Wednesday Feb 9th I was released after 2 weeks in hospital. I was a bit Wobby on my feet but i wasn't surprised as I had been in bed for 2 weeks and was missing half a foot. So after getting a few lessons using crutches (including going up and down stairs) I was released to go stay with Dad. Even though I hadn't returned to work, I seemed to still be very busy with appointments. I was visiting the podiatrist once a week and had the district nurses visit every 2 - 3 days...
Recovery time was still up in the air but we were working through it. The district nurses and podiatrist had noticed there looked like to be a bug in the foot wound but didn't seem to worried and said that it does happen so i put it to the back of my head until I started to not feel quite right again... I started to find it difficult to walk and had started to feel the dreaded fever again. By my next podiatrist appointment on Thursday 24th of March, I was using my wheelchair to get around. The podiatrist asked why and I said that I was having troubles and how I was feeling. She hadn't finished taking the bandages off when she said 'this is not good'. The infection had returned and the call was mode to re-admit me and put straight on to a course of antibiotics and have an MRI on the foot. The problem was the date... I was the day before Good Friday (Starting me fears of public holidays). Eventually I was laying in my bed hooked up to a drip getting my needed medicine. Because it was the Easter weekend, it was the following Tuesday before I could have the MRI. Those results were deemed inconclusive... but they did say there was evidence that what remained of the bones in my foot were swelling. This could be infection or could be from the earlier surgery. They also said that the remains of my foot had gone inverted and wasn't looking viable and wouldn't be as functional as they thought it would have been. This is when I asked if it would be better to amputate higher. That was definitely an option and the plans started... They referred me to Limbs 4 Life and started providing me with all sorts of information. To me this was the logical option and the recovery time would likely be quicker. Unfortunately about 5 hours later, they told me that this wasn't going to happen. They made the decision that I was going to be discharged the next day with tablet antibiotics and see how it goes... If the infection returns then we will amputate further... I should apologise at this point to the drs and staff as I wasn't happy and I showed it. But they held to their decision and I was discharged the next day... Another 2 weeks were spent in the Hospital that visit and my leaving words to the ward were... 'See You With The Next Infection!!!!!'
Recovery time was still up in the air but we were working through it. The district nurses and podiatrist had noticed there looked like to be a bug in the foot wound but didn't seem to worried and said that it does happen so i put it to the back of my head until I started to not feel quite right again... I started to find it difficult to walk and had started to feel the dreaded fever again. By my next podiatrist appointment on Thursday 24th of March, I was using my wheelchair to get around. The podiatrist asked why and I said that I was having troubles and how I was feeling. She hadn't finished taking the bandages off when she said 'this is not good'. The infection had returned and the call was mode to re-admit me and put straight on to a course of antibiotics and have an MRI on the foot. The problem was the date... I was the day before Good Friday (Starting me fears of public holidays). Eventually I was laying in my bed hooked up to a drip getting my needed medicine. Because it was the Easter weekend, it was the following Tuesday before I could have the MRI. Those results were deemed inconclusive... but they did say there was evidence that what remained of the bones in my foot were swelling. This could be infection or could be from the earlier surgery. They also said that the remains of my foot had gone inverted and wasn't looking viable and wouldn't be as functional as they thought it would have been. This is when I asked if it would be better to amputate higher. That was definitely an option and the plans started... They referred me to Limbs 4 Life and started providing me with all sorts of information. To me this was the logical option and the recovery time would likely be quicker. Unfortunately about 5 hours later, they told me that this wasn't going to happen. They made the decision that I was going to be discharged the next day with tablet antibiotics and see how it goes... If the infection returns then we will amputate further... I should apologise at this point to the drs and staff as I wasn't happy and I showed it. But they held to their decision and I was discharged the next day... Another 2 weeks were spent in the Hospital that visit and my leaving words to the ward were... 'See You With The Next Infection!!!!!'