The healing begins

Mary and I just met with Dr. Koop who was very positive about the results of the surgery. “His foot will be dramatically different,” he said, “he will be surprised.” Alex’s foot was placed into a much flatter position and the tendon lengthening was successful.

We won’t see Alex for an hour or so, but the short term concerns are pain management and swelling. They keep a close eye on those things while we are at the hospital. The key decision coming up will be when to go home. Once Alex can manage the pain that will be one component of the decision. The other will be whether to send him home in the Robert Jones Dressing or a cast, which depends on the degree to which swelling reduces over the coming days. We are hoping for a cast simply because it will mean one fewer trip for follow up, but we realize that is unlikely.

One surprise for me was that concerns about infection stretch out to a number of weeks. In fact, Dr. Koop pointed out that the most common period for an infection to become an issue is at about four weeks post surgery. So that is something we will be keeping an eye out for at home.