Day 3: It Feels Goods

Yipes... "it feels goods" or something like that is just one of the slurring nonsense statements I made at the doc's office this morning. I had a pretty rough night pain-wise, and was not doing well with the Vocodin - it just wasn't keeping up. (Nor are my fingers as I try to type this!). I am pretty weak from not moving for three days, having no appetite except for antibiotics and painkillers, and had trouble managing the crutches and getting settled in the doc's office. I felt pretty queasy standing on the X-Ray box and thought I was going to pass out, I got all cold and sweaty and shaky, it was awful. I was in outer space. I came back to life a bit in the reclining chair in the exam room. Dr. N. advised that the pain was from the extensive swelling due to the amount of work done in surgery. The good news was that he gave a thumbs up on progress once the bandages were off.  I was afraid to look, but I did take a tiny peek. Not pretty, but what would you expect? I decided it was too soon for a photo of that. . .  I have to do the manual rotation exercises daily; the doc moved the toe around - no clicking! He cleaned and re-bandaged the foot and showed off the before/after X-Rays.

The "before" X-Ray photo at right isn't very clear, but you can see there is no space around the first/big toe joint where the cartilage had deteriorated, and the cloudy areas are where the bone spurs and damage existed. Apparently the joint was filled with arthritis as well. Who knew?

The "after" X-Ray at left shows a perfectly clean joint where the bone excess was removed, the "air" and space around the joint where the remaining cartilage was re-molded, and the pin holding it all together.  Lovely, isn't it?

I go in next Wednesday to get the stitches out.

So overall Day 3 was off to a pretty awful start and I had to pass on a girlfriend visiting and another checking in by phone as I just wasn't up for it and wanted to rest, but I'm feeling a little better as we roll into evening. C. is bringing home some food (hooray!) and I'll take more painkillers and probably move back upstairs for the night. I'm trying to be patient, I know it will just take time.