Another Surgery

Back in October, while at the Border Collie National Specialty, I over-did my volunteerism to the point that I re-aggrvated my Achilles tendon. I waited a couple of months, hoping that reduced activity and over-the-counter ibuprofen would take out the irritation. I truly was hoping I hadn't re-ruptured the tendon. But by the time Christmas was arriving, I was in pretty decent pain constantly and I figured it was time to get it looked at.

I didn't want to go back to the same doctor (an orthopedic surgeon) as he had had two chances to fix the ankle permanently and here it was re-inflamed. So I sought out another doctor. By chance, I heard an ad on the local radio station of a new podiatrist in town. I've been to two podiatrists and had bad experiences with both so was kinda leary when I went in to meet Dr. Lockwood.

Well, as it turns out, I LOVE her. She is compassionate and well-informed, and she talks to me, not at me or down to me. We started out with physical therapy to see if it was just inflamation and a tightening of the tendon. Found that the tendon wasn't all that tight compared to the other one (range of flexation was within 9 degrees) so the therapists started me on routine stretching exercises and anti-inflamatory therapy three times a week.

After two sessions, the ankle was screaming even through the prescription-strength ibuprofen which had been controlling the pain wonderfully. After six sessions, I went back to the doctor and told her that the pain was worse with the exercises and that this is what had happened the first time after I'd had surgery and found that the tendon wasn't totally repaired. In other words, deja vu!

So Dr. Lockwood told the therapists to 'back off' the weight-bearing stretches and just do the anti-inflamation therapy. I also continued with the non-weight-bearing stretches. Well after a month of doing this, the ankle felt much better but not 100%. There was still pain but it was bearable.

So she decided to do an MRI and, guess what?!?!? Turns out the tendon is partially ruptured again! No wonder I couldn't do the weight-bearing stretches. So we discussed surgery. I couldn't do it right away because of the livestock. Mike leaves for work in the winter at 5:30 to allow for bad road conditions. The ducks need thawed water in the mornings when they are let out for the day and we don't want to run a heater all night just to keep the water thawed for morning. Just a waste of money. And doing duck chores in the morning before work just would not work for Mike. So we had to wait until warmer weather.

Well, warmer weather brings dog show season and Beckett is trying to finish a title. She has arthritis in her toes and right now is comfortable without pain meds, but at 8 yrears of age, that isn't going to remain the status quo forever. So I am up against the clock, so to speak, to finish this title. So I didn't want to waste the entire spring show season by having surgery (good thing too, since we've picked up three more legs on the way to the title).

So that makes it summer for surgery. It is scheduled on June 15th. I saw the doctor yesterday and our next time to meet will be to fill out consent forms and to get orders for EKG, labs, and chest Xrays. So I am now looking to call my GP and get those scheduled now so I get them in when I want to do them (when my work schedule allows).

I am going to be non-weight-bearing (on crutches) for eight weeks after the surgery because we are not only repairing the tendon, but we are addressing the reason why it keeps rupturing with little provocation. And that turns out to be several congenital defects in the formation of the bones in my foot. So she will be breaking and reshaping many bones to prevent (hopefully) any other recurrance of this problem.

It is supposed to be a pretty painful recovery for the first few weeks so I am lining up help for Mike since he'll have to work and do animal chores and mow and cook and do laundry and . .  . for the first few weeks. Once the pain subsides I'll be able to do a lot more even tho I 'm restricted to crutches. I get around pretty good on those things for a fat, old woman!

So while I'm not looking forward to another surgery, I AM hoping that this will be the last one for this foot!