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| 2 days after lisfranc hardware removal surgery |
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| lisfranc hardware removal incision |
I have been keeping the incision covered with a large band-aid which protects the area from germs. I remove the bandage daily to make sure the area around my stitches is not turning red with infection.
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| Lisfranc hardware removal surgical site |
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI recently had foot surgery as well (Sept. 17). Though mine was bone fusions on both sides of my foot, I still enjoyed reading through your entire Lifranc recovery process. It was very similar to some aspects in my recovery process, which i am still going through! I wanted to asked how you fractured your foot and the misdiagnosis story. I've read all the blog postings! but I did not see the back story. I was wondering if you mined sharing? I was in a car accident in 2011 and have been misdiagnosed and in pain since! Lucky yours was caught and treated fairly soon after your initial injury date. Good luck with the continued healing process!
Hi
DeleteSorry it took me so long to reply to your comment. The Holidays kept me from being on the computer! First of all I want to thank you for taking the time to read my entire blog! I am sorry that you also had serious and possibly catastrophic foot surgery! I keep trying to remember that healing is a process and not an event!
My back story is not at all glamorous! I was in a restaurant waving good-bye to some friends and missed the single step going down to the main floor. This restaurant didn't have any type of railing or any type of indication there was a step down. (New restaurant.) I fell on the top of my foot and immediately felt something tear. The pain was terrible but I was so embarrassed that a got up as quickly as I could had this time, my foot refused to support any weight, so I fell again. My surgeon thinks I sustained a lisfranc ligature rupture on the first fall and fractured my first 2 metatarsals on the second fall which also caused joint displacement. I went to Urgent Care, where they took an x-ray (non weight bearing) and they sent me home with crutches telling me my foot wasn't broken and that I had a bad sprain. After a couple of weeks I got a 2nd opinion from my podiatrist who also agreed it was just a bad sprain. After another week I went to a surgical podiatrist who took weight bearing X-rays and did a CT scan. He concluded that I had a lisfranc fracture and since it had been 3 weeks since my injury, I would never walk again without immediate surgery. My husband was able to get me into the top foot orthopedic surgeon in the Twin Cities for a second opinion that same day. This surgeon said that although I sustained the dreaded lisfranc fracture, he would be able to fix it for me and assured me over and over again that I would walk again. He even gave me permission to keep our travel plans to Israel before my surgery!! (As long as I wore a boot!)
Was your car accident the reason why you had bone fusions on both side of your foot? And you have been dealing with foot pain since 2011??? remind me never to complain again!!
Hey! Thanks for replying!! I've had your blog saved in my bookmarks and would check periodically to see if you replied. I can not believe they thought you just had a sprain! was it because it was a non weight bearing x ray that it was missed?
ReplyDeleteWhen i had my car accident, (I rear ended a stalled car on the highway as I was going about 60 mph.) I ended up with 9 broken bones in my right foot as well as a fractured ankle and tibia. (I also fractured my right hand, i was surely a sight with cast on my right limbs.) I had emergency surgery on my foot and they put some screws and pins in and "put me back together". They decided to allow my ankle and tibia fractures to heal on their own without any surgery.
The healing process was normal at first but after about six months i was still having a lot of pain even after completing therapy. The surgeon would always tell me "it's apart of the healing process, it takes time, you had a lot of damage and broke a lot of strong bones that typically don't break in humans" well, i knew after a while i was not just experiencing "healing pains" so i went to maybe 5-6 doctors who would try different things; shots, numbing procedures, scripts for narcotics etc. A lot of them were top doctors and they would refer me out because all my damage was out of their scope. I saw orthopedic, podiatrist, pain specialist, nerve specialist, a guy who specialized in muscles. I mean i did the works. Finally 2 YEARS my mother just so happened to be speaking to a stranger at the store and got to telling them my story. Believe it or not, they refereed me to a trauma surgeon and he was the one! i'm getting teary eyed as i type that because i am forever grateful for him. He fixed me. He said some of my bones were rubbing against each other, some had been worn down completely, lots of tissue damage etc. He also said my ankle was STILL FRACTURED! He did the bone fusions and some other clean up work along with arthroscopic surgery on my ankle to fix the fracture in my ankle. i had that surgery 2 years to the day of my first surgery from my car accident. It had been one heck of a process!
Wow! Thanks so much for sharing your story with me! I can relate to getting teary eyed when thinking about the surgeon that finally put you back together correctly! I get teary eyed when I realize I would never have walked again without my surgeon! I guess we are both grateful patients! And yes, the first couple of doctors missed my diagnosis because the x-rays were non weight bearing.
ReplyDeleteI am wondering how you healing is going today? Have you started walking again without a boot, cane or crutch? It sure is a long process!!!
I am now able to walk on the treadmill for 1 1/2 miles at 2.5 MPH. But my foot still gets stiff and swollen and I am still icing frequently at night before bed.
The process is VERY LONG! I am walking assistance free. I had been in my boot for a long time and even now, when i am having a particularly bad day, I put my boot back on. I had started therapy (reading your blog, gave me the idea to ask my doctor about water therapy) in January. I was doing physical and water therapy for 1 hour each, twice a week. In the middle of February i had a "flare up" and had to regress back to my boot for a couple of weeks. I am in St. Louis and our weather has been HORRIBLE and according to my doc and therapist, the weather is playing a role in my "pain/swelling flare ups" Remember the stupid polar vortex!?!?! I. was. miserable!
ReplyDeleteI just saw my doc last Thursday and he said i am doing excellent for only having been walking for 3 months. He says everything looks good on the inside and when the weather changes for the better, i should notice a significant difference. Overall i notice a great improvement from before the surgery so I truly am optimistic that i will continue to improve.
I still get days where I am stiff (especially when I first wake up) and I am swollen just about every night when I come home from work. I am not so good at icing and elevating though. eek! I should probably do better with that. I'm sure it would help a great deal.
After you got your hardware removed, did your foot go back down in size? I can't hardly fit any shoes and i wonder if my foot would not be as "big" if i had the hardware removed. Was it worth it getting it removed? What was the recovery time like? I don't even know if i would be eligible to have anything removed with the type of surgery i had but i curious how it worked for you? i won't hurt to ask eh?
P.S i'm thinking in December we can meet up and have a good 'ole foot race!