Second Visit to TOC

Today, five days after my first visit, I went back to Dr. D. This time it was at his regular office, closer to my house. John's dad is retired and was able to take me. I sat in the back of his wife's van and propped my foot up on the middle seat. For my first two trips in a vehicle, I was lying down. This seemed like progress but every bump in the road was still painful. This time I did remember to take my pain medicine.

Of course my foot is still swollen but Dr. D talked of a plan for surgery. He'll see me in a week and if swelling is down, do surgery the next day. He'll do outpatient surgery at Huntsville Hospital. He will put a pin in my 2nd metatarsal, and then cast the foot/ankle/leg. He'll open up the small wound from the toe bone coming through, turning it into a incision for his investigation and putting in the pin. The pin will stick out the bottom through my cast and he can remove it after 6 weeks. Then he can stitch up the whole thing so I'll no longer have an open wound to dress every day. He'll leave a small hole in the top of the cast to feed some sort of bone enhancer back down to the bone to help it heal quicker. I'll be in a cast for x amount of weeks (maybe until the pin comes out), and then a walking boot. Total recovery for bones to completely heal should be 3 months. I rather get this all over with now then later so I'm okay with him doing the surgery again. Especially if in the long run it's the right thing to do. He said I've been through the initial pain, will elevate a little bit but not as high after the next surgery, then should continue to heal. He said there hasn't been joint injury so that was good. Ligaments are in tact. Since he didn't initially look at this foot, maybe he'll be able to see more inside next week while I'm under. He told me of a lady that had 24 broken bones in her foot. Also, he's going to check out the toe during surgery, too.