The cast is off. You might say that I cast off my cast. Eh? Eh? Anyway, I promised gross photos, but they're really not that bad. First of all though, Theresa was kind enough to record the cast removal at my request. I know, I'm a huge nerd.
Second of all are the X-rays. The first one below is the before shot. The orthopedist informed me that an indicator of proper alignment of your foot, and presence of an arch, is the position of your ankle relative to your big toe. You can see this in both a top and side view of my foot, but I've only included the side view below. To all my doctor friends out there...shut up, I don't know what medial and axial means, so I'm not using those terms, let alone naming these bones properly. Clearly, from the first X-ray you can see that my ankle bone is pointing toward the middle of my foot, it's not properly supported. I've drawn neat little arrows on there to help you out. A view from the top would show my ankle bone pointing way inward instead of at my big toe.
The second X-ray here show what appears to be a much more supportive alignment after surgery. The ankle bone points more directly at the big toe. Additionally, you can see my two outer toes making an appearance in this X-ray. That's because there's a freaking arch there that allows you to see them. Seriously, I'm amazed.
A big part of why that arch is now there, is because of the calcaneal osteotomy that was performed (see previous post for an explanation). Screws were involved, and you can see from both the side view and the above view where the surgeon shifted my heel bone to - both toward the inside of my foot (medially? did I get it right?), and closer to the bottom of my foot.
And finally, what I thought would be the gross pictures. You be the judge. After giving the leg a good scrubbing, it really doesn't look like this anymore. What you see is just caked on gunk that had no chance to fall off in the cast. Yeah, I guess that's pretty gross. Theresa and I joked that I could do a much more literal iteration of the stanky legg. First picture - incision sites for the gastroc recession and fdl transfer.
Second picture - this is where the screws went in.
Third picture - incision site for the calcaneal osteotomy, and what was the unused incision site for the lateral column lengthening that never happened.
Some friends and I came up with this idea for a Minnesota focused blog, celebrating all things that are great about the North Star state. It sprung up from a common practice of ours - if in conversation someone mentions something uniquely Minnesotan, you interrupt them with the statement "you're welcome." I'm hoping to recruit the wife for some design work, but the content will continue to be pretty straightforward. Check it out:
I'm immobile and stuck in front of a television that is playing NASCAR. The remote is across the room. My own personal hell on earth.
Unfortunately, I did not follow through on the suggestion from Reuben that I take a new cast picture every day. You can imagine what it would have been like if I had though...right? Cast comes off on Wednesday!
I've been known to make the athletic move every once in a while, but let's face it, I've never been described as graceful. You would think this whole surgery experience would maybe help balance out my lack of grace - you know, like when a blind person compensates for their lack of vision with enhanced hearing capabilities. But alas, my malady has only served the opportunity for the general public to focus in on my clumsiness like a laser beam. First off, I can't even look cool - it's not really a tough guy injury...evidence below:
Doctors have been prescribing these things, I call it a knee scooter, for patients more often recently. Apparently crutches are dangerous. This was good news to me. A coworker of mine even supplied me with a nice bell to warn those in my path that I am not slowing down, let alone stopping. My first venture out into the skyway system was a good one, although as time has goes on, I've realized that it really doesn't bother anyone to point, stare, laugh, or ask you extremely stupid questions about your misfortune. That's usually when I ring the bell.
Sadly, while my gracelessness has shown through numerous times, I've only fallen twice. Is that good? Once putting all of my weight down on my surgically repaired right foot, the other time on my ass. For the first one I was out on the front porch getting the mail. Hopped out there on one foot on one of those really warm March days. I ended up teaching the neighbor kids a new word. They had to grow up eventually.
Welp, April 20th I get the cast off, not entirely sure what happens after that. Probably success. I guess this has officially turned into the ankle blog. No blogging will occur in this space unless there is ankle stuff to talk about. Until next time...
