4-13-17 SURGERY DAY!

So I had an appointment with Dr. K yesterday on the 12th. We took x-rays again to check on my left foot and it's still the same. So we went over my options. My right foot will be removed completely! My left foot WILL ALSO BE REMOVED! He said that this is pretty rare and he has seen it before. So what he is going to do is actually remove the fixators off both feet. The left foot he will then put a pin into the center of the bone that will act as the device I have on the outside. This was I can get that removed and head back to work. My work wouldn't let me come back with the things on the outside because I work in a warehouse. He then will inject my left foot with a serum that has stem cells in it to kick start my bone growth again which I'm super excited about. Then in about 6-8 weeks I can get the pin removed. It is completely under my skin and not visible. We also discussed the tendon release. My toes don't bend upward as if to go on your tip toes. He said that sometimes the pins interfere with the tendons so once he removes everything from my feet he will manipulate my toes and see if I need that.

The surgery went extremely well. I was at a different hospital this time Holy Cross surgical center in Mission Hills CA for insurance reasons. Everyone here was amazing and so wonderfully nice! Dr. K took out both fixators and put the injection and pin in my left foot. He also released the tendons in both of my toes and put a small wire through the tip of my right toe. He said that it was wanting to angle upward and I will keep that in and get it removed with the other pin in 6-8 weeks. I'm in barely any pain. Only my left ankle kinda feels sore. Other than that I'm still pretty numbed up so I'll do an update later on that. I have a follow up appointment with him on Monday so I'll do another post then with pictures of my feet unwrapped and an update on pain. For shoes to wear he mentioned that I get some stiff shoes that don't bend much and wear those for a while. So I went out and bought a nice pair of Timberland boots that are really stiff but cute to wear as well. (:

This is the pin through my left
foot you can still see where it's
not healed completely.

My wrapped up fixatorless feet!!

3-24-17 X-rays and bad/great news.

I another set of x-rays. They still show my bone not healing. It's going extremely slow. This is called delayed union. It can take the bone twice as long to heal as it normally should. I called up Dr. K and he said that he has seen this before and there is no explanation as to why it happens. He said my right foot is ready to get removed and I am extremely excited about that and am going to fly out to Cali to get the right one removed. I am hoping that in the next three weeks before I get there my left foot amazingly heals itself. I know it won't but hey miracles happen. At least I'll be able to drive again getting my right foot removed! Here are my x-rays.

Left foot still not quite there.

Right foot ready to be removed!!

3-3-17 X-rays and sad birthday news.

So it's been three weeks and I was hoping that my left foot would have finally caught up and healed for me for my birthday this month and is has not. My right foot is almost there! Here are the X-rays. Physical therapy has been wonderful however we are stuck at a plateau because my tendons are so tight. So it's really not doing anything anymore. Here are my x-rays.

Left foot still not unionized.

Right foot basically healed.

Xrays and 3rd physical therapy appointment! 2-10-17

I now get X-rays every 3 weeks instead of every 2 weeks. We are looking at bone growth now. It's the countdown to fixator removal! It's been 3 weeks since my last X-rays at his office and he said 8-10 weeks so that means I have about 5-7 weeks left! I'm taking my vitamins to try and promote healthy bone growth so lets hope for the less amount of time but I'm willing to wait because if the fixators are off too early the bone is still soft and with no support it can collapse and you can actually loose length and will have to repeat this whole process in order to fix it NO THANK YOU NEVER AGAIN! I will post my X-rays below my left foot the bone has not unionized yet but it's almost there! My right foot the bone has unionized so now time to solidify. The whiter it gets on the X-ray the harder the bone is getting.

I'm now on my third physical therapy appointment. So what happened is that we actually bumped up the times I go to 3 times a week instead of 1-2. I need a lot of work done and when I get these fixations off I want to feel as normal and free as I possibly can! I have big goals to achieve in due time once this is all done. Im going to finally start racing and I'm working towards my spartan trifecta!!! I will achieve that goal but there is no way I possibly could at my flexibility at the moment. So my therapist gave me more exercises to do that are now working on my hips! They make me sore but it's a good feeling I think coming out of this I will also have a nice firm booty too hahaha! Anyway, the way she describes this is that when you don't use a joint for a long period of time is that it freezes. What that means is there is a capsule and in this capsule are tendons and ligaments that tighten up. You need to work on them to loosen it up and boy is it a slow process! However I have already made great progress in just 3 visits and my exercises at home I've been doing. My flexion in my brachy toes is actually great! Flexion is bending the toes down like curling them, my brachy toes are able to do what all of my other toes can do! She said that flexion comes first it's easier to achieve and then extension comes next. Extension is moving them upward like if you were to put your foot into heels your toes would need to extend. My toes are slowly but surely working their way upward. I'm at 20% extension in only 3 visits. Prior to that I was at 0% it barely would move so I'm extremely happy at that. She also can't work on my toe as much as normally because of my bones not being hard enough and having hardware in it gets in the way. She said I'll see better results once I get these off because then she can really go in and just work my toes. So far my toes are stiff in the beginning for a few seconds and its about 2 second of pain and then my toe starts to release as she works at it and after that it feels so amazing like releasing and relief its great. I'm so excited for the future and I'm really hoping that by the time I get these fixators off ill be near 100% maybe at the 60-80% range! I have quite a few more weeks so I have about 15-21 more visits before fixator removal so fingers crossed! I will keep you all updated on my progress.

I'm still waiting to hear from my doctor on the results of my X-rays.

Left no unionized bone yet

Right unionized bone!

2-2-17 First Physical Therapy Appointment

Hey everyone!

So these past many days have been a struggle for me but after this physical therapy appointment I am extremely excited and optimistic!!!!

My toe has not been wanting to move at all whatsoever... It is just stuck frozen in this position.... neutral (straight). Now what is happening is it's starting to slide under my third toe on each foot because it does sit lower than all my other toes. I was not able to walk on my bare feet for a while because of this. These toes have never touched the ground before and now that its starting to and it's the first toe to touch and the fact it doesn't give way makes it really sensitive and irritated.

Fast forward to after this physical therapy appointment. She gave me two exercises to do. One of them is to put a towel on a hard surface and sit in a chair and put your feet on the towel. She wants me to the scrunch my toes to scrunch the towel up and then un-scrunch the towel with my toes. She said to do this for three minutes. Then she told me keep my feet on the towel and slide my feet backwards but keep heels touching the ground to stretch. I do this 20 times and hold it for 10 seconds.  I do this 4 times a day. She also works on my toes for about 30 minutes each. It hurt so bad at first but then it released a little and started to feel relaxing and good! After she was done my toe was relaxed and flat no longer pushing down into the ground...sadly this faded and it went back to its tucked lower position throughout the day. She mentioned that because I was living most of my life with brachymetatarsia that my knees and hips were also out of whack. She told me she was going to contact Dr. K and ask him if she would be able to start on some hip and knee strengthening exercises next time and some soft tissue work as well! Dr. K is so nice I'm sure there will be no problem with him saying that it is fine! I really like my physical therapist as well she is super nice and extremely helpful and knowledgable. She said she has never seen this in her life. She specializes in the lower half of bodies so she knows everything that will help me but she said I am a very difficult patient but it makes it fun. I go to Athletico physical therapy.

1-23-17 Follow Up Appointment

This Monday was a follow up appointment after the wire removal surgery. I went into his office and they took X-rays which sadly I don't have to display for this post! I was then taken into a room and Dr. K removed my bandages. My toes were swollen and puffy of course but the issue now is that my brachy toes wouldn't move at all. They were completely frozen. This is a common thing that happen to joints that aren't moved in a long time. My toes at this point haven't moved in about three months! Dr. K showed me a way to try and start move it to loosen it up but when I tried it was so painful and it freaked me out touching it knowing it should be moving and it wouldn't I couldn't do it. He then prescribed me physical therapy. He wrote on the order form for them to focus on the range of motion in my fourth metatarsal joints for 1-2 days a week. He said other than that everything looks great and he is extremely impressed with the way my toes look and said that they look so natural!!! He mentioned now that it could take about 8-10 weeks before pin and fixator removal because now my bone needs to completely calcify and become solid!

NOW STARTS THE COUNTDOWN TO REMOVAL!!!!!!!!!

Left foot 

Right foot 

1-21-17 Second Surgery

Hello everyone here is an update!!

The wires through the tip of my toes needed to come out! I called Dr. K and talked to him about my options. I told him that the wires through the tips of my toes were now angled down towards the ground and this started causing me terrible pain. In the boots and walking without the boots the wires would push into the ground which caused a ripping feeling where the skin was around the wire which sucked so bad. It was also pushing up on my toe that was excruciating! He told me that he normally doesn't take these out until the whole fixator comes out because there is a small chance that the toe could become a little deformed but that a simple surgery could fix it. However he told me that if I couldn't walk normally though it would hinder my healing process and that it's better to remove it. I was not walking normally at all. I was putting my weight on the insides of my feet. My ankles were killing me and my legs were hurting like hell so we set up a day for surgery for removal of the wires.

I flew back to Cali and had my surgery set up for a Saturday at his new surgery center. I got there and was told to do the same things as before change, got my IV set up and was wheeled into surgery. I was put under light sedation, I was still completely under, Dr. K removed the wires and then put a corticosteroid shot in each brachy joint. Forgot to mention at this point I was at complete length. After the surgery I scheduled a follow up appointment for that Monday. The surgery went very well! It was an instant relief once the wires were removed.

1-3-17 X-ray update!

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful New Years day! It was sad that this new year for me I wasn't able to go out and celebrate but it's okay. My new feet are the beginning of my new year and it's so worth it! I got X-rays done so I thought I would post those and give you all a little update on how I'm doing!

I'm in more pain now than I ever have been throughout the whole process. Dr. K said that when I got to this point I may not be able to walk as well and boy was he right. Walking is terrible painful because I have so much space in between my bones! I'm so close as well I'm nearly at length!! I will post picture of what my toes look like as well. It's crazy to see my feet look "normal". I'm also having issues with the wires going through the tip of my toes. Now that my toes are long and at the proper length basically the wires stick out far and point downwards. This causes issues for me that result in a lot of pain. They are tapped on everything because they stick out farther that my big toe and I always am tapping it or hitting it on things and it hurts like crazy! They also hit the floor/bottom of my medical shoes as well. This causes my toe to be pushed upward and results in excruciating pain! I am now walking weirdly by putting my weight on my heels/inside of my feet. My ankles are now so sore and painful because of the way I'm walking due to these wires! I contacted my Dr. and I am waiting got hear back from them on whether or not I can get these removed prior to the whole device removal. I am willing to fly out there to get these taken out!!!

Other than that I am doing extremely well!! No infection which is amazing. Skin is healing really well and my feet look amazing. I also am trying anything and everything to make my bones heal fast! I am taking vitamins such as calcium, fish oil, D3, and magnesium. These are all good for bone growth! I also purchased helichrysum essential oil that I am going to mix with coconut oil and rub on my feet. It is known for restorative properties and can help with bone healing and scars! I also purchased a TENS device. These devices emit electronic pulses to help with deep tissue massaging. I put one pad on the bottom of each foot and it helps with pain and discomfort and contracts my muscles it feels great. I am also hoping because of the frequency that it emits that it will also help with bone growth because it's at that sweet spot were bone grows. Fingers crossed. I am so ready for this to be over I'm going a little crazy. Especially because it is winter time I can do nothing more that just sit around at home. SOON SO SOON......

Left foot currently!

Right foot currently!

Right foot difference!

Left foot difference!

Right foot X-rays!

Left foot X-rays!

X-rays 12-17-16

Hello all these are my x-rays from today! I think they look really great based off of what I know about x-ray images. I am waiting to hear back from Dr. K on how they look and to see if he tells me to start turning faster or whatnot. Today marks 51 days since my first surgery (right foot) and 43 days since my second surgery (left foot).

Right foot from top view.

Right foot from side view.

Left foot from side view.

Left foot from top view.

Left foot from side view.

Right foot from side view.

Update 12-14-16

Hello everyone!!

My new set of X-rays are due on the 17th! I've almost been home for an entire month and it is seriously crazy to think about!!!

I just wanted to give you all an update on my feet. The infection is gone and since I've been wrapping my feet differently I have not gotten another infection.
Every time I shower I scrub my feet and get off all the dead skin. My feet have never looked so good in my life!! HAHA!
I have been using hydrogen peroxide at the pin sites and my toes every other day to keep it clean! It has severely helped with not getting another infection.
I noticed that around the pin sites they were getting extremely dry and cracking and it was hurting my so I have been using a clean q-tip to apply vaseline around the pin sites and it has helped dramatically.
I asked Dr. K if I could remove the stitches from the little incision he made to break the bone and he said sure. I took the stitches out and the area has been healing wonderfully! I don't think I'll even have a scar!!
I heard back a couple days ago about my x-rays and Dr. K says they look great and that I should keep turning at my ¼ turn a day rate. This made me a little sad because I was hoping to go faster but I know that slow and steady wins the race and that it will be worth it in the end.
I also use this all natural cream on my feet every other day to help keep them soft and keep the skin from getting dry and cracked making sure to stay away from any opening. Don't want to go near those.
I feel really great! I don't have pain anymore at all. I haven't needed to take a pain pill in many days and it's really nice!

I'll show you guys an update on my length! With these pictures you can really see the difference! The photo on the left shows length prior to turning and the photo on the right shows length as of today!! 12-14-16. What a difference already.

My next X-rays are this Saturday on the 17th and I'm excited to see the difference and hopefully will be able to get the pictures off the disk to show you all.

Left foot length difference.

Right foot length difference. 

12-3-16 X-rays!

WOW! It's been 2 weeks since I've been home now!! I have my order and I'm going to get my x-rays to send to Dr. K for an update to make sure everything looks good! He said that based on my x-rays he can let me know if I can actually start turning faster or if I need to go slower based off my bone growth. I went to the hospital outpatient to get them done. It was quick and easy and they gave me a disk with the images on it. I went home and attempted to get the images off the disk to email it to my Dr. instead of having to mail the disk to them. For some reason I couldn't figure it out! So I am sorry guys I don't have the X-rays to show you this time. Next time I'm going back to the place I went before because I was able to copy the images off their disk so I can show you! I sent an email to them to let them know that I would be sending them my disk of images.

The infection is gone I am now just finishing up my antibiotics! Make sure you DO NOT stop taking them. You need to finish antibiotics. If you don't the bacteria can become resistant to the antibiotics. This is what created MRSA people. Don't know what that is look it up it's terrifying.

Infection! 11-29-16

Hey guys! I am now home back in Chicago Illinois in the middle of winter and I want to cry! I miss California so much. The flight back home was extremely brutal!! The flight was basically full except for one seat and my mother and I somehow got lucky enough that it was between us so throughout the flight I was able to keep my feet elevated. Traveling during thanksgiving is so brutal with how many people there are flying and being handicapped was so bad. The people in security completely screwed me over from having a big seat up in the front of the plane I was almost late to boarding and was boarding with group C so I had to walk all the way to the back of the plane. Security wanted my feet, made me stand in the scanning machine, then did that explosives paper on both of my feet then also made me wait 30 minutes to check my bag because I had a computer. It was so terrible. I got home safely though without injury!

So today I was taking a shower and had been noticing my right foot hurt A LOT! More than normally. When I got out of the shower I took a good hard look at my foot and realized how terribly red my bratty toe was! I then asked my mother about it and even the slightest touch of my toe was excruciatingly painful. She said she thought it was infected. I then took a picture and sent it to Dr. K and he said it probably was infected. He told me if it is red like that, terribly painful to touch, swollen, and hot then yes it is infected and to take the meds he prescribed. I started taking my antibiotics that night. I had to take 4 a day for 10 days. I was wondering how in the world my toe itself was infected. It wasn't the pin sites. I thought that maybe it was the wire going in through my toe that was the reason. Upon more inspection of my toe I realized that there was a giant open crack in my skin where my toe connects to my foot at the bottom. My toe still isn't long enough to where the pad on the bottom doesn't lay over my toe. So it got wet in there and my skin cracked and because there is no oxygen flow it go infected. Dr. K warned me about this and I totally forgot. I then figured out a new way to wrap my feet with the gauze to keep that dry and to heal it! I cut the gauze a little longer than normally and I wrapped it around my toe and shoved it into the spot where the crack was.

I have my next set of x-rays on 12-3-16!! I can't believe I've been home for almost 2 weeks now!!

You can see how bright red my right brachy
infected toe is.

You can see here how the bottom of my foot
flaps over. In there is where the crack was that
got infected.

The new way I wrapped my toe so that it stays
dry in the area.

2nd Doctors Appointment! 11-19-16

Hello all!!

11-19-16 was my second doctors appointment. I went in and they took x-rays immediately of my feet. It's really awesome the machine that Dr. K has that takes x-rays. You can sit in a chair while they do it and they place your foot on this cylinder type of thing and the x-ray pops up right in front of you on the screen. I took a picture of my right foot and you can see the gap of the bone!! It looks really cool.

Dr. K said everything looks really great so far and my x-rays look good. He wrapped my feet all up and gave me a care package of gauze and wrappings to go because I was flying back to Chicago that Monday on 11-21-16. They gave me another written prescription for pain pills since I was running out of them and would need a refill. He then told me that every two weeks I need to get x-rays done and send them to his office. That way he can monitor me from out of state. My next x-rays will be done on 12-3-16 then!

This is my right foot. If you look close
enough you can see the gap!

Pain 11-13-16

Hello everyone. I wanted to give you all an update on how I am doing!

So since I am out here in California I decided to go to northern Cali to visit one of my best friends who moved out here. My mother and I drove up and she actually flew back home for a few days to help out back there. I stayed with her in her apartment. We arrived there on the 11th and we were going back to our hotel in SoCal on the 16th. When we got to her place I went a little bit too much too fast... It was only one week after surgery on my left foot and I did a little too much walking around and it caused so much swelling and pain. I completely regret doing that. There was a ton of bruising on that foot and made my foot extremely painful to the touch.

I took my first shower on the 14th. This was the day I started turning my left foot and stopped turning my right foot 2 times a day. The shower was amazing!! I sat in the shower and got both feet wet. It felt so wonderful. It was really crazy and kind of gross but the amount of skin that I scrapped off of my feet was ridiculous. I couldn't get them wet and just using a washcloth every so often to wipe them down didn't help much with getting dead skin off. Other than that I was doing well. I was in pain but the pain pills helped a lot. I also iced and raised my feet every single night which helped tremendously.

My next doctors appointment is on 11-19-16 where he will check on my feet and take x-rays!

Doctor Visit! 11-7-16

I had a doctors appointment set up for a follow up after surgery and to also start lengthening my right toe! We drove out to his office in San Fernando CA. We got there and walked into the office and met the girls I had been emailing with and talking to over the phone. They are very sweet and nice people! They took me to the back and took X-rays of both of my feet to see how they are doing. Dr. K said that they look great! I then had to pee in a cup for them for a drug test which was supposed to be done before my first surgery but it was forgotten about so I did that! I then went back to a room and sat on the chair. I was lifted up and Dr. K came in and asked how I was doing. Which I have been doing great!! He then took off my ace bandages for both feet threw them out and took off the gauze around my pins on both feet. He looked at both of them and said they look really good. He then wrapped up my left foot with new gauze around the pins and a new ace bandage around my whole foot. Then he gave me an allen wrench and taught me how to turn my fixator! There is an arrow pointing to the inside of my foot he said to go opposite of that and turn to the outside of my foot to lengthen. He told me for the first week of turning I will make 2 quarter turns, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. After the first week I will go to turning one quarter turn a day until I reach the proper length. He said he does this because when he breaks the bone during surgery he actually compresses the bone together to make it "sticky" this is making the bone start healing and building new bone and you can go a little faster in the beginning because of that. After he likes to go slow because that way the bone is building fast enough so that you don't have to wait a long time once you reach the right length for the bone to harden. This way when I reach length I will not have to wait as long for my bone to harden. He gave me the wrench and wrapped up my feet and I set up an appointment with him for 2 weeks later. I start lengthening my left toe on Monday! I can also start getting my right foot wet and my left foot on Monday as well but I have to dry it right away and am not allowed to soak my feet but showering is fine. He also gave me a roll of gauze to change every day or every other day. I have been changing it about every other day. There is only a little bit of fluid on them when I change it, there isn't much ever. He then gave me a prescription for antibiotics in case I get a pin track infection. He said almost everyone gets a pin track infection at some point during this. It happens because you have something going from outside skin to inside and it's just a common thing with that. He said some people get it once every few weeks, some never get it so fingers crossed I never do! However he gave me antibiotics just in case. He said if I see it's infected, which is red, puffy, tender, sore, irritated, and pussy. He said if it happens take the antibiotics. He said if I ever need anything just text him and he will help me out! He's so nice. I'm very happy I chose them!

Second Foot Surgery!! 11-4-16

This was an exciting day! I woke up early and we drove to the surgery center in Tarzana, CA again. We got there and I signed some paperwork again and then walked to the back to change again. I walked all on my own without crutches but I still brought them with me because I knew I would need them after surgery. I changed into the gown and cap and peed in a cup again for a pregnancy test and put everything in a locker. I walked out to the bed and signed more paper and got my IV ready. I met my anesthesiologist who was different than the one I had last time. Dr. K then came in and unwrapped my foot finally!!!!

So there was a little miscommunication between the surgery center, Dr. K, his office, and myself about my first foot. I should have seen him in between these surgeries, he was confused and said that he usually sees people about 3 days after surgery and he didn't see me for 8 days. I was also supposed to have been changing the gauze around the pins and icing my foot without the ace bandage on it but I was told no appointment and don't unwrap it the entire time until the next surgery and the ice machine wouldn't do much with the ace bandage on. So my foot was a little more swollen than it should have been however he said it looked really good!! Make sure you get a follow up appointment sooner and make sure you're icing your foot and understand the instructions for the proper post op care!

I then went into surgery for my left foot the strapped me down and I passed out. I was so cold I was shaking when I woke up but stuck this tube under my blanket that blows hot air and it feels sooooooo nice!!! I then recovered and was then walked into the bathroom to change. My foot was SO numb that I was hard to walk and the nurse had to help me to the wheelchair in the bathroom. She told me to pee but I couldn't at all this time!! I got dressed and was wheeled out to the car. I also got a handicap placard. This will help so much.

This time around my foot was blocked again and this time it was so much more numb than before but thats the difference between doctors! It is now late at night and my foot is still so numb so it's hard to get around because it feels like I'm missing my foot! I was told to set up an appointment for Monday as a post op appointment for my left foot and as an appointment to start turning my right toe! Dr. K usually waits 10 days post op to start turning to lengthen the toe. I also can now take the ace bandage of and every day or every other day I change the gauze out around the pins. I will probably change the gauze tomorrow or the next day and video tape it and put it up here! I have not had pain in my right foot this entire day which is awesome! The later it gets in the night the more my numb foot comes back which sucks! I hate the feeling haha it's so strange and it gets hot and tingly feeling when it comes back and it drives me nuts but it's only for today so I can get through it! I simply can not wait to turn my toe!!

Before surgery!

After surgery at the hotel

This is what my foot looks like without the bandages.

My swollen toes.

Swollen foot!!

I think my foot is a tad bit bruised! 

Day Before Second Surgery 11-3-16

My mother and I chose to go to Huntington Beach. It was my last day of walking a little more "normal". I also rented a wheel chair, not a full size one, it's more of a transfer chair. My mom does push me around in it because it doesn't have big wheels to use to push yourself around. I also got soft pads for the crutches because I was really starting to hurt my armpits and palms of my hands. The pads really really help! We were going to go on the beach and go on the pier and get food down the pier. I also got a cheaper cast cover so I could go on the sand and possibly in the ocean! My chair that I got is a rental from a medical supply store here in Anaheim. I had the option to get a prescription from Dr. K and go through insurance but it would have taken too long, and I didn't want to deal with insurance. This place we went was super affordable it's $90 a month or $32 a week. So I rented it for the rest of my time here.

We got to Huntington and I tried to use just the crutches but my armpits hurt so bad we ended up just using the wheel chair and my mom wheeled me around. We went down the pier and ate lunch at the restaurant at the end of it. We then went to a few stores and then put the wheelchair back in the car put the cast cover on and then attempted going on the beach. We made it to the water it was so hard to walk through the sand on crutches but we made it and rested and it was super nice to rest on the beach for a while! Getting back to the car was even worse! I made it though. We then went back to our hotel and I was able to start walking around without crutches! It was amazing.

I then prepared myself for bed showered and got ready for surgery tomorrow! Same as last time nothing to eat or drink after midnight and then be there at 6! I then went to bed.

The pads added to my crutches.

This is my chair I use to get around. It's collapsible.

This is me at the beach! Goodbye to my
left brachy toe, hello new feet! I love
Huntington Beach.

5 Days Post Op! 11-1-16

Hello everyone.

It is now been 5 days since my surgery and I just wanted to do a quick update. I am having my next surgery this Friday on the 4th! I spoke with my doctor about getting a handicap pass while I'm here to make it easier to go places because it's been a little hard getting around. I've been needing to get dropped off whenever we go places. I also am checking with my insurance company as to where they would cover me to get a wheelchair from a medical supplies store. I will definitely need to get a wheelchair if I want to go places for longer period of times. We will see what they say.

I have been able to bend my ankle more now and put more pressure on my foot which has been amazing! I'm very impressed with how well this is going. These past few days have been going well. I've mainly just been relaxing and laying around. Today was the first day where I went out and was out for a while, especially not being able to have it elevated. Today was interesting. I also didn't take any pain meds all day for some reason I just forgot and I didn't feel any pain in the beginning of the day. My mother and I went to go get our hair done and we both where getting it cut and colored so we where there for about 3 ½ hours. It was tough because I was also having to walk back and forth from the chair and the washing tub. I used the crutches to get back and forth but it was still hard to do. Sitting in a chair for 3 ½ hours my foot started to hurt really bad. I also had not taken medication yet and couldn't due to the fact that if I do not eat with it, it will make me throw up. So I had to wait until after our hair appointment and after we got food to take my pain meds. We finished up (our hair looks amazing) and headed to get food right after. I ate and popped a pill and waited for it to kick in. We headed back to our hotel and my foot started to hurt extremely bad. I had gone all day with not having it up and not taking any pain meds made it hurt. This was the first time it hurt really bad and has never hurt this bad prior, I would say a 5 out of 10 on a pain scale. I got back to the hotel and instantly put my foot up and took off my wrapping a little to relieve a little of the pressure and it felt like it was on fire, which is from the swelling, and it felt much better. I'm still not allowed to unwrap it yet until my appointment on Friday they will show me how to change the dressings and everything then, but I needed to loosen it a little just for a few minutes. The pain pill kicked in and now I'm feeling great and my foot is feeling better and not on fire. I will update on Friday after the second surgery!

Post Surgery Day 1! 10-28-16

First day after surgery!!

So far it's going really well. I actually slept really well which is surprising because I'm an avid stomach sleeper and I had to sleep on my back/sides. I kept my foot elevated the entire night which helped with swelling! My foot and ankle are still swelled up but my calf has gone down with swelling which is nice! There really isn't much pain at all just some discomfort from my toes being squished! Walking around with the crutches is pretty hard at this moment because of the swelling in my ankle I can't flatten my foot without pain and discomfort so I have to walk with my foot not touching the ground which causes a little discomfort from blood flowing to it. Today will just be relaxing day for me. I got a call from the surgery center asking how I was doing which is nice! They asked if I was in any pain and I am really not while relaxing while walking is a little bit still probably around a 2 on a pain scale. They asked if I am having any issues which I'm not so it was really great and they wished me luck! I took a pain pill today to kinda help with the little bit of pain and how uncomfortable the whole situation is. It feels like the fixator is pressing again my pinkie toe or something but I can't see anything yet! I'm so intrigued to see what it looks like but I can't unwrap it yet and the suspense is killing me!! I napped again today which felt amazing! I walked around a little more today on my crutches and it makes my foot hurt a bit and my left leg gets tired really easily. Soon my left foot will be done and then I'll be traveling around in a wheel chair to make it easier! My ankle is really the only thing that is bugging me right now. It hurts from being elevated and laying straight out and the extra weight added on my foot. It's swollen so it is hard to bend it and is a tiny bit painful in the spot where the fixator is at but I have been slowly bending it up and moving it side to side, it helps a bit. I probably will update my blog when I get my next appointment! So far so good! It's not as bad as I was expecting it to be!

SURGERY DAY! 10/27/16

Hello! Today was surgery day!

I went to bed and was prepping to get up at 4:00 in the morning. My surgery was scheduled for 7:00 in the morning however I had a consultation prior with Dr. K at 6:00 and my hotel is in Anaheim which is about an hour away. I arrived at the outpatient surgery center on time and went inside. I had to fill out and sign some paperwork. I was then brought back into a bathroom and given a locker to put my things in, a gown to change into, foot booties, and a hair cap. I then had to pee into a cup for a pregnancy test because I am a woman. I then took everything off except for my underwear, I was able to keep those on (bra off though). They work under x-ray through the entire procedure so no metal at all, no piercings or jewelry. I then walked out and sat down in their bed and got a warm blanket put on me. They put an IV in and had fluids going while they went over more things with me and had me sign some more papers. I met the nurses, anesthesiologist, Dr.K, and his doctor that he was training who was just watching the surgery who is eventually going to join his practice! They asked some questions and then got things ready. There was a total of 6 people in the surgery room.

Dr. K talked to me and said I actually have a more mild case of brachy than a lot of others do. He mentioned that he has done over 150 of these surgeries which made me feel extremely comfortable. He talked about what he would do in the surgery. He makes a short incision to be able to make an osteotomy in the metatarsal. That's basically a break in the bone. He said that 4 pins would go into the bone and then a fixator on the top. He then would put a wire in through the tip of the toe to keep it straight and from flexing up or down how these toes tend to do that when you lengthen your toes. This is because when you are stretching your toe you are also stretching the muscles, skin, blood vessels, ligaments, and tendons. Tendons are very stiff and rigid and take longer to stretch. You need to go slowly and let it stretch so that it doesn't bend up or down. It will eventually adjust and be straight along with stretching afterwards. I then walked into the surgery room and laid down on the table. They are doing my right foot today, and next week my left. They then laid my arms out they strapped me down to the table and put oxygen over my mouth and nose and said that you will start to feel sleepy. I don't even remember getting tired and the next thing I know is I'm waking up. They also blocked my foot which means that they completely numbed my foot so I couldn't feel anything afterwords for a while. I laid there for a while as they took my vitals every so often. They gave me crutches and they gave me a DVT machine. They wanted me to get an ice machine as well but my insurance wouldn't cover that and I brought my mothers friends from her knee surgery which I got very lucky I had the option! I highly suggest you get one of these as well even if your insurance doesn't cover it. You can rent it for 2 weeks for about $300, Dr. K patients get it cheaper. They sat me up and made me walk with the crutches to the bathroom to change. There was a wheel chair in there to sit down on and change and the nurse offered to help me change but I felt fine! I changed and peed (they make you pee due to the fluids given to you, you have to anyway). I then opened the door sat down and they came and wheeled me out. The pharmacy is downstairs from the surgery center which is really nice! They prescribed me Vicodin.

They wheeled me down to the parking garage and I headed home (hotel home). They told me to keep my foot raised to help reduce swelling. My foot is all wrapped up and they said do not unwrap it or get it wet until the doctor takes it off and tells me I can. I put my DVT machine on which is a machine that basically massages your calves every so often to help prevent blood clots (deep vein thrombosis) which is caused from siting around and not moving as much. This machine is very VERY important. Blood clots tend to sit in the lower extremities such as your calves. If one forms and gets loose it can travel to your brain and cause a stroke, or it can travel to your heart then into your lungs and you can die from that. This machine helps prevent that and it also feels pretty good! I also put the ice machine on it but because my foot is so wrapped up so much my actual foot wasn't really getting the cold to really help like it should so when I get the wrappings off I will use the ice machine to make the swelling go down a bit.

When I got back to the hotel I got set up to relax in bed and elevate my foot. My foot was numb for hours and it started to feel a little on fire when the feeling was coming back which is completely normal. So far I'm really not having much pain at all! Just a little dull ache and heat at the wire through my toe. It's probably a 2 on a pain scale. I have a high pain tolerance however so it may be a little worse for you. My foot is wrapped tightly and is kind of pushing my pinky toe on top of my brachy toe which is a little uncomfortable but I can get over it for now and it will relax when I get the wrappings off. I have a tiny bit of blood and fluid leaking out of some spot but nothing crazy or abnormal. I have a background in the health field, I'm a cardiac sonographer and my mother was a nurse so, so far everything is normal and looking good! They said that with this surgery you can walk to an extent. Start off on your heels and slowly as the time goes on you can put more weight on your feet as you feel comfortable and as long as their is no pain. I will start turning my fixator in a week and because I don't have a crazy amount of length to go because mine isn't as bad/short as others so I may be done turning either while I'm still here or a week after I get back! So I may only need to turn for a month! We shall see. I'm so excited. I will get a call tomorrow to see if he wants to see me before my next surgery for my left foot on 11/4/16 or if he just wants to see me before the surgery. Hopefully it's before so I can get this damn wrap off!! So far so good!! He's very nice and knowledgeable. I'm very happy. And this is a nice trip to be away from crappy Chicago weather!!!!

Before surgery!!

In the hotel room after surgery on my first foot! Have the DVT on and Ice
Machine next to it. My poop emoji pants! Super wrapped up!!

Me pulling back the bandage a little to see my toes.
This is the K wire in my toe a tiny bit of blood and my pinky
pressing over my brachy toe which is bugging me a little!!