Over the next few days and weeks I will be writing about my
experiences with my ankle surgery. So far it has been an adventure and a half.
I am not new to having any kind of operation done on me. When I was fourteen I
had a spinal fusion for scoliosis. For those who don’t know scoliosis is when
your spine curves in either an “S” or “C” type pattern. Mine was definitely an “S”.
What the doctor did was put a metal rod and hooks into my spine to straighten
it back out. However when I was 20, I developed a staph infection on my back
and the culprit was determined to be my hardware from the spinal surgery. So I
ended up having the hardware removed. Fast forward to 2009 and 2012 when I had
Hushpuppy and Dumpling and there were two more surgeries. So suffice to say I
was a pro at being put under general anesthesia.
My ankle problems began back in 2012. I had a love for
wearing five inch heels and one day after church we had a dinner in the family
life center. Well during the dinner, Hushpuppy wandered off and of course me
being in mommy mode, I took off after her. However my heels decided that they
were not made for running and slipped which in turn led to me twisting my
ankle. After that there were days when my ankle would be sore but it was
nothing I couldn’t handle. However in December 2012 after starting to work for
the Corrections system and all the standing and walking that it entailed, my
ankle started to really hurt. So I went to an orthopedist who at first
prescribed an ankle brace, contrast baths, and PT that I could do at home. So I
started to do those things and for a while everything seemed alright. Then of
course one day I stepped the wrong way and my ankle became sore again and I
went back to the orthopedist. He then had me fitted for custom orthotics for my
shoes because my left ankle (the problem one) had absolutely no arch left in it
and my right foot had slightly more. He figured that the flat footedness was
contributing to my ankle problems.
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| My First Ankle Brace (but not the last) |
Well I used the orthotics and continued the
at home PT until one day when getting up for work, I stepped wrong on my left
foot and my ankle gave way. The pain was excruciating. I swore that I broke my
ankle. Lovey carted me off to the emergency room and after they did x-rays they
saw no fractures but recommended that I get in touch with my orthopedist right
away. Well I went back and he had me fitted for an air boot to give my ankle
time to heal and a MRI to see what was going on. When the MRI came back it
showed that my joint was damaged and I had lots of inflammation and scar tissue
on the tendon that ran along the inside of my foot (classic symptoms of over
pronation and flat foot). I was given a cortisone shot and orders to keep the
boot on for six weeks. Well after six weeks my ankle was still a mess. So I was
referred to a surgeon (who happened to have done surgery on my mother’s ankle
as well as a consult for my grandmother). He wanted me to try outpatient PT and
to keep the boot on for a few more weeks to see if that gave my ankle some
relief. It did not. So it was decided at that time to schedule me for surgery.
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| My Airboot (Which I still wear now) |
The procedure that would be done was medically called a
calcaneal osteotomy with FDL tendon transfer. Basically what was going to be
done is the doctor was going to take another tendon from my foot and run it
along the inside of my foot to replace the worn out one. Then he was going to
reset my heel so that my foot would point forward again instead of out. I was
ready for it but I had no idea what would be in store for me afterwards...
TO BE CONTINUED...
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