Post Surgery Contraption

It’s been 4 days since I had surgery on my right hoof. Apparently when you get an infection in your bones, it’s difficult to get antibiotics in there to kill the bacteria. So instead of letting the VA chop off my foot, I wanted a second opinion from a civilian doctor. I’m glad I did too. The VA wanted to chop off my hoof and replace it with a foam rubber block in my boot. Ummmm…..no thanks.

What the civilian doctors did was a bit more effective as far as I’m concerned. They split open my foot like a fillet. They removed the two sesimoid bones from the bottom of my foot. They cut out all the infected soft tissue and stitched the tendons and ligaments together so my toes wouldn’t just flop around. Then they cut through the toe joints and removed all the infected bone there. The next step was to hollow out the remaining bone and fill it with bone cement. I was then fitted with a weird mechanical device that holds my entire foot together until the bones heal and fuse themselves into one solid piece. I’ll have no joints in that portion of my foot, but at least I still have a foot to stand on.

Doctors orders are to keep the weight off my foot and keep it elevated. So I’m riding the couch for the next couple weeks since I can’t climb the stairs to my bedroom. And Ryland my service dog hangs out with me all night.

Propped up on the couch

This afternoon I hobbled out to sit on the front porch for a while. I’m a lousy patient and can’t stand to sit still for very long. My innate curiosity of things that are odd and mechanical by nature caused me to partially unwrap the bandages from this contraption on my foot that’s holding it together for now. Looks like I have a few lugs to attach jumper cables to if my heart stops beating and I need jump start.

Wrapped up

I’m not sure how many screws, pins, and bolts are actually attached to my hoof at this point. I do know that I’m completely immobile and I’m glad for that.

To say this thing hurts like hell is an understatement. Not to mention that my entire leg under the bandages is itching in a way that I can’t seem to scratch. I’m going to have to figure out how to rig something up to reach down inside the cast.

I got tired of the duct tape not holding this monster together, so I scrounged up some Velcro strips and rigged something a little tighter and more permanent.

Inside the wrapping

Well, I’m not exactly C-3PO yet with this contraption, but I’m probably getting close. Can’t see the skin where they filleted my foot butterfly style like an old steak — but I don’t see any lights or hear the hum of any servo motors…. So I’m probably good to go. I’ll have to wear this weird bracket until the doc says my next surgery will be to remove the pins, screws, and bolts.