April 2010 and I'm back in work allbeit initially 3 hours a day. My employer had to find a position for me as they have a policy preventing anyone with a mobility issue to work above the 3rd floor (there are 16 in some parts of the site).
Everything was going ok, it took me longer to increase hours than I thought it would everything took so much more energy!
Attended podiatrist clinic every 4-6 weeks so they could keep an eye on the remaining foot and life just ticked along.
We installed a new bathroom in the house with a wet room shower that had a seat so that I could sit in the shower rather than try & manipulate myself into and out of the bath.
In April 2011 the toenail in my middle toe started to come off. Rather than leave it to be pulled off accidentally, the podiatrist I saw at the time decided to cut it down.
One thing led to another and it ended up I was dressing the toe every other day.
As a family we did manage to go on holiday. We went for 2 weeks to Jersey, I drove the car to Weymouth and we took the ferry across.
However, things weren't to last. Within 2 weeks of coming back from holiday the middle toe on my left foot had gone black (sorry this is so descriptive) but as it was dry the podiatrist I was now seeing regularly and one of the vascular surgeons decided to leave well alone and let it just shrivel and drop off.
Within 1 week I couldn't walk on it & was in so much pain it was unbelievable. I had an appt at the limb clinic to try & resolve some of the lateral shift and hyperextension issues I was having with the right leg and the poor prosthetist didn't know what hit him when I burst into tears.
Thankfully they're a really good team & they got in touch with the podiatrist who agreed to see me there & then.
She took one look at it & immediately phoned the surgeon who agreed I should come in to ward to have it looked at. I agreed with podiatrist that I could take my car home & one of the support workers from podiatry would follow me home & take me back.
So there I was in CDU (clinical decision unit) having to explain yet again what was going on. I knew my vascular surgeon would take the toe but it would then be a "wait and see if it heals" job!
In the end my own vascular surgeon came & it was "That needs to come off today". That was August 12th 2011
Next time I'll talk about my time in hospital for this amputation.
