Wounded (7 weeks post ankle)

I'm a nurse who can handle seeing the most gory of gory situations and not toss my cookies. I can handle most smells and clean up some of the grossest things most people can think about. I keep my cool and always have my "nurse face" on. That all changed when I saw a wound on my ankle.

The increase in pain may indeed have been neuropathic, but I also have a large open wound on my lateral ankle incision. Likely it began forming when I had the increase in pain 2 weeks ago. The smell and sight of the wound as the bandages and steri strips were removed nearly made me retch. I sat in the cast room with 2 other patients across the room from me, trying hard not to cry and freak out in front of them, although I told them I was about ready to lose it.

The MA removing the cast gently told me I would not be going back into a cast as planned due to a wound. Once she had everything open to air, she summoned my surgeon. He took a look and cleaned some of the tissue with a qtip to see how deep the wound went (serious pain!) and suggested dry dressing changes daily. I was to be fitted into a post op Cam Walker boot but treat it like a cast and remain non weight bearing. I also had to start a course of strong antibiotics and was given the go ahead to stop the lovenox shots. I will follow up with the surgeon August 8th to recheck xrays (he isn't too concerned with the bone's lack of healing at this time) and to check on the wound healing.

My calf looks sickly. Like I haven't used it in years. I am really anxious to start walking on it to get a feel for the new alignment. The surgeon had me stand lightly on my foot to check the alignment and he was pleased. Everything felt weird then, that's for sure. I was given the ok to start gentle flexion exercises to help loosen my ankle. When I asked about PT though, he said it was too soon. 

This appointment left me feeling overwhelmed and afraid. I was not expecting a wound with daily dressing changes. I expected to be able to move through recovery as quickly as I did with the hips. Speaking of the hips, my right hip really hurts again. My injection wore off and there isn't a lot I can do to help it. I'm sure that the leg is weak and that is not helping my hip structure at all.

Today, when my wound was redressed, it looked 10 times better than yesterday and already shows signs of healing! Now I'm hopeful that it won't be so bad.

One thing I can say is I'll never be getting steri strips or a cast again if I can help it!