Ankle Surgery and Other Things

12/21/17

This post was requested by someone who used to read my posts often. My latest adventures have been with my ankle. It all started over the summer. I woke up one morning with horrible pain in my Achilles' tendon. It hurt to even touch a blanket. I go to one of those walk in (should be limp in) sports clinics. They give me a walking boot and some steroids for 2 weeks. No improvement. They do an MRI and they say I have tendinitis in my Achilles and peroneal ligament (runs on side of ankle. ) I get sent to PT for 3 weeks for what reason? I don't know. Because rest would have been the appropriate treatment. I go back and the doctor kicks me out of his practice after I tell him he's an idiot and I'm now in more pain.

I go to a new doctor (3 weeks later). He reads the MRI himself and examines my foot. Turns out I have an osteochondroma on my ankle causing all my pain. He schedules surgery immediately and calls the first doctor to tell him he was wrong. I have surgery the day before my birthday. The nerve block they gave me, while awake, didn't take. So I get put to sleep and have the surgery done. Turns out my Achilles is partially torn, they repair that and clean up scar tissue from surgery I had 10 years ago. They removed the tumor and shaved down the bone attached to it the reduce the chances of it growth back. For the peroneal ligament they repaired it by grafting on a new ligament. When I woke up I had 4 thoughts in my head: was the tumor benign or did they have to amputate, I have to pee, I'm about to throw up, and man my leg hurts.

I go home and uneasily rest for about 3 days then I return to work against doctors orders, and boy was that a painful mistake. I felt like hell for weeks. I get called derogatory names by both customers and co-workers who have no idea what I go through but I smile and keep working. I have my cast changed 3 times and my stitches removed before being put in a boot again. I start PT again 3 times a week and that's still going on.

I went back to the doctor a little over a week ago to find I have an infection and my scar isn't healing correctly. I now have to take a high dose of a high powered antibiotic twice a day for several weeks and I have to rub a cream that burns like hell on the scar that removes necrotic skin while promoting new skin growth. Y'all, this makes me sicker than the infection itself. I throw up all throughout the night and several times each day. I can't stop the meds because if the infection hits my new ligament my body can reject it and back to surgery I go.

In the mean time, chronic vomiting (and from my past posts y'all know I have a problem with this) causes oral problems. I have been at the dentist 3 times in 2 weeks for a total of 7 hours getting cavities filled and my teeth cleaned and flouried treatments. Due to having the discs removed from my jaw 5 years ago, my jaw has been clicking, swollen, and in extreme pain. I have at least one more visit scheduled for  the dentist.

Needless to say these last few months, especially weeks, have been rough. My pain is at a constant 7-8 on the pain scale. I get home from work and just can no longer work and have to use my wheelchair. I'm tired of throwing-up daily with my anti-nausea meds no longer working. Then to top it all off, I get told to step up my appearances but no amount of makeup can cover up the fact that I feel like death.

I'll try better to keep y'all updated. I didn't realize until recently that my daily struggles of living with rare diseases help y'all understand not only what I'm going through but what others may be goin through and trying to cover up.