Lead up to surgery

Had the first visit with my surgeon , Dr. "S", on October 7, 2013.  He took a look at the MRI, did some manipulation of my right foot/ankle (ow!) and said "yup - definitely need surgery to fix the ankle."

You should know that I belong to an HMO, so all of the doctors and even the surgery center mentioned in this blog are all part of my HMO's system.  I'm generally pleased with my HMO and it's practitioners - except for the long waits for specialty tests (like MRI's) and getting surgery dates scheduled.

Dr. "S" recommended that until surgery, I wear my figure-8 ankle brace to help prevent further damage.  He said based on the MRI findings and his exam, he planned to:

1) scope my ankle during surgery (to assess extent of damage)

2) stress test the ankle (he said he could do things to the ankle while I was under  
    anesthesia that he can't do while I'm awake - oh goodie!) and

3) see to the tendon repair. 

He confirmed for me what the podiatrist had indicated in that BOTH peroneal tendons were damaged (brevis and longus).

Having both tendons torn is a bit unusual.  Most of the blogs I checked were about tears to one or the other (most often the brevis).  The other thing I noticed in most of the blogs is that the tendon tear was accompanied by problems with the tendons sliding out of ankle groove (a problem known as subluxation) which often requires deepening the groove as part of the surgical repair - I did NOT have any subluxation - my tendons were just plain shredded).

I left the doctor's office with the understanding that a surgery schedule would call within the next 2 weeks to set a date for surgery.  Well - it was 2 plus weeks before I heard from the scheduler.  She was having trouble getting a date because she needed to coordinate schedules for both Dr. S and a second surgeon that Dr. S. wanted present to help with the surgery  (Geez - damage must be pretty bad to need 2 surgeons).  When I asked Dr. S. about this, he said he always likes to have another set of hands available for "major hindfoot surgeries."

Eventually, though, I got a surgery date of December 4, 2013 on the calendar.  Only other 'annoyance' was that the surgery was scheduled in my HMO's ambulatory surgery center out in Largo, MD - a good hour drive from home (even though my HMO also has a surgery center in Gaithersburg, MD - which is only about 10 minutes from my house). Surgery was set for Largo because that's where my surgeon does most of his surgeries.

Prior to surgery I had one pre-op visit and had to have some blood work done.  The rest of my weeks of pre-surgery time were filled with hunting up whatever info I could gather on peroneal tendon surgery and recovery.

I found a really good resource at healthboards.com on foot/ankle surgery in general.  There is a helpful post on all the things you should think about having in place for post-surgery (everything from stocking your "nest" with tissues, books, electronic devices, TV with DVD's to ordering up leg raise pillow and a seat riser for the toilet - an absolute must!- to making sure you have a clear path to get around on crutches, knee roller or wheelchair).  One of the most important things you need post surgery - is someone to be around to help you with EVERYTHING - I had my wonderful husband around to be my nurse, companion, and helper!

The rest of the time, I just worried about staying healthy before surgery and making sure things were in order at work so that I could be off for several weeks following surgery.