Week 12

Week 12 is here! It's been an eventful week and weekend, I entertained family from out of town. This means there was a lot of walking around doing fun tourist-y things around the city. It was tiring but fun and painless.

Back at home on several occasions I kept mindlessly covering my foot. My husband quietly brought this to my attention as I started to burrow my foot into the couch cushion. I couldn't believe myself! After everything that's happened the past 3 months!! LOL! Force of habit.

Anyway here are some new pictures:

My scar is very flat to the touch. It's painless and the redness is actually the mark left by the silicone sheet which I've cut in half because the thin scar doesn't need all 1.5 inches of width. The sheets are very easy to use and I forget I'm wearing them :).

Oh and I finally hung out in the pool! It was long overdue since we're halfway into summer already! I'm still wearing my tennis shoes although I tried to cheat and wear some sandals out but it feels A LOT more secure/supporting for now to wear the tennis shoes. And I'm still using the bone stim.

So that's pretty much it! It's going pretty great & I'll keep posting scar updates. Have a great week everyone and have a great 4th of July!

Week 11

Another week has gone by. It went by nice and quickly. This is the week my fixator is scheduled to come off (in 2 days to be precise). I've been using the stimulator everyday. Also, I regained control of my 3rd toe around 3 days ago. I've been wiggling my toes constantly and feel that doing so not only helped me regain control of the 3rd toe but I feel the 4th toe trying to wiggle with the rest although it can't because the metatarsal still has 4 pins in it.

Here's a side view of my toes (sorry about the darkness of the pic on the right, my flash can be tricky).

As you can see my toe was quite straight back on May 29th (the brachytoe pin was removed on May 23rd). It's still really straight but is very sloooooowly starting to relax. Interestingly, it's really only the top half of my toe that is so straight. In the pictures below it's more obvious; the 4th metatarsal is perfectly flat and aligned with the rest of the metatarsals. I took these sitting down, no weight bearing. 

As you can imagine this is very frustrating but I know that it will eventually relax and sit all the way down with the rest. I see and feel the difference everyday. I seem to be the only blogger that this has happened to. Probably because my pin had been in my toe since day 1. A common issue among the blogosphere seems to be that the toe is dragging too low and in those cases the toe eventually sits right and stops dragging or a pin is inserted to correct it. In some lucky cases the toe doesn't float OR drag at all. This is just another part of the healing process; one that I didn't anticipate. It's just another thing to deal with and move on. 

On a positive note, I was playing with all of my new sandals and these leather t-sraps are the only ones my swollen foot will fit through lol. So you see, it's not so bad. I just want my toe to do it's job and carry it's own weight :)

Week 10

This past week went by really fast, I spent the weekend at the beach and it was a blast! There's not much new to report as I'm still waiting for my next appointment which is over a week away. 

I've been using the bone stimulator every day for the full 3 hours. Also, I've been clearing out the dead skin around the pins, though there isn't much to clean anymore. My scar is looking pinkish. I plan on either getting a prescription for those silicone strips or just buying the ScarAway ones at Walgreens (they have good reviews).

Here is my latest pic. The swelling has gone down however it still comes back after a bit of walking; it's not too bad though. The 2 pins closest to my ankle start to sting after a good walk so I'm trying not to overdo it. Walking with the fixator is tiring anyway but there's no pain other than those pin sites stinging. The bottom of my foot feels normal. As you can see the middle toe bends down a little on it's own, probably due to holding 2 toes worth of weight for most of it's life, now it doesn't know what to do with itself lol! I can't wiggle the 3rd  & 4th toe yet. I'm hoping once the fixator is off it'll be fine since I can feel them wanting to wiggle with the rest. The 4th toe itself is getting more and more flexible as I gently massage and wiggle it with my finger everyday. So anyway, here I am! Still waiting and still very much aware of the metal I long to have off my foot :)

Week 9

My bone stimulator finally arrived yesterday. It's light, portable and I have to wear it for 3 hours a day but I can do it in 60 minute increments. I can walk while wearing it too. I'm wearing it over the fixator right now. 

I had my appointment today. I was scheduled to have the ex-fix removed, however because it took so long for the bone stim. to arrive my doc said he would feel more comfortable removing it two weeks from now. To say that I was disappointed would be an understatement...on a positive note the new x-ray shows even more growth so I do find comfort in knowing that I did pretty good on my own. He just wants me to wear the bone stim. for at least 2 weeks before removal so that my metatarsal will be that much stronger. It makes sense. And at this point even though I'm barely winding down from the feeling of betrayal (LOL), I feel like what's another 2 weeks? I was supposed to be staying at the beach this weekend to celebrate but like they say: life is what happens when you're busy making other plans. Maybe I can still go and just use my cast cover ;)

Here's my x-ray:

My scab came completely off. It was really thick and deep where the 2 pins closest to my toes are. Also my toe is very straight (it almost looks jarring looking at it from the right side as the rest are my toes curve down while at rest) so I asked about it. The doc says I can start pushing it downward at the base of the toe to help  with that and I'll also have therapy once the fixator is off. So anyway here we go again with the waiting! At least this time around I already know my bone is doing great :D