ATR Blog

What has been other people’s experience with post-op swelling? I went and got casted 10 days after surgery (11/07/08) which went fine. I returned to work for a 1/2 day the following Monday and Tuesday (11/10 and 11/11) and had significant swelling. By significant I mean swelling to the point that the cast was literally air tight at the top and toes and flesh was bunched up / forced out of the top of the cast and my toes turned purple. After a few hours at work on Wednesday (11/12) I went home to elevate and have been working from home ever since.

I’ve noticed that even now (11/18) if my leg isn’t elevated at least to waist heighth it starts to swell within 30-45 minutes and is airtight within 1.5-2 hours. Is that normal? Should I be concerned about it or just deal with it?

I don’t want to cause complications / prolong the recovery but I’m also anxious to return to work.

Dr.’s appointment went fine, he said everything was progressing as expected.

There were only 2 stitches to be removed, each about 12-14 inches long. Not sure how they “ran” them, but pretty neat and not what I expected as I thought there would be dozens of smaller stitches.

I chose a black cast just so it would be less “obvious”, but they had a variety to choose from. The doc wasn’t happy with the angle they put my foot in, but said it was just a little more conservative than he wanted to go with.

Next appointment is the Monday after Thanksgiving to have the cast removed and replaced with a boot.

Here’s another shot of the wound just for posterity’s sake:

Today’s the big day! Dr.’s appointment at 10:15 a.m. to have the stitches removed and a cast put on.

With any luck, I’ll also get released by the Dr. to return to work and hopefully be allowed to start putting weight on it.