News from the Orthopaedist

So today I went to the orthopaedist.  Just to add another doctor into the list of doctors I've seen this year, today I met Dr. Putnam!  He's the third doctor I've seen in the practice and I joked that I'm secretly trying to see everyone at Moore Orthopaedics.  Back in my cheerleading days, I saw Dr. Locke.  He handled my knee problems and he even took a cyst out of left hand!  Then after my car accident I saw Dr. Scott for my back.  Now we're on to Dr. Putnam to handle my ankle.  

I saw another orthopaedist this summer at the lake.  If a little catch up is needed, I was on crutches, no weight on my foot for 4 weeks in a boot; then 6 weeks walking in the boot; and now I've been in a smaller brace for about 5 weeks now.  Needless to say, after all of this my ankle hasn't gotten better!  I'm still in constant pain without much relief.  I want more than anything to be able to just wear heels once or just not have to wear a brace on my foot.  I set out for some answers and Dr. Putnam definitely had some for me!

Since Dr. Parrish (homeboy I saw this summer) never had me do any Physical Therapy, all the scar tissue has just be chillin' in my ankle.  I realize I know nothing about medical terms so I'm not even going to try to go there.  All the scar tissue is in my ankle and only causing more pain because well, it isn't supposed to be there.  First thing we did was get some new x-rays...good news is still no broken bones or anything!  Next we did a nice little injection into my ankle.  All I know it they sprayed lots of cold stuff on my ankle and then there was a lot of pressure and a couple minutes later, Dr. Putnam said we were all done!  Praise the Lord I didn't have to watch him do that. I like to think I'm big and bad and can totally handle that...but I won't say that because I definitely could not have handled it.

After the injection, I had no pain!!!  I could walk without a brace and I could even point my toes!!!  You don't even know how bad I've been wanting to just point my toes, former dancer in me.  Too bad the injection couldn't just last forever or it would have been the best day everrrrr!  So after Dr. Putnam saw that the injection worked like he wanted to, he came back into the room and said, "So, when do we want to do this?"  Ahhhhh!! It just hit me that he's talking about surgery here.  So I started freaking out a little bit and my mom asked for the details first.

This will be a simple ankle anthroscopy where he'll just scoop out the scar tissue...no big deal, right?!  It will be a 20-30 minute procedure.  They only do these on Thursdays so that rules out the other 4 business days of the week.  I'll be in a splint for 10-12 days on crutches, no weight on it.  Then I'll get my stitches out and I'll be in a walking boot for 6 weeks along with Physical Therapy.

So...surgery it is!  Keep me in your prayers that this does the magic touch!  I'm ready to not be in pain every single day.  I'm also ready to get to actually exercise so I can keep losing this weight.  I will say when I had to tell the nurse how much I weighed today, I felt proud for the first time to say how much I weighed!!!  I'm not quite proud enough to post it on the internet...but when I reach my next goal, I might be brave enough!  Its taken a lot to get to this point and I'm hoping 2013 will not be the year of doctors.  I don't even know how many doctors I've seen this year for everything from my car accident, thyroid problems, new medical problems, and my ankle!  All of that is on top of the fact that I've been more sick than ever this year.  I'm so ready to say goodbye to 2012 for many many reasons, mainly because I'm tired of doctors without answers.  I feel like they get paid enough, they should be able to tell me what's wrong with me...not just keep shoving me off to the next doctor.  Sorry if any doctors or future doctors are reading this, just speaking my thoughts!  

Thanks again for reading my blog!  I'm trying to get back into the swing of blogging on a regular basis!  Loves ya :)