Aww, you shouldn’t have.

Two Week Anniversary

Yup, that’s right. It’s been two weeks since my surgery. I should celebrate, right? Definitely. I will be celebrating by watching last night’s DVR’d episode of The Bachelorette, flipping through magazines and enjoying the mild haziness from my pain killers. Ahh, this is the life!

So uh, let’s talk about the surgery. I arrived at the South Kansas City Surgicenter at 12:15pm on June 11, 2014. My surgery was scheduled for 2:30pm. I had no idea why I needed to be there so early. I filled out some paperwork then sat in the waiting room for just a few minutes. Then pre-op nurse came to take me back to prep for surgery. So if you’re over the age of 10 and female, a big part of surgery “prep” loosely translates to “time to pee in a cup so we know you’re not pregnant before we knock your ass out with anesthesia”. I didn’t have to pee, like at all. Trying to pee when you don’t have to pee is one of the hardest things to do. After a few dry minutes of thinking of rivers and streams, but mostly just singing Waterfalls by TLC to myself, the nurse decided to have me come out of the restroom and hook me up to my IV. “All of these fluids will get you peeing in no time” she told me. Cool, well let’s get this IV in then. My nurse put in my IV and blood shot out all over the place. “Whoa, you’re a bleeder!” she said, “don’t look down if you’re squeamish”. I’m not, so I looked down at my wrist. Holy shit, that is a lot of blood. It was all over my hand, arm and blanket. She got me a new warm blanket and kept reassuring me that my doctor would be around soon to sign off and we’d get right into to surgery. He came around after about an hour, literally signed his initials on my right leg then took me back to the OR. In the OR I met a handful of people. I don’t remember them. I do remember the anesthesiologist telling me that she was good friends with one of my co-workers and…

I woke up an hour later in the worst pain I’ve had in a long time. Definitely like, a 9 on that pain scale. I immediately started crying. The post-op nurse came by with some animal crackers, a Sprite and two Percocet. Bless you, post-op nurse, bless your soul. She took my blood pressure about 15 times because it was jumping all over the place. My BP calmed down and I was finally able to eat my animal crackers and Percocet. She gave me some other kind of pain killer too, pretty sure it was intravenous. Another nurse came over to help me get dressed and showed me how to put on my beloved boot that would be my right shoe for the next three month. By this point my pain was at a 3. The nurses put me in a chair and wheeled me out to my mom’s car and we were on our way home by 4:00pm.

NO-STOP anklet on my left foot. You know, so they wouldn’t put a screw in that one too. RICE-ing my left foot. Rest. Ice. Elevation. Compression. This helps so much with swelling and pain.

The next few days were pretty hazy. My mom kept to a strict RICE method schedule. I think this really helped with the swelling and pain in my foot. I slept a ton. Like, 12 hours a night. It was glorious. During the day I’d watch TV like, a lot of TV. This was kinda nice for the first few days because I don’t have cable at home and my parents have just about every channel ever. I’ve pretty much been glued to the basics, you know; HGTV, E!, Cooking Channel, Food Network, Bravo, FX, HBO. I started watching Bar Rescue on Spike, so hilarious. Every episode I’m surprised Jon Taffer has made it without killing someone or having a heart attack. Man, I’d love to know what he does for stress relief. I bet it’s something really weird. Anyway, it’s great reality TV, just so damn entertaining. I’ve also been able to keep up pretty well with the World Cup and I’ve watched just about every Royals game. Glad we broke that losing streak last night!

Three days post-op. Not a lot of swelling at this point, it actually looks kind of normal. Just two small incisions and four staples.

Aside from my very unhealthy TV habits, I’ve also been taking a couple online classes through Coursera. They offer a ton of courses from a ton of prestigious universities all around the world. It’s a really cool way to explore just about any topic. Oh, and it’s free! I’ve signed up for three courses; The Addicted Brain, How to Become and Effective Writer (heh), and Fitness and Nutrition. All of these have been pretty engaging so far. Fitness and Nutrition has been my favorite though. Learning about the process of how food transforms into fuel for your body has really opened my mind. I’m already making changes in my eating habits from knowledge I’ve gained in the course and I’ve had results too! Even though I’m not really able to work out much, I’ve changed up my diet (thanks Mom and Tom), and have lost 5 pounds since my surgery! So yes, to all the discouraged people who might be reading this, you can lose weight even while you’re sort of immobile.

One week post-op. I got my staples out. Didn’t hurt nearly as bad as I thought it would. My foot looks pretty normal at this point. My big toe is still bruised.    

Alright, this new pain killer is starting to kick in and I really need to pay attention to the rose ceremony. Thank y’all so much for reading this silly blog. It means the world to me.

Oh how could I forget… Lisa Frank Animal (err, fruit) of the Day:

I cannot stop giggling at this. Wtf.

 

ps – not pregnant 🙂

What the hell is a Lisa Frank fracture?

That was the very first question I asked my doctor. He then explained to me that it’s not a Lisa Frank fracture, it’s a Lisfranc fracture, a very uncommon and painful fracture/ligament tear that occurs in some fall injuries, but mostly in athletes. “Not as cool as a Lisa Frank fracture”, I thought to myself. My doctor went on to explain that I’d need to get an MRI immediately and would most likely need surgery to correct the broken bone and torn ligament. If surgery was needed, I would be non-weight bearing on my right foot for 6 weeks. I zoned out at this point. 6 weeks?! That’s my whole summer! Ugh. My mother was in the exam room with us, diligently taking notes as my doctor was spouting out treatment plans and details about this lengthy recovery.

So how did I end up in this predicament anyway? I tripped. No fun and crazy story here. I was leaving a friend’s loft downtown after a birthday/Memorial Day Weekend kick off party and tripped on an awfully deteriorated chunk of sidewalk. Yes, I had on heels. No, I wasn’t paying much attention to where I was going. But when I fell, I fell. Hard. My friend’s saw me trip and naturally tried to help me get back up. Unfortunately that wasn’t happening. I was down and in a shit load of pain. I looked down at my right foot, it was twisted and mangled in my strappy, wedged sandal. My foot was also huge, I mean, like, Shrek foot huge. My friend’s got me off the sidewalk, into the car and back to my apartment. They iced and elevated my foot and gave me a handful of Advil to get me through the night and stayed with me until I fell asleep. I’m pretty sure I passed out quickly from the pain.

A view from atop the loft: 

The next morning, my friend Lauren, took me to the ER. We were in and out of the hospital within two hours. My diagnosis; A sprained foot and ankle and contusion (fancy word for bruise) of the elbow. I was still unable to put much, if any, pressure on my right foot. Of course it had to be my right foot. Ugh. The ER doctor recommended I stay off of it for a few days and it should heal up on it’s own within a week or two.

Look at that Shrek foot! This was taken in the ER on May 24, 2014 the morning after I fell.  

I stayed off my foot as much as possible, I kept it elevated and iced, still the swelling didn’t go down. The pain was still really bad too. I couldn’t put much pressure on my right foot without super sharp pain jolting up into my leg. I went to work with my foot in a post-op shoe and used crutches quite a bit to get around. I drove a couple of times. Horrible idea. It’s really hard to drive when you can’t move your ankle or apply much pressure to your foot. Left foot driving was just as awkward. I spent a lot of time at home, friend’s and family would come visit. I binged on a ton of Netflix. Watch all of Orange is the New Black in two days. I spent countless hours on the internet looking for information about Lisfranc fractures and their treatment and recovery processes. The odds didn’t look great. I ran into so many blogs of patients who were years post-op and still unable to move their foot properly. Many patients described their recovery time as unbearable, time-draining and painful. Some even said that depression set in for them as they were sofa-bound for months during their recovery, unable to move.

Once again, Shrek foot. This was taken about four days post-fall. 

Tell-tale bruising of a Lisfranc injury. If you see this type of bruising, make an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon. Seriously. Just do it.

All of these horror stories really scared me. I was couldn’t believe what I was in for. “Oh God, my whole summer will be ruined” was a thought that kept running through my head. I went to talk to my friend Julie about all the info I discovered and to express how worried I was about the whole thing. She steered me into the right direction of thinking positively about the entire thing. I mean, at least the surgery can fix it and I’ll be able to walk again. It was then and there that I decided I wasn’t going to be like the people I’ve read about in their blogs. I’m not going to let this injury and recovery ruin my summer. I’m going to stay positive, recover gloriously and in record time.

Some bruising and my super cute shoe:

On June 2, 2014 I had my first appointment with my orthopedic surgeon. He belongs to a well-known and respected practice in the KC area. His practice treats injured professional athletes in Kansas City. I even saw Chance Myers of Sporting KC in the waiting room at my doctor’s office. He was in a cast and managing pretty well on crutches. I was pleased to know that his doctor would also be my doctor. Always nice to be in good company, you know.

On June 4, 2014, my doctor called me with the verdict. My MRI results confirmed a Lisfranc fracture. I needed to have surgery as soon as possible. My surgery date was set for June 11. He would be placing one screw in the top of my foot. I would then be NWB (non-weight bearing) for six weeks and in walking boot. After the first week, I’d come in for a follow up appointment, then another in 5 weeks.

And now this blog post comes full circle. From “Wtf is a Lisa Frank fracture?” to the injury itself, a misdiagnosis and the impending surgery to put my bones back together.

I’ll end with this. I mean, why not?

Just makes me giggle