Warning: If you get kinda grossed out by cuts and stitches or women without makeup on…then I suggest skipping over this post 😉
Now that I’m 16 days post surgery I wanted to fill you guys in on this little adventure of mine! Surgery was schedule for Friday morning April 5th at 10:30. The hospital called me the day prior and told me I needed to be there at 8:30 freshly showered with NO products (not even deodorant) and NO jewelry (not even my nose ring or toe ring that I’ve had on non-stop since 7th grade). I also couldn’t eat or drink anything after midnight!
The kids went and stayed at Mrs Charlotte’s house the night before surgery so I wouldn’t have to run around or worry about them at all that morning. I got the house cleaned up Thursday and did the best I could to have things prepared for the week following surgery (I had several blog posts ready to go up and scheduled, food ideas printed out for the kids, clothes out for them each day and labeled, etc). I had nervous energy for sure and couldn’t stop go-go-going! I wasn’t very nervous about the actual surgery though, I think that just proves how READY I am to get this foot issue SOLVED!!!
Courtney stopped by the night before surgery and brought me this sweet comfort basket! Celebrity magazines were awesome for when I soaked in the tub and Kye and I enjoyed sharing the treats as special time cuddling up in our bed watching a movie! It was so thoughtful of her! The basket even came in super handy as I put it by the bed with all the things I would need to get to (light remote, tv remote, chargers, ipad, books, etc).
Morning of surgery: ALL natural Emily!
I took one last picture of my foot before it would be scarred for life haha I had to remove all finger nail polish as well
We got there right on time and Mrs. Charlotte met us there. Casey didn’t have school since it was her Spring Break so she went and kept the kids for us at Mrs. Charlotte’s house that day. They WORSHIP Aunt Casey so I knew they were having a blast and I’m so thankful Mrs Charlotte was able to be there with me. It’s comforting having that mother figure there for support! As an added bonus Mr Rusty showed up around the same time we got there and sat with us the entire time while we waited for me to go back!!! It really made me so, so happy. He’s squeamish about hospitals like I am so I know it was truly an act of love. Have I ever mentioned how blessed I am??? I have such an awesome family! I shed some tears post surgery just out of the pure gratitude I have for them being there. Mrs Charlotte stayed throughout everything (with Zach of course) and it was so great to see them both after surgery was over!
As I mentioned in my pre-op post we decided to not do general anesthesia. I felt very good about that choice!!! It put my mind at ease to know we were just doing twilight and that I’d be asleep but not completely under. We were in the hospital room for two hours before they took me back. We had some great conversation and it really kept my mind off everything. Once they put my IV in (the worst part of things FOR SURE for me…I hate needles!) I was ready to just get it over with. Plus, hello, it been a good while since I had anything to eat or drink and I was THIRSTY. I’m so glad I took Zach’s advice and drank a BIG glass of water right at 11:30 the night before 🙂
Everything went AWESOME with surgery! My last memory is actually being in the operating room and moving beds. That’s all I remember until I woke up in some post-op area with a nurse. I woke RIGHT up and started talking and talking about Disney World haha. The staff kept saying they couldn’t get over how I went from dead asleep to SO awake and alert.
The surgery was smooth sailing. I wasn’t there when Dr Dodson came in to talk with Zach and Mrs. Charlotte but they said he told them the little bone he removed was def deformed and messed up. He said he did a lot of looking around and some xrays and stuff while in my foot to make sure he didn’t find any other problems but that everything looked great.
After surgery they talked to me about my medications and showed me how to use my crutches. I had brought my walking boot with me and it was already on my foot when I woke up from surgery so I had NO CLUE what my foot actually looked like. We got home around 1:00 and Mrs. Charlotte was so sweet to pick us up Longhorn for lunch. It’s Zach’s favorite sandwich and now mine too 🙂 I chowed DOWN and took my pain meds with my lunch. When I had Kye we forgot to fill my prescription for pain meds when we left the hospital so I had NOTHING the whole first night at home (which I only stayed 24 hours in the hospital so I had pretty much just given birth). Waking up that morning after the first night is a memory I wish I could forget. Literally I felt like I’d been hit by a MASSIVE truck. Lesson learned? TAKE PAIN MEDS! I wasn’t about to play games after surgery and I made sure to take the meds around the clock!
I actually felt SUPER great the day of surgery. I was energized. I felt like myself. I felt like my recovery was going to be a breeeeeeze.
We had a good system set up in the bed where I could keep my foot elevated and watch tv and such. Dr Dodson wanted me to STAY in the bed with my foot elevated until that next Wednesday when I had my follow up appointment. So that meant 5 days of straight bed rest! I do feel like I was a rather easy patient during that time. I tried super hard not to ask Zach for too much and he just kinda left me alone to rest.
That afternoon a delivery arrived of BEAUTIFUL flowers from my dad and Audrey!!! It was SOOOOO sweet and thoughtful and really made my day! I LOVED having something so pretty to look at from my bed 🙂
Friday went awesome! I took the antibiotics as prescribed and used Percocet every four hours for the pain. Since it wasn’t knocking me out like I expected it to I decided to take Demerol that night before I went to bed, thinking it would knock me out for the night. Um. Wrong. I woke up at 1 am and the pain meds in my foot had worn off so it wasn’t numb anymore and instead it was very, very painful. I ended up calling the hospital and asking them what to do b/c it hadn’t been long enough to take more meds. I ended up literally staying awake the entire night in pain 🙁 It was horrible.
The next day was BY FAR the worst day. Omg. It was awful. Which, come to find out, Dr Dodson had TOLD Mrs Charlotte and Zach that the day after surgery would be rough (wish someone would have warned ME about it!!!). I ended up puking several times and was dizzy and nauseous all day. Mrs Charlotte was a HUGE help in helping me figure out a better way to take the meds. The post op nurses totally didn’t give me good guidance with the medication. I hadn’t been taking the anti-nausea meds with the demerol and I didn’t know I was supposed to so that’s probably why I was so sick!
The kids actually came home Friday afternoon and stayed home all weekend. I hated that they saw me in that state but Zach did a great job keeping them busy and occupied! They were actually in the bathroom with me when I started throwing up and I’m so glad Zach ran fast to grab them so they didn’t witness it!!!
Kye was SO worried about me and wanted to check on me all the time. I enjoyed our cuddles in the bed and Zach was so sweet to always let Kye read a story with me, watch a movie with me while Britt napped, etc. I felt included in everything even though I was pretty out of it all weekend!
On Saturday a sweet friend from church, Brooke, brought lunch for us from Zaxbys. On Sunday Casey came and sat with me while the guys took the kids to church. I’m SO thankful for that! It was nice to have someone to talk to and she even cooked us an AWESOME dinner that night that made enough left overs to last the entire next week! The kids stayed with us through Tuesday morning. Zach worked from home Monday and Mrs. Charlotte came for a little bit when Zach had to meet with a few people for work and she brought us dinner that night. Tuesday the kids went to stay with Mrs. Charlotte. Kye was in HEAVEN and said he wanted to stay there for three weeks haha
Kye made this drawing for me!
I was surprised by how much rest I REALLY did need. I slept off and on every day and spent my awake time on social media, learning my new iphone, and watching tv (I watched 12 episodes of Parenthood, 5 of Nashville, and 6 of Project Runway). I stayed on the pain meds until Tuesday and I quit taking them then because I wanted to stop sleeping during the day to be prepared to get the kids back Wednesday after my appointment. I was SO curious to see what my foot was going to look like without the bandage on! The post-op appointment went well. Dr. Dodson said it’s obvious that I was taking really good care of myself because I had pretty much ZERO swelling which is great and that everything looked awesome. It didn’t look so awesome to me though haha. I did have a REALLY bad rash on my ankle (you can see some of it here) and a HUGE blister on the back of my ankle. It was from the bandage and where it rubbed me every time I flexed my foot. After the appointment Dr. Dodson said I was fine to get out of the bed and walk around and such, using my boot, and that I’d go back a week later to get the stitches out. I still couldn’t get my foot wet and needed to keep a bandaid over the incision but that I was good to go!
I really, really was ready to have the kids home. Zach picked up Kye and brought him home because he needed to go to our church Wednesday night to practice his singing for a performance he did that following Sunday. I could have squeezed him and loved on him forever! I over did it in an effort to prove to Zach that I was ready and ended up being in a lot of pain through the night. I didn’t sleep at all and ended up caving in and taking pain meds again 🙁 Zach made the decision to keep the kids at Mrs. Charlotte’s through Friday afternoon but compromised with me and we rode out to her house Thursday afternoon together to visit and eat dinner with everyone. It worked out great! By Friday afternoon (one week post-op) I was def feeling better and I took off the bandage and it made a HUGE difference. I think a LOT of my pain issue was the bandage and that rash!
Friday afternoon Zach and I rode out to Mrs. Charlotte’s and picked up the kids to bring them home! Robyn, Matt, Lorelai and Cooper brought us Zaxby’s for dinner and surprised us with our first Smallcakes! It’s a new specialty cupcake place in town…they were super good!
On Saturday Zach took Kye to Tallahassee for a guys day so I had a girl day with Britt. Casey was SO sweet and spent the whole day with us to have fun but also to help me out. Sunday I was able to go to church and I didn’t have the kids completely solo until Monday April 15th! Exactly 10 days after surgery so we REALLY did follow doctors orders 🙂
I really expected to be pain free at that point but I wasn’t. I finally took a good look at my foot (it kinda grosses me out so I tend to avoid looking at it) and realized I was super bruised. I was having tingling in my big toe and figured that was from Dr Dodson moving some nerves around and such but the entire area was also SO tender. Duh, bruising will make things sore! I felt better seeing the bruising (which had faded some by the time I took this picture and it’s hard to see in a picture too).
I kept my boot on at all times which is kinda sucky with it being HOT outside but I didn’t really have any other choice. Here’s what the area looked like before I got the stitches out!
I was REALLY ready to get back to normal life. Even though I had the kids back full time I took things super slow. I rested whenever they were in the bed. I didn’t try to go up the stairs. Etc. I do NOT want to risk messing ANYTHING up!
I’m pretty religious about getting my hair done on a regular basis but I was due for a hair cut right before surgery…why bother having fresh highlights when I’d be living in the bed, right? Look how ROUGH I was looking!!!!
Wednesday I went and had my hair done and felt SO much better and more like ME!!!
Thursday morning (April 18th) I went and got my stitches removed. I was a little scared that it would hurt but it didn’t. It just felt kinda strange. Up until this appointment I hadn’t really asked Dr. Dodson any questions or anything but I wanted to make sure to go over everything with him. He said that the bruising is totally normal and will go away with time as it the pain I’m still having and just to continue to take ibuprofen as needed. He said to still take it easy and that it will be a few more weeks until I’m completely healed and back to normal. He said the numbness in my toe is exactly what I thought it was…and that it will also fade with time. He said I actually won’t have any scarring at ALL from the surgery which is shocking to me! I wasn’t really worried about scarring since, hello, it’s my foot. Who cares! But it’s good to know I won’t have one! He DID say that I need to wear tennis shoes as much as possible for the next couple of weeks. At least I’m done with the boot…but tennis shoes aren’t too cool either haha. I asked about what I can do to prevent this from happening to me again and he said really that there’s nothing I did wrong to cause it to happen to begin with. It was just one of those freak, random things! He said “you must just be lucky” hahaha he so doesn’t even know how true that is 😉 He said I don’t need to come see him again unless I have any problems, sounds good to me!
Here’s what my foot looks like now:
I can FINALLY take showers again and life is pretty much back to normal. I am still taking it easy but can do all my normal activities. I want to start working out and he said that the best things to do are walking, elliptical, and swimming and just to take it super easy for awhile. I’m really eager to be 100% healed…I’ve had pain for over six months now so I can’t WAIT to go on walks with the kids to the playground, RUN and chase the kids, and just walk in any shoes without pain!!!
Even though I’m not 100% healed, knowing that the bone he removed was really messed up gives my mind peace that this WAS the right route to take and that I WILL be back to new soon. I’m SO thankful for Dr. Dodson. He and his wife run their office together and it’s so great that they play Christian music and have Bible verses hung on every wall. I knew I was in good hands because a man of God was taking care of me 🙂
I really, really appreciate everyone who helped during my healing process. Especially Mrs. Charlotte and Casey who both went ABOVE and beyond to help us!!! So many people contacted me to let me know they were thinking of me and it really made me feel so loved. Due to some “tough stuff” in my life I tend to feel like I don’t really matter to others and that I’m not very important or valued but having this surgery made me realize that people DO care about ME. Not just Zach, not just the kids, or not just “Zach’s wife” or the “kids mom” but as EMILY. They care about me and that is a great feeling!
Of course, more than anything else, I’m so thankful to be married to such a wonderful man. He managed our home flawlessly. I got out of the bed for the first time and was SHOCKED at how clean the house was! He did a fabulous job keeping the kids schedules, cooking meals for us all, and caring for me. I appreciate him so much for all he does for us!
Thank you again for all the prayers and I’m so glad to be at the end phase of healing!
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I know this is an old post, but I was just curious how your healing is going? I had a sesamoidectomy 8 days ago and am still in a lot of pain. Now that you are over a month from surgery, have you felt a TONS better?
Awesome! 🙂
how are you feeling? my daughter may be having this done soon. she is a dancer. do you feel like your foot could dance? balance? push off?
Thank you for sharing your journey through your surgery. It helped with my own anxiety, especially with what route to take with being put under. I appreciated your pics too. The hair appointment will wait for me now that you have put the logic in that 😉 June 9th ill start my journey to being pain free and back to running in 6 weeks.