I had my follow up visit with my orthopedic surgeon and they said everything looks as it should on my foot. They said I should expect swelling for at least 6 months! They gave me the usual advice of keeping my foot up when I began to swell and hurt. I’m going to head into a physical therapist to work on some stretching exercises as well.

As I’ve mentioned previously below I’ve been working with my web designer on redesigning a few things on my site. We’re about ready to wrap things up and implement the changes. As soon as that’s finished I’ll re-open the site. Shouldn’t be too much longer!

It has been a while since I’ve posted anything on my progress. For that I apologize.

On April 27th I was able to completely remove the cast permanently from my left leg.  My calf muscles are still pretty weak as I found out  recently when I tried to walk too quickly across the living room floor. It hurt a lot and I caused some bruising that was not present previously. I hope I didn’t do any harm to it.

I’m now allowed to wear a shoe during the day and cast at night on my right foot. Been giving that a go since Tuesday last week. That has been painfully challenging!  I still have a lot of swelling and numbness and it just doesn’t feel right walking around on it yet. Finding a proper enough loose shoe that does not hurt my scars and compensates for my eventual swelling has been difficult. My foot wants to rock outward on the outer part of my foot rather than walking centered and flatly on it. I have to keep making a conscious effort to try and keep my foot as flat as possible and bear with the pain of forcing it to go that way.

I feel incredibly guilty for taking the amount of time off I have but every time I try to push myself to be on my feet for longer periods of time than I should be I pay for it the next day, all day, with an enormous amount of edema. Which of course is counter productive to proper healing. I go for my next check up next week and then start on some physical therapy. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’m progressing well and as I should be.

However I did want to keep you all informed that I have been trying to remain productive while keeping my feet up. I have been working with my web designer to make some changes to the site that should improve your shopping experience once it is re-opened.

Thank you to those of you who have sent well wishes. They are very much appreciated!

I went in for my first follow up appointment since my surgery Thursday and had the bandages and stitches removed. Felt good to get that gauze removed on my right foot as it was creating pressure in my boot cast. But boy did it hurt to have the stitches removed even with pain pills! I’ve included a picture of my foot prior to having the stitches removed. I warn you, it’s not pretty.

I’ve been given the go ahead to wear a regular shoe again during the day on my left foot although I will still have to wear the boot cast at night for 2 more weeks though.

On my right foot I have to wear the boot cast 24/7 for at least another 2-3 weeks and then I can attempt to wear a surgical sandal or something during the day dependent upon swelling and my comfort level. But for sure I have to wear the boot for at least another 4 weeks perhaps longer on this foot.

The physical therapist gave me exercises to strengthen my legs up again as well as some passive stretching exercises for my foot and toes on my right foot. I’ve graduated from the walker and crutches to a cane now.

My surgery last week had two parts to it. On each leg I had what is called a bilateral gastroc slide done. Gastroc is short for the gastrocnemius muscle. This is the muscle you can touch simply by placing your hand on the back of your calf. It provides a lot of the power for jumping, sprinting, and walking. It also helps bend the knee some but it’s main action is on the ankle. Along with the soleus muscle underneath, the gastroc forms the Achilles tendon.

A gastroc slide is an operation where the surgeon cuts the gastroc muscle free so that it is no longer pulling upward on the Achilles tendon. They did this procedure to both of my legs.

My right foot had quite a few procedures done. This involved grafting tendons, repositioning tendons, lengthening tendons, transferring tendons, etc. When all the procedures were done to fix my foot I had 11 different incisions done to it. Hopefully all of this will fix my problem and not open up a whole new can of worms. Right now I’ve lost feeling in my third and fourth toes which is probably due to nerve damage. I’m hopeful I’ll regain feeling in them.

Right now I’m sort of getting around via a walker to do essential things but when I’m healed up more I’ll graduate to crutches. There’s quite a bit of swelling involved and the moment I stand up it starts increasing. On doctors orders I keep my feet up as much as possible. I’ve included a picture below so that you can get a visual idea of why it’ll take me a little while to get on with walking and standing for long periods of time.