January 3rd ~ January 9th, 2014 (Five weeks)

The start of antibiotics proved to be very necessary. Unwrapping my foot Friday morning revealed that the yellow pus was now covering more of my incision area. I cleaned up the incision and got dressed, for we were setting out on a long ride to tend to a few errands and take his son home. After several hours on the road we finally made it home in the evening. I was starting to realize how much my endurance is still not up to these kind of trips. I spent the remainder of the weekend with my foot propped up resting and trying to eat well and keeping hydrated to help clear my infection.

 

The weather started to become very cold and snow began to fall. We had one of the coldest snowy blizzards that we have seen in a long time. Even after the snow was done the temperatures were still in the negatives for the highs and lows. I stayed curled up on the couch keeping my ankle elevated and comfortable, and continued with my exercises.

 

To keep me entertained I got out the DVD's my sister dropped off for me to borrow. She told me that the new season of Downton Abbey was to start and I really should watch the first three seasons she had for me in the bag. So that was my pick and I spent three days watching and watching and watching. It was much more entertaining than I expected. With this, I have decided to do the marathon with series rather than tuning in each week. In my normal daily life I just never have had the time to dedicate to programmed television. I made sure to DVR the new season to keep up with the drama.

 

My next PT appointment was supposed to be Monday January 6th, but we were snowed in, so I called in to cancel my appointment. The infection was still festering and so I thought it was probably best to keep home and wrapped up to continue to let the antibiotics knock it out. By Wednesday, the infection was still not looking any better. But I was noticing less tenderness and the electric shocks were calming down.  The best thing of all was that I was sleeping much better. The boot did not feel like it was pressing on all the sore spots anymore. The pain was nearly nonexistent and no longer bothering me, so I had no need to take any pain pills. 

 

By Wednesday morning I was out of gauze, so I used Band-Aids to cover up my remaining wounds and headed out to PT. Jordan checked my ROM and I had not lost any ground with the measurements, however he did feel that the end feel was a bit more stiff today. He didn't like the looks of my wounds and suggested I start doing some wet to dry dressings to get the infection lifted out of the wound bed. So after PT we headed to the store for the necessary medical supplies and stocked up on groceries.

The first couple rounds of wet to dry dressing changes have been looking good. The wound bed looks clean and healthy. My hope is that the this continues to clear up and the wound looks as healthy as possible for my visit with Dr Haddad in just 4 more days. This visit with him will be my 6 week check and if all is good, I get to take my first steps on my new ankle.

Despite this setback, I have to look at the positives. My ankle no longer aches constantly and it moves. The ROM is already much better than what I lived with for many years. When the time comes to actually be able to put weight through it to stand to stretch and exercise the muscles, the progress will be made in leaps and bounds. I must keep my eye on that and focus on moving forward despite any obstacle.