Never Say Never - Surgery Number Four

X-ray from surgery #3

This is a long over-due update. I finished all my finals and graduated from Design Studies. I was accepted into the Graphic Design program. My summer was a bit hectic: I opted to spend my time outdoors a lot, geocaching, going to the beach, exploring local parks, and camping. Being so active wasn't easy or painless, I still felt very limited in my endurance and range of movement in my ankle. After an active day, I would spend the next three limping around with a very swollen leg. Other summer activities included finishing drivers ed, getting my G2 licence, adopting a cat named Tesla, and traveling a bit. The summer went so fast and the next thing I knew I was back in school. I started Graphic Design. Its a three year advanced diploma program with a very heavy course load, high standards and lots of stress. And I love it!

At the end of September I had a check up with Dr. Steeves. My x-rays showed that my ankle bone, the talus, was ever so slightly out of place. With the fibula where it should be, it was causing the tibia and talus to grind together and the resulting arthritis was already showing up on the x-rays. It also explained my chronic pain and the swelling. We tentatively booked a surgery date for the first week of my winter break, and made an appointment for November, to see if anything improved or got worse.

In the time leading up to that appointment, my physio coverage ran out and I actually became more active on my feet due to my busy school schedule. I started to have more bad days than good ones. Some days were so bad I had to use the walking cast because I just couldn't afford to take the day off. November came and the x-rays showed I had barely any cartilage left in the joint and the arthritis was deep. Dr. Steeves and I decided to go ahead with surgery. The plan: fuse the talus and tibia.
So on December 16 2015, almost two years after first breaking my leg, I went under the knife for the fourth time.

Dr Steeves and I

Remember when I woke up on the operating table last time? Well I got the full story from my anesthesiologist. He said that after I woke up and asked to go back to sleep, he tried to re-sedate me but I had a bad reaction and got really anxious and agitated, and I started crying. So they ended up putting me under general anesthesia. They usually don't put me under general because I have asthma, so its a bit more risky. It explains why it took me so long to wake up the third time, and the breathing tube.

Because of these past complications, they decided to admit me into the hospital overnight for this surgery. The operation itself took about three hours. Dr Steeves explained that they would be opening my old incisions and taking out my old metal, making a couple small incisions for the scopes so they could cut away the bone from around the damaged joint before fusing it together with a few screws. In addition to the nerve block behind me knee that lasts a day or so, my anesthesiologist added a long-acting morphine to my spinal, and an anti-anxiety med to the sedation. This time I stayed asleep and didn't freak out.

I went into surgery at 11:00 am and I woke up in the recovery ward at around 4:30 in the afternoon. The nurse observing me was really cool, we got to talking about photography and my family. I was waking up much better than last time and I wasn't in any pain because of the morphine and the nerve block in my knee. After an hour or so under observation they took me to a room on the surgical ward. Thats when things got rough. My oxygen was low so they had to put the air tube around my nose again. My blood pressure was really low, I got really itchy from the meds, and I was really nauseous and dizzy. I was able to eat a bit at first, but then I threw up on a nurse. I also couldn't fall asleep, so they ended up putting like four different meds in my IV for itching, sleeping, nausea, and an antibiotic. At midnight I still hadn't been able to go to the washroom on my own and the ultrasound showed my bladder was very full. So I had to get a catheter put in.

Hospital selfie

The next morning they took it out but I still couldn't go by myself. My blood pressure came up and I was able to eat without throwing up. I saw Dr Steeves and he said he was really happy with the surgery, he was able to get my foot properly poised under my leg before fusing it there. I met with a physiotherapist to go over exercises I can do in bed to keep my leg muscles strong. In the afternoon I could finally pee so they sent me home that evening.

Now I'm home to recover over the winter break. I go back to school in three weeks, but I have to spend the next 10-12 weeks completely off my leg! That means wheelchair and crutches and not walking on my own until March. I have a follow up appointment in a couple weeks. I'll try to remember to update here with x-ray pictures.