Just Returned from Doctor's Office

I had my doctor's appointment this morning. Instead of seeing The Closer, I saw two of The Closer's Physician Assistants, Kim and Josie. They were extremely nice and very cool. Josie walked in and asked, "so you're the snowboarder?" Yep. I'm that idiot that snowboarded into a tree. Come check out my gross leg!

So how did it go?

Well, it had its good parts and its bad parts. Brooke uses Zipcar and got one of their cars for a few hours. On the way to the appointment, Brooke had to stop short due to some traffic in front of us. This, in turn, caused one of the backseats, the kind that can fold down, to come loose and hit my injured ankle. This, in turn, caused me to scream bloody murder.

It was hilarious.

I was then forced, against my will, to take a 2 mg dilaudid (pain medication). So much for quitting opiates. I shouldn't have screamed like that. Dang it. Later on I was happy I got it. My ankle got manhandled.

I chose to go this time without the wheelchair. I wanted to test my endurance on crutches. I barely made it down my hallway before I died. I'm extremely out of shape! This was my first sign that I may not be ready to return to work.

Once I was called in, my leg was unwrapped. I have to warn you, what you're about to see is exceedingly gross. Of all the pictures we've taken thus far of my leg, I've found these the hardest to look at. I don't know why. Others may think differently. We'll see.

This is Ashley taking my leg splint and dressings off. So far, so good, right? You can see the top incision from my last surgery. It actually looks good. But what about that stuff on the left side of my foot? How about we get closer?

YES! That is gross. As you can see, my ankle is still draining. I've apparently continued to leak gross things out of my ankle.

Yep. Gross leakage.

I no longer have a calf muscle. It's atrophied like crazy.

Here's the right side of my foot. Remember last time, how we were a bit worried about skin necrosis? Well, the good news is I don't have it.

The awesome news is I now have these two giant open wounds instead. Both the PAs and Brooke said it looked great. In fact, Brooke said it is supposed to look like ground beef inside. Well, I guess it does. Delicious!

Here's the final picture. My top incision without any staples. Every single one of them were removed, along with a few stitches.

I've got a video of my staples being removed. It's awesome. As soon as YouTube is done processing it, I'll post it.

So at first, they told us I was going to be thrown in a cast. But after a review of my open wounds, they decided to keep me in a soft splint. I have another appointment next week. I talked to my PAs about returning to work. We all decided I'm still a few weeks away.

Now we get to treat my wounds at home and re-wrap it after I shower. We neglected to tell them how often I currently shower. We might have to increase those coveted showers now.

Surgery Two Ankle Photos

We just watched Tulsa lose to UTEP at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was depressing. Tulsa had a nice run at the end of the game to bring it close. But they blew it! How could they do this? I'm injured, looking forward to March Madness, and now my favorite team has no chance of making it to the dance!

I have pictures of my leg from today.

Here is where they made the incision for the second surgery. If you look carefully, there are several holes on the left side of my ankle and foot. That is where he did some drilling.

Here's an update on the so-called Friendship Scar. And you can see the bullet hole wound left by the external fixator rod that was in my heel bone. This is one of my favorite pictures. If you look up close, you'll see the odd colored oozing coming out of the middle of the incision site. Normal? Who knows. Awesome? Yes, correct.

Update: The odd colored oozing coming of of the middle of the incision site is, in fact, skin necrosis. This is bad. It essentially means that the skin has died. I'm so glad I hit that tree.

The last three pictures, I think, explain why I might have been in quite a bit of pain since the surgery. Don't freak out, that's not a pile of skin just below my foot. It's extremely bloody gauze from the splint.

There are three or four holes in the left side of my foot and ankle. It's where the surgeon drilled in some of the screws to secure some of the tibia pieces to the plate. As I was swelling, all the good things in my foot drained out of those holes into the splint.

I have yet to take a look at the post-op report. Brooke won't let me. She's afraid it will increas my pain. She's probably right.

First Follow-Up Appointment Tomorrow

Our first follow-up appointment with The Closer is tomorrow morning. We'll be sure to grab some new pictures of the leg. I'll ask for the X-Ray images and post-op report as well. That should tell us more about the second internal fixator he installed into the bionic ankle. We'll be able to count the number of screws he used to fasten all of the fragments together.

We're in search for some answers about my fever and how to improve my sleeping. My sleeping right now is horrendous. I wake up every hour or so drenched in sweat. I'm hoping it's just a temporary inability for my body to regulate my temperature.

Finally, we'll develop a set of criteria for me to safely return back to work. As much as I like updating this blog and enjoying March Madness, I'd really like to get the ball rolling on returning back to a somewhat normal life.

Man, I cannot wait to see what this ankle looks like. It is going to be so disgusting!