Third day out and the ER visit.

Well everything had been going well. I was being good, taking my drugs and watching TV. Friday afternoon just after lunch my foot started aching so I made sure and elevated it. I relaxed and watched my movies. About 2:00 PM it was getting close to time for me to check my pain meds and my alarm woke me up from a short nap. The first thing I noted was that my foot hurt. upon looking down toward said appendage I noted my toes were purple and looked like sausages.

To be perfectly honest it took me a few minutes to connect the discomfort in my foot and the purple toes. As my mind woke up and I realized the discomfort was numbness in my toes and correlated this with the color my heart rate decided it was time to catch up to the party and it seeped into my groggy mind that I had a problem.

I called my wife and told her what was going on and told her I was going to an ER. My wife being of far more stable mind and with out a back load of Hydrocodone, She told me to sit still till she got here and call my Dr to find out where he wanted me. When she got home she checked the dressing and found it icky and full of fluid. I followed instructions and we ended up in the Ortho ER of the small surgical hospital where I had surgery.

In the end it was a drainage issue. The surgical drains were doing everything they could and my dressings had just soaked up more than they could handle and were cutting off circulation. It ended up being a stressful _no big deal_ visit to the ER. the dressing is changed the drains and surgery sites cleaned and I slept like a sweaty rock on pain killers all night.

It could have been much worse, If I had ignored it, If I hadn't sought help when I saw there was an issue. This would continued to have drainage problems. I could (probably would)  have gotten an infection. Lots of things _could_ have happened. In my case there was a problem albeit a minor one that was easily remedied. Without remedy it could have been far far worse.

I will take an afternoon in the ER and having the foot redressed and cleaned. Each of us is part of our medical care staff. No one knows your body better than you. Don't be afraid to say "hey something isn't right here"