, hairiest, smelliest, stitched up bruised piece of gross I've ever seen. The Dr. said it looked really good. Figures. I thought it looked like he attached someone else's foot.

WARNING: If you are eating, you might want to put down your food at this time.

Too much information ahead.

See, with this particular surgery, they made a 2 inch incision up at my calf to stretch/repair my tendon to my calf muscle. Then there is about a 6 inch incision from just above my ankle to the middle of my arch. This is where they took a tendon from my big toe to repair my torn tendon just above my ankle. Then I have a 2 inch incision on the outside of the foot at an angle that goes from the bottom of my foot to the back of the foot which is where they went in and broke my ankle bone and moved it about 1 cm so it was more "under" my body. Lastly, I have a small incision on the back of my foot where they placed about a 2 inch screw to hold my ankle bone in place.

I KNOW! Nasty!

I went last Friday to have the splint removed and put in a non walking cast which means crutches for the next four weeks. While I was at the Dr. I mentioned that my calf has been in a constant knot for about a week and is the most excruciatingly painful thing ever. He was concerned I might have a blood clot so he sent me downstairs to another office to get a STAT ultrasound. Unfortunately STAT to them meant at least an hour wait. Little did they know those were the WRONG choice of words to say to my Doctor dad who promptly told them where to shove it. We left and went to the emergency room at a hospital close to home. They did an ultrasound which luckily showed no blockage in my veins and no clots. The young lady who did my ultrasound commented about how it was nice that I had "skinny" legs because it made it easier to see the veins. LOVE HER! We got out of there just in time for the Friday night freak show.



I'll be honest. Along with the grossness of it all, the recovery has been, truthfully, the worst pain I have ever felt in my life. Worse than my regular birth or 3 c/sections. Worse than my two kidney and gallbladder stone attacks. WAY worse. The first few days, my Oxycontin and Percocets weren't even touching it. Add to that my calf muscle in a never ending charlie horse and having to watch the downhill slide of our country since Obama took office, I've been pretty miserable.

About 11 days after the surgery, I was finally starting to feel like I was making progress. I've ventured from the bed to the family room where I see the same view, day in and day out.

The view in front of me with my cool "Suns" colored cast and sexy blood clot reducing sock:

The view to my left:

The view to my right:

The view right next to me:

And what I've tried to avoid climbing on me:

My office/nest/laundry room:

After the cast comes off, I'll be in a walking boot for six weeks then I'll start physical therapy.

I can't wait to shower again. It's the little things you take for granted.....

The moral of the story is: One should only attempt to do laundry at their own risk.