A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

foot surgery

The foot – a year later

I can’t believe a whole year has gone by when it comes to my foot.

For those of you who haven’t read the blog for a while or don’t know through social media things, last year I stepped on a nail. The nail penetrated a hiking boot/sneaker, through a sock and pretty deep into my foot. I went to the ER that night and got a tetanus shot, though they didn’t give any antibiotics, which seemed odd being I’m diabetic.

From there was a whirlwind of different things, enough to make me want to just say hell with it.

The short of the story is this – the nail ended up giving an infection. As a diabetic, they got truly worried with some things they saw, and I can totally understand that.

Here’s what I went through:

  • X-rays
  • Several trips to a podiatrist
  • An MRI
  • Foot surgery, which was postponed when I had a bit of an anxiety attack, which led to…
  • A trip to a cardiologist
  • Scans of the heart, stress test, echocardiogram and, eventually …
  • A heart catheterization, which found my heart was fine …
  • And, finally, foot surgery (turns out one issue was one tiny bone in my foot was shattered by said nail and had to be removed as part of this)
  • Six weeks of home IV antibiotics
  • Eventual clearance that my foot was fine

That’s the basics. During this time, they found an antibiotic I was allergic to, and that Benadryl makes me hallucinate. Good times!

But, though those six months or so were crazy, I was thankful I had insurance and a job where I could do what I had to do and still be supported in whatever I needed to have done.

Also during all of this, my diabetes got out of control, which forced me to change a lot of my habits to get things in control.

So here we are, a year later.

My health is way better. My foot is doing very well. I have my diabetes, for the most part, in check. My numbers have been pretty solid and I like the direction it’s going.

One year later and I’m doing way better than I was at this point last year, in many aspects of my life. But I’ll tackle more of those soon enough.

If you want to read the saga of my foot, you can see some of the posts below:

A perfectly timed break (Dec. 2, 2013)

30 minus 2 Days of Writing: Damn (Feb. 8, 2014)

A heart and a foot surgeon walk into a bar (March 25, 2014)

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

A heart and foot surgeon walk into a bar…

That title sounds like the start of a joke, eh?

This isn’t!

So, it’s time for an update. One big one at that.

Many of you who may read my blog some know I’ve been going through quite the whirlwind of health-related issues. And it all goes back to stepping on a nail in the fall.

Crazy that it’s still going on, right?

The worst part about this? If I had just looked where I was stepping, it wouldn’t even matter. I’d be all fine, wouldn’t have used sick time, wouldn’t have to worry about what insurance covers and what it doesn’t and all that. Instead, me not paying attention seems to steamroll everything to get worse and worse and worse.

Anyway, so the basic premise of all this is this – I stepped on a nail. Got a tetanus shot that night, but was given no antibiotic. I believe this was on a Monday or Tuesday. By Saturday, my foot ballooned. Good times, right?

Back to the ER, where I finally got an antibiotic. That worked some, but it ended in 10 days. It kind of stayed like that a little and I went to convenient care (I think this was the order … I might be missing a step) where I received another dose of antibiotic.

Turns out I was allergic to that antibiotic. And I have reactions to Benadryl. What reactions you may ask? I hallucinate with Benadryl. Yeah… that was a fun night.

I saw my primary soon after and, eventually, he sent me to a podiatrist who seemed to work wonders. It looked like it healed and, despite a little swelling and redness, she thought I was fixed. Another wound soon opened as whatever was inside the foot was still trying to get out.

So back I went. She ordered an MRI and I had that done on a Saturday morning. The same night I got a call from the main hospital requesting I come up first thing Monday morning to discuss with a surgeon.

At this point, I was wondering what the heck was going on. And, I also wondered WHY the initial ER doctor hadn’t given me an antibiotic, especially being he knew all about me because I told him.

Anyhoo … there I am on a Monday morning meeting with a doctor I had never met, abut this foot issue. And she recommends surgery. Goodie. Not only that, she wants to do it the next day. I talk it into Thursday, make all arrangements with work and such and get ready.

Having a sister-in-law who is a nurse helped, too, as she told me some people to request for my surgical team, which hopefully would make it easier.

Thursday morning came and I was getting prepped. I was quite anxious, though, as I had never had surgery. With that came some, what felt like, heartburn. So, when asked if I was feeling anything, I said that.

Red flag alert.

Anyway, the short of it is this – I stayed on that bed for six hours being monitored and watches before cardiology came down. They didn’t clear me for surgery, so the whirlwind really picked up. Over the next several weeks, I had stress tests, heart photos, and all sorts of good stuff. Despite nothing being too alarming to the cardiologist I saw, it was decided I needed a heart catheterization.

Happy, happy, joy, joy!

That was interesting in that when the doctor came in, he gave me all the doom-and-gloom statistics. In the end, he said he was hoping for something that could be dealt with via medicine or that nothing was wrong.

I agreed.

When done, he leaned over me and told me the heart was perfect and that I didn’t need to worry about this for a few decades, at least.

That’s good to know.

And now, present time.

The foot surgery finally happened. It was nice because they didn’t have to do full anesthesia, which is good as it’s something has always frightened me. However, I ended up being knocked out by the sedative. All I remember is hearing “this will hit you like a freight train in about five seconds…”

Boom!

With the surgery done, they also decided – because of where all this infection was – I needed some kick-ass antibiotics. That requires having a picc line in so I can do it via IV for the next 5-6 weeks. A pain in the rear? Sure. But hopefully this is the final steps with this super crazy journey. I just want to get back to normal and hopefully have no issues doing my normal things in the summer.

It’s honestly not that difficult to get through the home antibiotic. But the bothering part is all the appointments. I need a break of like two weeks where I can just heal, go to work and not worry about things. It will make life easier, I assure them.

One thing I’ve learned from all this is appointments and being on the run can really drain you. I feel tired a bit here and there when I’ve been on the run for appointments and also work the same day. That’s another reason I need this foot fully healed – so I can get out and do the things I normally do!

Time will tell how this all works out. Hopefully for the better and to the point where it will be a blip on my map in life. Things happen for a reason and I truly do believe it. Why this happened may be something I never know, but I am ready for it to end.

I have remained optimistic and upbeat through it all. I think the doctors and others have realized and recognized that. I do what I am asked and everything else. Hopefully, that will mean an eventual clean bill of health.

And a tall pint of Guinness.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!