My Lisfranc Year in Summary

As 2011 comes to a close, I thought I would summarize my timeline of the injury so people can use as a comparison to their own timeline.

June 25th - Severe Lisfranc Injury, Open wound, major ligament damage
June 26th - Emergency Surgery, ORIF - 3 KWIRES, 2 Screws, Soft Cast
June 28th - Discharge from Hospital
10 days post surgery - wound check, hard cast on, came off narcotic pain killers
16 days post surgery came off of self administered blood clot medicine
3 weeks post surgery sutures came out, re-casted
6 weeks post surgery - hard cast came off, 3 KWIRES Removed in office - walking boot, still NWB
10 weeks post surgery - begin WB
11 weeks post surgery - begin PT
14 weeks post - walking without boot painfully
9 weeks PT - PT ended at 4 month post surgery point
At about the 4 month mark I was at a "new normal".  Could pretty much exercise, walk without pain with the exception of the mornings.  Still had a slight limp though and no range of motion in the foot.
5 months post surgery - WB X-RAYS, scheduled screw removal
6 months post surgery - Screw removal surgery
1 week post 2nd surgery - healing well

So a little after 6 months post surgery, I am walking now without a limp.  My surgical wounds are healing quickly and I have little foot pain.  I have regained most of my range of motion, am able to work out pretty much normally in the Gym.

Happy New Year to all.   I will post again after my January wound check and probably final visit to my surgeon.  I'll then most likely post on my one year anniversary.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays to all

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays to all  fellow Lisfrancers.  I hope everybody is healing well and getting along.

Today marks 6 months since my original accident.  Getting along well.

Glenn

48 Hours Post-op

Got thru the first 24 hours with no pain.  My foot feels pretty good.  I took a look at the sutures - they are inside and I have two incisions.  One on the top of my foot closed with a butterfly bandage and one on the side of my foot closed the same way.  The incision on the side of my foot was bleeding, so I changed the butterfly bandage and then used gauze pads with large band-aids to tighten up.  This seems to be holding.  This morning I woke up at 4am to the usual nerve ending healing process.  This is a lovely feeling - feels like a little gremlin is sitting on top of your foot - and every minute he jabs a knife into your foot.  This has been going on for several hours and Advil does not help.  Getting up and walking around does though.  You see, when your body is quiet, it seems that all focus is on the nerve endings in your foot.  This should only last a few more hours as the incisions heal up.

I'll post some post-op shots soon..

Screws Out!

Today was my big day.  Arrived at Yale New HAven Hospital at 630 am.  Waited around thru admitting and got into hospital gown and into surgery at 815am.  I opted for full anesthesia vs. the Knee block.  They told me even with the knee block there was a good chance they would put me under anyway.  Essentially, the knee block was really for post-operative pain. (I wish I had that for the first surgery)  I came to in post-op feeling pretty good and exited the hospital by 10:30am.  Aside from a bit of a sore throat from the breathing tube I really had no foot pain.  Went to lunch and then came home to sleep off the rest of the anesthesia.

I have been home now for several hours and it's now around 4pm.  No pain, and I have been walking around the house without crutches.   So far, the experience of having the screws out has been a non-event!  I have a sock on over my bandages - so I cannot tell if my foot is swollen or what my sutures look like.   Will see later.

Coming up on 6 months

So Christmas Eve will be 6 months since my initial injury.  These days, it seems like the trauma of the initial injury, and the drama of recovery are far behind me.  Yes, I am reminded of my injury daily, as I still have a stiff foot in the am, and depending on the day, sometimes a slight limp.  Yes, my foot is still bigger than the other.  But - I have no pain, no swelling, and almost all days carry on as normal.  My anxiety is building a little bit though - as on the 21st I will have my hardware removed.  I know this is a pretty routine surgery, and I know the recovery should be quick - for just taking 2 screws out of the Lisfranc joint.  But - I really do not look forward to "The day", post-op pain, and of course - having to potentially stay off the foot for a few days? weeks?

I'll report back post surgery and over the Christmas break in terms of the recovery.

I do look forward to 2012 - and bidding good riddance to the Lisfranc Gods on New Year's Eve   ;-)

Connecticut Christmas Tree Farm

Thought I'd post some pics from our Christmas tree cutting adventure - I know it's off topic - but my purpose is that there is more to life than our foot injury.  We never have had a live tree and decided to do a live tree this year.  We went to our local tree farm a few miles from our house Thanksgiving weekend.  Since I have high ceilings in my house we chose a rather large tree - which was impossible to drag into the house and set up.  A couple of days ago out of nowhere the entire tree came toppling down into the living room!  Needles and ornaments flew everywhere!  All I could do was laugh - after what I was through this year, this was nothing but comical.  We cut a couple of feet off of the trunk to shorten the tree below the curve it had in the trunk and re hoisted it back up.  I think I'll go back to my artificial tree next year!  The culprit is below - this tree is about 15 ft high.