What happened next?

I struggle with sitting down doing nothing - really struggle, I hate it. I can't help it. I feel like life is ticking by too quickly when I am sat doing nothing.
So having to sit down with my foot up after my op was no fun. I am an expert at shuffling on my rear to the kitchen, up the stairs, to the door, etc. I only smashed a couple of items and dropped one cup of tea..which to be fair is kind of a normal weekly breakage quota for me.

So I have been good, followed instructions, not walked on my foot and it looks like it is healing well. I had the stitches taken out today and can now wiggle my toes a bit better. I had a bit of a panic when I couldn't move them but that seems to be improving a little now. I had virtually no swelling of my foot and virtually no bruising either. I can't put weight on the front of the foot yet although now as i am out of my special post op shoe that should start to feel a little more comfortable.

The stitches came out 16 days after the surgery and the wound wasn’t fully closed so I kept the dressings on for a few more days. Walking putting pressure on the front of the foot wasn’t really an option – still too painful. So heel hobbling all the way.

After seeing the ridiculous way my calf had shrunk in two weeks of no exercise I bought a little toy to help me! A Compex Sport Elite EMS device. Absolutely amazing. After a week of use my calf was much improved and my legs were battered. I actually struggled to get out of bed because my legs were so sore, they felt like I had run a 30 miler the day before. I will be using this to help my training and recovery in the future. 

At the three week point I decided to have a little go on the turbo and this felt ok – I didn’t clip in and didn’t put a lot of pressure through the foot but it didn’t swell afterwards although I did get strange electrical type shocks through the foot which is probably due to the nerve being cut. Over week three I have done a few mins further on the bike each day and also had my first physio session with Duncan at Preston Physio clinic. He stretched my toes out – which was sore, they felt very tight but this really helped and they actually were starting to touch the floor again after Duncan’s help. I also went on the fab gym there and used the arm bike, the elliptical trainer and the watt bike – I didn’t do loads but it was nice to get my heart rate up a bit and get sweaty!

I have six weeks off work due to the walking and standing involved in my job. I can’t do stairs very well at the moment. But the scar is healing pretty well and I am hoping I will be able to start to walk on it more. I know for sure that a run is not on the horizon yet.

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Over the last couple of weeks the foot healed brilliantly and I have been able to bike, aqua jog and event started running again. This was built up very slowly and at 6 weeks post op I was able to run 16 minutes with no reaction.

I have been running on the Alter G at Preston Physio too which has been really helpful in my rehab and I will continue this building up to one hour at a reduced body weight to assist my recovery. I have also been having physio with Duncan at Athlete Matters and he is doing a great job of looking after me as always.

Training has consisted of Cross training and swimming mainly and building up to running at jog and walk intervals. I have a love hate relationship with Aqua Jogging! I kinda like it but it is really hard work. I tend to do sessions like speed work and people in the pool think I am bonkers and chat to me all the time and ask things like “Why don’t you just run outside!” Er, I’ll get back to you about that one.

I saw my surgeon six weeks post op and he was really pleased with how it looked and the progress that had been made and so I was discharged. This was on the Thursday, I woke up on the Sunday morning and my foot felt a bit sore. I was unsure why as I hadn’t done anything particularly strenuous. I continued as normal throughout the day and iced the foot to see if this would help. By Sunday evening I was becoming increasingly worried as the foot seemed swollen and hot and the scar had become very red. I decided to go to the Walk in Centre and get it checked but the walk in was full and so A and E it was. I just knew that if I left until Monday morning the foot would have swollen up and I wouldn’t be able to drive or go to work.

Blackburn A and E was an experience but within two hours I had seen Triage and a doctor who was concerned that the foot was showing signs of infection. He prescribed antibiotics and said to carry on as normal but contact the surgeon just to double check.

I couldn’t sleep Sunday night as the foot was just throbbing and burning. I woke up Monday morning and had to go to work despite the foot being really sore, I couldn’t stay off after being off for six weeks already! I had decided to contact my surgeon and his team and send them some photos. They were really helpful and said I needed to see them and an appointment had been arranged for Thursday. Despite taking the medication the foot seemed to get worse and the scar seemed to be opening and horrible yellow stuff seemed to be accumulating – GROSS.

Another sleepless night and I contacted the team at Wrightington again. They were really helpful and asked if I could go in straight away so that they could check it. I arrived an hour later and was seen by Tariq who was brilliant and gave me two different types of antibiotics to work as the others didn’t seem to be helping. An appointment has also been made for a weeks’ time to check.

It is so annoying and frustrating and so painful too. I can’t walk properly and am taking painkillers especially in a morning as it is terribly sore! Hopefully the medication will work and I can get back to it. It is a skin infection rather than something more problematic and the thing may burst apparently – yuk. I did ask and it was not something that could have been avoided, hasn’t been caused by doing too much or by swimming or running which was my concern. They said that it was likely just something under the skin that has taken a long time to come out but it would have happened anyway.

I have lots of grim photos! I decided not to attach them to my blog though…….Probably for the best! If anyone is desperate for them then let me know.