Well, my surgeon removed those pesky screws from my foot. It was quite an experience. I surprised myself by watching a lot of the procedure. I didn’t faint, nor did I puke. I was proud to have been a brave little soldier.
Before we got started, doc asked me if I wanted to listen to Country or Rock. I told him since he was the one wielding sharp instruments, he should make the call. He and I have similar tastes in music, so we jammed to the music of our youth, much to the bewilderment of the 22-year-old nurse who attended the procedure.
The whole thing took about an hour. There wasn’t much blood; the nurse had placed a blood pressure cuff around my ankle to stop the flow. Brilliant! I had envisioned the doc inserting a tiny surgical screwdriver into the screws and making little hand movements. What actually happened: the doc grabbed my foot with a death grip and he twisted the screwdriver like heck with his elbow flying. I guess it takes some muscle to unscrew screws that have been enveloped by scar tissue and calcium deposits. Thank goodness for numbing agents. The only almost-faint-inducing thing I witnessed was when the doc inserted an instrument into the incision site. The instrument went “way in there” letting me know how deep he had to cut. I had to look away for a few minutes after that. One of the screws was difficult to find because of all the scar tissue. I felt my heartbeat quicken while the doctor poked and prodded, but much to my relief I left the office with three screws which matched the number appearing on my x-ray.
For the next two weeks I’ll bathe the stitched area with Peroxide and Betadine once or twice a day. When showering I’ll wear something similar to this:
The only difference is I’ll not be posing for photos.
The incision site is quite tender but I hope to wear regular shoes in a few days. Right now I’m back in the surgical/driving shoe until the discomfort settles down.
I’m scheduled to have the stitches removed on July 3. This little journey is almost complete!
482gr8 