Author: Alexander Celeste

Using my Desk

Since I use a walker to get around during this non weight bearing period I can’t really sit down into chairs that move at all. Yet this is what my desk chair is, being that it turns and has wheels. So we came up with the idea of using the lower drawer of my desk drawers as a mechanism to stop my desk chair from moving that much, to make it possible for me to get into it all on my own (also with the help of a grabber-like thing we keep on my walker to open the drawer with). I then have a stool with a pillow for my right foot under my desk, although realistically a chunk of the time I’m sitting my right foot is down like normal (and my left foot) because that is a bit more comfortable, neither foot bears weight when I’m sitting anyhow, and it doesn’t help to keep either foot/leg in one position for too long anyway (regardless of the recovery).

Adapting Daily Life At Home Recovery

Apple Watch

I’ve decided that I’ll add some posts describing aspects of how I’ve adapted my daily life during recovery, in the hopes that they (along with this entire blog) may help others facing this or similar surgeries in the future. This is the first in that occasional series.

I have changed the default face I use to one set up for surgery recovery. That is, my normal watch face has weather, activity, and such. All things that to be honest I won’t need much during a non weight bearing recovery where I’m going to stay on the second floor of our house save for trips to Gillette for follow-up appointments. I’ve even disabled all Activity and Stand notifications, since my physical movement will be far less for the next few weeks. Instead, I’m using a face that has both the digital time and date large and prominent, so as to be easier to read. Further, along the bottom are quick access to calling or texting my parents, who are my caretakers during the recovery, as well as access to Messages in general. This way, the watch can act as a quick alert system to get in touch with my parents (both of whom also have Apple Watches, and have promised to also keep their phones nearby if ever their watches aren’t on them) whenever needed, even though I’ve asked that at least one of them be home with me at all times (a bit easier with my dad and I working together from home anyway).

I have also put the Breathe app on my watch face. It can guide me through mindful meditation, urging to breath in and out with both soothing animation and rhythmic tapping on the wrist. I read how careful breathing can help reduce pain and anxiety during recovery, and know from past experience how helpful mindfulness can be, so wanted to have easy access to that anytime.

I may even change the watch face colors to match the cast color I have over time…

Follow-up Appointments

Goodbye Robert Jones

This morning I went in to the hospital to get the Robert Jones Dressing from surgery removed and a cast put on. Dr. Koop helped with both and between the two examined my foot’s progress and answered many questions we had. Everything is looking as it should for a week out from surgery, the incisions are looking fine, swelling is as they expected, and my foot is much flatter than before surgery. I’ll have my cast changed in 3 weeks, when I will next check in with Koop.

At Home Recovery

In it for the Long Haul

Been a while since you’ve heard directly from me… I’m home, although still learning the ropes of the non-weight bearing on my right foot. I can get around with a walker quite well, but it is still taking time to also get used to all the help I’ll consistently need to get around and do regular things during these next 8-12 weeks. But my parents are helpful with all that and intend to help wherever, whenever, and as needed. I have a great support system here. I have determined that I really shouldn’t be alone in the house at all during this time.

With a dining/living room upstairs, and having figured out how to use the bathroom and how to sit at my desk many bases are covered. Granted I should not spend much energy on professional work for a while yet. But there are still things easier on a Mac than an iPad, so desk use is important. But my iPad will be getting more use if I’m in bed more, at least at this start of the long haul of recovery. My phone will see less use, my other devices can reach it and are better for my direct interaction at this time. My watch has become more of a way to quickly reach my parents than its usual activity tracking for this time period.

Feel free to reach out to me anytime and we’ll see if I’m up to responding or not. But mostly I’m really glad to be home, in my own normal spaces, and sleeping in my own more comfortable and larger bed. I’ve already gotten more sleep here than I did the whole time I was in the hospital. This next phase of recovery is very much underway.

General

Welcome

As some of you know, I wear a brace on my right foot/leg when out of the house to help me walk better, all as effects of the right-sided hemiparesis I have from a stroke I endured right after my birth. After sixth grade I had soft-tissue surgery to help reshape my right foot, which did help quite a bit for some years thereafter. Over the past few years my right foot has been increasingly curving inwards, and starting to be more painful more of the time, even when not walking around. This includes me recognizing how this may be starting to affect my right knee and overall leg position, which is not great for long term health. I’ve been getting seen by the same surgeon who performed the earlier surgery twice a year or so since before that surgery up through now, each time thinking about the pros and cons of additional surgery.

I’ve made the decision that the time has come where I should get the more invasive hard-tissue surgery that fuses some of the bones in my right foot and lengthens tendons to reshape my foot into a better position (triple arthrodesis surgery). This comes out of not just the state of my physical health, but also the reality that while living with my parents and working from home in technology consulting at the moment I have better support for such a surgery and its recovery now than I will in the future, and I have all along felt that having this surgery would be an inevitability at some point in my life.

I wanted to tell you all that this surgery is coming up for me, in part so you know why you will not see me around the next few weeks for those in the Twin Cities, and in part so that you just know this is happening as I know you’ll all want to know of such a significant thing in my life. The surgery is scheduled for January 14th, with a stay in the hospital following it likely lasting the remainder of that week. Following that is a period where I will not be allowed to bear weight on my right foot that lasts between 8-12 weeks, during which time I only intend to really go out of the house for follow up appointments. Doing the surgery in the wintertime is by design, since it is worse weather to be outside anyway the next few months (I mean, I do live in Minnesnowta after all). Full recovery will probably take about a year.

During both the hospital stay and non weight bearing recovery periods I should still be able to be reached by phone/text/FaceTime/email as regularly as I can, and will be looking at Facebook and other social media too, so should be reachable there. We will be posting updates during the procedure and my recovery at this site, and you can sign up to receive updates via email. Feel free to reach out to me anytime during the stages of recovery, though I cannot promise you’ll actually reach me. Once back home I envision a portion of my life getting back to semi-normal, because honestly when you work from home that isn’t too hard, except for the staying on the second floor because I won’t be allowed to bear weight on my right foot at all part.

Anyway, I mainly wanted to just give you that update on my life and give you the chance to pray for me or whatever you feel like doing in support of me during the time of surgery and recovery.