Alright. So I am not yet sleeping well, but getting better. Thinking still about asking for Valium, but trying not to take anything else.
Off the Lovenox shots which is nice since those hurt like hell. I am in a fiberglass cast now for 4 weeks. Blood clots feel better at least now that the Cumidin is kicking in.
Energy is starting to come back too. Still lifting an overweight body with mainly your arms is tiring.
Longer process and more work, but every day is a victory. I can’t be thankful enough of my wife, 2 young children and my inlaws who have been super helpful.
All of you, thanks for checking in on me. I am going to go and read your stories and progress today. Haven’t been able to get out of my own misery the last few weeks, but you eventually have to decide that it isn’t where you want to be.
Oct 25 - Ruptured left Achilles playing basketball, went to ER.
Oct 27 - Surgery performed, normal reattachment.
Nov 9 - Follow up is successful, most sutures removed, switch to boot and 1 more week of NWB.
Ultrasound for blood clots is positive 2 blood clots in repaired leg. Tech runs into foot, after another meeting with surgeon everything is fine.
Blood clot treatment causes circus of events in trying to get medicines which ends in me falling while standing on a knee scooter in line at a Walgreens and re-rupture left Achilles.
Nov 14 - Second surgery that includes using some grafting thing in my tendon and then to add strength a tendon from my foot was also attached.
Nov 15 - knee block wears off and I am hospitalized by the pain.
Morphine and Percoset are given, with Morphine in a 10 minute drip. I learn that morphine make me itch my entire body raw. Get a fever.
Nov 17 - Assorted pain killers, muscle relaxants, and nerve damage pain killers later we find a concoction of Neurotin, long and immediate OxyContin and Tylenol that let me feel like my leg isn’t exploding.
Nov 18 - I come home. INR is not getting high enough so I am continueing Lovenox shots which hurt.
Nov 21 - few days home of uncomfortable, sometimes not sleeping, sometimes sleeping 16 hours, being hot all the time when other people are in jackets and a blanket.
So I am 1 week post second surgery. 5 more of NWB. Tired of the cast and trying to find comfortable positions. Tired of the hot flashes and sweats. Tired of being a burden. Tired of this injury.
That is the venting part. Now I am backing off pain killers and several of the drugs as prescribed and no addiction problems that I can tell thankfully. Hard to tell with everything else and the depression. Either way it feels good to share.
I know it will work itself out, but the process sucks. So be it, try your best. I am continueing to try my best and trying not to have too many down days. Swelling and pain are both better. Restlessness still a problem, but hopefully I figure it out sooner rather than later. Thanks again.
Surgery, for the second time, is tomorrow. I do appreciate the well wishes and everybody on this blog. Rough few days since the fall where I re-ruptured my Achilles, but family and friends were around to cheer me up. Let you know how it goes in a few days. Clock starts again tomorrow.
So my 2 week follow up was Wednesday. 1 day shy of my surgery. Doc was pleased with my wound and put me in a boot. The plan was to begin partial weight-bearing in a week. I had some calf tenderness so I went for an ultrasound to check for clots.
Went for ultrasound, tech ran into my foot and it hurt like hell, so after she found 2 blood clots I had to go back to my surgeon to check my foot.
She tells me it is still good, but I need to go see my PCP about the blood clots. So I go and do that and hear about shots of Lovenox to get my blood thin until the Cumidin can kick in and keep my blood thin for 3 months. Shots were to be for 3 or 4 days. Cumidin will require several checkups a week to check if it is too thin or not thin enough as it is a guess and check kinda thing. Spectacular.
At this point I have to pick up these drugs and this is where the story goes awry. So my normal pharmacy doesn’t have it. Going to Walgreens would have been $100 a shot, but they had the Cumidin and were open. After having to go in to figure out this detail and find out how to get the medicine since my insurance pharmacy didn’t have it I am on my newly acquired knee scooter in my boot. I am waiting in line to buy a drink while my wife is in back dealing with the Pharmacy. Just standing there I pull some pressure off the knee scooter while standing there and as I try to put my knee back down it slips of the side and I put my foot down.
A day later a MRI has confirmed my re-rupture and I get to start over Monday. Needless to say what positivity I had maintained has officially left the building.
Only funny thing was that my surgeon says that this time she will loosen my Achilles from my calf because in people that have normal size calves this wouldn’t have torn, but since I have massive calves it makes it harder to take any pressure early. That process will heal faster than my tendon and won’t be an issue and will still give me full strength when done.
Rough first week. Off the pain killers after 3 days I think, figured out how to keep moving around and keep my leg elevated while on the couch working, slept 3 or 4 times as much as I have any week in the last several ( usually only sleep 4 or so ) , and am thankful for my wife, even though she has had a rough week too, and the support system around me.
My incision is real itchy tonight and am looking forward to my first post-op on Wednesday. Missed basketball, volleyball and tomorrow will miss bowling. So that is depressing as well as lifting myself up the stairs and down the stairs is exhausting. Still swell if I keep my leg down for more than 5 minutes, but in general swelling down enough that my cast is moving around a bit and annoying me.
Working at home like this I have slowed down some, but decided that I have to be more serious about losing weight than I have been the last 5 or so years.
Anybody attempt the semblance of a routine while going through this. I have, after the first 3 or so day, started being more careful about what I eat and just eating less. Whose is hungry anyway after sitting on a couch all day?
Given up that I will be one of those quick healers so I am expecting another cast on Wednesday and so makes it easier to just think about every day as a victory. I love the positive stories and the positive thoughts here and so thank you.
Going to go outdoors for a few minutes tomorrow figuring that might help my mood. Haven’t been out since the surgery so again looking for the small victories and will go and put an order in for a knee scooter.
I will post up pictures when I login from a computer. Mainly log on using my phone.
Halloween is today and it was my first day after surgery trying to work a full day from my couch. Neither made me all that happy (fight the depression because that will be the most troublesome), but I did learn something today.
Working a full day from home is easier than it sounds. I am a manager at a technology company and so all I need is phone and computer access to do everything I do at work. Except I am a face-to-face kinda guy so that is tough. Benefit though is I am much crankier and therefore more willing to push back on the shoddy work other people do and then delegate which one of my team can go and nag the other teams to get it right. Always been more of a do it myself kinda guy. So I guess this will make me a better manager.
Drawback though is working on a laptop with your leg elevated over a couch has limited positions and they all hurt your back. Any suggestions would be great. Trying to move often helped, but only a little bit. Weaning off the hard core pain killers is letting me feel things in my Achilles that I might not be ready for, but I prefer to be off of them soon.
Halloween, now this I totally thought would go better. 2 kids, sister-in-law, mother-in-law, and wife are working on serving up candy and taking kids out. Kids start off upset because their friends started in a group and they weren’t dressed yet. Finally get them dressed and ready and they want to catch up. So everybody goes with them and my wife wants to throw a pizza in the oven for dinner. I say I don’t want to watch it because being wobbly around 450 degrees is not my thing. Great so I set up a chair and a couple of bowls of candy by the front door and I have a movie on my phone because I don’t move all that quick. Seriously holding a door open to people who think your cast is a costume and trying to put candy in a bowl of 18 month old who can barely hold a bag is tough.
Really trying to stay positive about it being winter, the holidays coming, and just all the difficult times ahead, but today made it tough. Delegating better will be a plus and getting a few extra hugs and kisses because daddy is hurt is certainly a plus.
Tried to let my wife sleep in while I managed the 2 kids. Got them food, let them watch some TV, and she got a couple of hours of sleep. I got exhausted and cranky. Didn’t really want to go back up stairs to get pain medicine, but I should have.
