My Right Foot
2020-08-24. This page follows my adventure of being diabetic, getting charcot foot, and having to get my right leg amputated (below the knee). I will be adding things here as I move forward.
There is a lot on this page,so it may take some time to load up. Please be patient.
2020-09-27. I made some changes to this page. I started it while in the hospital, and built and added to it with my iPhone, so it needed some polishing now that I have access to my laptop.
It used to display from current to old in detail, but now it displays from old to new in detail. I will be adding some older info, as this ordeal initially started back on 2019-12-19. Keep checking
back as this venture is far from over.
Go to the charcot foot
Go to hospital release
2019-12-10
Took the week off of work and noticed my foot was swollen. Time to see the doctor.
2019-12-16
Saw my family doctor, and he sent me for blood work and an ultrasound of my right leg.
2019-12-17
Went to Royal Columbian Hospital for the ultrasound.
2019-12-19
Sat in my family doctors office on my 50th birthday being told I have diabetes. The ultrasound showed no issues.
2019-12-27
Saw family doctor.
2020-02-16
Haltor monitor pick-up.
2020-02-17
Haltor monitor drop-off.
2020-02-19
Haltor monitor pick-up.
2020-02-20
Haltor monitor drop-off.
2020-02-24
Saw family doctor.
2020-02-28
Went to Royal Columbian Hospital for second ultrasound.
2020-03-06
Vascular clinic at Royal Columbian Hospital.
2020-03-26
Blood work at Life Labs.
2020-03-30
Saw family doctor.
2020-05-06
Phone call with vascular doctor.
2020-05-27
Phone call with family doctor.
2020-06-02
Phone call with family doctor.
2020-07-13
Blood work at Life Labs.
2020-08-19
Phone call with family doctor.
2020-08-22
Foot is weaping blood and fluid from the bottom.
2020-08-24
That's a problem.
2020-08-25
Phone call with family doctor. Cancelled meeting while driving to Royal Columbian Hospital emergency. Put on a daily antibiotic drip and bandage change.
2020-08-26
Got my daily antibiotic drip and bandage change, then was sent for an x-ray of my foot. I then met with the infection specialist, Dr King. She advised that I had charcot foot.
2020-08-27
X-ray results of my foot.
Meet with Dr. Perey, where he advises that amoutation is the best option for my quality of life.
2020-08-28
Had an MRI.
2020-08-30
Extra antibiotics.
2020-08-31
Advised my employer I could no longer work. Got "second opinion" about amputation with Dr Apostle. She said they could try and fix things, but there would be no gurantee
that in a year I wouldn't be looking at amputation.
2020-09-04
Room 412, bed 4 at Royal Columbian Hospital.
2020-09-05
Thank goodness for free Wifi and Netflix.
Dinner.
Lunch.
11:00 am, bandage change.
Surgery was cancelled so I get breakfast.
2020-09-07
Had surgery yesterday (went in around 4pm, and back in my
room around 8pm). Woke up this morning to the new me.
After letting the nausea meds kick in, I had a late breakfast.
Lunch.
Rehab starts; sitting in a wheelchair doing leg extensions.
Apparently this is critical for the prosthetic to fit properly.
Dinner.
2020-09-08
Breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Spent some more time in the wheelchair, and took
a walker down the hallway. Baby steps.
2020-09-09
Started stair training today.
Had to drink this before lunch.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Word is the pick-line comes out tomorrow, after my last antibiotic drip.
My arsenal of moving devices.
Bed and a couple of pillows.
Lucky to have a room with a window.
Window view.
2020-09-10
Breakfast.
Went to the bathroom to do my business, and
came back to fresh bed sheets, gown, and a bag
of antiseptic wipes. All clean now.
They then wheeled away the device for my
antibiotic drip, and told me I don't need it anymore.
Pick-line removed.
Ruh-roh. Buddy went for his hip surgery, had a bit
of a cough, so they did a covid swab and brought
him back. Test results pending.
His test came back negative, so he was wheeled back off to surgery.
Spent some time on the small stairs. Hopefully
tomorrow is the big boy stairs.
Waiting in a wheelchair for dinner to arrive.
Dinner. Guess I forgot to take a picture of lunch.
They peeled back a bit of my bandage as it was
tight and a bit high and digging in to my leg.
Time for a shave.
2020-09-11
Good morning.
Had a crappy sleep. Fire alarms were going off for a few hours;
word was that somebody was smoking in the stairwell.
Bag breakfast; the elevators were down.
Had a poop and a pee, then put on some underwear.
Underwear have never felt so good.
Bag lunch; the elevators were still down.
Did some stair work; up four small steps and down three regular steps.
Got back to my room and spent an hour or so with a diabetes specialist. Learned a lot.
Got a new toy. And it has bluetooth!
Bag dinner. How hard is it to fix the fricking elevator?
Forgot I took this last week. Saw it in a
room in the hospital. What a name. LOL
2020-09-12
Another crappy sleep, so time to get up.
Yay, a real breakfast again.
Did more stair training; up four small stairs, down
three regular stairs. Short break, then up and down
three regular stairs. Good workout.
The small stairs have a 4" rise, and the regular
stairs have a 6" rise.
Lunch.
Got this from the diabetes doctor yesterday.
Hospital selfie.
Was told that tomorrow the bandage will be removed
for the first time. Hopefully all is well under there.
Dinner.
Tonight's smokey view.
2020-09-13
Breakfast.
Now I wait for physio or the rebandage team to
arrive. Time to stretch the leg and kill some time.
Bandage removed.
Wrapped back up. This now needs to be done daily.
Physio came by. Took me down to the test stairs
where I went up and down the regular stairs with
ease. I then said I wanted to try the stairs in the
stairwell. First was tough, second was easy, and
on the third, I didn't realize how tired I was and
needed help; went down them no problem. We
both agreed that I was tired, and it was seven
steps in total (I only have to get up three at home),
so I convinced them to let me rest, and after lunch
we can go back and do three steps in the stairwell
again. I know I can do it!
Lunch.
The head nurse came by and told me that she
is kicking me out of here tomorrow. Yay!
Took another trip to the stairwell. Went up and
down three steps. Struggled a bit, but was still
a bit fatigued from earlier. Felt good about it though.
My final hospital dinner.
My final hospital sunset.
Had a nice chat with one of my room nates.
Good conversation and killed some time.
2020-09-14
6am and another crappy sleep. The anticipation
of getting out of here didn't help.
My final hospital breakfast.
My final bandage change at the hospital.
Bye bye hospital.
The final challenge. This is why I had all that
stair training at the hospital.
My new home for the next few months. Just a
bit better than the hospital.
2020-09-17
Been meaning to weigh myself since being
released from the hospital. Finally remembered
this morning; a week before the amputation, I
weighed 281lbs, and today was 264lbs. 17lb difference
That's some great weight loss for two weeks. LOL
I have been losing around 2lbs a week, and not
sure how the hospital stay effected my weight
loss, but calculations tell me that my limb could
weigh as much as 15-17lbs
And when this foot issue started back in Dec 2019,
I weighed 335lb, so that is a 71lb loss all together.
2020-09-19
Fresh bandage. The wound is healing nicely. Good to see
I will have freckles on the bottom of the stump. LOL
The backside of my leg; they didn't clean up very well.
2020-09-20
Been a long week, full of appointments, but had
a relaxing weekend. Overall I am feeling really
good. My energy is back to normal, but have to
remember that I am still healing and need to slow
it down for the next bit.
Went shopping today as the shorts I have been wearing
were way to big and baggy; shirts as well. It was
nice to be able to go to Marks for the first time
instead of Mr Big and Tall.
When I got home I took some measurements.....
2020-09-20
119.8 kg / 263.5 lb
Chest = 48"
Stomache = 52"
Waste = 42"
2019-12-19
152 kg / 335 lb
Chest = 52"
Stomache = 67"
Waste = 49"
And my A1C #'s.....
2020-07-13
A1C: 6.8
2020-03-27
A1C: 7.3
2019-12-19
A1C: 12.5
Not bad for just changing my diet.
One of my kitchen stools, modified (safely), so
I can bum scoot (safely) up the stairs. Also have
two grab handles at the top of the stairs. Video
to follow.
A few days ago I realized that the step counter
on my smartwatch counted my pushes of the
wheelchair as a step. After a day of going to
Home Healthcare, two trips to Mark's (new cloths),
and 20 minutes of doing laps in the garage, I
reached my daily goal of 2000 "wheelchair" steps.
2020-09-21
Had my first fall. Not sure what happened, but I
was in the bathroom, standing at the counter,
and the next thing I new I was falling to the right.
My stump hit the ground, then I was on my ass.
It hurt, but the good part was there was a stool
in the bathroom, and with it and the edge of the
bathtub, I was able to get onto my knees and
get back on my feet. I mean foot. LOL
Couldn't let this keep me down.
This was delivered to the house tonight, from
my landlord. So thoughtful.
Got this from my Aunt last week. Love it.>br>
10:50pm. Currently sitting in emergency at
Langley Hospital; been here since 9:30pm. The
bleeding inceased late in the evening, so didn't
want to take any chances. Hopefully when they
take a look it will be ok and they just need to
re bandage it. Fingers crossed.
5am and I am out of the hospital. Waited until
2:30 to get in, layed on a stretcher and had a
snooze until just after 4:30am. My fall stressed
one of the stitch areas a little bit, so they
cleaned it all up and I am as good as I was
before the fall.
My nurse offered to take some pictures for me.
This is the part the was weeping. I guess that
is where I hit when I fell.
2020-09-22
Went to bed at 6am and got up at 11am. Better
than no sleep. Unfortunately, I had more blood
weeping through the bandage. My poor mom
spent the day cleaning the sheets.
I had an appointment to see Fraser Health for
my "every two day" bandage changing at 5pm,
so it worked out good. They cleaned things up,
and put some extra absorbant pads on, so
hopefully keepd any weeping at bay until I see my
surgeon on Thursday. I am hoping that this
doesn't delay him taking the stiches out.
2020-09-24
Wheelchairs don't come with cushions, so I
reached out to John at Discount Foam and
had him make me one. I also had him make
me a cushion for the amp board my dad is
making, as well as two smaller cushions to
use under my leg while sitting in a chair or
in the car. Can't beat the price.
I decided that I will need a walker in my life,
so I ordered the same brand and model that
I used in the hospital, as it was a bit wider
than the Red Cross loaner I had, and I found it
more stable. Guardian #MDS86410XW.
#MDS86410XWW if you want wheels on the front.
2020-09-27
My dad made this small step for me to help regain
my confidence in stairs. My plan is to practice on it
with the walker, the move to the crutches. After
some time he will add to it, making it a bit higher.
Before long I will be back to regular steps.
2020-09-28
Had a scheduled visit at my local Home Health
Care. The wound is still weaping, but it is getting
better. The top part is healing nicely. They bandaged
me up and sent me in my way. As long as the
weaping doesn't come through the bandaging,
I am good until I see my surgeon on Thursday.
2020-09-29
The "raised toilet seat" I've been using. 5" tall with
handles. Makes getting off the throne possible.
The only downside is that it has a round vs elongated
hole, and my aim isn't what it used to be, so I leave
it off when not in use (it clamps on in a few seconds).
The wheelchair my brother loaned me. It is currently
being used in the house, as I have one on loan from
the Red Cross that is kept in the car for outdoor
use. The cushion is the one I had made up last week,
and the board underneath is the amp board, short
for amputee board. You slide it out, put the cushion
on it, and rest your stump on it. Helps keep the
leg straight and takes the pressure off the backside
of your hamstring.
1pm, heading out with mom to go shopping. As I
crutched down the stairs in the garage, something
happened and I went down the last 1 or 2 steps. My
glasses went flying (1 lens popped out), I hit the
concrete and smacked my head on the ground or the
crutch that was now behind me. I catch my breath
and notice a pool of blood behind me. Great.
Mom called 911 and I took an ambulance ride to
Langley Hospital. Currently waiting to get stitches
and a tetanus shot.
4pm. 7 staples, 1 tetanus shot and some bruised ribs.
Good to go home, but man is my confidence gone.
7:30pm. Will need a bandage change before bedtime.
9pm bandage change. And I was wrong. There are
9 staples in there. And mom did a heck of a tape job
If you have any comments, suggestions, or see any errors, please let me know..... cbradley@telus.net
Last updated on September 29/2020
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