Did Not See That One Coming

I went for my first post-op follow up on December 22, which also happened to be the five year anniversary of breaking my ankle. I went in with certain expectations and had them all pretty much blown away.

First of all, my original break and surgery left me with two 2-inch screws in the medial mallelous (the big bump on the inside of the ankle), a long screw through the two leg bones, a plate on the outer side of the fibula (the skinny bone that runs beside the shin bone and ends with the bump on the outside of the ankle), and nine more screws. Two years later I had the plate and eight screws removed. The hardware removal was my third ankle surgery.

The catalog of scars at this point, November of 2008, was:
A. A long, wide scar on the outside of the ankle.
B. two shorter scars on the inside of the ankle, parallel to each other and one an inch or so above the other.
C. A weird scar near the medial line that was caused by bone going through skin. That was never stitched and it is bumpy and pink.

Fast forward to December 22nd. I had no idea what I would see because none of the surgeons bothered to talk to Ken or me after my surgery (which is rude and poor practice). When the initial bandage came off I was shocked to see a stapled incision in the front of my foot and ankle. The other incision was on the medial side. I was surprised to find the lateral side free of incisions. You see, according to the surgeon's website, the ends of both the fibula and tibia (the bumps on either side of your ankle) would be removed as part of the fusion procedure; clearly my fibula was intact. And the whole thing looked ugly and deformed between the swelling, bruising, and anatomical changes.

Next shocker was the x-ray. I have 2 of my original screws (they broke off in the fibula and were left there), and the two medial screws were gone. BUT i now have seven screws and a plate in the area of the fusion. I was expecting three or four screws tops. Now I'm worried about eventual pain from that plate.

Next up was the visit with the PA who said that my joint was significantly arthritic and that I must have a really high pain threshold. Not really- I just didn't have much choice......

On to the application of my very first complete cast. I've had two partial casts and a boot but never a full cast. It is lined with stockinette but the edges are really sharp and I can really feel it when I bend my knee up to use the knee walker. I have three weeks in this and lurking beneath are all those staples which will come out when this cast comes off. They should be nicely grown into my skin by then. I think there are 25-30 between the two incisions.

I was really shaken up by all of this, which surprised me because you would think that by now, nothing about this ankle should surprise me.