Ankle surgery, part deux - bathing sans foot.

Bathing without being able to use one of your feet or get it wet is complicated and requires significant effort. You're not going to want to do it every day... which I say with chagrin, because I loathe leg hair stubble more than almost anything else on this planet.

Anyway. You're going to want some kind of non-slippery stool to put in the bathtub, a chair to put beside the tub to put your foot on, and a bunch of towels - some big fluffy ones to provide a foot cushion, and some smaller handtowel-sized ones to dry yourself with and to put between your leg and the tub. Also a couple wash cloths, one to wash and help rinse with and one to sit on. And a big plastic cup or small bucket for rinsing purposes, unless you have a shower head that has a holder that you can reach from a sitting position.

When I had my half-cast on, I used a cast protector sleeve, but after I got that off it was just too painful to use that way - I just draped it and/or a towel over my foot. Also, err on the side of more towels within reach of the tub. And keep in mind that it is a pretty tiring experience; be gentle with yourself and remember it's temporary. (I personally can't effin' wait to be done with it.)

More on the Cetaphil: The fact that you don't have to rinse it all off and what's left moisturizes your skin - that makes it perfect for the sponge baths and awkward-semi-sponge-baths I've been having since the surgery. You can apply it like lotion and rub it off with a warm washcloth and feel fresh again, which is so good for those early days when you don't feel very good. I'm also using it to shave my legs. I have pretty sensitive skin that just loves getting razor burn, so results are a tiny bit itchier than what I'm used to. But if I get my skin wet, use plenty of the stuff, let it soak in for a few minutes, shave, rinse and pat dry (or wipe with a warm damp washcloth), and finally apply my normal lotion quickly before my legs dry, it's not bad.

The worst part for a while was the "whenever I put my foot down, it blows up like a balloon and HURTS like hell" thing. As of about two weeks from surgery, I am slowly leaving that stage, though it it's by no means gone. (UPDATE: it lasted until about 3 weeks post-surgery, though I still find it's more comfortable to have it up.)

I've definitely made my way into the "needles, spasms and weird twinges in my ankle" chapter, though! More on the strange pains and tingles in my next ankle installment.

Going Wavy Again: getting rid of buildup with baking soda and vinegar

In my last post about my hair, I decided to set off down the road to waviness after years of flat-iron reign. Since I'm not mobile enough right now to go get a trim like the Curly Girl handbook suggests, I decided that my step 1 would be to try and get rid of the buildup from all the sulfate and silicone products I've been using. I stumbled upon a way to do that with just two ingredients from my pantry I already have: baking soda and vinegar! And it worked better than I expected.

Going Wavy Again - my background story.

I'm going to take a break (ha) from talking about my ankle (well, mostly) and talk about my hair.


I have naturally wavy hair that I straighten all the time. However, my current inability to stand on my own two feet is compromising my standby routine of years and years and yeears - namely, washing it every two days, blow-drying it, and straightening it out with this Beyond the Zone spray and my trusty Sedu. I'm seriously considering going to full-time wavy - and I think I found a way to do it!


But first, some backstory.


I had a head of pretty cute loose curls and waves when I was a small kid. Then it got long, really, REALLY long, so long I could sit on it, and I had it for years. In a lot of my later-childhood pictures it looks straighter; pretty sure that's because my parents and I would always brush it (I don't remember how much blow drying may have been involved). I grew up in California, luckily, so frizz didn't really seem to be much of an issue. At least, not to me. I was a tomboy, so I didn't care whether it was all over the place. I loved my hair.


Sadly, just as I was entering my awkward stage, some well-meaning aunts of mine got their hands on me and lovingly proceeded to annihilate the one thing standing between me and full-blown tween-age yuuugly - that long unruly hair of mine. First to shoulder length, then to jaw length. And I was required to blow-dry it. Then finally the summer before high school it was deemed time to chop it all off and give me soccer mom hair. Worst. EVER. Suffice it to say I don't have very many pictures from those years!

And those I do have break the internet.

By the time I inevitably threw the reins and swore I would never have hair shorter than my shoulders again, I lived in a much more humid location. Though I blew my hair straightish when I could borrow a blow drier, I would often just wash my still-shortish hair at night and flip it over my pillow, waking up to mahhvelous waves. (My aunt even borrowed my idea for a trip abroad.) Of course, I was kind of SOL in the wintertime, but when it wasn't cold I was able to do the above until well into college. This was a particularly good hair day during my sophomore year:

I kinda went through a Zorro phase.

Then, early my junior year ... I got a straightener. After a chance run-in with one before one of my college concerts, I spent weeks poring over reviews and invested in a good one (my first was a Solia). I immediately started using it all the time. ALL the time. I loved it. I mean, it really does make my hair look pretty snazzy, and during a time where I just plain couldn't afford regular haircuts, it gave me a way to defy the humidity, frizz and ponytail creases faster and more efficiently than any blow dryer (well, the cheapo one I had) could. And back then, it even made my relatively undamaged hair look shiny.


Before too terribly long, I had very long hair again, and continued to blow-dry and straighten it just about every other day. 3 or so years of this later, I found myself in a long distance relationship and decided to put the appliances on the shelf for a while. I was going wavy again, for the first time with hair that length. 


But there was a problem - even worse than the fact that my hair was dried out, I simply didn't know the right way to do what I was intending. I brushed it after getting out of the shower, piled on the gummy silicone shine products, used a blow drier to help me dry it, and was constantly touching it. The results were, well...

Ramen head. The bacon apple pie (yes, bacon
apple pie) was hedonistically delicious, though...

Crunchy. Strawlike. Wontons. Nowhere NEAR where they used to be. Be glad you can't see the back; it would just make you sad. Ever tried undercooked ramen when the noodles were crunchy and limp at the same time? Yeah. After months of this, I gave up and went back to my reliable flat-ironing ways.


Since then, I've given 10 inches of hair to Locks of Love and have very gradually been growing my hair out again. I've been getting regular trims and cutting out some of the extra styling products, and that seems to have made a positive difference. But I continued to blow-dry and straighten it, despite moving to Houston where the humidity is the stuff of legend.

Finally, fast forward to about a month ago. I hurt my ankle and found it increasingly tiring to stand on one foot do my hair before work. I needed something simpler. The week before my surgery, I let it go wavy. And though I got compliments, there was definitely frizz happening, more and more as the day went on. I wasn't sure how to stop it.

Post-surgery has meant plenty of time to observe what my hair does nowadays with minimal to zero styling after washing, and plenty of boredom and restlessness to replace with googling every darn thing that comes into my head. So I decided to start trying stuff.

After rave reviews everywhere on the internet, alongside numerous mentions of crazy practices such as not washing your hair with shampoo (what?!) I bought the Curly Girl Handbook and read it cover to cover. Let me tell you, these ladies seem to have revolutionized the world of non-straight hair. I think she's really done us a service.

I will, of course, be posting pictures of my progress here on this blog, as I try different products and methods and hopefully get wavier. Woo hoo!

My first step is getting rid of my buildup. I tried a method with ingredients from my own pantry, which is great because I'm not very mobile. And the results shocked the heck out of me. Read on...

Ankle surgery: 5 things I did to prepare.

Here's the story: 11 days ago, I had surgery on my ankle. So for the past 11 days, I've been 99% stuck at home, spending most of my time trying to arrange my pillows in a way that keeps my foot up and my laptop usable. (My neck and shoulders aren't on speaking terms with me right now... but they sure haven't been quiet.)

To fill some of the time, I figured I'd compile the things I've learned from the experience, and share my take on how to prepare for ankle surgery.

It all started with a shark bite when I was visiting the beach in California. It was a harrowing experience, but I survived to tell the tale.

Also, that's a lie, which you are obligated to make up when the fact is you actually just tripped out your front door.

I found a foot and ankle specialist and went there (diagnostic details later), where I got this hot, hot specimen of footwear right here.

Aw yeah, work that boot.

(As an aside - take my advice and try to find one person in the office to remember by name and talk to about your schedules every time. Though my doctor was great, his front office was NOT great; among other things, I ended up waiting an extra week for surgery because the office originally scheduled me for a day when the doctor wasn't even going to be there!

Anyway...)

1. Find someone who can stay with you.

And set the date for your surgery based on when they can be there for you. If you have surgery, it's required that you have someone who can take you home - but equally important is that for the next few days you're going to need someone present with you 24/7 who can help you sit up and get you food and is willing to be called for in the middle of the night if necessary. Especially that first night. More on that point in a bit!

My lovely caretaker was my best friend's mother, my awesome Mom Away From Mom. She arrived the night before my surgery, walked around the grocery store beside me in one of those scooters (yes, ME in the scooter, not her, and she has a replaced knee - that's love) and stayed with me for the next three days afterwards. My rapidly-increasing nervousness leading up to surgery was much alleviated by the fact that she was going to be there for me.

2. Get your surroundings ready.

Once I knew I was going to have surgery, I got some help to rearrange my room and ridiculously tiny bathroom to make it easier to access. My TV moved into my room. I stocked up on food, movies, nonperishable snacks, gentle foods for the couple days after anesthesia. I bought plenty of ibruprofen (though leading up to the surgery they restricted me to acetomenophen instead - lamesauce).

I also bought crutch pads. As a reasonably in-shape grown-up, these are ESSENTIAL. I don't remember experiencing this when I had crutches as a kid, but let me tell you, a few days into getting around my place of employment, my sides were chafed all to heck and my hands felt like bruises with fingers. It was so exhausting getting around, a couple times after work I literally pulled into my driveway, leaned my seat back, and had a nap. It was still tiring after the pads, but less, and certainly less painful and thus faster. It probably doesn't matter what kind you get, but I got a Crutcheze set. I got a cute bright pattern, which got me comments and compliments wherever I went, which has been nice during an otherwise not so pleasant experience!

3. Run through your post-surgery routines.

Dress rehearsals are important. The most important one I did in this case was - I practiced bathing without getting my foot wet, which is a (sucky) fact of life till the stitches get taken out. An educational experience for sure! Since I have a shower stall about the size of my body, I quickly found I had to use my roommate's bathtub. The folding shower stool I have was quite necessary, and the chair I placed next to the tub with a cushion made of a couple fluffy towels was equally essential for foot-holding purposes. I also was able to see things I'd forgotten, like lotion and deodorant, while I still had the mobility to fix it. I also got one of those cast covers.


Oh, and Cetaphil! Cetaphil Gentle Cleanser was a freakin' godsend. Trust me, make sure you have some. More on that in my next installment.

4. Assemble your important little things.

The night before surgery, I made sure that things like bottled water, lip balm, a couple books, remotes, and my laptop were accessible from my bed.

To prepare for the trip to my surgery appointment, I also packed a bag that included my fully-charged phone, my wallet (with my ID, debit, insurance, and prescription cards), all my paperwork, my house keys, my lip balm!!, a small blanket, a book, and T-Pain, the origami T-Rex my boyfriend made to protect me.


As instructed, I hadn't eaten or drunk anything after midnight (though prior to that I was treated to some amazing blue crab ravioli and gelato from this here place).

Once I arrived at my surgery appointment, aside from page after page of paperwork and routine questions and introductions from medical personnel (there were a few from my college in there!), I was just waiting. I spent over an hour lounging in the gown and cot, partially by myself because Mom Away From Mom took the opportunity to go get my prescriptions. The waiting wasn't so bad; in fact I found that I was really glad to have it. I got to de-stress by calling and texting some loved ones, reading my book, facebooking it up for a while...

Then they swept in, and it's kind of a blur. I remember they put some air-squeezing things on my legs; the nurse injected something into my hand that made my IV needle painless, even when she had to move it around a bit because I have tiny blood vessels or something. They also put a nerve block in my leg, which would knock out all sensations for 12 to 24 hours, but that was after I was asleep. My least favorite part - and suck it did - was, strangely enough, when the saline from the IV started going into my arm. No medicine yet, but oh my, I felt intensely uncomfortable and pretty nauseated and almost passed out! I remember them putting some strong-smelling stuff under my nose and giving me an oxygen mask, which made me feel a bit better and more alert. Which is the last thing I remember, ironically.


(I never did tell you what exactly they were going to do, did they? Well, here it is. They removed my os trigonum, which I hadn't known about before I rolled my ankle. In fact my os trigonum is the reason my ankle has mysteriously hurt off and on since I was 11 or 12, sometimes really badly, and I really can't wait to experience what it'll feel like when I'm all healed up from this.)

(Also, because of a strange sharp tingly on-and-off pain I've had for years that felt like a spur on the bottom of my heel, they took the opportunity (don't worry, they asked first) to reshape my heel to give some of my nerves more of the room they need. Apparently this need is connected to the fact that I have a flat foot, which I "fixed" on my right side with exercises, which didn't work as well on the left side, which apparently had something to do with my os trigonum... ahem. Anyway.)

5. Pain: know what to expect and be prepared to adequately manage it.

My foot's like, I got a pedicure for THIS?

Next thing, I was waking up in the same place I'd been, with the lights dimmed and my foot bundled up. No pain; because of the nerve block, everything below my knee was numb, and I couldn't wiggle my toes even if I had the inclination. I was groggy, but apparently alert enough to take a picture.

So after I was good to move around, I was in the wheelchair and in the car and on my way home. I don't remember the rest of the day very well now, but I know I was doing well and wasn't in pain.

... Until about 3:30 on the morning, that is. I woke up to a strong tingling, the warning the nurse anesthetist had told me about that my nerve block would be wearing off in about 30 minutes. Nervous, I reached for my Percocet prescription. I could take one or two at a time. I started with one, but my anxiety was building, and within a few minutes I took another.


I fell asleep, only to wake up a few hours later with gnawing pain really starting to build; I took another Percocet. And I did the same thing again a few hours after that. By 9 in the morning, I'd taken 4 out of the 6 tablets I was allowed, and was about to take another. Mom Away From Mom was not too enthused by this! From this point forward, she kept my medicine bottles and kept track of the timing because I couldn't, and laid out my overnight medicines for me on my nightstand after the first (and only) time I had to wake her up in the middle of the night. This is why having someone there overnight is so good, and it continued to be important, because in those first days the pain didn't always completely disappear (this is normal) and it would have been easy to overdose myself.

Either way, it was apparent that the Percocet was not enough. She called the doctor's office, and before long they had prescriptions for Tramadol and Nucynta ready in case I needed them. I remember the rest of that morning as an intense, escalating haze of pain - need them I did. She had to drive to the doctor's office to get the prescriptions, then drive them over to the pharmacy, then wait for them... meanwhile, at home, I turned on a funny movie and didn't stop crying off and on until after my first dose of the real deal kicked in. It was a rough day. Lesson learned: it's much harder to gain control over your pain after it's gotten out of hand. Talk to your doctor and have the stronger stuff available up front. It might help if you know how certain pain meds affect you - I avoided Vicodin for this reason, but that was all I knew.

I had a little dizziness and nausea after eating too much and too fast after my first dose of the Tramadol, but not much after that. And the next few days, though still hard, got increasingly better. :)

In my next installment, I'll write about finally freakin' bathing, weaning myself off the hard stuff, and things that changed after I got my half-cast off...