Update on the foot surgery.

After the main surgery, as you read previously, the hammer toe didn’t do as it was told, and didn’t perfuse all the way to the tip..

Not good.

The poor surgeon was upset as in his 20-year career as a foot reconstruction surgeon, he had never lost a toe.

“Look, doc, it’s not the whole foot, I said again. And to be frank, since you straightened it out, it now sticks out ¾ of an inch past the big toe. Which looks kinda odd. And um if the tip doesn’t make it just nip it off and make it even with the rest.” I chuckled.

Long story short, I tried hyperbaric oxygen at $250 a treatment x 5 just to say I tried to heal it. Plus, supposedly, hyperbaric fixes a lot. Like your wrinkles. Your eyesight and hearing. Kind of an anti-aging treatment with wound healing. I’m in like Flynn, baby. Maybe it will save me a trip for botox…

But the chamber was interesting, to say the least. It made me nervous when they said no makeup, perfume, phone, paper, nothing in the tube that could cause a spark. And I had to wear 100 % cotton scrubs, too. With 100 % oxygen, well…. If it sparks, you’d blow up. I recited the lord’s prayer each time I got in the thing.

So five treatments and taking lots of deep breaths to help get as much oxygen as possible in me, the toe looked the same. And so did my wrinkles.  Damn it.

Third visit to the surgeon, and the black part was over the nail bed now. But it was “demarcating” Google for “the dead part was sealing off from healthy tissue.”

 He looked very worried, I couldn’t get him to laugh, “I said Don’t worry, doc, we’ll name it stubby.”  No response. “We can leave it alone and, in several months, maybe it will fall off on its own,” he says, dead serious. “Um no” I said, “get the nippers.” Ok, then, he replied, we can do it this week.  He scheduled the 2nd surgery on my birthday for the “amputation,” as he called it.  I didn’t like that word, I preferred “tip adjustment” or toe makeover.”

So I’m home now, and the good news is he only took the tip and it lines up with the other toes, it’s just a “stubette” instead of a full stubby. I’m happy.

He tells me I still can’t walk for another three weeks, darn it, I was already prepared to start partial weight bearing since it’s been 7 weeks. “Nope, I know you’re strong chiffon and a nurse, but do as I say, cause your surgery was complicated. Medical people are always the worst patients,” he added. “Okey dokey” I said. I’ll go back next week for another toe check.

So…..in the meantime another fun outcome; I  noticed that the crown on my back molar has disappeared. I discovered it the night after the second surgery.  Maybe they knocked it out when they put the breathing tube in and out of my throat, I’m assuming. Did I swallow it?, Did it get lost in the operating room?  Wtf, the surgery was $6000, now I’ll have to pay for a new crown. Damn it. I can’t win, lose a toe, and lose a tooth. I’m staying out of the operating room. In case I swallowed it, I checked the bathroom if you know what I mean. Nothing.

.

I wondered if they have a lost and found for teeth. I mean, maybe the cleaning crew found it? I decided not to ask because of course, I signed a consent that included the risk of “loosening of dental work,” and so they would not be liable.   It was there as part of a list of mishaps that can happen during surgery in the consent.  It was under “risk of death.”  I figured, oh well, losing a crown, instead of the other is way better. I decided not to tell the surgeon as he was already bummed over the toe that needed to be nipped.

So it’s been two weeks since getting the stubette, and the surgeon just took the stitches out. There is a small hole on the tip that’s not filled in, but the toe looks good.

The doctor was pleased overall and said, “Don’t touch it, come back next week. And no weight bearing.”  Ok then,  I’ll keep the “toe truck Scooter.”  No laugh.

So next Friday I’ll get stubette checked again. Hopefully it’s nearly healed.

I’m doubling up on my protein again to speed up the healing. 

And practicing toe jokes.

Will deal with lost cap later.

The toe knows.

Somewhere In Texas with a short toe.