Wednesday 15 June 2011

K-Wire Removal

Yesterday, I returned to the plaster room for what would hopefully be my final appointment. We were called straight in without having to wait at all. The technicians quickly removed my plaster casts and I took some photos of my feet.


I thought they looked pretty good and so did the technicians but I was trying very hard not to get too excited in case there was a problem and the K-wires could not be removed today.

The 'bleb' on the fourth toe
Before I went to X-ray, the plaster room technician was gently brushing some of the dry scab off my right foot and she uncovered a 'bleb' which was the result of overgranulation as the wound was healing. I had no idea what this meant but she explained it as the tissue underneath the skin level healing faster then the skin itself and growing up through a gap in the skin (as the skin had not healed yet). She used some silver nitrate on a little stick to cauterise the bleb and said I would need to go back next week to have this done once more. She was confident that two treatments would bring it back to a level which would allow the skin to grow over the wound.
After that, the plaster room team put some tubular cotton over my feet so that I could be wheeled to X-ray. It was hard to manoeuvre into the wheel chair but I just put my weight on my heels as I'd been doing before and it went OK. We had a little wait in X-ray but not too bad and the lady that did them told me she thought I was very brave for having both feet done together. We returned straight to the plaster room and the technician went to fetch the surgeon so she could come and look at me.

My foot X-ray that gave me the all clear!
When the surgeon came in, she looked at my feet and squeezed and wiggled my big toes a bit. She was happy with what she saw and what she'd seen on the X-rays, so I was given the all clear to have the K-wires removed! Before we did that, I asked her lots of questions about what to do with my feet and how to care for them now. She said I needed to do what I could, when I could and to just take it easy and do what was comfortable. As usual, she was very reassuring and I was pleased to learn that I would have a follow-up appointment with her in two months to see how I was getting on.

After she left, the plaster room technicians set to work removing my K-wires. It was an odd sensation to have them removed but not really painful. It was definitely less painful than having the stitches out! There was a bit of a tug as the wire came out of the toe and then immediately afterwards they throbbed a bit but that didn't last very long. The wires in my right foot seemed more reluctant to come out and a couple of times the pliers they were using actually slipped off the wire but the left foot wires came out very smoothly. I was amazed by just how long the K-wires were!

The toes did bleed a bit once the wires were out, so they pressed gauze against them initially and then dressed each individual toe. It was quite hard for them to make the dressing stick as the wounds were all right on the ends of my toes but they did it in the end! My toes did look rather funny though...


When I had gone to X-ray with the cotton tubing on my feet, my left foot had oozed a little bit onto the dressing from the big toe incision. The plaster room technician wanted to have a quick look at the wound before we went home. She pulled away a little bit of the scab and could see that there was a bit of something in there irritating it - maybe a bit of one of the internal stitches they had used after the operation. She seemed quite happy with it but the removal of the scab made the wound bleed a bit so she had to put some gauze over it. She asked me to remind her to check it again when we return next week for her to cauterise my 'bleb'.

Before we left, they put large sticky plasters over the whole of my toes as they were concerned that the little hats on the toes might come off otherwise. I was under strict instructions not to remove the dressings until I had had a shower to soften and loosen the adhesive. This would have to be in 48 hrs time (they told me they usually suggested people wait 24 hrs after having K-wires removed but as I'd had so many, they wanted me to wait 48).



They gave me more tubular bandage to put over my feet and I made my way home! I am so pleased to have the wires out and plasters off - I feel like I have feet again!! Now the next milestone will be washing them and removing all the dressings!

21 comments:

  1. Hey Gwen,

    I know this is a few years after you posted this, but your description of the k-wire removal helped put me at ease for having my own pulled out. Thanks!

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    1. I'm really pleased to hear that! Good luck with the procedure and your recovery! :)

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  2. Hello. I got to have my k wire removed on the 20th May. I had my stitches out on Friday the nurse touched the k wire the pain was so bad. Now im so scared about having it removed. I really want to be put to sleep to have them pulled out

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    1. I honestly did not find the K-wire removal painful. I thought having the stitches removed was much worse! If you got through the stitch removal OK, I'm sure you'll be fine with the K-wires being taken out. :)

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    2. Stitches out hurt so bad. K wire wasn't painful, just uncomfortable and odd feeling

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  3. Ok thank you. I only have the k wire in my small toe. How long do you think it will take before i am walking normal. As at the moment im walking with crutches as it hurts. I do walk with one crutch sometimes.

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    1. I don't now even I having the same its nearly 2 weeks with no dressing but still feel hard to stand

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    2. I don't now even I having the same its nearly 2 weeks with no dressing but still feel hard to stand

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  4. Hi Gwen, thanks for sharing all those procedures of K-wire removal. I wanted to know how many days it took to cure your wound after wire was removed. In my case, 2nd toe of right leg had a surgery and even after 14days elapsed, my doctor has advised me to take precaution while walking with the help of a walker.

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    1. I'm afraid I don't remember exactly! There were little scabs on the ends of my toes for a while after the K-wires were removed but they didn't last very long and were quite small (and minor compared to the other scabs I had!)

      In terms of walking, I was not walking properly (even after the K-wires were removed) for quite some time but then I had had all ten toes operated on. My doctor encouraged me to do as much as I could and try and push myself but if your doctor is advising caution, do take care.

      Hope that helps,

      Gwen

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  5. There is no pain at the time of removing k wire I was also scared but its no like we think its like just rubbing of teath with hard side of brush no pain at all

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  6. There is no pain at the time of removing k wire I was also scared but its no like we think its like just rubbing of teath with hard side of brush no pain at all

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  7. hie i actually had my wires out a week ago my last two figers got hammered had a surgery n all and i still cant move my fingers properly i can just move a bit how og will it take to move my fingers and stand for myself on my feet?

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    1. Hi,

      With the surgery I had, my toes don't really move properly anymore. They do move a little but definitely not like normal toes. It took a few weeks for me to be able to stand on my feet without using my crutches and it took a month or two to be able to walk around without my feet swelling. The healing process took quite a while but I felt like it was definitely worth it.

      It may be quicker for you if you had a smaller amount of surgery though!

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  8. I had my kwire removed four days ago and a plaster cast was put on the toe. The plaster was removed today but I still feel pain and discomfort while trying to walk. It feels like the toe aren't mine. I feel like I should get back to the plaster cast. I felt better with it.

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  9. I hope your toes are feeling better. I also had a bit of a disconnect with my toes as they do feel somehow separate after the surgery.
    It took me a while before walking was completely pain free so try to have patience with it.

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  10. After removing k wire. How many days after we can walk

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  11. My k-wire was fixed on the 23rd of May on the Big toe of my right foot and removed after 6weeks. After the removal, I have been on crutches on no weight bearing and not been able to move my toes. They seem stiff and I have been experiencing swelling on my toes especially on my big toe which extends down to my ankle if not elevated. Is this normal?

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  12. Hi, did any of you bumped the k-wire 2 weeks post op? Can it bend/break/move out of place? I bumped mine a few times already...

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  13. Sir your toe bend properly or not after surgery

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    1. My big toe moves a little at the mid way joint but not at all where it joins the foot. The other toes are sort of loose and floppy after the surgery and don't really move normally.

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