Blogger "Next Blog" Feature

Whenever I visit a blog on blogger/blogspot I often click the "Next Blog" link at top if applicable. Just curious - you can come across some interesting stuff, like the rural English country home renovation I ended up following for months, or a beautiful travel blog, or a lot of content that simply doesn't appeal. I wonder what the "connection" is in blogger's "Next Blog" feature - it's definitely not random. When I visit my friend Marsha's photography site and "next blog" surf, I usually get sent into some category of foreign language sites usually with a political bent. When I "next blog surfed" off my own site, ToesRUs, I hit dozens of "momblogs" or family sites about the new babies/little kids. Which is weird because my ToesRUs blog fits into that category about as much as Marsha's does with the foreign politics. What's the deal, blogger?

Day Five: Frightening TV Choices

Moved back downstairs today, nice change of scenery and better cable access! (Which lead me to some very bad viewing choices, as I am now fully briefed on season one of RuPaul's Drag Race, a drag queen competition reality show. I'm blaming it on the drugs.).
The swelling seems to have gone down quite a bit in the last 24 hours which helps so much. The toe is more flexible (yes, I'm doing my range of motion exercises) and I'm more comfortable with slightly less elevation today as my leg keeps falling asleep. Last night the Vegas slot machine was cranking away - the muscle spasms jerking my toe down are bad; I hope they will slow down as I increase the rotation exercises. Or perhaps that's the cause, who knows. I know it's a sign of healing though, and it's less painful than the first few few nights so anything that I can call "progress" is good enough for me.

Started off the day downstairs with a shampoo in the kitchen - luxury! It was easy to do by standing on my left leg and resting my right up on a stool and just leaning over the giant sink.

Here's a photo of my nurse Angus, he takes great care of me...

Day Four: Steady As She Goes

Today has been a pretty smooth-sailing day. It started with bathing and dry shampoo and new PJ's and some good face cream - I'm beating the gross battle one step at a time and it's lovely.
I seem to get big pain waves in the middle of the night. I don't love those. Sometimes it's just throbbing pain or sharp shooting-needles sensations, other times it feels as if the stitches are going to bust wide open. Not awesome. I finally fell asleep after a big wave last night and was jolted awake from a spasm - it was like my big toe was  pulled like the arm of a Vegas slot machine. Freaky.
The switch from Vicodin has been good too - no more nausea, and instead of feeling weak and shaky I just feel kind of fuzzy and tired. Yesterday I lost the battle with basic function at the doc's office and on the crutches, and got teary-eyed when I struggled to use a pen; now I'm just feeling fuzzy and comfortable and watching weird movies ("Synechdoche, NY" - trippy, dude). And I'm playing less "Bejeweled" to get me through the pain, which is kind of funny.
I'm trying to do some version of yoga twists while I'm in this horizontal state; oddly enough, lounging with your leg elevated actually isn't that comfortable for that long. Anything I can do to not disrupt the foot but twist and strengthen the leg/hips is good good good. 
Besides my husband C. taking excellent care of me and keeping me fed and hydrated, my kittens Izzy and Angus have been great company. "Bizzy" likes to curl up under the end of the down throw (my security blanket this week!) and 'Gus sacks out across my chest whenever he sees me doze off. The older cat, Maggie, comes in overnight to keep an eye on things. They are quite entertaining - Bizzy even dragged her "feather on a stick" toy up to the side of the bed so I can play with her this afternoon. Brilliant!

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.

Day Two: Ouch Baby, Very Ouch

As my favorite fellow Austin Powers would say, "Ouch baby, very ouch!"
The nerve block started wearing off overnight, and by 3am I could feel every inch of my foot. I could practically visualize each thing Dr. N said he'd repaired. As the kids say, O M G. I'm taking Vicodin closer to every 3 hours to keep up with the pain. I asked my husband to do the honors of the manual rotation exercises of the toe that I was supposed to start today as I just couldn't muster it myself. I've hopped the few feet from the bed to the bathroom three times today, and it takes at least a half an hour to recover from each. The pain is pretty bad. I try to humor myself with some "THANK YOU SIR MAY I HAVE ANOTHER" cheers, or bury myself in "Bejeweled" on my iPhone, but I can't prove it's doing anything either way. However, I know things are as they are supposed to be. I'm just getting through it. Ouch.
I am grateful my husband stayed home with me today, I'm sure I would have overdone it or had a problem had I been home alone, as proven within 2 minutes of him leaving the house this evening when I almost wiped out trying to hop to the bookshelf five feet away. I'm staying put for as long as I can.

This evening got a call from Dr. N's office, he would like to see me tomorrow to change the dressing instead of waiting until Monday as originally scheduled. I'm not sure I'm up for it, but it's the next step and I don't have to look, right? I'm also going to ask about the pain meds just to be sure. Okay, I admit it, I'm pretty nervous about the appt. tomorrow. In the meantime, here's how we're looking today!

The Big Day, Part Two

The ride home in the car wasn’t too fun but I was still a bit out of it. Arriving at the house and trying crutches for the first time ever across the front yard was scary; and neither of us was prepared for the front porch steps… by the time we got in the door I sacked out in the nearest easy chair. I was under strict instruction of no weight bearing on the right leg whatsoever for 48 hours; especially due to the “paralysis” from the nerve block shot. After we got settled I drank a ton of water and had lunch and a nap. I was surprisingly well energized in the afternoon and now can’t remember a thing I did but maybe catch up on some TV. My first attempt at maneuvering to the bathroom was awkward as it's three stairs down; it was exhausting getting there and back. My balance was WAY off and not feeling/using my right leg was pretty weird.

Warning, gory stuff ahead
Late afternoon my doctor called and checked in on me, and repeated what I guess he told me after surgery that I completely did not remember: there was extensive degenerative damage including loose bone fragments in the joint, what little cartilage was left he had to "re-mold" to fill the joint, and a lot of grinding had worn away the bones. He had to sand and reshape them and shorten the first metatarsal bone by a few mm as it was too long (in relation to the other metatarsals), which was one of the things that got me here in the first place. He did not have to use the "Hemi Implant" that we were prepared to do if necessary. I thought it was very cool of the doc to call. He parted with one request – that I start manual rotation of the big toe on Day Two. I’m terrified.

After dozing off again and being well underway on my antibiotic and pain meds by prime time, my ankle jumped a few times – I thought it was one of the cats tugging on my Smurf bootie, but apparently it was an involuntary muscle spasm as the nerve block started wearing off from the top down. I’d had an itch on my knee a bit earlier as a signal that it was on its way.

Getting up to bed was an embarrassing exercise in “reverse seated crab” up the stairs at the doc’s suggestion, which was so much easier than struggling with the wretched crutches and breaking my neck. I started my work on perfecting the “flamingo pose” perched on my left leg and bending my right as I brushed my teeth (aaah…) and C. helped me hop to bed. Another tip I used from the doc was to put an enclosure around my foot – he had suggested a box or basket of some kind to avoid the foot getting tangled in the bedding, but more so as a defensive measure against curious kitties. I had an empty office file box that I slid the elevation pillow into and was protected (and the cat, of course, slept on top of the box). I got very little sleep and around 1:30am could voluntarily move my ankle, which was nice and a little freaky. Around 3am I could feel E V E R Y T H I N G. Ouch. I’d heard a lot of advice/suggestion to really stay up on the pain meds, as in, take them at 3.5 hours instead of 4 hours as directed when the pain has already crept in. Having employed this approach in a previous accident I knew it was good advice. My toe started twitching, which was not my favorite thing. I found that playing “Bejeweled” on the iPhone is an excellent pain distraction. I didn’t get much sleep, but little bits here and there. But I got a high score! The pain was definitely coming on. I hated waking C. up to get me some more water/ice to help offset it.

I started this blog not just because I’ve needed a topic to get myself rolling in the blogger arena, but also because in searching for info about this kind of procedure and more importantly recovery from it, I found little to no info. I only came across angry posts about the prolonged pain, where others said they were good as new, but no one talked about the process. So if this helps anyone, great. If it provides some entertainment/info for my family and friends, excellent. If it bores you to tears and acts as a sleep aid for you, that’s OK by me too. Cheers!

The Big Day, Part One

The Big Day, Part One
Upon arrival at the San Leandro Surgery Center and filling out a million forms (more later on the great staff of SLSC), I was whisked back by the no-BS Monica who I adored, and was suited up in a gown, booties and “hat,” had my correct ankle marked in ink with the doc’s initials, was put on a heart monitor, an IV drip, etc. The anesthesiologist checked me out and was about to start administering my meds when he noticed an abrasion on the top of my foot… the post-pedicure flip flops I wore home the night before rubbed too close to the joint for their comfort, so we had to wait for the doc to arrive to ensure his incisions wouldn’t intersect with the abrasion – there was the chance of them sending me home due to risk of infection. So that caused what felt like a very long delay. I told the nurses, “This place is like Las Vegas! Extra oxygen and no clocks!” which got some good laughs. These ladies, they were fantastic.

The doc arrived (I think I have to try to introduce him to a girlfriend of mine…) and gave everyone the thumbs’ up. By then the anesthesiologist was busy with another patient and we had to wait some more. I dozed off… but heard the doc say, “oh good, ok, she’s out, let’s go” and my eyes snapped open to see him walking out in full scrubs… I yelled that I was NOT OUT and finally got some sleepy med drip that made me verrrry happy and comfy, then an oxygen tube in my nose, then they rolled me over and jabbed the back of my thigh with a ton of needles (OMG OUCH) and administered some anti-quease stuff at my request… I barely remember being wheeled in, trying to delicately hop/slide to the next gurney in my open-backed gown while now paralyzed from the thigh down (try to be ladylike, Christen). The anesthesiologist told me that if I “wanted more” to just tell him. I woke up a few times but my arms were strapped down so I tried hard to open my eyes a lot to get their attention… his voice “do you want more…” was eerie and soothing and I said yes, at least three times, that I remember. I did hear the docs talking, the drill, the music, but was not scared or bothered by any of it, I passed right back out.

I was gently woken up but couldn’t really open my eyes, and was moved back to the other gurney (surely not so politely this time) and was shivering with cold to the point of my teeth chattering. They wheeled me off to the recovery area, where I was covered with a giant paper blanket that they plugged a hair dryer-like thing into, and it poofed up and warmed me up right away. I was pretty stoned and comfy at that point. Once warm, they propped me up and urged me to consume some apple juice and crackers. The. Best. Apple. Juice. Ever. The sweet nurse Lina helped me get dressed and into a wheelchair. I have no idea how long I was in recovery, it was probably a lot longer than it seemed. Truly there was no concept of time from the moment I arrived at 8am until I was discharged just before 1pm. On the way out I had the bright idea to ask Lina to stop at the restroom… a wheelchair-accessible room with a nice nurse lady helping actually seemed better than what would surely be more difficult/humiliating once home with my husband. I was wheeled out a side door where my husband was waiting beside the car. That was the best part of it all. Yaay! It was over!

Smurf Foot, Day One:

(Note: I drafted an email version of this post to a friend yesterday in my Vicodin-induced haze… the above is much more coherent and slang/swear-free… it was a pretty funny read, I must admit).