By: Dr. Mindi Dayton
Tuesday, November 21st was post-op day # 1. I got out of bed around 6:15am after a pretty good night of sleep and I took my multi-modal pain regimen, and my bone health supplements pretty much right away. My pain was maybe about a 2/10 when I first got up.
Paul helped me get set up for the day in my favorite chair in the living room; it has a comfy ottoman which is perfect for elevating. He set me up with water, an extension cord to keep my computer and phone charged, and a nice side table with all my paperwork, remotes, etc. I was ready to tackle the day from my chair and let myself start the healing process!
The day was great. I sat in the chair pretty much ALL day except to use the restroom a couple of times. I had my leg elevated almost the entire day. I started to pump my ankle just a little bit occasionally. With the dressing on I couldn’t do too much and it was slightly uncomfortable to move it too much as it felt like it was “pulling” on the top of my foot. I would say I had very little discomfort at all throughout the day, it just felt a little “weird” or “different”.
I was able to get lots of computer work done which was fabulous! I had no issues focusing or working. (I am sure my team wished I had been “resting” a little more😉). I did put a little weight on my heel to shimmy around the kitchen and fill my water in the early afternoon and that did cause some increased pain, about a 4/10, but that resolved as soon as I got off it and put it up again. I took my second dose of medications around 3:30pm.
I stayed in my chair the rest of the afternoon and evening and went to bed around 8:30pm again. I did take my 3rd dose of medication right before bed again, based how I had been feeling and assuming I would sleep through the night. I feel asleep easily, but then around 10:00pm I woke up and had some pretty annoying discomfort right over the Lapiplasty® Big Toe Joint Fusion™ site. Knowing what I know, I assumed it was from dried blood that had hardened on the bandage and was putting pressure on my surgical site. I tried shifting the position of my foot and shift the bandage a little and I could not the feeling to resolve. I was struggling to sleep and getting frustrated. Finally, around 2:00am I decided to take my dressing off. ***I DO NOT ADVISE ANYONE ELSE DOING THIS ON THEIR OWN***. The benefit of being a surgeon that performs this procedure regularly is that I know what to expect and what is okay. I unfortunately woke Paul up with my moving around, so he helped me to take the dressing off and also got me my medications, which I decided to take at this time. The pain was varying between a 3-5 prior to taking the dressing off and it decreased quickly once the pressure of the dried bloody bandage was off. I finally got a couple more hours of sleep after that.
This was a great experience for Paul and me that we plan to review with Jesseka (Dr. Kaldenberg) as a team. We almost always see our patients back 3-4 days after surgery to remove the dressing and many state that the most pain they had was around day 2-3 and tend to describe it as pressure or sharp along the incision, which is exactly what I felt. This knowledge may result in us tweaking our protocols slightly.
In the morning when I got up, I would describe what I felt as my forefoot being very “tight”. I iced the foot first thing when I got up and that helped quite a bit. I also started moving my foot more and forcing myself to put it flat on the group with light pressure.
I decided I needed a change of scenery for the day, so Paul helped me to get set up in my sunroom with my recliner and everything I needed at hand.
Next blog I will share more about my first shower on Wednesday, post-op day #2 and what days 3 and 4 were like.
You can see my video blogs from Tuesday here:
Morning Video:
Afternoon Video:
Tuesday elevation
