The Left Was All That Was Left

In 2006 Sean had his right foot reconstructed and last week he had his left one operated on. Going into this surgery was a lot more stressful than the previous, as Sean knew what kind of recovery to expect. He went through with the surgery (even though it would have been so easy to back out) and all went well. He has three pins in the toes that had a joint removed and bones fused. He also has screws in the top part of the foot where they did the main part of the reconstruction.

Prior to the surgery we found out that they were going to give him a pain pump this go-around. I'm not going to lie, at first I was worried. I googled 'pain pump' and of course, all that came up were pending lawsuits and a ton of negative information. Turns out you can google most any medical procedure or medication and you're going to find enough information to completely freak you out. The doctors reassured us that the process with the pain pump was safe and it would help limit Sean's pain. Fortunately they were right. The pain pump numbed Sean from the knee down (they inserted the catheter behind his knee) and he felt very little for the first three days until they took the pump out.

Since then Sean has had both good and bad days as his foot starts to heal. He's been keeping his foot elevated which has helped with the swelling; but we haven't been so good with the Cryo Cuff this time as it seems to hurt more than help. And of course, they've got him on some good-old-fashioned-drugs.

In 1 to 2 weeks Sean needs to go back to Anchorage to have the stitches removed and gets moved from the cast to The Boot. In 6 weeks Sean may get the Doctor's blessing to start putting a small amount of weight on his foot. But the crutches will be around for about 8 weeks.

The most amazing part of this last surgery is how well Sean is dealing with the recovery. He never complains; even though I hit him in the foot with a cereal box and later, the baby bag! MAN! I'm a terrible nurse!! When strangers in the airport, on our way home Thursday, asked how he hurt his foot, Sean casually says, "oh, I had a little bit of work on it." It is almost like he is embarrassed to tell them what was done to his foot. I tell you what, if it was me I wouldn't wait for anyone to ask. I'd just walk up to people and say, "Hey, guess what I just survived!!" Whether they wanted to hear it or not.

Well, that brings you up on the latest with Sean. With everything that has gone on the past two weeks, I've gotten so behind in my emails. To those of you who've emailed, I promise I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Playing both Mommy & Nurse doesn't leave much time for the computer!