Connie Foot Update

The foot wound is closed and Connie can now put her foot into water whether it be a shower or a pool.  Much excitement followed the announcement.  She is still to keep wearing the boot, but may put more weight on the foot.  She did this a week later by ditching her wheelchair and using a walker to a doctor's appointment.  Unfortunately, her hip is bone on bone and makes walking around just a tad difficult.  She has been back in the wheelchair since then.

Since we have come to the anniversary of the foot wound saga I thought it might be nice to gross out remind everyone of how far Connie and the foot have come.  This all started back in September of 2010 with a small ulceration on the foot.  Connie did seek treatment, but alas, infection set in and the saga began.

This photo is somewhere between the time of her first surgery and her time with the wound vacuum. She spent twelve weeks in the offshoot facility affiliated with the hospital she was first admitted into.  Because of the infection she was quarantined and all visitors had to put on gowns, gloves, and masks before entering her room. 

 Connie got to know all of the people that took care of her in the facility, writing down their names and information on several Kleenex boxes that she used by her bedside.  She had to do her exercises in her room as she was quarantined.

She had a wonderful nurse daughter who helped her daily...

...and granddaughters who enjoyed the whole visiting experience

After twelve weeks in the offshoot facility she was moved into the rehabilitation part of a nursing facility.  Again, she was quarantined so she had a room to herself.  She had a huge exercise facility that she was allowed to go to for her rehab and good instructors to guide her.

She had a boot that she had to wear each and every time she was on her foot, and she had quite a few illnesses while in both of these facilities, including a couple bouts of pneumonia.

Three months later she was off the wound vac and at home again where she kept putting weight on her foot while opening the mail, making coffee, reading the paper, etc.  The wound got bigger and infected all over again.  She went to an infectious disease doctor who ordered her completely off her feet and into a wheelchair

For three months she had apligrafts and dermagrafts and this and that.  She went into another rehab facility for two weeks and had the wound vacuum put back on again.  She stayed off her feet and the wound eventually started healing.

One year later the wound was the size of a kidney bean, but that was as far as the wound wanted to close.  .

It was determined that he would then go back in for some day surgery to clean up the wound and put on an integra graft.  In November 2011 she went in for the surgery.

By the end of 2011 the wound was pretty much the same as it had been before the surgery.  The bone in her foot near the wound was probably the culprit.  It stuck out too far and despite some cutting of it the Foot God thought perhaps it was the reason for it not healing properly.

In the early months of 2012 Connie spent several weeks going five days a week to sleep in a hyperbaric chamber to see if the would would heal.  She wore a cast for several days to see if that would do any good.  While the doctor there thought perhaps amputation was an option the Foot God disagreed.  He said shaving the bone during another surgery might be the way to go, but if she could avoid that it would be better.  He continued with grafts and his weekly visits.

Connie sought a second opinion, but decided against him in the end.  The nurse from the hyperbaric center got her a crow walker boot that seemed to be the answer to the situation.  Sure enough the wound started to close on its own and slowly it became smaller and smaller.  Finally the damn thing closed all together.

She isn't out of the woods yet.  The thing could still reopen so she continues with the boot.  Maybe, just maybe, someday it will be a thing of the past, but for now it is status quo.