Everyday I'm Shufflin'

Disregard any previous posts about how hilarious foot surgery is. 2 days later? Not so hilarious.

When I woke up Friday morning I was actually excited it was surgery day! I have been waiting what seems like forever to have this surgery, and I dreamed about hopping off the operating table and running barefoot through the forest. Or something like that.

Since I wasn't able to drive myself, Mother Ethel kindly agreed to chauffer me to and from surgery while Ricky stayed home with the kidlets. About 20 minutes after we left the house, Ricky texted me to let me know that The Bulldog wouldn't drink her  morning bottle. Now, I've heard of babies going on strike before, but I couldn't believe my little chunker was refusing to eat! That never happens. I was a little nervous considering that I can't nurse her while taking prescription pain medication, but eventually she got hungry enough and give in to the bottle. Let's just hope she goes back to nursing without any problems when the time comes!

My surgery was scheduled first thing in the morning which worked out well because I didn't have to wait too long once we got there. It was at an outpatient surgery center, as opposed to a hospital, and there was only one other patient there when we arrived. After changing into the gown and getting my IV going, Mother Ethel joined me in my "room" (it was a sliding curtain) to wait with me. She took this picture of me while we waited...

I was told not to wear any make up or jewelry, so this is me

au naturale.

And yes, I know I look really pretty. You don't have to tell me.

I think it took me getting to this point to realize that I was actually having a real surgery. I have been joking about it for a few weeks, but the hospital gown, cap, and IV kind of put things into perspective. I did find it amusing however when the nurse asked me to initial the surgery site. Huh? I asked for clarification, and she literally wanted me to initial each of my toes being operated on to make sure the doctor operated on the right body part. I can only imagine what kind of lawsuit went down that made initialing the surgery site a mandatory part of surgery. Yikes.

Once Medallion arrived he also initialed each toe. Glad we were in agreement. I guess you can't be too careful.

After all of the preparations were made, the anesthesiologist came to give me the IV sedation. He assured me it would only take a few seconds for the drug to kick in. Here is what I remember of the conversation we had during those few seconds:

Anesthesiologist: "So you went to TCU? I saw the big scandal in the news recently."
Me: "Yep. I was one of the drug dealers. Police didn't catch me, though."

And then I was out.


Why did I say that?! 


A simple yes would have sufficed. The sad part is I am almost positive I would have made that very same comment even if I wasn't on my way to la la land.

Coming out of surgery I felt two things - woozy and numb. When Medallion came to check on me he said that my bone spurs turned out to be the worst case he has seen in 12 years of practicing podiatry. In a strange way this made me proud. Not only did it give me validation that yes, I did need to have the surgery, but if there had been a bone spur competition I would have won! Winning.


Mother Ethel drove me home and thus, the recovery began.

The best part of Friday was definitely lunch. We went to III Forks on Thursday night for our anniversary dinner, so I had leftover filet mignon, leftover chocolate cake, strawberries, pretzels, and a Diet Coke. This may have been the most delicious lunch I have ever eaten. Don't think I didn't eat every bite.

Late Friday afternoon the pain started to kick in. I started feeling a deep, throbbing pain in my right toe only. After convincing myself something was seriously wrong - I had taken the maximum pain killers allowed and still had intense pain but only in one foot - I called Medallion. He reassured me that the nerve block given during surgery can wear off at different times in each foot and it was just a matter of time before my left toe began to throb deeply as well. Perfect.

When I said, "But I took the pain killers and it still hurts so bad!" he asked me to imagine what it would be like without any pain killers at all. Apparently pain killers can't always block all of the pain depending how intense the pain really is. All I could think was how that would have been good to know yesterday!


It was around this time that I seriously started doubting my decision to have the surgery. Yes, it was considered medically necessary, but bone spurs aren't exactly life threatening so maybe I should've waited because this hurts.

I make these look good.

So now I will paint a picture of what things have been like since I got home. Basically, I have spent the last two-and-a-half days camped out in our bedroom with my feet propped up in the air. I ice my toes intermittently, and I only get out of bed if absolutely necessary. Little Ricky likes when I shuffle around the house. He thinks it's funny that I hobble so slowly, and he walks directly behind me while we have our own little parade.

On Saturday Ricky headed out to the St. Patrick's Day parade, so I was on my own with the littles. Even though I was in some pain, we actually had a really fun day playing and watching movies in bed all day! I think we watched Toy Story 4 times. Seriously. Every couple hours I would load up a cookie sheet with necessary supplies...

Only the essentials: Gatorade, peanut butter, a bottle for the Bulldog, a banana, not one but two Buzz Lightyear action figures, etc.

We also ate our meals in bed so I could keep my feet up.

Little Ricky's breakfast picnic

Little Ricky's lunch picnic

The Bulldog did this almost the entire day.

She loves sleep just like her mama!

Ricky picked up dinner for us and guess where we ate? Yep. In the bed. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the biggest, best picnic of the day. Booooo.

All in all, Saturday wasn't too bad. Yes there was pain, but I was relieved that it was less pain than Friday.

And then I woke up today.

Oh. Dear. Lord. The pain was 10 times worse. WHY did my toes hurt so badly?! I thought the pain would only get better as time went on but I was obviously wrong. So I did what I always do when I need legit medical advice... I hit up Google. Bad idea.

After thoroughly freaking myself out about all of the possible things that could be wrong, I decided to pop a few pain killers, suck it up, and deal with it. Luckily the pain subsided as the day went on, and I even felt up to taking a shower. Here was my solution for keeping my feet dry...

Masking tape and trash bags. I'm cool.

So here I sit... in bed... feet propped up...

And hopefully tomorrow I will be able to move around a little more. More importantly, I am ready to switch from the prescription pain medication to Tylenol so I can get back to nursing. I am having to pump 5 times a day to maintain my milk supply for the Bulldog, and sadly I have to dump it all out because of the pain meds. 

So am I glad I had the surgery done? I think so. Do I want to do it again? Hell to the no.

On a side note, I was really looking forward to our anniversary this year because it was the first anniversary we've had that I wasn't pregnant! I think that's funny considering we said we didn't want kids right away. HA! So anyway, I was looking forward to having an adult beverage with dinner to celebrate... and then I remembered I wasn't supposed to drink any alcohol for 24 hours prior to surgery. That's right, folks. Three anniversaries later and I still haven't had a real drink to celebrate. Go figure.

Dinner at III Forks

So with a non-alcoholic drink in hand, I say cheers to a speedy recovery!