Oct. 13th, 3 week follow up

This is at the 3 week follow up appointment with the infectious disease specialist. He said it looks good... have to take his word for it. He pressed on it and KD didn't have any pain and her mobility was good. So we continue on the path of iv antibiotics and no weight bearing for 3 more weeks. Good thing she thinks scars are cool!

Sept 22-30, 2009

KD was dismissed after 6 nights in the hospital. She can not put any weight on her heel for 6 weeks and has to have iv antibiotic treatment 3x/day for 6 weeks. Thankfully the pain is not too bad and she was able to control it with hydrocodone. This photo is of the wound at her follow-up on the 30th - 13 days after the 1st surgery.
Doctor says it looks like it is healing well... she has had some swelling and has to do better keeping it elevated. Next appointment in 2 weeks to hopefully remove the stitches.

Sept 21, 2009

KD had a second surgery to close the wound. Doctor said the infection had actually destroyed a little of the heel bone so it had to removed. He placed antibiotic beads in the wound, made sure the tendons were intact and closed the wound. He felt like the infected tissue was all removed and now it was just a matter of time. During her hospital stay she was also being seen by an infectious disease specialist who determined it was a staph infection but not MRSA and she would be treated with antibiotic IV.

Sept 17-18, 2009

KD had surgery on the 17th. Doctor said that there was a massive amount of infection and some of the muscle and tendon had to be removed but he felt like the majority of infected tissue had been removed. He said it was on her bone but the bone was still hard so he was able to leave it intact. The wound was left open for drainage and the wound vac which are the pictured here.

Sept 16, 2009

My husband was concerned about the red- now darker red - spot by her ankle that was not improving. We scheduled an appointment with the podiatrist that the e.r. doctor recommended. He took xrays, examined her foot and said she was going to have to have surgery to remove the infection. He wanted her admitted that day to begin iv antibiotics and scheduled for surgery the following day.

Sept 14-16, 2009

The next few days, KD did have some relief from the pain. Her heel was draining a lot and the redness was not increasing although was probably not going away either. This is a picture of her heel after it was lanced and it pretty much drained like this for the next 3 days. During this time she was taking hydrocodone for the pain and Ciprofloxacn, 500MG.

Sept 13, 2009

KD woke up with the green spot larger by 2-3 times. We returned to the after hours clinic. The doctor didn't see her but recommended through the nurse/receptionist that we follow up first thing Monday with her podiatrist. We left there and went straight to the emergency room - at this point I knew it was an infection and just wanted someone to confirm and treat it. I was hoping having it lanced would finally relieve some pain and we (because at this point neither of us was getting a full nights sleep) could finally sleep!
The doctor in the e.r. looked at it and said it had to be lanced. These are the photos of her foot prior to the lancing. The black marks are the tape from the electric stimulus patch- we could not get that stuff off.

Sept 12, 2009

KD woke up with a green spot on her heel and a dark spot where the stimulus patch was located. I knew that it looked like it was infected- which seemed strange to me at the time - of course, seems perfectly logical now. We went to our family practice after hours clinic. The doctor there told us it could be bruising from the therapy or something similar to a bedsore from resting her foot on it. Again- I need to be louder- I felt like that was not correct but we took the pain med prescription and went home.

Sept 10, 2009

KD went to physical therapy and called me afterward in hysterics. She was in pain so I met her at the house and gave her some more of my old pain meds. At physical therapy they put medication and a battery operated stimulus patch thing on her. She said it was hurting but I thought it was just the weird way the stimulus feels. My husband and I just couldn't figure out why she was hurting so badly. Again, the whole time, I am googling trying to figure out if she is just being an over-dramatic teen or if the plantar fasciitis is that painful or if there is something else to explain her pain. I never came across anything suggesting infection.

Sept 8, 2009

Followed up with the podiatrist. The pain had continued through the previous days. KD could only sleep 2-3 hours at a time and then the shooting pains would start again. Her ankle had swollen significantly and seemed to now be the focal point of the pain. I gave the podiatrist a summary of the previous week. He felt that she was compensating for the heel pain by walking on the outside of her foot, thereby creating strain on her ankle which was causing the swelling and inflammation. Looking back, I don't think I stressed enough how much pain she was in and that it was not just in the morning but throughout the day. I did explain that she had not slept a full night in 10 days due to the stabbing pains keeping her awake. But I think I need to learn to speak louder! He prescribed continued therapy and some electrical stimulus but no pain meds. We scheduled that, his nurse taped her foot- which was excruciating for her but did seem to give her some relief. She finally slept(with some pain pills I had in the cabinet) that afternoon so she did not go to the appointment for electrical stimulus.

Sept 2-8, 2009

KD went to therapy twice this week. She complained it was painful and she was still unable to bear any weight. She continued to use her crutches and was having pain throughout the day that we were trying to treat with ibuprofen. On the 4th she wasn't feeling well at all during the day and ran a low grade fever through the night. The next day she was feeling better - no more fever - and went to run around with some friends. That night - things shifted. Looking back I know this is when the infection really took hold of her foot. She was in pretty severe pain in her heel and around her ankle (which was swollen). She used the volteran gel and had an allergic reaction. I was scared by this and "googled" again- and found all kinds of scary skin reactions for NSAIDS. So I stared at her foot for about 2 hours waiting for the skin to start peeling off ;-0. Thankfully, that didn't happen, the benadryl did its job and the hives disappeared. But the pain did not. I had given her ibuprofen, that didn't work so I went to the convenience store and got Tylenol- also didn't work. Finally, I had her dip her foot in ice/water for 30 seconds and then hot water for 30 seconds. This seemed to relieve the pain some and she finally slept. This level of pain continued for the next couple of days. I googled fiercely and was finding testimony of plantar fasciitis being extremely painful. So we continued, ibuprofen, tylenol, ice, heat - and tears...

August 28-31, 2009

So for a couple of weeks, KD was much better. She continued to stretch some and was able to walk on her foot even to the point of working some. It began to hurt again around the 26-27th so she started using her crutches and not putting much weight on it. We returned to see the podiatrist on 8/31 and he said she was not responding as well as he hoped, he gave her a steroid injection in her heel and prescribed some physical therapy. He also gave her a script for Volteran gel to use during therapy.

August 8-9, 2009

After several long shifts at work, on her feet, in badly worn out shoes -- KD woke up complaining that it was hurting to walk. I "googled" because that's what I do, and decided it sounded like plantar fasciitis - we iced her foot and she did some stretches. She went ahead and worked Saturday and Sunday- with ibuprofen kicking some of the pain. Sunday afternoon we headed to the after hours clinic at our family physician office. He did think, by her symptomsm that it was plantar fasciitis - more of the same treatment: ice, stretch, ibuprofen. He said if she wasn't feeling some relief in a couple of days to return.