My Foot (by Lindsay)

An update on my right foot...

The surgery that I had back in September was a success! My orthopedic surgeon was able to cut and remove the part of the bone that was causing the added stress to the other joints of my foot. He inserted a new plate as well as seven screws to hold everything in place, which will all be permanent. My bones have not yet started to fuse together, but they will as it heals.

I was non-weight bearing for about the first four weeks after the surgery (a little longer than expected, but my doctor wants to be sure that this surgery AND recovery are done correctly). By about third week of being off my foot, I was basically pain free!

Two weeks ago, my stitches were removed and I was given permission to start walking on my heel with the boot cast on. Of course I was very excited, as a whole new world had been re-opened to me! It's amazing what we take for granted!

A couple days after that appointment, I started developing some pain in my foot, which I assumed was from the new weight-bearing. 

Then it got worse.

By the following Monday, I could hardly handle being in a vertical position, let alone put ANY weight on my foot. I called my orthopedic surgeon and we discussed my incision and the area surrounding it.

The incision was a mess. It was constantly oozing and had an odor. There was redness around the incision, which was hot to the touch and spreading. My entire foot was starting to swell. 

Infection.

He immediately put me on antibiotics and within a few days I was able to put a little weight on my heel again (although it was still pretty painful). 

10 days later I finished the antibiotics and I had another routine follow-up with my doctor (yesterday). While my foot does look better than it was, he was not happy with how deep the infection has gone into my foot. The incision still looks pretty bad and I'm also in a fair amount of pain. And I've been having off-and-on fevers since the infection first started.

He started me on another round of antibiotics and is having me do a "wet to dry" dressing every day (a gauze pad soaked in sterile saline solution placed on the incision, followed by a dry gauze pad, and then covered with an ace bandage wrap around my foot/ankle to hold it in place). I am also to stay off my foot again and elevate it as much as possible. 

Wet to Dry dressing materials

I'm going back to see him in a week (next Thursday) to reevaluate. 

If the infection has not shown significant improvement, he said we'll need to go back to the operating room to address the issue. 

Ugh.