Removal of screws

On Friday, 4th May (Star Wars Day!) I returned to hospital to have the screws removed. I checked in early and waited to have all the pre-surgery meetings. A nurse came over pretty quickly and went through all my paperwork with me. I asked her whether they knew when I'd be going into surgery and she told me that I was second on my surgeon's list. I was pleased to hear that I wouldn't be last like last time! Next, the anaesthetist came over and discussed the anaesthetic with me. I asked him whether I'd be having local or general and he said it would be general. I was a bit worried about this, as I'd felt quite sick last time so I told him that the surgeon had said it could be done with a local. He said he'd discuss it with her. After a little while, my surgeon came and had a look at my feet. When I told her that all four of the screws have been causing me pain and discomfort, she marked my feet up and then asked me to sign the consent form. I again raised the issue of anaesthetic with her and she explained that as all four screws were being removed, it would be best to have a general. I was a bit disappointed but when she explained it would take quite a while to do all four, I was happier to be asleep!

Not too long after that, I was taken through to surgery and given the anaesthetic. Next thing I knew, I was waking up in recovery and then I was wheeled back to the ward. It was an hour and a half from leaving the ward to returning. My husband came back to wait with me before they discharged me. I had some toast and a yoghurt to eat and luckily didn't feel sick this time. I guess that last time I'd had to have much more anaesthetic as the operation was much longer. Then I had to meet with a physio before we could leave. I was given some more blue shoes (but much smaller this time) and crutches to use. My feet were bandaged quite securely with thick dressings.

I kept my feet elevated for the first 24 hours and had them up a bit yesterday as well. I did manage to go out yesterday to see my nephew on his birthday and was pleased to be able to walk pretty normally without actually needing my crutches.

Today we had to remove the thick bandaging until we revealed plasters stuck over the wounds themselves. The plasters need to stay in place until next Monday when I have to go to the GP so the Practise Nurse can trim the stitches and check that they are healing OK. It was a bit of a shock when we removed the bandages because my feet had bled quite a bit and my husband had to pull quite hard at times because the blood had dried and stuck the bandages to the plaster. I was a bit freaked out but my husband reassured me that it was all fine and the blood was all dry. He was also pleased that the area was cool so we're pretty confident that they're not infected. Here's how they looked:

The nurse had given us some extra plasters to stick over in case they were curling up or anything so we decided to stick an extra one over each foot. It feels nice to have my feet out in the open again - the left foot particularly had been bandaged quite tightly! Here's how they look now with the fresh plasters over the top:

I'm slightly apprehensive about next Monday and how removing the plasters and trimming the stitches will go but I'm sure it will be fine. I'll update with more pictures after that appointment.