A picture is worth a thousand words...

Ok, well maybe these pictures aren't worth a thousand words, but they do help tell my story! And, if you are reading this blog then you are probably curious about what type of trauma my poor foot went through. As someone jokingly said, "It looks like your foot is pissed." That, my friends, is a fact.

I received my preop, intraop, and postop x-rays this morning from Dr. Kwon. I decided that tonight's post needed to showcase these beauts and some other pictures that I've taken over the past three months. Enjoy...

1/30/2011
The first image of my swollen foot (understatement of the year) taken on 1/30/2011 on the busride home from NYC:

The next two pictures are taken 1/30/2011 before going to bed:



Yikes!



















January 31, 2011
Took some ibuprofen, iced it and went to bed. Woke up the next day hardly able to walk, went to work anyways, walked from the T to my office and then took this picture on the morning of 1/31/2011:

Some additional pictures of the bruising and swelling over the next few days. As a note, I stopped putting weight on my foot on February 2nd, the bruising and swelling stuck around for at least two months.

Bruising along the outside of my foot

My toes turned completely black and blue.




Bruising on the heel



After a lot of internet searches, the large, disturbing bruise on the bottom of my foot had a name: plantar ecchymosis...this bruise just started to fade a few weeks ago (8-9 weeks after the injury was sustained).

This is the worst picture, from my perspective. My foot looks so deformed:

Preop X-rays

Now for the legitimate images that I received from the doctor today. In order to diagnose a lisfranc injury properly, the x-rays need to be load bearing. This means that even though it is extremely uncomfortable, you have to balance on your injured foot. Not fun! This is the x-ray that was taken on 2/3/2011: 

   

There is a nondisplaced 4th metatarsal base fracture and a lisfranc fracture dislocation of the 1st and 2nd tarsometatarsal joints. Got all that? Ok, it only took me three months to figure out what the actual name of the injury is.

The smaller red circle highlights the faint line at the base of the 4th metatarsal (the bone in the midfoot region that looks like it is being crushed by the other bones). Yes, this explanation is obviously very technical. The lisfranc fracture dislocation is easier to see and is highlighted with a larger red circle. That separation shouldn't exactly be there.




Postop x-rays
(2 weeks after surgery, non weight bearing image):

Two screws is better than three screws!



The screws will be removed ~6 months after the original surgery.

So, what do you think of that? I know what I think, there will be no more dance battles anytime soon.