Frank-an-ankle

Today was my one week follow up after my surgery. Although my doctor was unable to make it, he is currently snowed in in Iowa, a doctor who assisted with the surgery was able to see me. He said that everything looked really well. The swelling was really not that bad, although to me it looked horrible. Which is why I decided to call it Frank-an-ankle. Anywhoot, the doctor gave me a choice between another splint or a boot. I opted to have the boot for a few reasons. 1- I'll be moving to snow country soon and wouldn't be able to get a splint wet. 2- The idea of being in a boot sounded a lot better. 3- Now that I have a boot, I can wear actual clothes if needed (even though I do love lounging around in my jammies). Once I had made my decision, they wrapped Frank-an-ankle back up. I was glad they did because it was making me a queasy. While the boot it ALOT heavier, I already see the benefits of having it. It allows me to be a little more mobile. While I can not put weight on it, it does allow me to rest my foot more easily. Because I can remove it, I will be able to wear jeans and more weather appropriate clothing. It also allows my foot to sit straight. One thing I noticed is that my ankle doesn't sit straight in the splint and I don't want it healing crooked.

My Tips Thus Far:

1- Keep your foot elevated as much as possible. I've had my foot elevated everyday since surgery. Even while I sleep.

2- Ice that sucker. Since it is thickly wrapped, I was instructed to place the ice pack behind my knee. I can feel it working.

3- Take your meds. The first few days were really rough pain wise. I was taking pain killers every four hours. Now they last longer or maybe I don't have as much pain? Either way, I've been able to take half throughout the day and it will last me 6 to 8 hours. I usually take one before bed and than one in the morning. Other than that, they have me on an antibiotic which I take every 8 hours.

Welp, that's all for now.

xoxo

Megs

Christmas...

For Christmas, we went over to Matthew's Mom's house in the morning. By the time I was able to hobble out of bed and get into the car, they had already opened most of the presents. When we got there, we had a couple of gifts to open. I got a new purse (yayy!) and Matthew got a Flip camera. Oh and we got kinect for Xbox!!! Wahoo! I'm excited to try it out when I can walk again. I've just been watching Matthew play all weekend long. Matthew's youngest brother also got kinect and dance central.

Around 2 o'clock, we made our way over to Matthew's Aunt & Uncle's house for dinner. His Aunt Lisa prepared an awesome Christmas dinner. We had turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, and rolls. After we stuffed ourselves, we all sat around talking. Well actually everyone else was talking and I was drifting in and out because of the pain killers. Once we had digested some of our food, we opened more presents. Matthew and I received a tent and first aid kit. We are pretty excited about that since we both enjoy camping.

Day 2, 3 & 4 of Surgery

The second day was horrible! I woke up at 4 am in so much pain I was shaking. I have never felt that much pain in my life. I wanted to cut my whole leg off!! After taking some medication, I was able to fall asleep but didn't sleep that long. Day 3 wasn't as bad, but I still feel a lot of pain. The pain killers help but there is still a throbbing, dull pain in my ankle area. Also laying on the couch all day has started to cause my back to ache. I've been keeping it elevated as much as possible, even when I sleep. Day 4 is going pretty well so far. I've been able to go a little longer with out pain medication. Sleeping through the night is pretty hard though.

xoxo

Megs

Surgery

Yesterday was the big day....my ankle surgery. I was pretty nervous the night before and couldn't eat after midnight. I had to be to the surgery center around 7 am to check in. Matthew and I woke up around 6 and got ready to leave. Once we signed in, they took me back pretty quickly. Once I was lying on the bed, I started to get really anxious. The nurse came over and started to put in my IV. For the most part, I did really well. After the IV was put in, I started to feel nauseous. I think it was everything hitting me all at once....surgery, not eating, pain killers, and needles. After dry heaving, I started to feel better. After that, my doctor came back to talk to me about what he was going to be doing. He had decided to add another procedure to the list. Altogether, he performed five different procedures. Luckily, he only had to make one incision. Being put to sleep wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I was out after taking one breath. When I woke up, I had some pretty intense pain in my calf. After answering twenty questions, they gave me some more Demorol to help with the pain. Fifteen or twenty minutes passed before they allowed me to start getting dressed. After I was all dressed, they wheeled me into a waiting room where Matthew was waiting for me. The nurse went over a few things with him and gave us the prescriptions for some pain killers and antibiotics. For the most part, my foot was pretty tingly. Apparently, my doctor gave me some pretty awesome numbing medication before I woke up. Supposedly, I can last up to 30 hours.

Day 1
So far today hasn't been too bad. I woke up with some pain this morning. I had decided to take half of a pain killer before I went to bed so that I would be able to sleep. When I woke up this morning I took the other half. My foot is still tingly from the numbing medication. As far as dressing goes, it is wrapped in a splint that makes my foot look three times larger than it is.

That's all for now.

xoxo
Megs

A Rock Concert & A Proposal...

On Saturday, Matthew played a reunion show with his band Haffo. It was really fun to see him play and sing. I could tell he really enjoyed it. There were a lot of people that showed up to support them. He even walked away with money in his pocket. After the show, we went to an after party at his band mates house.

Matthew & I before he went on

Matthew singing his song

On Sunday, we had planned to go hiking and watch the sunset. We didn't end up doing that because Matthew was still pretty worn out from the night before. Instead we played video games and took it kind of easy during the day. Later on, he asked if I still wanted to go up to the overlook. So I got ready and we started driving towards the mountian. When we go up there, the view was so pretty. You can literally see all of Phoenix from up there. The city looked like it was on fire from all the lights. While we were up there, he proposed. Of course I said yes!

Us and the view

The Ring!!!! :)

xoxo

Megs

The Results Are In....

Yesterday, I had my highly anticipated follow up for my ankle. While the MRI showed there were no tears in my tendons (Yayy!), it did show some abnormalities. There are a few areas that will need some work done. For those of you who are like me and need to know everything (lol) I'll explain.

My MRI showed that my peroneal tendon doesn't sit in a groove like it should. Instead of my bone being grooved, it sort of bubbles out. Which in turn causes subluxation. This causes the tendon to become irritated and inflamed. While none of my tendons were torn, the MRI showed that they were inflamed or had thickened. There is also another area of my foot that part of the bone will need to be shaved down because it sticks out too far. This causes the tendon become inflamed and a fluid filled sac as developed to adjust this abnormality. There is also some scar tissue that will be removed.

He basically gave me two options. I could have surgery to correct the problems or I could wait another 5-6 months and see if anything has improved after wearing a brace and taking anti-inflamatories. I decided that it was probably best to go ahead and get the surgery. I explained to him that I didn't want to come back in another 5-6 months with the same problem. He said that most people with injuries like mine chose the same thing because they don't see improvement otherwise. According to my doctor, the normal recovery period for this type of surgery is 6 - 10 weeks. He thinks that I will recover faster since I am younger and in better health than most patients.

My surgery is scheduled for Wednesday. I'm a bit nervous but know that it's better in the long run to get it done. Before I go in, I have to have a blood test and EKG done. I'm hoping to get that done before the week is up. Come to think about it, I think I'm more nervous for a blood test lol!

xoxo
Megs

1 Semester Down...Plenty More to Go!

Well the semester is finally over and Friday is my last day of work! Wahooo! I'm excited to just relax for a couple of weeks before I have to start again in the Spring! I will definitely be enjoying the 75+ degree weather that Arizona has to offer before a make the treacherous journey to Utah for the next semester.

In other news, I will find out tomorrow if I have to get surgery or not on my ankle. All I know is that I'll be pretty entertaining if I have to walk on crutches in the snow :/ Anywhoot, Happy Holidays All!

xoxo
Megs

Ankle Woes....

As most of you know, I damaged my ankle pretty bad last year. After spending four months walking around on it and it never getting better, I finally decided to go to the doctor. There wasn't much that could be done at that point. I was given an ankle brace and instructed to wear it for a few months. I cooperated and was eventually able to stop wearing it. At my last doctor appointment, I was told I would have to wear a brace for the rest of my life while doing any physical activity or have surgery to fix the problem. I choose to wear the brace as I didn't really have the funds to get the surgery.

While trying to workout this summer, I realized that wearing the brace didn't really help that much. Trying to balance on that foot is another story. I recently went back to the doctor to see if there was anything that could be done (ie: surgery). After examining my foot and taking x-rays, He told me that the only possible problem with my ankle is that my Peroneal Tendon is popping and snapping up over my ankle bone (subluxation). Which causes the bone to become inflamed and create a dull, achy pain. He also believes that my tendons have flattened and are starting to tear. So what does this all mean? I'm getting an MRI on Monday which will hopefully illustrate what is going on. Depending on what the results are, surgery is probably the next step in this saga.

Why am I even writing this post?....I've been doing a lot of googleing over the last couple days and have been able to find very little information on this topic. I've decided that I should document my story for other people who may go through this.

Turkey Time....

This year for Thanksgiving, Matthew and I took a trip to good ol' Beryl, UT. I was very excited to go because my WHOLE family was going to be there!!! The house was madness! But I loved every single day of being there. With 19 people in a 4 bedroom house, it was craziness. It was great to be able to spend the weekend with my brothers & sisters. We had a fun time staying up late playing Settlers of Catan and watching movies!

xoxo
Megs

Matthew & I

Dad & Mom

Dad & Aeris

Aeris and Keira