My Left Foot
The story of Chad Almond

This would make for a great title for a book, but somebody already wrote one with that title...

Here is my story: My ankle has had numerous problems over the years and due to the constant inflammation, the ankle joint has completely deteriorated. I have little or no cartilage left and I have many bone spurs. To say the least, every step feels like a sharp knife stabbing deep into my ankle joint and it shoots a jolt of electricity throughout my foot and up my leg. The doctors say the best thing to do is to fuse the joint together. I did find out they will not have to filet my foot open instead they will perform the procedure arthroscopically. That was a huge relief and should provide a faster recovery time. The surgery is scheduled for August 22nd. The doctors say I will be in a splint for about two weeks and a hard cast for about 6 weeks.

I will post photos of my progress and you can see what is going on...

My Left Ankle
07/24/2008

Normal Ankle
Notice the nice spacing between the tibia and the talas?

This is what I think they are going to do. Looks easy eh'?

This is what they actually did on 08/22/2008...
The doctor said that these images should be as smooth as a boiled egg. You can really see the jagged bone in image #5.

Here is an x-ray during surgery. Notice that the doctor only used two screws.

08/22/2008

08/22/2008
Post Surgery & Percocet!

This is the unveiling of my foot on 09/04/2008, it is not pretty. My range of motion is reduced to about 15%. I will still have some movement in my foot, just not the ankle obviously. I informed the doctor that something popped in the ankle a few days prior to my office visit and it hurt like crazy. I told him I was also experiencing swelling, numbness and tenderness on the top side of my foot including my last two toes. He said it was more than likely scar tissue breaking loose. As far as the numbness, he said I will continue to feel different sensations since the nerves were disturbed during surgery. I will be wearing the below cast for 4 more weeks. He will then put me in a walking boot.

12/5/2008
Well it has about 3 1/2 months since the surgery. I got out of the walking boot about 4 weeks ago. I lasted about 2 days before I jammed my foot on my motorcycle foot peg while dismounting. Some people said I was dumb for that, my answer was I could have jammed it getting out of my car. Oh well, neither here nor there, it is the price of the game. Anyway, I put the boot back on for about a week.

 I am making a lot of progress, although it seems very slow. I have been walking unassisted (no crutches or cane) for about 3 weeks. There is still a lot of swelling and tenderness. I have my good days and not so good days. I take an Aleve tablet and that seems to knock the edge of of the tenderness. Of course if I would stay off of my foot more often it would not be as tender either. I still have to be real careful about how I step, especially on uneven surfaces such as walking in the yard or driveway. I do ok on hard flat solid surfaces, such as cement and floors. As each week passes, I am able to judge my progress by what I was not able to do the week prior. Two weeks ago I could not walk in the woods at all. This past week I could take very cautious steps and cover short distances.