April 2012 Week 1


My follow up appointment was on Day 5 after surgery. The doc unwrapped my foot; the gauze was bloody and my skin and nails were yellowish from the betadine they used at my surgery. Warning: the picture of my foot is a little gory!

They took xrays and said everything looked good! There wasn't much swelling or bruising (that's dried blood on the right side of the fixator). I realized that I had yet to use ice pack this whole time!! Oops! Just goes to show that the surgery itself is truly minimally invasive even though it doesn't look like it ;) Surprisingly there's also a pin sticking out of my toe. He says it's to make sure the tendon stays where it's supposed to which is fine with me because I don't feel it AT ALL!

The doc then brought out an allen wrench and made 2 full turns on the screw. I felt nothing.

 He gave me the wrench and instructed that I was to start turning the screw 1/4 clockwise 4 times a day starting on Day 9 post surgery. This will be different for everyone, you must follow what your doc says to the letter. Also, compared to the other blogs and youtube videos I've seen my fixator is a little different. There is only 1 screw that needs turning and you cannot see it in this pic because it is at the tip end of the fixator. Also the pins in my foot appear to be pretty short compared to the fixators used maybe 2-3 years ago.

So..... they cleaned my foot up with peroxide, wrapped me up with gauze and the ace bandage and sent me on my way :)