The Days Before the Surgery

Since the injury was on my right foot, the bulky CAM Walker pretty much made driving impossible, so I was put on disability and started to work from home. Most of my work is done by email with my laptop and I have a wireless connection to the office, so that helped. For a moment, I thought of getting this left foot accelerator but it costs more than $300 and it would have been too much of a temptation especially during the first crucial weeks when the best you can do is rest.

I used the week before the surgery to finalize any pending task or project around the house, like fixing little things, organizing my papers, getting a hair cut, and setting up my home office. I also organized my room, by putting a few tables and chairs to have things handy, and rearranged the bathroom to minimize clutter and facilitate movement.

At the same time, even though it was not necessary, I started moving around in crutches, for practice. I figured that if I was going to fumble and stumble with the crutches, it was better to do it then instead of after the surgery, when bearing weight on the injured foot is absolutely prohibited for several weeks.

During the night, I took the boot off to sleep more comfortably, knowing that for several weeks after the surgery I wouldn’t be allowed that luxury.

I also used the days before the surgery to iron out all the details with the insurance. Make sure that every procedure you will go through is covered under your plan. I neglected one minor detail: to check if the outpatient center where the doctor chose to perform the surgery was an “in network” facility. I assumed it was, but it just happened it wasn’t, and I had to shell out a $400 out-of-network co-payment. So don’t assume anything: call and make sure.

Finally, I thought it would be a good idea to find a support group of people who had gone through the same experience, so I started looking for forums or discussion groups where I can read and talk about the AT post surgery process. I found Simon Barratt’s blog to be extremely useful and informative, with plenty of helpful people who had recently had AT surgery and were going through the different stages of rehab. At the time of this writing, that blog had more than 1,800 entries so you will learn first hand how real people just like you cope with this experience.