It's been a while since I've posted, so I guess an update is due my friends here.
2 weeks ago a sore appeared on my right little toe, one that rapidly went south because in no small part to my diabetes plus it being a nasty bug. The short version is that my right little toe and most of its metatarsal (the long foot bones) had to be amputated and a skin graft done to cover the resulting wound (skin shaved from my thigh).
I've had a total of 3 surgeries in the last 10 days; the amputation, a 'cleanup' surgery and the last one yesterday where more cleanup and the graft were done. I was discharged at 9:00 PM tonight. No weight bearing on it for 1 week, at which time the plastic surgeons will pass judgment on how things went. If all goes well I'll be walking again soon, perhaps 10 days.
Also had enough Vancomycin & other high-test IV antibiotics to float a battleship.
Pain? Not that much. I'm on 800mg of ibuprofen + 600mg of gabapentin every 8 hours and was walking on the foot the evening after the first 2 surgeries; bathroom, up/down the hall etc.. All that stops me now is protecting the graft until it takes. No opiates at all, refused them, just my ridiculously high pain threshold and the above. Hardly even feel the 6"x3" patch they shaved off my thigh for the graft.
A "Doc-ism" - I had a nerve block at the ankle for the first 2 surgeries and watched the procedures start to finish out of academic interest, including when they snipped the bones etc. Odd seeing that done to your own foot, but as my wife said "you would!" The last surgery I relented and took a general anesthesia because the alternative, a spinal, appealed to me less than my desire to watch the graft being cut and applied. Oh well....
2 weeks ago a sore appeared on my right little toe, one that rapidly went south because in no small part to my diabetes plus it being a nasty bug. The short version is that my right little toe and most of its metatarsal (the long foot bones) had to be amputated and a skin graft done to cover the resulting wound (skin shaved from my thigh).
I've had a total of 3 surgeries in the last 10 days; the amputation, a 'cleanup' surgery and the last one yesterday where more cleanup and the graft were done. I was discharged at 9:00 PM tonight. No weight bearing on it for 1 week, at which time the plastic surgeons will pass judgment on how things went. If all goes well I'll be walking again soon, perhaps 10 days.
Also had enough Vancomycin & other high-test IV antibiotics to float a battleship.
Pain? Not that much. I'm on 800mg of ibuprofen + 600mg of gabapentin every 8 hours and was walking on the foot the evening after the first 2 surgeries; bathroom, up/down the hall etc.. All that stops me now is protecting the graft until it takes. No opiates at all, refused them, just my ridiculously high pain threshold and the above. Hardly even feel the 6"x3" patch they shaved off my thigh for the graft.
A "Doc-ism" - I had a nerve block at the ankle for the first 2 surgeries and watched the procedures start to finish out of academic interest, including when they snipped the bones etc. Odd seeing that done to your own foot, but as my wife said "you would!" The last surgery I relented and took a general anesthesia because the alternative, a spinal, appealed to me less than my desire to watch the graft being cut and applied. Oh well....
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