I have been working on moving my toes. Today I am three and a half weeks in and I can move my big toe. I can bend it a little and move it in toward my other toes. I have been using Epson salt in my bath and putting lotion on my foot. Doing good. Two more weeks of not walking!!

Post Surgery 2 weeks

I reached my two week mark and got my stitches out. The Doctor said to wait 24 hours before I get my foot wet. The incision is healing really well. My foot has started to swell a little at night. I have been loosening my boot and bandages at night. Night time is the hardest.  My foot aches and I can't fall asleep until I'm exhausted. The Doctor told me to wrap my big toe to the toe next to it. He is worried that my big toe might separate away from my other toes. The ligaments can loosen and cause separation. Hopefully wrapping it will help.

It has been 2 and a half weeks and I finally washed my foot. It felt great. My little toe next to my big toe seems to be the most painful. It is bruised up the left side of my toe. I have been jumping around on my left foot to get to and from my scooter. I feel like I bruised or injured my left foot. I would recommend wearing a shoe on the other foot. I wish someone would have warned me. It feels like when I injured my other foot. Hopefully it will heal quickly.

I have been letting my foot breath for awhile each day. It goes numb if I leave it in the boot to long.

 So fare so good. I have 3 and a half weeks until I can walk with the boot. I'm excited to be half way next Tuesday. I have had lots of help and I am thankful for how kind everyone has been. This surgery requires lots of help. It isn't easy to be so limited but I am feeling good about my choice. I have been trying to get out of the house when I can but it is exhausting. It is easier to use the crutches but it's harder on my body. The scooter is hard because I can't do stairs.  The goodnews is that time has gone by quickly. I hope the second half of the 6 weeks is just as fast.

The refining of Kim

This is my list....

I just want to write this down so I can let it free. Growing up I had to deal with Dyslexia. It was hard and humiliating. When I was a Junior in high school my health started going down hill. I had Mono and I kept getting headaches and numbness. I had symtoms for 4 years until suddenly I had the whole bottom half of my body go numb from a stroke. They determined that is was a PFO or a mini stroke because the numbness did not last. After a lot of tests they found i had a hole in my heart. I had PFO surgery to fix the hole when I was 20. No noticeable permanent damage was done. I had my Galbladder die when I was 24 so it had to be removed. It took 9 months of me throwing up to figure out that it was my galbladder. I then started getting dizzy spells. I would wake up from sleeping dizzy. It was hell. It would take me hours to not feel sick and I would have a hard time going back to sleep. The doctors thought it might be a second whole in my heart. After a failed second PFO surgery I decided to see if my dizziness had anything to do with my constant sinus infections. I would get one every couple of months. I went to an allergist and I was allergic to 61 out of 61 on the test. It was the only test I would pass 100% without studying. I now have to take a zertec and use Flonase everyday. As long as I do that I do not get dizzy. Now we get to my knee. After years of not feeling quite right I started to feel really good. I started to exercise again. I decided to do a half marathon. I was hooked on running and i learned to love it again. One day i felt pain in my knee. I ended up having knee surgery and nerve damage but i could walk. The nerve was smothered by the tissue in my knee and by the time i had nerve release surgery i could barly walk. It took years to regain strength in my leg. My nerve never fully healed though and I couldn't  go back to runnimg. Now I am currently recovering from foot sergery for a dead bone in my foot. Some days i felt like a crazy hypochondriac. My husband and my mom can tell you first hand how fun all of this was for everyone involved. I am on my 2nd week of 6 weeks completely off of my foot and It has given me time to think. I have been very blessed with a forgetful disposition. I don't dwell on negative things very long. I have been depressed after each of my kids but is was not a normal state for me. With my baby girl it took me 9 months before I could function normally. I know that depression is not a choice because I have been in the middle of it and it doesn't work that way. I am extremely grateful that I have been given my sanity during most of my trails. I normally don't dwell on the past but I want to give each experience it's place. It has built my character. I am stronger for it and I can emerge from the ashes again. I lay these burdens down. I no longer want to carry them. I let them build up my character but i will drop their weight by the wayside. I will be greatful for the amazing life I have with three beautiful children and my best friend and husband of 13 years. Even with these challenges, life has been good to me and I will not let myself forget that. And now I put an end to my dramatics.

I found a Orthopedic specialist that i trust. His name is Dr. Saltzman. He is the head of Orthopedic Medicine at the University or Utah. I met with him and he gave me a second opinion on my foot. He agreed that my tibial sesmoid bone had died from avascular necrosis. He pointed out to me that the top part of the bone had already disconnected from the bone. There is a small chance that the bone could heal but there are no definitive findings and I would have to not be active for a full year to see if it would heal. Because part of the bone was already falling apart I decided to have surgery July 5th 2016.

As a side note: I am so glad I didn't go with the first doctor I talked to. He was going to do the surgery from the top of my foot and he would have mutilated it. When I told Dr. Saltzman what the other sergeon planned on he agreed it would not have been a good choice.

Surgery went well. My foot pain was minor compared to what I had expected. I traveled from Salt Lake to Grand Junction CO immediately after surgery. I actually felt great.  I had to stop every 50 minutes to walk around on crutches and I had to pee a lot. I am guessing they pumped me full of saline. I regretted how active I was one the ride home the next day. Note to self, do not go flying around on crutches when you are as high as a kite. My arms and chest where sore for days.
The hardest part of the surgery for me are the restrictions they have given me. Before surgery I was planning on two weeks no walking and an additional 6 weeks walking with a boot. Because of not having sufficient tissue on the bottom of my foot I have to stay off of my foot for 6 weeks and then walk with the boot for an additional 4 weeks. It is a little discouraging to have it change so dramatically. I also can't drive for 6 weeks because it was my right foot that was worked on. I have three kids and there summer for the next six weeks is going to be a struggle.

It has been a week and I am feeling good. Sleeping is a struggle in my boot. It is hard to get comfortable. I stopped taking the narcotics a day after I got home. Motrin was enough to help with the pain. I left my foot completely alone for the first 3 days. On day 4 I felt like my foot was swelling and I loosened the bandage a bit to help with comfort. Today I finally changed the bandage and packing for the first time and i took a look at my incision. It looks way worse than I thought it would be.  I thought it would be smaller. Overall I have had a good experience. Having crutches and a knee scooter have helped tremendously.