The Revolution -- 7 Months since my injury

I just hit my 7 month mark.  As they say - this is a 6 month to 1 year recovery time.  Where am I?  There are periods of time when my foot does not feel any differently than my 'good' foot.  My 2nd surgery scars are almost healed! Yea! - I still am stiff after sitting for awhile or first thing in the am.  I still can limp from time to time but really working on focusing on walking normal - my wife says that my residual limp is somewhat a habit.  This is probably somewhat true and sometimes she catches me walking after I have been sitting for awhile and I will limp.  Foot almost never swells - but yesterday after a lot of heavy lifting around the house - and up and down a ladder cleaning and fixing a ceiling fan my foot was a bit swollen - but within an hour of resting the swelling came back down.

The Revolution - My local gym's fitness challenge - who can lose the most body fat and weight in 8 weeks - hardcore workouts and diet - Just in time for me to lose my post Lisfranc weight gain.  Hoping by month 9 to be a new me!

4 Weeks Post 2nd Surgery to remove hardware

Wow - I can't believe it's been 4 weeks since my hardware removal.  For me, the second recovery is dragging along.  While I can walk, exercise, etc., and I am generally in no pain, the surgical incisions are taking sooooo looong to heal.  My top incision is healed over and scarred.  But it still hurts to wear a dress shoe - it's the rubbing on the new skin.  This also causes me to limp slightly - which is very frustrating.   The second wound - my "problem wound", is healing along nicely - seems to be shrinking in size and does not look as deep.  I decided to keep this one covered with a band-aid, and I just change it every morning.  So the wound is still moist - but not oozing and bleeding anymore.  It really does not hurt either since it is not in a place that rubs against a shoe.  

I cannot wait to post here that my wounds are healed up - then I will have an accurate assessment of what I am left with in terms of foot pain and flexibility.  I suspect just based on where I am now - that my flexibility is much better than when the screws were in the foot but that I will still have some stiffness in the am.

Time Heals all wounds - slowly if it's related to Lisfranc

Today marks three weeks since my second surgery to have my hardware removed.  I know I have reported that I am healing fine.  Which is generally true.  My top of foot wound is completely scarred and healed over.  It is still sensitive when I have a shoe on though.  I guess its the new skin layer.  My side wound, has been the trouble maker.  This was the wound that oozed and bled, then became infected.  Post wound care instructions were to keep it clean, use a butterfly bandage but not cover it.  So by last week's wound check, it had scabbed over and was healing nicely after my anti-biotic treatment.  At that time, my surgeon told me to keep it covered with a band-aid.  Well, 24 hours later, I go to change the dressing - and the wound is all soft and oozy again.  Sort of like skin that's been in the water too long.  I apply first-aid ointment to the band-aid at each change - and a week later the wound - while looking good, is still soft, but not oozing.  I am no doctor, but I would think you are better off having the wound scab over to heal.  So today, I am going to stay out of shoes, work from home and let the wound air out.  I did not expect this to take so long to heal over.  But from all I have read, foot wounds do take a long time to heal.

There is a trade off.  If you are walking around and out of the house - you really need to keep the wound covered -- otherwise, it will become infected.  But in my opinion, you also need to let it air out a bit.

Oh well, its almost been seven months - what's another couple of weeks?

Surgeon Follow-up Visit

I had my follow-on visit with my surgeon today.   Off the antibiotics and the foot is clearing up.  He says everything is looking good and I will not not need to see him until the 1 year mark - about 6 months from now.

10 Days Post 2nd Operation to remove hardware

Slightly Infected

Slight Setback -- Infection

My surgical scars oozed blood for the first couple of days.  Given that they tell you that you can weight-bear as tolerated, you can put a lot of pressure on the incisions given that your foot bears all of your weight.  They also tell you that you can keep the wounds uncovered - so I did.  Showered second day after surgery as suggested.  The wound site always looked a little puffy, red and inflamed - as I assumed it would.

Well 10 days post surgery my family keeps telling me the wounds are infected - I say Nah!  So yesterday I wake up and do some Google searches on wound infection pictures - and I see a surgical scar that is indicated is infected and it looks just like mine!  So at that point my stubborn brain realizes that it might actually be the start of infection.  I called my surgeon and got the on-call surgeon for the medical group to call me back.  I describe the symptoms and he calls me in a prescription for an anti-biotic.  So now I am on Cephalexin  4 times daily for 5 days.  I tell myself the wounds look a little less red this am.

Lesson learned...    Happy New Year!