More Than We Expected

Last Thursday when I left mom, she wished me well on my ankle surgery that I was having on Friday.  I assured her I would be fine.  I had an MRI on my left ankle and had found out I had a ganglion cyst.  After the Podiatrist tried to aspirate the cyst and failed, the only option remaining was surgery. 

The doctor informed me that I would be in a soft cast for two weeks after the surgery.  I chose to wait till after mom’s birthday.  In addition, I made sure mom had her beauty shop appointment the day before because I wanted to make my surgery doable with less hassle for everyone including me.

Unfortunately or fortunately depending on how you look at the situation that followed.  My surgery should have been a relatively simple procedure, but the surgery became complicated. After the doctor removed a cyst the size of a golf ball on the bone of my ankle, he found two torn tendons that were literally hanging by a thread underneath the cyst.  The doctor sewed both of the tendons back together.  The doctor was amazed that no one saw the torn tendons on the MRI just recently taken.  So are we.

 

From a surgery point of view everything went well, however, I will be in a non-walking surgical cast for the next two weeks; then I will move into a soft boot cast for another four weeks; followed by physical therapy.

I certainly had not prepared for being six weeks out of commission.  Today I am looking at the doctor finding my torn tendons a blessing in disguise.  If they had completely ripped, who knows where I would have been.   I would have been rushed to the emergency room.  Instead I was sleeping peacefully when the doctor found and fixed the torn tendons.   Now comes the tough part . . . trying to be a caregiver when you need a caregiver.