Home Community Member Stories Sue's Ankle Replacement Journal

Sue's Ankle Replacement Journal

Iswim39@aol.com 

May 9, 2001

I am scheduled for ankle surgery at 7:30 AM. I get up at 4:00 AM in order
to shower and be at the hospital by 5:30 AM. Since I was up talking with
a friend until 1:30 the night before, I was tired, but figured I had lots of
time to sleep at the hospital after the surgery. I am having my left ankle fused. I had my right ankle fused April of 1999 so I know what to expect from
this surgery. My left ankle has basically fused on its own, but in the wrong position. The ankle surgery will refuse the ankle using 3 pins and a bone graft from my leg. Walking will no longer be painful. :)

I had asked my Orthopedic surgeon to fuse two different ankle joints. The
joint that give the ankle its up and down movement and the joint that gives
the ankle its side to side movement. The joint that moves my ankle up and
down was bad, the other so so. My surgeon was reluctant to fuse both
joints, but said he would see how bad the other joint looked and decide
once he was looking at it. My reasons for having both fused: to avoid
another surgery, to avoid having additional joint pain once I had the ankle
fused, and last time both joints were fused and it worked just fine.

Right before surgery I was given a 100 mg dose of prednisone since I am
still on 2 mg of prednisone. I opted for general anesthesia. The surgery lasted about 2 1/2 hours. I felt a little bit of pain when they first woke me up, but they gave me some morphine and other meds and I was very comfortable. I slept most of the day, but by 4:00 PM I was starting to feel hungry and a little bored. I begged for dinner, promising the nurses that I would not get sick and that no, I didn't need the liquid meal. I wanted real food. After getting my meal of "salisbury steak" I thought jello and beef broth actually sounded better. So much for hospital food. But, I was hungry, ate it, and did not get sick.

Remember my plan to sleep after surgery. Well....it didn't work out like I had planned. I was able to sleep fine, but the nursing staff came in every 2 hours to check my temp, blood pressure and pulse. I was constantly having to rate my pain, which wasn't too bad, and if I felt the need for some pain medication, they were quick to give me some.

May 10, 2001.

Breakfast...yippee...coffee at last. I am watching TV, reading magazines, and starting to feel a little bit antsy. The surgeon comes to visit. He told me the surgery went well, he did fuse both joints for me and that my ankle was one of the worse he had ever seen. He said I look great and that I could go home today or stay and go home tomorrow. I was really surprised to hear I could go home today. Last ankle surgery I was in the hospital for 3 days. Of course I opt for going home today. First though, I have to attend my physical therapy appointment. Here we go again. I knew they were going to force me to do crutches on the stairs and I was starting to feel a little bit cranky about that. I have my own way of doing steps that is safe and works great for me. Using crutches on 15 steps is just not a good option, especially when the one ankle is total non weight bearing. So, when I met the PT woman and she mentioned steps, I just told her no, that won't work for me and that I have my own way of doing the steps. She was skeptical, but after I showed her my method using my knees, she was ok with it, and said she may show other patients the method. I was happy she had an open mind. PT is over, and I am ready to check out. :)

I get home, check my emails, get up the steps just fine, and start my week of bed rest. I am to be in bed 99.9% of the time with my foot elevated. I have wheel chairs on each level of the home, and crutches. I have raised toilet seats and a shower seat. To shower I double wrap my cast with kitchen garbage bags and duct tape.

May 14, 2001

Mothers Day! Since I am on bed rest I get to have breakfast in bed. My ankle is feeling fine. I don't need pain medications and I am feeling great. It seems like good waste of prednisone, to be feeling this good in all my joints, yet have to stay in bed.

May 18, 2001

My week of bed rest is over. I can now be up 50% of the time, but I still need to make sure my ankle is elevated while up. My ankle does not hurt at all for the first time in about 2 years. :)

I have two young children, 5 and 2 1/2. My 5 year old still has preschool 3 days a week so our morning can be a little bit hectic. Next week I will be on my own as far as getting them dressed and fed for school. I try to have as many things ready for the kids in the morning as possible, clothes are out and ready and breakfast may just be a breakfast bar or something they can grab themselves as long as it is somewhat nutritious. LOL In order for me to shower in the morning I double wrap my cast using duct tape and kitchen garbage bags. Showering and getting dressed is a time consuming process for me and I am looking forward to the day when I can stand up in the shower again. Sometimes, it's the little things that you miss. :)

May 23, 2001

My first visit to see the Orthopedic surgeon since my surgery. My old cast is taken off, two xrays are taken of my ankle and two different sets of staples are taken out. A new cast is also put back on. The ankle looks good according to the doctor and it feels great also. I also got some good news. The doctor said optimistically thinking, I could be out of the cast in 4 weeks if the bone graft looks ok on June 18th. Part of me has already made plans for June 19th, but I also know that I could still be in a cast longer. Last fusion surgery, I was in a cast for 3 months.

Right now I am feeling great. I just don't mean just my ankle, I mean every joint in my body. What I can't figure out is why: do I feel good because I finally got rid of the ankle pain? I didn't think it was bothering me that much,
but maybe it affected me much more than I realized. For the first time in 2 years I even feel like I could swim. It is not that I haven't been able to swim in the last two years, I can always do that, but for me, I need to do more than just swim a few laps. I need to swim hard and workout. Too bad I don't have a waterproof cast. LOL I sure hope this feeling lasts until after I get my cast off. I am going to take advantage of feeling good though, and do everything I can, even from a wheel chair.

June 18, 2001

It has now been about 6 weeks since my surgery. I have an appointment today with the surgeon. They take off my old cast which has been nicely decorated and colored by my kids and Xray my ankle. The good news is that my ankle is healing nicely. The bad news, it isn't fully healed yet. I have a new cast put on for an additional 4 weeks. The clean cast feels good. :) My ankle feels just fine. No pain at all. My next appt is scheduled for July 13th. I asked the doctor if I would be out of the cast for sure by that time. He didn't make any promises. LOL That would put the total recovery time for this surgery at 10 weeks. Last time, for my right ankle I was in a cast for 12 weeks.

June 20, 2001

I put a phone call into the the doctor. I am calling to ask if he would
consider taking the cast off early, July 2nd instead of July 13th. 4th of July is a big holiday for us. We have company flying in from California, relatives coming to the cabin with us and a busy 4th of July celebration with parades, races, and all that fun stuff. The thought of not being able to swim and sauna with everybody else at the lake was bothering me. So, I thought maybe I could ask him to take the cast off if I promised to take it easy. (and I would) I
just wanted to be able to swim or float on a tube in the lake. In my mind I had figured out a way to get in and out without even stepping on my ankle. Other
times I would use my wheel chair and crutches, and act as if I still had a cast on my ankle. Well, he said no. I am a little disappointed, but I still plan
to have lots of fun and win the 1st prize for most patriotic bike and most patriotic wagon when the kids enter the patriotic parade. LOL

June 21, 2001

Where there is a will there is a way! Feeling trapped since I am going to be in my cast for 3 more weeks, I decided I need to be able to get out of the house and drive. From my house to the garage there are 3 steps. I figured out a way to get the wheel chair down the 3 steps all by myself. By propping the knee of my ankle with the cast on the middle step and having my other foot on the garage floor I can lift/roll the wheel chair down the steps, climb in it, wheel over to the van, sit on the back of the van and lift my wheel chair into the van. I use crutches to get to the drivers seat and away I go. :) The new freedom I feel is great. Makes me wish I had thought about this sooner. The process works in reverse also...so I can get back home, into the house, etc. I am not using the crutches much because they are putting a lot of pressure on my semi-good ankle. So, the small walk from the back of the van to the drivers seat is the most I want to do at this point. Now....if only I could come up with a way to get into the lake without getting my cast wet. I am thinking about it, just not sure I will attempt to do it or not. :) As much as I want to do things, I do not want to jeopardize any part of the healing of my fusion. So, I make sure that I am stable and careful when I am using the crutches or the steps.