Laying around

Still here, still laying around.  I saw the dr. Wednesday and got the Bigfoot cast off and a more normal cast applied.  The effects of following the bedrest/elevation orders are immediately obvious as there is almost no swelling or bruising.  The incision is pretty big and I'll have quite a scar but who cares?  It beats being braced and certainly beats repeated injuy.  The dr. seemed pleased.  I liked him this time.  It appears he likes to do surgery.  He doesn't like to talk about a theoretical surgery but he'll happily discuss once he got to cut.  They did a lot of clean-up in there, tightened ligaments and tendons and sewed it all back up.  He said 8 weeks until I can start putting weight down.  That's better than 12 which is what he told my mom Friday.  I'm in my first cast now and that comes off in 2 weeks for stitches to come out and then I get another one. 

I can see now why he does things differently.  Usually the bigfoot dressing is on 2-2.5 weeks and then is removed, stitches are removed and the cast is put on for the rest of the time.  My doctor is more tightly controlling how much movement I get by never letting a cast get looser from decreased swelling.  The cast is even done differently than a usual ankle cast.  It goes completely over my toes, which has made doing stairs really hard and scary (I call it my flipper) and it is contoured so that there is an arch to my foot and around the foot it is form-fitting.  It is much bigger in the ankle where I have a lot more padding over the incisions (2 on top of my foot and the big one on the outside of my ankle) and then I have additional padding on my heel because I have 2 stage I pressure sores there.  I apparently was propping my heel on things and didn't know it because you can't feel it through the Bigfoot thing (or the flipper either) and so I have to be careful about that now too. 

Anne came over to visit and watch a movie today.  She was really sweet and really careful with me.  Such a sweetie.  Her sister was here too and gave her very first hug ever to her big sister who was thrilled.  The baby is a little beyond my abilities right now but I did get to hold her for a minute.  She crawls at the speed of light and pulls up on everything so she requires someone who can move quickly all the time.  Anne asked me questions about my brother today, which is expected.  When I admitted I couldn't explain it partly because I don't understand she told me that she thought grown-ups understood everything.  No, 'fraid not sweet one....and especially not this.

Anyway, just wanted to say I am still here, still in bed.  Tomorrow I'm going to try showering I think.  I can't wait for that.  Mostly I just lay in bed and try to make sue I'm low enough in bed that my foot is way up.   That's much easier with the cast as is nearly anything.  There's not a lot to share as not much is going on in my life right now.  I sleep a lot.  Today I've been quite itchy from the pain meds.  My cat is snoring loudly; that's tonight's biggest news as I don't know how to stop him without jabbing him with my cast which seems mean. 

2 more weeks and then I'll find out if I can be up a little more.  I think they're going to want me to stay down as much as possible for the entire time I'm nonweightbearing from the way it was said yesterday.  I'll take that 2 weeks at a time though. 

More soon,

Just Me Jen