Surgery Progress Nov. 27th 2012

     I know, I know,  it has been a couple of  weeks since I have posted about my progress. It was a very busy week last week with the holiday and all, and my kids home. It was so nice to have some down time to spend with my family. I am at my seven week mark today, and I do have some improvements to share...here it goes.

     The PN pain has been tricky, I have had some good moments and some bad over the last couple of weeks, but over the last week and a half I have had moments with no pain. I know, can you believe it! Over the last week or so I wake up feeling perfectly normal. I wish I could lay there all day and enjoy this moment, but I have five kids, so ya, not even an option. Once I get up the pressure starts to build, and as the day goes on the pressure intensifies and everything becomes very sore. Some days I check out of my mother and wife duties a little early, I just can't stand for a second longer. I go upstairs and lay down while my husband takes over for the rest of the night. After a hour or so I feel much better, and WITHOUT the help of ice. I am sleeping really good through the night, which is so important for my body to continue healing. On some days over the last week I have had times when I sit and I feel absolutely normal, I feel fine for about 15 or 20 minutes, and then the pain starts. I would say my pain ranges from a 3-7 while I am up and about. Obviously, as the day goes on the pain increases, but with rest I get relief. I went to Costco the other day, and I was completely worn out after pushing a  full and heavy basket around. My pain levels were pretty high and I thought I was going to have a big flare that would last a few days, after some rest I was fine and the flare never hit. I think this is HUGE! I am so excited for every little step of progress that is happening, every little sign of improvement gives me the strength to keep pushing along. Now touching is a different story, I still have numbness, and everything is very sensitive, mostly it feels raw, and very, very  bruised. I start physical therapy tomorrow, now the hard work will start, but eventually all of the hard work will pay off.

     Now, as far as my foot and leg goes I have seen some big improvements. The pain is still there, and without the thermal compression unit I would be a very unhappy person right now. I use the machine all night long, the constant cool water circulating around my foot helps me to get plenty of sleep. The pain has changed, I only feel that deep burn and ache occasionally. Now it feels like an intense sting or burn. You know when you were little and you had been playing out in the snow for a very long time? And, we would think the best way to warm up our freezing hands would be by running them under super warm water. Can you imagine that sting that is felt when doing this? This is how my foot feels now, with random intense shocks of pain. Sometimes the hyper sensitivity seems to calm down and other times it is unbelievable. Now that it is coming and going some, I think this is a good sign of the nerve repairing. Over the last week I have been getting around my house without the leg brace. I am going up and down the stairs and getting around just fine, meaning I no longer trip over my own toes. This takes me to my biggest accomplishment, which has been with the movement, or range of motion with my foot. Only after 5 physical therapy sessions, we have seen a big improvement. Laying on my back my right foot would fall down, now I can move it up to a neutral position (point the toes up) and hold it without any problem. Now we are working on pointing the toes up while standing. If you stand up straight and raise your toes up on one foot so you are balancing on only the heel, you will see this is no big deal. For me lifting my toes of my right foot up off the floor in a standing position is impossible, my foot acts as if it is glued to the ground. The harder I try the more the muscles in my leg shake. As soon as I can learn to do this I will be able to drive again. My physical therapist is really happy with the progress so far, but reminds me we still have a long way to go. Getting the toes to lift up of the ground is the hardest part, I know with time this will happen for me.

     Funny story, on the day before Thanksgiving my dad was driving me home from a physical therapy appointment. He was accidentally going a little too fast, and we were pulled over by a police officer. The officer was a little confused that my dad's name and address on his licence didn't match with the one on my registration. I explained that my dad was helping me out. I lifted my right foot which is in a brace, and told him I am unable to drive, and that my dad was driving me home from my appointment. He responded with "well, I'll tell you what, one good deed deserves to be rewarded with another. I'll let you off today with just a warning".  Whew! The bad leg saves the day. So now I have found one good thing come from this whole leg situation, sympathy equals no speeding ticket, Nice!

     On a side note, I did try out driving with my left foot last week. I thought it would be so much easier then it turned out to be. I don't think this is for me. I had a really hard time coming to a complete stop smoothly. It was a complete and sudden stop, like 20 ft away from where I really needed to stop. And I had a hard time taking it easy on the gas too. On top of the whip lash like driving, I couldn't stop laughing, every time I thought I had it down... I didn't, and I would just bust up laughing. This made for an entertaining drive,  but is no good...I think I'll stay off the roads for now.