It has occurred to me that I have never done a post of the
story of my right foot. I know I have talked about it and done a video, but
this time the whole story written and with pictures (Now if you are if you
faint hearted in anyway, maybe Stop Reading Now) Here is a link to the video version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0V1NLGX98s&hd=1
Okay here we go
The story of my right foot
I went into
Bournemouth Hospital on the 22nd of August 2012 and they gave me the
choice of what foot to have operated on first, as I am left handed so my left
side is more dominant I chose the right foot. The operation went fine but what they didn’t take
into consideration was, because my foot had been in that horrible position for
so long my skin had lost its stretchiness so they had to cut it off and leave
the wound open. (You’ll see in the pictures soon)
I have what is known as a friedreich’s foot (High plantar
arches pes cavus deformity of the foot) I don’t walk anymore but I kept rolling
over on my ankles when I was transferring and I was getting pain in the balls
of my feet. They were worried that I would but the skin open and get
infections, so it was time to get surgery which I was put between a rock and a
hard place. Because I was told that if the surgery didn’t work I may have to
have both legs amputated from the knee, and if I didn’t have the surgery I run
the risk of them getting worse and maybe losing them one day.
The surgery I had done was
They stretched my Achilles tendon, took bone and ligaments
of my foot replaced them with lots of metal work, and then they fused my ankle
and foot to a 90% angel.
The original plan was
to have one foot done at a time, so have one foot done on the 22nd
and go home for 2weeks and go back to have the left foot done.
The new plan
After surgery I awoke to all this news, and the new plan now
was I was going to wait in Bournemouth Hospital until a bed became available in
Salisbury Hospital where I was going to be having a skin graft.
I was on a vac machine, it was basically keeping my foot
alive sucking all the bad blood out of my open wound.
(this is a vac machine)
The next night
You see during the day Bournemouth Hospital was great, but
at night it turned into Bangkok, Thailand the night staff struggled to speak
English, you were better off asking the cleaning team for help. One night my vac
machine started beeping, so I called for a nurse and a nurse and was like can I
help? I was like this machine is beeping and her reply was oh right well I’m
not qualified to touch this machine, so she went to find someone that was
qualified, there was only one nurse that night and she was in a different part
of the Hospital it took 40minutes for her to get to me and when she arrived at
me bed she went it’s full and needs changing. That nurse done her thing and it
stopped beeping, later that night it started beeping again (I thought to myself
it can’t full again) so again I pushed the button for a nurse one came and said
“how can I help” I said it’s beeping again, she said I’ll be right back she
came back and said I’m going to switch it off I looked her and said I don’t
think you should do that but hey I’m just the patient, I’m not a Doctor she
went ahead and switched the machine off. 3 times that night I woke up with me
leg heavily bleeding (My bed looked like a scene from Texas Chainsaw Massacre
and of course they had to keep changing my bedding) the just kept wrapping my
leg with more bandages so come the morning my leg looked like the leg of the stay
puft marshmallows from Ghostbusters.
My consultant was not happy when she heard the tale of what
went down, when they came to change the dressing on my leg I remember that day
clearly because my good friend and
tattoo artist Emma Garrard so they came to my bed on the ward and pulled the curtain
round. In there was me, Emma and the main sister (who was an old timer, I was
like I bet she’s seen some blood in her time) and she had 5 or 6 student nurses
with her, which all of them left as they could not hack it.
To be honest it was pretty gory and I had a big blood clot,
if I had my way I would have ran to but I can’t run. Anyway the sister didn’t
do a good job of cleaning my foot up so my consultant came to finish the job
and man was she livid she was not happy with care I was receiving on that ward,
she told them they weren’t even fit to deal with bunions and bed sores and
demanded that I was transferred to Poole Hospital.
Going from Bournemouth Hospital to Poole Hospital
That was a fun day
Because I was taking on a stretcher in an ambulance and just
before I left Bournemouth Hospital they gave me some oramorph just in case I have
any pain along the way. It’s safe to the
journey was pain free but because I had be laying down the whole way by I got
to Poole Hospital I felt so sick, they rolled me to my room and I said I was
going to be sick so the ambulance driver went to grab me a sick bowl but he was
too late, I projectile vomited all over the walls it was like a scene from The
Exorcist I missed my nurses by inches. I was led there still puking going I’m
so sorry, and they were like don’t worry about it we’ve seen worse.
After they cleaned me up they transferred me into my new
Hospital bed, I had a lovely private room in Poole Hospital even had a sea view
which was pretty. I went under again in Poole Hospital for a clean up on the
foot, so caught short out the shit Bournemouth Hospital had cheated and every
day I was having my dressing changed on my foot.
I even had a Birthday in Poole Hospital all my friends and
family came to see me and yes we had shit loads of cake, so much I had to give
it away which is not cool but better than binning it. On my Birthday my friend
Joe asked what I was taking (medication) all I was taking was paracetamol and
sometimes ibuprofen, hey I’ll hold my hands and say I’m a weak pussy when it
comes to drugs but that night in Hospital I told them I was in pain and I took
everything they offered me and that night in my room it wasn’t Michael Jordan
in Space Jam it was me also I had the best sleep too I was out cold.
I spent about a week in Poole Hospital and then a bed become
available at Salisbury Hospital, so I packed my things and it was off to Hospital
number 3 now Poole Hospital wouldn’t’ allow me to take the vac machine with me,
as they put it “if I took it with me it would take about 6months for them to
get it back” so my foot was bandaged up again and in an ambulance I went again
at least this time I was sat up.
Hospital number 3 Salisbury Hospital
The plan was I was going to be having a skin graft but here’s
what went down, so I got to Salisbury Hospital on a Friday got taking into private
room to do hand over and meet the team who would be fixing my foot, after some
time of explaining all of what I’ve been through I was left alone in my room. The
room was small and not as nice as the one I had just come from in Poole
Hospital but thought it will do anyway a guy came in and rolled me down to
x-ray they x-rayed my right foot I never saw the pics but I got told I had a
lot of metal put in my foot (I love Metal \m/ so that was cool with me) after
that I was rolled back on to a ward, at first I was like oh crap I hate wards
but man apart from my Birthday in Poole being on that ward was the best.
Anyway back to the story so yeah Friday I got there and on
the Monday I went under for them to look at my foot and do a skin graft; I was
like yes we are getting somewhere and then I woke up Monday night and was back
on a vac machine, and the surgeons came to see me and told me I had caught a
big infection in my foot and they had to take it back down to just bone and
metal. After that news I just wanted to scream fuck, the next few days I was
being woken up at 5:35am to be pumped with tiger antibiotics to fight the
infection.
Then new plan was they were going to do this big operation
where they were going to take all stuff they needed out of my left thigh like a
main artery and muscle and plum it up into my foot. So after I ran my course of
tiger antibiotics the plan was to go under for one more clean and make sure the
tiger antibiotics had worked so that day comes and I’m sat in bed watching the
rest of ward eating breakfast and of course I can’t eat as I am waiting to go
under, and then lunch comes and I’m waiting (belly rumbling I like fuck) then
dinners comes now I’m just like FUUUUCK... It was about 10:30pm by time they got
me down theatre.
Anyway the tiger antibiotics had worked so next they were
going to this procedure where they were going to go into my groin and pump my
full of dye and take x-ray pictures to see if my archery was good enough for my
foot now this was a wired one as I was awake for this one, now usually when my
mum watches stuff on tv like this I’m gone can’t handle it but when it’s happen
to you I found myself fascinated by it all I kept trying to look, this lady surgeon
put this gel cleaning stuff on my groin and it slipped off and landed on my balls yes I was naked I was naked
a lot in Hospital anyway man it brought a whole new meaning to "Great
Balls Of Fire" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8wFBUF1ZWY&hd=1) she had to get the spray water and hose my balls oh man did
we have a giggle about that.
Next step was to have the big operation which was going to
be over 10hours, just like Ghostbusters we came, we saw and we kicked it’s ass https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xMGRA_FePw&hd=1
(well I was asleep haha) when I woke up I had all kinds of machines and wires
coming out of me oh and guess what I had another vac machine.
The big operation went great but I know had a hole on my
thigh they couldn’t close, so a few days past and I went back under and finally
had that skin graft done.
(my right foot now)
All of if it looks so much better now as it's all fully healed up.
So there it is folks the journey of my right foot, now I’ve
never been a religious person but I fleet like I was been watched over by some
higher power or my body is just a lot stronger than I think.
As you know I am a big Smallville fan and yes watched it in
Hospital on E4 as they would show re-runs in Smallville they had Lana Lang and
my special nurses who looked after my big operation in Salisbury Hospital was
called Lara Tang close enough.
I’d just like to say if anyone is reading this who may of
looked after me during this journey thanks for putting up with me and thank you
for watching over me, I mean that from the bottom of my heart.
