Day 9+10

Day 9: I stayed up till 5 AM Wednesday night writing a paper, so I was mainly extremely tired throughout day 9. Don't recall having much pain or soreness. Tried some ankle exercises, my ankle was very stiff (it still is).
Day 10: Not much pain, toes were still swollen so I continued to keep feet elevated above my hips and iced.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Do not wrap your bandage too tight. I accidentally wrapped it too tight after my shower, and I couldn't figure out why my ankle was in more pain than usual, till I unwrapped it. It hurt like a bitch.

Day 7 + 8

Sorry I couldn't write anything for day 7 because I had really bad menstrual cramps since the morning till night. Anyways, yesterday my stomach cramps hurt way more than my ankle so the pain wasn't that great. Today (day 8) is a lot less painful, I still get that weird blood rushing pressure/tightness feeling. I honestly don't know how to describe the feeling in a precise word, but pressure/tight/pulling are what it feels like.
[UPDATE] So I went to see my doc, and he said everything is fine. He removed my splint+dressing+stitches, and there was minimal drainage. Turns out that the tightness and sore symptoms were all normal. He said I can now wet the incision site when I shower, just no baths or anything like that. That is because you don't want the steri-strips to come off easily. My doctor also gave me some ankle range of motion exercises to do, and he said that I can slowly start weight bearing. He mentioned that it's fine if I am still dependent on my crutches for another week; after all, it's only been one week since the operation.

Day 6

The incision site is starting to sting a little. I'm also not sure if it's drainage, but the inside of the dressing is feeling a little wet. I can't really see if it is drainage though, because the dressing is covering everything up... Anyways, the painful pulling/tight/pressure feeling inside the back of my ankle is still slightly there whenever I bring my foot down. Good news is, swelling went down a lot compared to previous. Color of my foot is looking alright too, I'll post a pic soon.

Day 5

Woke up with no pain, but the same pulling and tight feeling came back once I stood up. I am assuming that it has to do with the blood rushing down my leg through my ankle into my foot. It continuously hurt whenever I put my foot down. I should probably mention that I haven't been taken my medicine, but I just decided to start taking them again. I take Mortrin by the way. It's basically an 800mg Ibuprofen. The pain became a little more minimal, but it's still there. (Only occurs when I bring my foot down from an elevated position).

Day 4

No pain in the morning, everything was okay until afternoon when the pulling/tight feeling came back. The worst the pain level is at is about 4/10. I'm starting to wonder if this is supposed to be normal. Going to see my doctor on Wednesday the 29th. My surgical site is also sort of stinging once in a very while, but it also kind of itches. I'm assuming that it is healing well. Still getting some tingly feeling in my foot & toes. Trying to wiggle my toes some more.
Update: there is a little bit of pins and needle pain on the bottom of my foot. Comes every once in a while, very faint.

Day 3

Decided to stop taking Mortrin. There wasn't any pain until late night when the area of where the ossicle is supposed to be started feeling tight. There is this pulling feeling in the back of my ankle, it is very weird. This only happens when I bring my put down from an elevated position. I decided to take one more painkiller. That kind of helped. I'm assuming that it has to do with inflammation and also healing. Overall, pain level was only about 3/10, and that was only when the pulling feeling was at it's worst.

Day 2

Pain level is very low, about 1 or 2 out of 10. It's actually not painful, it's more like a weird feeling. It feels like blood is rushing through whenever I bring my foot down from elevation. I also had to go to class today to take a quiz, I had to crutch around the campus and opening doors are the toughing things to do. Also, my right buttocks is getting sore from holding up my body weight. Other than this, everything is okay. There is some tingling in my toes sometimes, but it's nothing painful. I can kind of wiggle my toes. I can feel my toes so that's good.

Day 1

Pain level is very low, everything is going well. Toes have been very warm so I put a wet cloth over it to cool em down. The splint and dressing is actually pretty heavy, so it does put some strain on my hip flexors and hamstrings. Other than this, everything is cool. Also, I can't get the dressing wet, so I'm gonna have to take a slow bath with my left leg sticking out the bathtub.

Pain Level

The pain level right now is actually at zero. I did take the medication just to be safe. I am also keeping my foot elevated with a pillow and icing. Just mentioning this in case you were curious, I am in a splint + dressing. 

Preoperative + Postoperative

Just a little info about preoperative procedures:
- I couldn't eat past 12 AM until postoperative.
- Got blood tests & urinalysis.
- IV started on me, just in case you are curious of what an IV consists of (because I was very curious), it has a bunch of electrolyte solutions like sodium, potassium, sugar, salt, water... They said it's to keep you hydrated and to open up the veins for the anesthesia.
- After a while, they took me to the surgery room, where they told me to lay down on the table. Then, the anesthesiologist told me to count to 10. So I asked her, "Why do we always have to count," because they always tell you to count... Like I'm going to knock out anyways, so might as well knock out in peace and silence. Sorry I'm going off topic. Anyways, I counted down from 10 and knocked out at 8. I don't know why I counted down, I just did.

Postoperative:
- Surgery took about 30 minutes, but it took me about 30 more minutes to wake up.
- Woke up in the recovery room with oxygen mask, I was disoriented when they woke me up, so I went back to sleep.
- Woke up about 10-20 minutes after they tried waking me up, I was more alert this time.
- Surgical site was aching, pain level was about 2/10, and it went away within 3 minutes or so.
- Went out of recovery room and into some other room with my mom and sister.
- They gave me some cranberry juice and taught me how to use crutches, then I got discharged.
- Went to pick up meds that they prescribed me (Mortrin and Norco).

Os Trigonum Resection

My os trigonum surgery is scheduled to be on Tuesday, July 21st, 2015 at 11:30 AM. Doc decided that open excision will be the best for me because he did not want to touch any other areas of my foot/ankle/leg. Arthroscopy would also have a longer recovery time, and I am planning to get back in season this year if I can, so my doc and I thought it'd be better to do an open excision. Quick and simple.

For more info about the syndrome, here is a short, but very accurate and informative link: http://www.foothealthfacts.org/footankleinfo/os_trigonum_syndrome.htm

A Little Bit About Me

An mentioned in my profile bio, I am a track athlete. I rolled my ankle about three years ago (junior year of high school) during hurdle drills. After a week or two of RICE, (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) my coaches had me back on the track to compete at a crucial meet. We barely won that meet by 7 points! Anyways, I started feeling pain in my achilles tendon area during practice so I went to my doctor, and he diagnosed me with achilles tendinitis. My "achilles" had been hurting for the next three years and I've seen about three other doctors whom all diagnosed me with achilles tendinitis. Finally, the fifth doctor diagnosed me with os trigonum syndrome. This diagnosis sounded like the actual culprit, because my MRI scan displayed that my achilles tendon was perfectly healthy. Now I'm here, waiting to get surgery.

Before the surgery, I've been doing a lot of research because I wanted to understand what I will be going through and what type of pain I will be feeling. Frankly, a lot of the blogs and forums that I've been reading did not answer my questions. So I decided to create my own blog and try to describe as much as I can to you guys. I am obviously not a great writer, because my main objective for this blog is to get to the point, rather than writing about what I did throughout the day. I hope you guys find this blog helpful.