Modified Brostrom Surgery - Return of the Frenemy

I apologize for being a bit slow to update you with my progress following this latest surgery. Unfortunately, I'm still battling this darn migraine on top of the ankle, so  I've been limiting my time on the computer, which seems to aggravate everything. Sorry, but thanks for sticking with me!

On the plus side, the ankle recovery seems to be going smoothly. The first few days immediately post-op were a little rough. I was a little surprised by the initial pain levels, but that was purely my own fault for expecting this to be more in line with the hardware removal, rather than an actual surgical procedure. Silly Jenna. Added to that my stomach's usual disagreement with pain medications and it was a slow start, but once we got a prescription filled to help that out everything settled down quickly.

I spent a very long two weeks and two days stuck on our couch, keeping my ankle elevated and being entertained by the kitty cats. I did a full read-through of my favorite book series (Percy Jackson), watched a few movies, had some great friends stop by and say hello, and took a lot of naps. I'm not a good sit and wait person, so honestly I'm so glad to be back at work and back in the swing of things.

Last Wednesday, I had my first post-surgical follow-up appointment. I didn't see the surgeon himself but saw his PA who I've seen before and like quite a bit. I also met with a student that studying with them for the year, and a nurse who was there to remove my stitches.

After the stitches were out, the student physician and the PA took a look over everything. They were quite happy with the lack of swelling and redness around my incision, but apparently during the surgery, both the anterior talofibular and calcaneofibular ligaments were exceptionally thin. Although they were still able to do the surgery as planned, that did change their post-op a bit. Initially, they thought I'd be in the boot for 2-4 weeks after the splint/cast, but now I get a full six weeks at least. Woohoo.

I'm a little frustrated by that, but after three separate surgeries on this ankle, I'm trying to remind myself that it is better to move slowly and do this correctly than to rush this and risk injuring everything all over again. I'm bummed I won't even be able to touch physical therapy until July, but I guess this is a good opportunity to practice being patient.

Initially, when the student physician came in and talked to me, he said that a lot of people who have had this procedure go into a half boot at this stage, rather than the full walking boot. But upon looking at my surgical notes and the thinness of the ligaments, plus hearing the demands of my job (outdoor historic site, chasing after 4th graders, giving walking tours that cover uneven grounds) they put me back into my old friend/enemy/frenemy, the walking boot. Check out my first, painful little baby steps below. By day two back in the boot my calf had stretched back out enough that I was walking comfortably again, but that first day or so was not super comfortable.

The next morning following my appointment was my first day back to work. And of course, it was an insane chaotic day where we had one 4th grader pass out from heat stroke (because why wouldn't it be 90 degrees in May) and had to deal with a volunteer being exceptionally rude to my new intern (wheeeee), plus just the general chaos that comes with trying to shepherd 75 ten-year-olds around a historic site. According to my Jawbone Up Move activity tracker, I went from taking about 300 steps on Wednesday to taking almost 4,000 on Thursday and 5,200 on Friday.

So, from here, it is really just trying to be patient with myself, not pushing too hard at work, and doing what I can to keep the rest of my body healthy while I wait until July 5th, which is my next appointment. My stamina levels are slowly returning, so after another few days of work I'm going to try heading back to the gym and will start doing some upper body weights. Gotta start somewhere!

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Hello from the other side

I won't write much now as I'm on some pretty serious pain meds and quite exhausted to boot, but today's surgery was very successful. The ligament was very thin, but the doctor was pleasantly surprised by how little scar tissue was in the area. Just goes to show why sticking with a PT who does a lot of hands-on manipulation is a good thing!

Modified Brostrom Ankle Surgery

I got the paperwork for my pre-operative physical, and I now officially know that the name of my surgery next month is a Modified Brostrom surgery. I tried very hard to find all of you some nice anatomical photos so you could see what exactly the surgery is but to no avail. This is the best one I could find.

Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery

As you can see there are different versions of the actual repair itself. I'm not 100% positive which version we will be doing. I will be calling the surgical center tomorrow to try to schedule a time to chat with the anesthesiologist about my migraines, and I will also be asking them for a few more details about this. My surgeon did say he would be borrowing tissue from a neighboring ligament, so perhaps it will be a graft?

In the meantime, I did find a very interesting slide presentation about the Modified Brostrom procedure. If you're not okay with seeing surgical photographs, even fairly mild ones which I would say these are, this link is not for you. But, if that doesn't bother you, it is pretty interesting to see at least one version of this surgery.

MRI Follow-Up & My Pre-Surgical Questions

Well gang, we'll see what tomorrow brings. Two weeks ago I had (another) MRI of the left ankle, and tomorrow afternoon is my follow-up appointment with the ankle doc. In our last appointment, he was fairly certain I had a tear in my anterior talofibular ligament. At this point, it is really a question of to what degree. I've pretty much resigned myself to this being a surgical fix, which means that if tomorrow he says it isn't, I will be very pleasantly surprised.

Before any big doctor's appointment, it is a good idea to come up with a list of questions to ask your doctor to make sure that you have a good understanding of exactly what is going happen. If possible, it is also a great idea to bring along a buddy to your appointment. Tomorrow my hubby is actually coming with me. He wasn't able to come with me for the appointment before my last surgeries, but I had a dear friend who did, and she was a great advocate. Hubby will be perfect for this because while I get very emotional which sometimes makes it hard for me to listen, he is very analytical and can stay calm in stressful situations, which this will be for me.

Ligaments & Bone Chips & Migraines, Oh My!

In my last post I apologized for not having written for awhile, and while I wish in this one I could give you some answers as to exactly why that is, unfortunately, I am still waiting on those myself. Life has sort of given me a one-two punch lately of both a significant return of my ankle problems with what is, to date, a 22-day long headache with no known trigger.

All-American Surgery One Year Later

This Wednesday, just three hundred and seventy days after my All-American Surgery, I had my one-year follow-up appointment with my surgeon. It has been a long and tough twelve months, but I wanted to take some time to talk about where I'm at now and what work is still left.

Let's start with a high note. November was the healthiest month I've had in probably two years. On Thanksgiving, I went running. Outside. I went 2.3 miles alternating running for 60 seconds and walking for 90 and felt great. Like, might have sat down and cried a little bit from happiness once I was done. That wasn't the first time I'd run, I'd gone on several on the treadmill at the gym. I also was very successfully meeting with a personal trainer once a week and doing a variety of strengthening and stretching exercises, not just with my ankle but in general.

And now the low note. The Sunday after Thanksgiving, my husband and I were doing yard work (in Upstate NY. CRAZY weather this year). We've had one spot on our gutters that drips onto a windowsill when it rains, so we decided to go up and clean the gutters out. Ladders + unsteady ankles do not equal a good plan, so I asked my wonderful husband to go up for me while I held the bottom. We successfully cleaned the gutters out, he didn't fall off the ladder, and as he was coming down I took a step backwards to get out of his way and rolled my ankle on a clump of grass.

What has followed has been very frustrating. My Achilles tendon swelled right back up, and I'm having pain on the outside of my ankle joint, right where I was having problems prior to the surgery. I've stopped running and training, cut way back on my daily physical activity, and still have quite a bit of swelling.

The good news is that I had my one-year follow-up appointment on the 16th. As part of the regular appointment, we took x-rays of the ankle and bone wise, everything looks great. He gave me a script to restart physical therapy, and if things haven't improved after a few weeks I'm supposed to come back in for an MRI. The trick has been that we did a lot of traveling over the holidays (been gone since the 20th, heading home this afternoon) and we are heading back to Disney World with my family on January 19th. That doesn't give me as much physical therapy before our trip as I'd like, but we'll make do.

All-in-all, I'm glad I did the surgery but the recovery has been difficult. They said that full recovery was at least a year out and boy, I did not believe them. The sprain is absolutely because my ankle is still weaker than it should be, which just means I need to be more vigilant about doing my exercises. In my ideal happy world, once the swelling goes down I'll start doing yoga consistently to help keep everything flexible and strong. If you saw in the photo, I still have a lot of swelling but also quite a bit of bruising which at this point I'm just assuming I'll have from here on out.

So, sorry that this wasn't the glowing and excited one-year report I was expecting to write after Thanksgiving. Check back soon for my 2016 goals and ambitions.

All American Surgery: Nine & Ten Month Recovery

I think that, at this stage in my recovery, it is easy to forget how far I've come. In the last two months, I went to and danced at a friend's wedding, I spent an entire day walking around the Adirondack Museum with a friend, and as you'll see below I'm even rocking walking tours at work. I no longer have to plan my schedule around my ankle, and that is amazing. It still hurts, it still definitely gets tired at the end of the day. My left hip aches quite a bit, largely because of my stride. But, I have come SUCH a long way from where I was even three months ago, and I'd be remiss if I get into the grumbling about not moving fast enough without mentioning that fact.

I'll probably give one year its own post, but the last two months have blown by so quickly and change at this stage is slow and incremental, so I didn't feel like each month warranted its own post. Sorry those of you who were waiting on baited breath!

What I Would Have Done Differently - Been More Consisent
Unfortunately some of this was out of my hands. I managed to get a really nasty sinus infection that is still sticking around, even post-antibiotics, and it has slowed me down a bit. But, most weeks I am making it to the gym twice a week, huzzah! It still isn't a habit yet, which is my next goal for sure.

A Few Screws Loose

I won't say too much now because I'm on pain meds and am pretty loopy, but I wanted to update you and let you know that yesterday's surgery was a success and I am home resting.

I'm pretty sore, a little more so than I expected, but am making good use of my iWalk 2.0 around the apartment until I can get everything moving well enough to get into my walking boot. I only thought I'd be out of work for two days but once I came to they said I should take a whole week. My apologies if you follow me on Instagram, this means you'll get a whole bunch of pictures of Mr. Moose during the next seven day. More updates coming soon!

All-American Surgery Update: Six Month Update

First off, I want to apologize for not posting any updates over the last month. I will be 100% honest with you. The last four weeks have been some of the toughest I've ever had.

June is my busiest month of the year at work, my dad is going through a major job transition after working at the same place for 36 years, we're buying a house (yay!) but are having problems with the closing (boo), and on top of all of this it feels like my foot is trying to fall off.

I am really frustrated. My ankle is still red and swollen after even a limited amount of time on my feet. Last weekend we had a major event at my museum, and thank goodness I have amazing volunteers and coworkers because I really had to limit my movement. The above photo is the evening after that event, a day where I took MAYBE 4,000 steps.

This coming Monday, I will have a second surgery, this time to remove the screws from my ankle. When I met with the surgeon last week, he actually speculated that I'm allergic to the titanium screws. I know I have a slight nickel allergy (can't wear cheap earrings) but his guess as to why I'm having so much pain is actually because the upgraded screws still aren't compatible. He's hoping that once we go in and remove them, I'll be back on the road to recovery.

I am pretty anxious about this. Hopefully we pop the screws out and I am back on the road to healing. We're heading to Disney in mid-August, and I want to be able to keep up with my husband and in-laws!

Sorry for the downer post. I wish I had better, happier news to tell you. The plus side here is that I will shortly have a pretty house I can start to make our own, although let me tell you moving in a walking boot is going to be great fun! If anybody has any tips or suggestions on how to manage that, I'm all ears!

A Small Setback

If I had to be laid up, at least I had good company

I am impatient. I know many of you are probably in the same boat. When they told me I'd be out of my brace in a few weeks, I believed them. And actually, I had two weeks where things felt great. I went for bike rides, even went for a walk (woohoo!) and was happy that spring was here.

Then, last Wednesday I trained several of my new museum educators, which included a full scale tour and walking across the uneven fields of my site. 

Thursday, I attended an Earth Day event and had to park my car half a mile away. By Thursday night, I could hardly walk.

Friday, I woke up crying. The good news is that I had physical therapy scheduled first thing. Usually, we start with heat and/or biking to get things warmed up, do my exercises, then use ice and the electrical stim to cool everything off. Friday, we did stim and heat, I biked for ten minutes, did a few stretches, and then we did stim and ice. Both of my PT's expressed concerns about the screw on the outside of my ankle. They felt like it was more pronounced than it had been previously. I took the day off of work, slept, and kept it elevated. 

Saturday I went to work, and tried my best to not move at all. Sunday I felt like I had moved backwards three months. I really wanted to go to the gym or go for a walk, but I knew my ankle wouldn't tolerate it. Instead I sat on the couch and watched Princess Diaries.

All American Surgery Update - Four Months

Yesterday I had my four month check-up with the Physician's Assistant to touch base about my continued recovery from the All American surgery. I am still doing physical therapy twice a week, and my limp is definitely less noticeable. My ankle is still stiff in the morning, and swollen at night, but there is progress.

The other big news is that I will be going back in six weeks to schedule a surgery to remove the screws in my heel and ankle. They are still exceptionally tender, and you can actually palpate the edges of the screw in the heel! I'm glad we are doing it, but definitely not looking forward to more surgery. But, more on that as it gets closer. Now, the updates!

What I Would Have Done Differently - Changed PT's Sooner
Since the surgery, I've worked with two different physical therapists. One is the one I did pt with previously when we thought the ankle was sprained, and the other who has filled in when my regular was gone or sick. They work side by side, and are both very nice and friendly and smart, and I don't want to misconstrue that at all.

All American Surgery Update - Three Months

What I Would Have Done Differently - PATIENCE
This is really nobody's fault but my own. Before the surgery, my doctor's told me that full recovery would be at least a year out. And I believed them, but I really didn't believe them. I knew it'd be a slow process once the walking boot came off and I started moving on my own, but I didn't realize it would be this slow. Patience has never been my virtue.

I had my three month checkup at the beginning of the month, and handed over my walking boot in exchange for a very sturdy brace complete with boning and more straps than I know what to do with. The Physician's Assistant told me we'd be looking at wearing that for 2-3 weeks, with its removal directed by the physical therapists I could now start seeing. I, of course, thought this meant I'd be off like a shot...how wrong I was!

All American Surgery Update - Physical Therapy & Returning to Work

What I Would Have Done Differently - Managed Timeline Expectations
When I first went in for the surgery, they gave me the return to work timeline of six weeks to three months. I am in my late twenties, relatively healthy except this whole stupid foot, and I absolutely though I would be gone for six weeks, eight max. Instead, I was out of work for two and a half months, and still have pretty heavy restrictions on what I am able to do. But, the exciting news is that I am finally back, and it only took me four days to go through all of my emails!

Taking Control

I have no idea if this is the same way for men (although I sense that it is not) but in my experience, when women have large emotional upheaval, we use our hair as a way to give vent to our feelings. I think that this can be a positive or a negative, happy or sad, all depending on what we need.

I actually didn't do the "post-wedding" chop, although I know a number of women who have. I've personally done a "breakup chop", I've done a "you couldn't dye your hair because you're doing living history but now its over" redhead switch, and now, I've done the "I have no control over just about anything but I can control my hair so it is GONE..."

Delaying the Half Marathon

My big motivation that has kept me going through the last two months has been that, in a year's time, I'd be running through Cinderella's Castle on my way towards the finish line of my first half marathon. That mental image helped me push through when we were stuck in the hospital, it has given me the strength to get through being sick from the pain medicine, and it has helped me be a good girl and follow the doctor's orders to the letter.

All American Surgery Update - Two Month Update

What I Would Have Done Differently - Talked About Mental Health
These last few weeks have been really, really difficult. My poor husband. He's already stretched thin between work, grad school, and the professional choir that he's in that rehearses a full weekend every month. Add to that a snippy, grumpy, mobility limited wife who usually handles the meal planning and cooking and splits the rest of the housework, and he's had a huge burden added to his already too full plate.

I've also had, in the last three weeks, five nights where I've gotten less than four hours of sleep due to over-thinking and worry. The blame for that is squarely on my foot. I have had a lot of anxiety about the reintroduction of weight, and especially how soon I'll be able to return to work comfortably. If I was thinking, when I had my regular visit with my doc a few weeks back, I would have talked with her about this and seen what my options were. At the very least, now that my cast is off and I'm a little more mobile, I'll be setting up a haircut (because nothing says steps forward like a new do) and a full body massage asap. Maybe I'll go all out and get a mani pedi while I'm at it.

All American Surgery Recovery - Goodbye Cast, Hello Boot

Phew! I made it! Well...sort of. It has been seven weeks since the surgery, and although I'm out of the cast, I am now in a walking boot. The last few days have been a little frustrating, but I know we're on the right track.

What I Would Have Done Differently - Understood the Process
When we went in to the doctor's office on Wednesday, I legitimately thought that I'd be walking out on my own two feet with the help of the walking boot. Turns out that was not the case, and I've got another two weeks non-weight bearing before I get to start walking. In addition, I didn't realize that the transition from the cast to the boot would be so taxing. My pain and fatigue levels are way back up, and I feel like I got set backwards a few weeks. I know that isn't actually the case, but I was really not prepared for it.

iWalk 2.0 Review - The Upsides

Yesterday, I posted the downsides of my experience with the iWalk. While there were some small things, there was absolutely nothing that would dissuade me from wholeheartedly recommending it to anyone who finds themselves needing crutches. Here are the things that I really loved about the iWalk 2.0 Armless Crutch, in no particular order.

Easy on the Arms
This is 50% of the motivation behind getting the iWalk. I've had chronic pain since 2008, and had surgery in 2012. While that largely resolved it, the dead last thing I wanted to do was cause more problems with it. That meant that traditional crutches were out of the picture, as people with perfectly healthy arms and shoulders end up sore or injured because of them. The iWalk has been the 100% perfect solution to this.

iWalk 2.0 Review - The Downsides

Heading into my foot surgery, I tried to do a lot of research to be as prepared as possible. I actually did not find a lot specific to my procedure, but I did stumble across this gem. The iWalk 2.0 Hands Free Crutch has been the absolute best part of my recovery, although there have been some ups and downs (but luckily no falling downs). I want to be very clear. I highly, highly recommend that if you're going to be in a foot cast, you look into renting or purchasing the iWalk 2.0. It has made a tremendous difference in my recover, but I wanted to touch on some of the frustrations or unexpected hurdles before I start singing its praises.

Weight Restrictions
Be aware before you order the iWalk that it is limited to individuals under 275 pounds, and your upper thigh need to be smaller than 27". I was unable to find height limitations, but in my tennis shoes I am the most comfortable at the tallest setting. I am 5'7", but the majority of my height is in my legs so someone taller than my can in theory utilize this without an issue. Just something to make sure you check before you order!

All American Surgery Recovery - One Month Update

Happiest of happy new year's to you. I hope your 2015 has gotten off to a great start. We had a lovely but quiet New Year's Eve with a great couple who I've really gotten to know over the last year. The husbands work together, and I'm really glad we've gotten closer! I was even made this awesome cast cover, making it officially the coolest NYE gift of all time.

I am now officially at the one month point in my recovery. It has definitely been a long haul, and there is still a long way to go, but if I step back I can see that I am making progress. Here's the rundown!

What I Would Have Done Differently - Girl Date
I love my husband, pretty much more than anything. But he took this entire week off of work, and that meant he was here every day. And as much as that was great, I've missed having some girlfriend time. My two local besties have been out of town, but they're both back and I am so excited to hang out with them!