Real time update: Post-op foot

Now that we have all the information from the doctor and the results of the surgery, I can better depict what happened and give a prognosis.

As she landed a side leap, Sarah's weight landed on a rolled ankle, pulling the tendon violently. The force ripped the end of the bone off of the outside-most (5th) long bone (metatarsal) in the foot. The bone fragment was then pulled by the tendon about an inch toward the heal, cutting all the soft tissue as it passed. The bruising is the result of that cutting and tearing. The toes are bruised from the pooled blood spreading throughout the foot.
The doctor said that the incision occurred right below a nerve running along the outside of the foot. He warned that it cold result in numbness and pain due to the swelling from the surgery. That warning was accurate. Tingling numbness is alternating with pain, typically coinciding with the end of the Vicodin's effectiveness.

All the time, the foot must stay above heart level. That means 24-hours of laying down per day. That doesn't mesh well with Sarah's general life-style and is rather taxing mentally. The physical repair was to insert pins through the floating bone curling the ends around the edges. The other ends of the pins were drilled through the bone and secured in place with wire wrappings around the bone.

In another 10 days when the swelling subsides a hard cast will go on and stay on for another month. No weight can be put on the foot for at least until the hard cast comes off in mid-September. The doc also warned that failing to follow his instructions may result in a less than fully functional foot.

So right now the help from the grandmas is coming in very handy since Sarah can't take care of Finn while forced to stay on the couch. Nancy was able to extend her stay a week, and mom will come back down next week. After that we'll scrape together help to watch Finn. Nancy is trying to come back down again and I will take a couple weeks of sick time from work.

It'll be better a couples months from now when things are back to relative normal. But we're a little intimidated until then.