Feb 9, 2015 Surgery day

The first week has been okay. I have been able to bathe by laying in the bathtub with my splinted limb on the side. Being clean makes a huge difference to feeling well for me.

Here are some things that I wish I had studied more and discussed with my surgeon:

• Injury type. Yes, I know that it is a tri-malleolar break, but I wish I had known about these classifications. These classifications determine what type of care will be done and why.
• How will the surgeon determine if the syndesmosis has been torn and what will be done about it? See here and here. There are a lot more. My google search terms included "hook test for syndesmosis." Since there is some controversy about how to test for and treat syndesmodic problems, I wish I had asked and learned why my surgeon suggested which treatment.
• Exactly how they will fixate each part of the break. My medial malleolus and lateral malleolas are fixated with plates and screws, but I am wondering why I have the posterior  floating fragment and where it will eventually attach.
• Whether you are a candidate for the Strayer procedure. (gastrocnemius slide) I did have this done, but I wish I knew more about how serious a surgury this was prior to agreeing to it. It has its own boot time of 6 weeks. It has been pretty uncomfortable in the splint.
• I wish I had asked for a temporary handicapped sticker. Weeks later, when you can drive, crutching from the far end of parking lots hasn't been cool.
• Ask for either a knee scooter or wheelchair prescription. It is nice to be able to get out beyond what crutches do. 
• Ask about what you can do. Wiggle toes? Gentle ankle flexion and extension? Stay seated as often as possible, or gentle exercise? Modified chair yoga? Icing when the boot is off, or leave it alone? So many questions and unless you ask, they often don't get answered.
• Ask about a popliteal and saphenous knee block if your surgeon doesn't bring it up. This was WONDERFUL post-surgery.
• How does your surgeon feel about a bone supplement? I am taking this, that has done well in clinical studies of osteoporosis bone regeneration.  My nephew used this for a broken arm and had his cast off two weeks early, so we'll see if it has any impact at my next visit.

Here is a picture of the post surgery splint/wrapping with kitty and vitamin D therapy:

I had to give a cute kitty pic first. Go back and look at the kitty after you see the next Frankenstein pics. Two weeks post surgery, we take the splint aka "nastycast" off.

P.S. It will stink:

This is actually not as swollen as some that I have seen. I attribute some of this to taking arnica post-surgery. I used these gel caps.  I only had to take pain meds 48 hours after surgery and haven't needed any more. I think it is because the swelling went down rapidly with elevation and those gel caps.

 The yellowish color is from the betadine used in surgery. So don't go imagining anything worse

 I did end up having a gastrocnemius slide performed. That is the wound closer to my knee. It has internal stitches that will dissolve. This has probably given me more discomfort than the ORIF surgery.

See my floating bone chunk? I'm going to ask about that at my next appointment.

 All ORIF'd

 See the little bone chunk at the bottom of my fibula? Turns out that I had previously broken that piece off when I thought it was just a bad sprain. Get x-rays every time, people!

Traded in my splint for Betty Boot. Hint: get comfortable knee high socks instead of keeping it wrapped in an ace bandage. Much more comfortable.