Okay, so I have a lot of people ask me what is up with my ankle problems. I am going to lay it out here, once and for all. It's not terribly exciting (or maybe it is; I lived through it, so I can take it or leave it).
It all started in 2006, shortly after I started my first semester at Middle Tennessee State University. I was a skateboarder then (hind site is 20-20). I was relaxing at a hobby shop after a rough day at school, and kicking some flips in the parking lot. I got distracted and misplaced my foot. I fell only about a foot, but my entire body came down on my ankle turning fully sideways. The people at the shop were nice enough to take me to the hospital after my "friend" who I was there with insisted that I was fine and left me there when I demanded to be taken to the hospital.
The hospital let me know that I shattered my right talus and that surgery would be required. I stayed in the hospital for a full day before they could operate on me. After the operation, I stayed another 4 days. The doctor explained to me that he had to put 5 screws into my ankle in order to keep it in shape long enough to heal. At the time, my insurance was sub par. I did the follow up visits, but once the cast was off and I had the walking boot, I couldn't afford the physical therapy and ended up going back to work FAR too early. That led to the complications I had this year.
The past 5 years had been okay. I didn't get too many problems from my ankle. At the beginning of this year, tragedy struck. During the medieval combat reenactment game I am a part of, I sprained my ankle. It hurt for a full week, but eventually subsided (mostly) The pain never went away completely. From that point on, I had to walk with a cane. After I moved out to New York, I got on medicaid. I used it to get my ankle checked out and was told I would need further surgery.
After x-rays and CT scans, I found out that the bone in my ankle was sclerotic, that the ankle itself was arthritic, that the screws were loose, and that I had bone spurs. Also, because of the way I was walking to avoid pain, my achilles tendon had shrunk. Surgery was required. November 11th, I went in for surgery. I stayed in the hospital for 4 days.
She (the surgeon) removed the screws, removed the bone spurs, fused the joints in my ankle, and lengthened a few tendons. They gave me pain pills, which are helping, but they also gave me a daily injection which I have had to have in the stomach every day since my surgery. Only two days left of that, however! Luckily, a hypnotist was able to help me get over my fear of needles (more on that at a later time). I'm healing slowly and I thank everyone for the well wishes.
Hopefully this surgery will alleviate the problems and I can get back to a normal life. Well, normal for me, anyway.
TTFN, ta ta for now!
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