Mind Probe

Today marks the one month anniverary of the surgery to remove the bone spur that was growing around my left Achillies tendon. The first week after surgery was rather uneventful. There was very little pain from the surgery; almost all of the pain was from my lower back because I could not find a comfortable position to sleep in and keep my foot elevated. The second week, was a bit more painful. Because my ankle was feeling so good, I was up and about the house much more than I should have. Plus we spent Thanksgiving with friends. So, on doctor’s orders, I was sent back to bed with my foot elevated. That eliminated most of the pain felt during the second week.

The real fun began on the third week. On the Tuesday two and a half weeks after surgery, my stitches were removed along with the plaster cast. My foot was placed in a plastic walking cast. Great, it was so good to be mobile. With the walking cast, I was allowed to begin putting weight on my left foot. Over the next several days, I was able to walk for short periods without the crutches with just the walking cast. That is when the real pain hit.

A couple of days after the removal of the stitches, a pain started developing in my left calf muscle. At first, I assumed that I have overworked the leg but then it became obvious that the pain was worse when I was sitting, not when I was walking. Of course, the pain grew worse as we got deeper into the weekend. It felt like I had pulled the muscle, similar to the pain you get from too much stretching.

Monday morning, with the pain still there, I called the doctor to see if this pain was expected or not. It was not and I ended up with an appointment at the doctor for 2:30 that afternoon. Instead of staying home, I went to work that Monday morning before seeing the doctor. This was my first trip back to the office since the operation. Around 2pm I left the office and headed over to see the doctor. The doctor thought that it could be a pulled muscle but there was also a chance that it was a blood clot. To be on the safe side, my doctor sent me over to Emerson Hospital for an ultrasound to verify that there was or was not a blood clot. There was a blood clot, right where the calf muscle was hurting.

Without letting me stand, the ultrasound technician wheeled me to the emergency room at Emerson Hospital so that they could run more tests to make sure that the clot was only in my leg. The fear was that a piece of the blood clot could break loose and find its way to my lungs. I had always thought that it was the heart that was a problem if the blood clot got loose. In my case, it was the lungs; it is based on where the blood clot is that determines where it can do the most damage if it breaks loose. From the emergency room, I was admitted to the hospital and moved upstairs. Of course, it was around 8pm when I arrived in my hospital room, well after the kitchen was closed so I did not get supper that day. The nurses on the floor were able to make a peanut butter sandwich for me to help prevent my blood sugars from falling too low. This is not a situation that a diabetic should be placed in.

My stay at the Hospital lasted two days during which time, blood was taken from me too many times. My treatment required that my blood be monitored around the clock. I was discharged on Wednesday afternoon with the treatment partially complete. I was out of immediate danger from the original blood clot, though it will be a couple of months before my body reabsorbes it. The rest of my initial treatment is being performed by visting nurses. They are coming once a day to run a blood test and give me a shot of medication. The blood test is then used to calculate how much of a second medication I need to take later in the day. This medication is in the form of pills and will be the medication that I need to take for the next six months.

It will take the pills four or five days to begin to work. Once they take over, I will no longer require the shots of the other medication. Once the shots are over and the visiting nurses stop coming, I will have to go to a clinic at the hospital daily for the blood tests that determine how many pills to take. Once my system stablizes, the time interval between blood tests will increase to every other day to, hopefully, once every two weeks. This will be a pain but at least at that time I will no longer be restricted to the house. For the duration of the shots, my movement is restricted and I am not allowed to drive. I am not sure which is worse, the shots or restriction of movement.

Hopefully, the second month after surgery will be less eventful…