Sub-Talar Fusion 4 Week Update

Not surprisingly, my first week post-op I experienced a bunch of pain, even though I went home with a lot of medicines. On the good ole pain scale...which is probably different from the average person...my pain level would vary from a 4-7. The best news is that the only real pain that I had from this surgery lasted about a week. After my first six days of feeling not myself because of the prescription meds, I stopped taking them and haven't looked back. They were definitely messing with me and making me feel not myself. This is the first time I've ever had this kind of response to prescription pain meds before...and all of them were meds that I had taken before. It was kinda scary, but I'm glad that I was able to recognize what was going on and take myself off of them. Oddly enough, after I stopped taking them, the pain in my foot stopped too.

The only pain I did feel during that first week was in my heel. I was able to ice it mildly by putting my foot on an ice pack, since the heel part of my foot was mostly just bandages (I went home from the hospital in a temporary splint). Sometimes I'd place the ice pack behind my knee, which also helped. At my 2 week post-op check up I had my stitches taken out and a cast put on. Because I had really only experienced pain at my heel, I was surprised to see that I had four stitches...one in my heel, and three on the outside of my ankle. After they removed the stitches, they put some steri-strips on the incisions, and asked me what color cast I wanted.

This cast that I have on will be an extended part of my body for six weeks total...so I have another 4 weeks to go from now. The hardest part has been that I'm NWB (non-weight bearing) until I get this cast off. At that point, this cast will come off and another one will put on...but I can start putting weight on that one. They call it a walking cast. My doc says that they leave you in a cast to keep the fusion stable, but the weight bearing encourages bone growth.

So that's where I am today...just waiting...luckily, without pain...waiting until March 17^th, the day I get my second cast on and am told I can walk again. It's getting very boring just sitting around!

Any suggestions on how to pass my time?