Foot Surgery.....

My sweetheart of a sister, TERESA, was kind enough to be my taxi, nurse, and friend for the day. She is an unbelievable sis! No matter what I need she is always there to help me out. Steve was out of town working on the day my surgery was scheduled so she volunteered her time to help me out. AMAZING LADY!

My foot before surgery

I actually took a few other pictures of my feet, but they really CREEPED me out so I decided not to post them. Can you say UGLY??? I have always HATED my feet and my LONG gangly toes! Well, a few years ago I had a short bout with Rheumatoid arthritis. It really did a number on the joints of my hands and feet. They were all swollen and started to look quite disfigured. This picture doesn't show how Knobby they really are.

ANYWAY.... The bunions that formed later really began hurting so I decided it was finally time to fix my poor UGLY feet and see if I could get some relief at the same time!

Well....As you can tell I have a ice pack on my right foot BUT I was having surgery on my LEFT foot. WHY THE ICE PACK YOU ASK???

Well....that morning I was rushing around my house trying to clean as much as I possibly could before Teresa showed up. The doctor had told me that the recovery period for the type of surgery I was having would be around 8-10 weeks. I wanted to get everything "just right" before I was laid up and out of commission for that long.

SO.....It was early morning and I had most of the lights OFF in the house (because I didn't want to wake April and the girls) I was rushing around CLEANING! I went to go into my bathroom but I MISSED the doorway! I jammed my toe into the door frame so hard that I thought I would DIE! It hurt so stinkin bad!!!!

When Teresa finally arrived I went to put on my shoes and my toe was too sore to wear them. Once at the hospital I told the nurses what had happened and they instantly started icing and elevating it. The doctor said that when he finished my bunion surgery, he would check that toe out as well to see if it was fractured.

When I came out of surgery I had both feet bandaged up and fun little ice packs on them as well.

Teresa was also my "photographer" to capture the moment!

SNOOZING!!!

Was that smile from the drugs I was on or was I having a dream about HOWIE???

My mom was kind enough to let me CRASH at her house for the day so that I would have someone to help me if needed. Teresa and my mom made sure that my EVERY NEED was taken care of. Teresa had an alarm set for every 30 minutes to trade out the ice packs. She did that ALL DAY LONG! They also tracked when I took my medication and when the next dose was due. I was really zonked out!

Under the loving care of these two incredible women!

It was CRAZY how I had some pretty extensive surgery on my left foot BUT...it was my right toe that was the most PAINFUL!!!! In fact the first 2 days after surgery I could not even feel my left foot at all. All I could feel was the throbbing of my TOE!!! The foot that was operated on was so numbed up, that I thought..."This is going to be a PIECE OF CAKE" recovering from this. NOT SO!!!!
I was really drugged up when I arrived at my mom's but I remember seeing Jared's car parked in the front of her home. I almost started to cry when I realized that both April and him had taken their lunch breaks to come and visit with me and see how I was doing. SO THOUGHTFUL!!! They also "hooked" me up with some delicious SNACKS!!! All my favorites! YUMMY! I later found out that while they were visiting with me, I kept saying how NICE Jared was. OKAY...I know he is a really nice guy but I apparently kept repeating myself and saying it over and over and over again! Medicine sure makes people act crazy sometimes. How embarrassing. I had only met him a few times and now I was making a complete FOOL out of myself! Oh well, I am a little WHACKED out normally so I guess it was okay for him to see me that way. I just hope I don't scare him off. HE IS A REALLY NICE GUY! lol Really he is :)

I feel pretty blessed to have been taken such good care of while Steve was out of town. The next evening he finally arrived back in Utah and promptly came over to see me and to take me home. GUESS WHAT.....I got some GORGEOUS FLOWERS from Howie. He sure knows how to pick em!

These were some of the BEST SMELLING flowers that I have EVER had. Seriously the aroma just filled the room. They were BEAUTIFUL!

Thanks once again to my mom, sister and her daughter Celene for the tender care. You are all so AWESOME!!!

TIME TO GO HOME with my hubby!

Luckily I got my operation before my bunions were too bad. Other wise I would not be able to bear weight for about 6 weeks. The surgery I had enables me to walk BUT ONLY WITH THIS WALKING BRACE. This BIG BLACK MONSTER of a brace will be with me the entire SUMMER months! YIKES!!!! THAT IS GOING TO BE HOT! As for the little blue one...that is just to help until my toe heals. Then it will be easier to get around. OH JOY!!!!

The night I got home with Howie we decided it was time to ice my foot again because it was just throbbing. Instead of using the ice pack the hospital provided we thought it would be okay to just use a ziplock bag! NOT A GOOD IDEA AT ALL!!! In the middle of the night I woke to a SOAKING WET FOOT! Keep in mind, I was instructed to NOT get this wet AT ALL for two weeks. There I lay in soaking bandages. My brace was drenched! It was a mess and I was so worried because I didn't want some infection or anything. I waited a few hours while I set up fans and blow dryers around my foot and took the brace off to try to dry it as well.

Early that morning I called into the doctor and they wanted me to come right in to get the bandaging all changed out. They did not want to risk it either.

I took a few pictures of my battle wounds when the bandages were off. MAN....that's gonna leave a mark!

The bandages had INDENTED into my skin SO much. It made my skin look creepy, wrinkled and pruny looking.

My fat, pudgy, injured foot! OUCH!!!

NICE, CLEAN, DRY, SANITARY, NEW bandaging. Ahhhh that feels much better! I can't believe how bruised and swollen I got. I was even black and blue and green around my ankle. My surgery was NO WHERE NEAR my ankle. How does that work?
My toes were bruised and swollen the worse. My poor little pinkies!!! I was going to have them operated on at the same time but at the last minute I kind of chickened out. Looking back...I should have gone for it! Might as well be in pain all at one time! Oh well, too late now!

This picture is two weeks after surgery and I just got my stitches out. Even though it doesn't look much different. YEAH I can wash my feet now. The steri stips stay on for about two more weeks but it was nice to clean these puppies up! I still can't go swimming or stick them in a tub for another two weeks but it is getting CLOSER! Before long I will be soaking up the sun in the pool!

Still pretty pudgy and sore but I am two weeks into recovery! 6-8 more weeks! Let the countdown begin!!!

Just a little side note...

As for my other injured foot. Well the toe I injured was healing up quite nicely. Not much pain, or at least it was bearable. So I decided to hobble outside and PAINT MY DECK one day. I was so bored and it really needed to get done so that I could open the pool for the season.

I spent about 4 days out on my hands and knees, scraping old paint off and putting new on. I was just hobbling around getting the job done. I would take breaks and rest my foot for a while. Once it was almost all complete, my granddaughters asked if they could go swimming. April agreed to get in with them and I decided to check out the chlorine levels.

As I bent down over the pool, to fill the container up with tablets, the section of deck flipped up and my right foot fell through. The decking (about 5 pieces of redwood nailed together) came crashing down and pinned my foot between the pool and the sharp edge of the decking...WITH MY FAT BODY LAYING ON TOP OF IT! There was ABSOLUTELY no way of getting off it! I screamed for help and April jumped out of the pool as fast as she could to help get me unpinned.

It was one of the most painful things I have ever experienced in my life. I don't know what I would have done if April was not nearby. I hurt it extremely bad and now I am back to wearing an ace bandage and the surgical boot to protect it AGAIN. I am such a gimp.

This whole foot experience has given me a great sense of appreciation for what April went through a few months ago. I understand her pain now! Hers was ten times worse than mine ever was and she survived it so I just need to be patient and hang in there. It is just so frustrating to not be able to do the things that I usually do. It is hard to slow me down. Right now if I want something done bad enough I just get down on all fours and crawl around till it's done. FUN TIMES!!! Can't wait till it's over so I can get the other foot fixed.