ENDO SUPPORT FORUM : Overdue update

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Overdue update

Posted by Kristy on 9/2/2008, 6:48 pm

Hi ladies,

It's been a couple months since I've posted and I am so sorry about that. The reason that I haven't has been in part because of having been recovering from the surgery I had on my foot. It's been 9 1/2 weeks since I had the surgery on my foot and it is moving better as far as moving it forward and backward. However, I feel like I've been given a brand new foot so trying to walk on it has been a challenge as my ankle is stiff (understood since I hadn't used it in so long). The nice thing though is that I am now off the walker I had been using these past two months and being able to walk is great. Especially since I am not having any pain when I walk.

The other thing that has been going on during this surgery is that my fibromyalgia has been quiet for these past two months and I've noticed in the past couple weeks or so that my arthritis is quiet as well. My overall pain level is now down to a 5 and it has stayed that way for about 3 weeks now and I am glad for that.

I did have a scare with one of the incisions from this surgery (as I had two procedures done). The bottom part of the incision on my foot is the one that gave me the scare the day before Fay came. I had noticed that Wed that something didn't look right with this part in that I saw some yellowish stuff coming out of it. It looked like pus. So I had been making sure I put triple antibiotic ointment on the area and of course keeping it covered with a band-aid. After Fay came and went (and we did just fine other than losing power about 3 different times, once on Thurs and twice that Fri) I decided to make sure that I had it checkked. So I made another appointment to have my doctor check this. That was last week that I had this done (yep, this was a week before I was supposed to be seen for follow-up, I was initially supposed to be seen tomorrow for follow-up but because of this no appointment this week and it will be on the 10th instead). I went in and had it checked and thankfully it was not an infection and just had to do with the internal sutures but my doctor said that it's a good thing I came in any way to have it checked. I would rather be safe than sorry.

He checked my ankle again and we had a discussion going on about the fact that at that time (I didn't know what I know but will tell you what's happened since that appointment in a minute) I couldn't put weight on my foot without it hurting or putting on a sock. I also had to remind him that I couldn't afford to go to PT (the thing that worried me most going in to this surgery was the issue that he might try to send me to PT-physical therapy, which I can't afford other than maybe to consult. After I reminded him about that he said, "Well, that takes care of that". Then when I told him about the issues I just mentioned I didn't remember to tell him that it was because of all the swelling still going on in my foot. I forgot because of having a bad day last Tues (will explain why I had a bad day last week in a minute). Well, after I had told him all this he then said, "You need PT". I had to tell him that I would rather keep trying on my own. I discovered when I came home that afternoon that I could put weight on my foot without hurting (finally) and also walking on it (which I've been doing since last Tues) and also being able to wear a sock finally.

However, I can't wear that sock in my Croc (it's the only shoe I can get in to right now because of my toe although to get in to it right now is not fully comfortable since I can't get that part of my foot in to the toe box of the Croc still due to all the swelling) either with or without the orthotic insert. I have tried several times to get in to my tennis shoe as he initially wanted me to a month ago but I just still continue to struggle with that part right now and don't know when I will be able to get in to my tennis shoe. I know why he wants me to do that but I am not sure how he's going to handle it when I tell him of some of the struggles I have going on now especially with the stiffness. So I am nervous about the appointment on the 10th knowing that we are going to have that discussion about the PT. And I will tell him at the visit when it comes up that mom and I talked it over and I will go ahead and go to the PT but only for consultation purposes but that's it just so I can hear what they have to say. I will not be able to afford to work with them on a regular basis. Even though I have insurance that will cover a lot of it the cost is still expensive even with a $15 co-pay and if one has to go 3 times a week which is the way that PTs work I can't do it. That's about $45 a week and over a period of 6 weeks that's about $200 for the month. Something like that. And I can't ask my dad for more money even if I wanted to do it. That's the other part of the discussion when this came up.

He told me that the PT would push me but as I know from having put limits on my doctors I can also put limits on the PTs and I would have to tell them that they can't push me the way they do others. The reason is because of my overall pain threshold (although I'm glad it's at a 5 and won't know how long that will last).

I saw my Pain Management doctor and my rheumatologist last week as part of what turned out to be 5 appointments last week. These appointments went well. Because of how things are going I won't have to see my rheumatologist again for another 4 months unless I run in to trouble. My Pain Management doctor was also pleased with how things were going and said for me to let her know when I'm ready to reduce the number of tablets in my prescription of my Lortab. She also said that if this continues like this that I may be able to see less and less of her so that's good. I hope at some point that will happen.

As far as the surgical front, the next thing that will get tackled (only after I get some more questions answered by my ENT) is the issue of my sinuses to remove the bone spur that is sitting in my sinus area. If I can get all this tended to maybe I can get off my sinus medicine for good. That would be nice.

Now, the reason that I had a bad day last Tues is because of Daiquiri. As some of you may recall I have talked about him on this board over the years. So why did I have a bad day because of Daiquiri? Well, he aged very quickly over the last few weeks. So last Tues we finally made the decision that it was time to say goodbye to him. We took him to the vet to drop him off so that they could do that and off we went. He was 17 1/2 years old. We did it that way because neither of us wanted to see him get put to sleep. I did make sure I said my goodbyes to him. He was my baby and I miss him lots. I will still continue to have a good cry as is necessary and probably always will since he is always going to be my baby, but I will always have many good memories of him being in my life to treasure.

Mom is doing good with the treatment for her breast cancer and all her check ups have come up good so far since her surgery almost a year ago. Her next check up will be Sept 15th.

The other thing going on right now is that we are also keeping an eye on Hanna to see what it will do (yep, I'm on the side of where Hanna is). As of last check it was downgraded back to a tropical storm from when it had been a Hurricane yesterday afternoon.

Other than all this we are hanging in there and taking it one day at a time. I will try not to stay away this long again but that was another thing. Our computer had died so I was out of a computer for a couple weeks and we are now borrowing a laptop from a friend til we can get a new computer either built for us or from the store.

Please know that you all are in my thoughts and I will write again soon.

Take care everyone,

Kristy and