Yesterday my wonderful sister organized a family gingerbread house decorating activity. So I was up and about all day. I had the wheelchair, but I was pretty active and rolling myself around and hanging out with my family. It really wore me out so at the end of the day when I felt like crap, I though I had just over done it a bit
Then in the evening I was changing the bandages on my leg because my incisions had oozed through them. When I unwrapped my foot it was huge, angry red and very hot. When I touched the skin it hurt like a thousand tiny stabbing knives. My dad was worried about infection, and so was I. We decided to go to the emergency room.
We got there at about 11pm. I got registered and then waited. And waited. It was night time and there was only one doctor on staff and something like 13 ambulances came in during the night. My dad eventually fell asleep in a chair but my pain kept me awake. It was a good thing I brought my meds with me because I need to take my painkiller every 4 hours or my whole leg would feel like its gonna explode. Throughout the night I had interesting conversations with some other patients, mainly this one guy who had a nasty cut on his hand and was probably gonna lose his finger. I also got my dad to change the waiting room tv channel to Discovery Channel, but they were marathoning a show about Hawaiian kayak fishing and by the time I got bored of it, dad was already asleep. I eventually sent him home at 5am.
I finally got called into the clinic at 7:30am. By then the day staff had arrived, and there were more doctors and nurses available. I got put into a room and a nurse took my vitals again and said the doctor would be in to see me soon. Even though I had a bed I still couldn't sleep. At about 8:30 I saw the ER doctor. He unwrapped my foot and looked at it. He said my blood pressure was a bit high and my foot looked really bad. He said he didn't know why it was so red only in that one spot, no where near the incisions. He said that Dr Steeves, my surgeon, was on call and that he would just have him come see me. In the mean time, he ordered an IV for antibiotics and blood tests.
When the nurse came in to put my IV in and take blood, she said I'd have to go to another waiting room while the IV went through. They needed the bed. After getting all hooked up, she wheeled me to a waiting room. I was there for only 15 minutes when the ER doc came and found me. He said that Dr Steeves was in surgery, but would be out in about an hour and would come see me right away. I thanked him, and then I asked if there was somewhere I could lie down. At this point, I had been awake for over 24 hours. He said he would see what he could do.
Only a few minutes later a different nurse came to me. She was so nice! She couldn't get me a bed, but she could get me a reclining chair, almost as comfy as my grandmas La-Z-Boy chair. She also got me into a smaller waiting room where there was no one else and it was quieter and I could have the lights off. I asker her if I could have a blanket, but I was so tired that I couldn't finish the sentence without breaking down in tears. She actually was really comforting and put her hand on mine and re-assured me that I would be okay and that it was normal to feel so overwhelmed after being awake for so long. Then she brought me a warmed blanket. I got comfy and finally closed my eyes.
When I opened them again it was 10:30 and Dr Steeves was flicking on the light. "So I hear you have some ugly toes" he joked. I was still so exhausted, I just groaned. "Wow, you are not your usual self, something is up." I love when doctors care and can tell when you're not well. He took a look at my foot. He said my post-op x-rays were very good and my ankle was stable. The surgical sites themselves were healing well and not infected. But the amount of pain I was experiencing from the swollen red parts of my foot were concerning. He touched my foot and I cried. He asked if it was like a stabbing pain, and I said it was like a thousand fiery little knives were stabbing my foot. My pain was a 6/10 even though I was on the max dose of Tramadol. He said that the Tramadol probably wasn't helping with the pain in that part of my foot because it was something called
neuropathic pain. The nerves in my foot were damaged and trying to heal, causing pain and swelling. Also several areas of my foot and leg were still numb and I couldn't move my toes. The redness was from blood pooling in my foot when it wasn't elevated all day. He said it would eventually turn brown before fading. Gross. Dr Steeves prescribed a new med to take with the pain med I was already on. Its called Lyrica and stops pain signals in the brain. He also said I had to keep my leg elevated above my heart, and that I should be on bedrest for the next two weeks.
I thanked Dr Steeves. He said he would get me back to good. After he left the nice nurse came back. She said she had checked on me a couple times before Dr Steeves arrived but I was out of it. She said she hoped I had a good rest and would be able to get more at home. She took out my IV and then wheeled me all the way to the mail lobby where I could get a cell signal. She even stayed with me until I had made some calls and got a ride home.
My dad picked me up at 11:30, so he probably got 5 hours sleep. I got home at noon and dad went to fill the new prescription. After he dropped that off, I fell asleep and didn't wake up until 5:30 this evening.
My surgery was only a week ago today.
