With this condition, I haven't always gotten the best news when it comes to doctor's visits, but this past week that changed! I went for my 6 week post-op follow up with my vascular surgeon and he is very happy with the progress. He said that my left leg (operated 1/27/16) was doing better than my right leg (operated 9/1/15) but that both were still in the normal range. He explained that the lower number on the right leg could have to do with the damage that was done by my blood clot in June. As long as things are fixed and working well, I wont get too focused on perfection.
Another thing we discussed were my scars. I had an old set of scars from the surgeries I had done in October, 2013 and they were just re-opened and extended with these most recent operations. On the left leg, my surgeon was able to take out the old scar and sew the new one up nice and pretty. The right leg does not look as nice. On the inner thigh, there is about a 6 inch portion that is con-caving and it is also discolored and still looks bruised but isn't. Doctor said that eventually he can fix it. He wants to wait around a year and then he will go back in and make it look pretty. That was such great news! Its not an exaggeration to say that the right leg looks a bit Frankenstein-ish, so knowing that it can be improved down the road is a great relief.
Unfortunately, I do have another surgery on the horizon. I have a labral tear in my right hip that I have been waiting to have repaired for 5 years now! The orthopedic surgeon was unwilling to work on the hip until the issues with my legs were sorted out. At that time, I still didn't have a diagnosis for the PAES so the hip went on the back burner. Well, after my first round of surgeries in October 2013, I initiated the process to get the surgery going. Being Canada, the wait took a little while. I finally got the call to get ready for surgery in June 2015. If you've read some of my other posts you may have caught on that I had other things going on that month. A lovely little blood clot situation. I had to put the hip surgery plans on hiatus until the legs were sorted out...again. This was another devastating blow but I was getting used to those. So after I got my left leg done in January I made the call to my orthopedic surgeon's office to book me in. I hope to have that surgery done in the next couple of months and then after that I have no plans for any more surgeries!
This year has been really tough on me and my family and I am so happy that all of this junk is almost behind me. I have had to give up so much this year and I am tired of giving stuff up. I've missed a year of school, I have been off work for 7 months, missed countless social activities, had to cancel vacations and miss a close friend's wedding. It has been one disappointment after the next, but that is over now. I have registered for a course at my university this spring, and I am making plans to take a little road trip this summer to see my best friend in Alberta. I am learning to let go of the anger at what I lost and focus on the future and all the promise that it holds. My optimism is coming back, and that is what I am most grateful for.
Sunday, March 13, 2016
Tuesday, February 16, 2016
One lesson that I have had trouble getting right is listening to my body's cues. At the start of this most recent mess I wasn't listening to what my body was telling me and it got me into a dangerous situation with the blood clot.
The other night I had the house to myself for the first time in months so I decided to have a beer and movie night. I haven't been drinking much at all since the end of May when this all started and I hadn't had a drink since the week before my surgery. I had one beer during the movie I was watching and when I stood up I felt very weird. My body almost felt drunk but my mind was fine. I was dizzy and my vision was shaky. Since my awareness is heightened since the summer, I was feeling really nervous. Then I had what was similar to a panic attack which was awesome and just what I needed at that moment. Not actually. I was only 2 weeks post-op so I decided to be safe and go to the hospital just so they could check my vitals. Thankfully everything was fine and the ER doc said that it was likely a drop in blood pressure and that the vasodilating properties of the beer didn't help.
I could have felt embarrassed by this over-reaction but with my chronic history of ignoring warning signs, I am glad that I am progressing and learning to listen to my body more :) Needless to say, this has scared me off of drinking for a bit longer.
The other night I had the house to myself for the first time in months so I decided to have a beer and movie night. I haven't been drinking much at all since the end of May when this all started and I hadn't had a drink since the week before my surgery. I had one beer during the movie I was watching and when I stood up I felt very weird. My body almost felt drunk but my mind was fine. I was dizzy and my vision was shaky. Since my awareness is heightened since the summer, I was feeling really nervous. Then I had what was similar to a panic attack which was awesome and just what I needed at that moment. Not actually. I was only 2 weeks post-op so I decided to be safe and go to the hospital just so they could check my vitals. Thankfully everything was fine and the ER doc said that it was likely a drop in blood pressure and that the vasodilating properties of the beer didn't help.
I could have felt embarrassed by this over-reaction but with my chronic history of ignoring warning signs, I am glad that I am progressing and learning to listen to my body more :) Needless to say, this has scared me off of drinking for a bit longer.
Friday, February 5, 2016
Isn't it ironic...
So tonight I was feeling like a wanted a sense of community and I went looking (again) for any blogs on PAES. These are EXCEEDINGLY rare. I went deep into the Google search and by page 6 I found a comment on a compartment syndrome blog! Woot! I got all excited and started to read. Maybe they had wisdom to impart on me! A couple sentences in I thought, "wow this sounds just like me!" I look at the name. It was me. It was my own freakin post from 7 months ago. Argh!! There is so little on the internet for people to get a first hand idea of this condition. It's frustrating. Well this motivated me to blog about it because it just points out how my blog may come in handy some day. Even if only one person finds this useful, then I will feel pretty good with myself 😊
Tuesday, February 2, 2016
Netflix and Heal
So it has been a while since my last post, but hey, I've never claimed to be consistent.
I thought I should give a bit of an update at to where everything stands with me. It was confirmed this past summer that both of my grafts had failed and that both would need to be revised. This was of course terrifying! Anyone who has had a bypass-graft knows that these surgeries are not a walk in the park. You might be able to manage a shuffle in the park after a week or two.
After one of the most anxiety ridden three months of my life, I had my right leg revised on September 1, 2015. This leg was the top priority because it was the leg that had already clotted and was more damaged on the imaging scans I had done. With that surgery I got a whole new set of scars that made my old ones look like child's play. I went from a comparatively small, 6 inch scar to a total of 14 inches of incision. The original incision site was extended to 10 inches, and then mid-way up my thigh is a horizontal incision of 2 inches, and then the same thing at my groin/inner thigh.
This healing process was completely different than the one I endured two years earlier when I had my first round of surgeries. I chose to have an epidural this time instead of the general anesthetic.If anyone reading this has any reservations about which to choose, my hands down recommendation is the epidural. Obviously your personal case should be discussed with your doctor. With the epidural you still have the option of being sedated. You do not have to be intubated and the recovery from it is much less stressful on your body.
After waking up from the surgery I was really alert and in minimal pain. I only stayed in the hospital for three nights and was discharged home. I went to my parents house to recover, which in hind sight was not the best choice. My parents were spectacular, but there is something to be said about the comforts of home. I will elaborate a bit more on this in a later post. I had good mobility almost immediately and was able to physically tend to most of my own needs. My parents did to stuff around the house and the meal preparations because my energy was so low that I did not have the energy required to make my owns meals. After about two weeks at my parents house, I flew home solo. For the first couple of weeks I was feeling great and my energy was coming back steadily until about mid-October when I plummeted. There were several days where I would get out of bed at noon and stay on the couch until 8:00 PM and then go back to bed, exhausted. I would then spend the next 12-14 hours trying to get enough sleep; waking up 4-5 times during the night. A blood test confirmed that I was borderline anemic. I started on iron supplements which seems to help the problem a bit.
As the months dragged on, I was still getting no word on when my next surgery was going to be. During this whole time I have been off work on disability. People seem to think that is great and I must be enjoying my time off. In all honesty, I would give anything to be able to go back to my normal life before all of this. There is only so much Netflix a person can watch before she starts to question everything about her life. And I reached that point early November.
I thought I should give a bit of an update at to where everything stands with me. It was confirmed this past summer that both of my grafts had failed and that both would need to be revised. This was of course terrifying! Anyone who has had a bypass-graft knows that these surgeries are not a walk in the park. You might be able to manage a shuffle in the park after a week or two.
After one of the most anxiety ridden three months of my life, I had my right leg revised on September 1, 2015. This leg was the top priority because it was the leg that had already clotted and was more damaged on the imaging scans I had done. With that surgery I got a whole new set of scars that made my old ones look like child's play. I went from a comparatively small, 6 inch scar to a total of 14 inches of incision. The original incision site was extended to 10 inches, and then mid-way up my thigh is a horizontal incision of 2 inches, and then the same thing at my groin/inner thigh.
This healing process was completely different than the one I endured two years earlier when I had my first round of surgeries. I chose to have an epidural this time instead of the general anesthetic.If anyone reading this has any reservations about which to choose, my hands down recommendation is the epidural. Obviously your personal case should be discussed with your doctor. With the epidural you still have the option of being sedated. You do not have to be intubated and the recovery from it is much less stressful on your body.
After waking up from the surgery I was really alert and in minimal pain. I only stayed in the hospital for three nights and was discharged home. I went to my parents house to recover, which in hind sight was not the best choice. My parents were spectacular, but there is something to be said about the comforts of home. I will elaborate a bit more on this in a later post. I had good mobility almost immediately and was able to physically tend to most of my own needs. My parents did to stuff around the house and the meal preparations because my energy was so low that I did not have the energy required to make my owns meals. After about two weeks at my parents house, I flew home solo. For the first couple of weeks I was feeling great and my energy was coming back steadily until about mid-October when I plummeted. There were several days where I would get out of bed at noon and stay on the couch until 8:00 PM and then go back to bed, exhausted. I would then spend the next 12-14 hours trying to get enough sleep; waking up 4-5 times during the night. A blood test confirmed that I was borderline anemic. I started on iron supplements which seems to help the problem a bit.
As the months dragged on, I was still getting no word on when my next surgery was going to be. During this whole time I have been off work on disability. People seem to think that is great and I must be enjoying my time off. In all honesty, I would give anything to be able to go back to my normal life before all of this. There is only so much Netflix a person can watch before she starts to question everything about her life. And I reached that point early November.
Finally, on January 20th I got the call I had been waiting for from my surgeon's office with my date: January 27th. OK. It took me a minute to take it in but then I started yelling for joy. I'm pretty sure my surgeon's MOA thinks that I am crazy.
Today is February 2, 2016 so I am 6 days post-op today. This go-around was even better than last time! I did the epidural again and was only kept for 2 nights this time. I am very mobile around my house and I have already driven to the local coffee shop and had my first outing. This time we decided, and my wonderful mother graciously agreed, that I would recover better in my own home. She flew in the day before surgery and she leaves next Monday. It has been wonderful to have her around for groceries, meals, tidying up around the house, and of course its no fun being sick when your mommy isn't around.
Overall, I am feeling optimistic this time and I am looking forward to being healed up and getting back to my life! I may change what that looks like but at least I have the chance now :)
Today is February 2, 2016 so I am 6 days post-op today. This go-around was even better than last time! I did the epidural again and was only kept for 2 nights this time. I am very mobile around my house and I have already driven to the local coffee shop and had my first outing. This time we decided, and my wonderful mother graciously agreed, that I would recover better in my own home. She flew in the day before surgery and she leaves next Monday. It has been wonderful to have her around for groceries, meals, tidying up around the house, and of course its no fun being sick when your mommy isn't around.
Overall, I am feeling optimistic this time and I am looking forward to being healed up and getting back to my life! I may change what that looks like but at least I have the chance now :)
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