Nate's Anklectomy and Then Some...

Well let's just say the last 3 weeks have been.... exhausting!!!!! Nate had his ankle surgery on April 27th. The surgery itself went really well, but the recovery.... YIKES!!!!

For those who need a little history... Nate has always had a bad ankle. He used to sprain it all the time as a kid. Shortly after we got married, he was helping my Grandma move out of her home and he stepped wrong off her porch and "SPRAINED" it really bad. It looked awful for a long time and I was a little concerned but Nate assured me that it was no big deal... he'd done it a million times... and it would be better in a few days. WELL... now 8 years later, turns out it was actually broken, and it healed totally wrong and has been giving him even more grief ever since. After a couple dozen more sprains/rolls, he sprained it again a few months ago and this time it DIDN'T feel better after a few days so he decided to get it checked out. That's when the doctors realized he needed a major overhaul to correct the brake and his "deformed" ankle all together. The surgeon told him that his ankle was deteriorating at a rapid pace the way it was griding together and if he didn't get it taken care of in the next 6 months or so, he would lose mobility all together and there wouldn't be much ankle to try to correct down the road. So knowing that the baby is coming and Nate starts school in July, we didn't have much of a choice but to do the surgery now.

So, the surgeon had to saw off Nate's heel, shift the ankle joint over about 3/4 of an inch and then screw it all back together. They had to lower his arch (by pining a plate to it) to give him more stability and strength in the ankle. And then they laporascopically(?) removed the bone fragments (from the previous brake) that have been clanking around in there for 8 years, tighten the tendons and ligaments AND remove as much arthritis and inflammation as possible. Just the name of the surgery was a paragraph long and don't expect me to be able to pronounce it.

Here he is going into surgery (terrified of the road ahead):

The surgeon actually made him write "cut here" with a red marker so they fixed the right ankle. I guess that was comforting??


So four incisions, three pins, and two screws later, here is the masterpiece:

You can see the pins and plate on the top of his foot.


Here are the 3 inch screws holding his heel on.


So as painful and awful as the recovery WAS going, Nate came home from the hospital a couple of days later and we thought we were making progress. Then on Mother's Day, after complaining of a pain in his chest and having difficulty breathing, I took him to the ER and they found several blood clots in his lungs and he was re-admitted for four more days.

So now we have been home from the hospital (again) for four days and we HOPE we won't be back until the baby is born!! Nate is doing a lot better now. It has been an AWFUL recovery for everyone involved, but probably a little worse for Nate. I'm a little bitter that my Mother's Day feast consisted of beef jerky and pretzels from the hospital vending machine. But I am very grateful that the surgery went well, the blood clots didn't kill him, and he is starting to feel better.

Nate went back to the surgeon a few days ago and they took off the splint to put the cast on.

Here is the splint:


CAUTION: GRAPHIC PHOTOS AHEAD!

And here is his sorry excuse for an ankle AFTER they took off the splint:


There are no words to describe...


And here's his awesome black cast (I tried to talk him into hot pink).


Now for the finale, here is a picture of Nate BEFORE his 25 pound weight loss....


And AFTER....


He was able to go to work for a few hours on Friday and he even made it all the way through church today! So we will take any progress we can get. And that in a nutshell sums up the last 3 weeks.

Thank you to all our family, friends, and ward members who have been so generous in taking care of us and praying for Nate and our family. We have definitely been blessed!