When Carsyn was in high school, she developed some pretty painful bunions. We took her to a foot doctor in American Fork who confidently told us he could help her. He removed a bunion from each foot - but not without some complications. She developed some major infections and had some horrible scars from the work he did.
Fast forward to a couple of years later. Carsyn's feet are always in pain. We went to a different foot specialist for a second opinion and were told that she essentially needed a full reconstruction on both feet. She didn't want to miss out on working out or be in a cast during snowboard season, so we kept postponing the surgery.
The pain kept getting worse, so we decided it was time.
Because of the extensive repairs that needed to be done, the doctor said he could only do one foot at a time, so we decided to do her left foot in January (2024) and thought we would do her right foot in August.
The surgery ended up being way more involved than the doctor thought it would be. She ended up with a bone graft (partly from her own bone, and partly from cadaver), a bone rotation, plates and multiple screws. It was incredibly painful.
She was so funny when she woke up - talked FOREVER and used some inappropriate language, but had us all dying laughing!
Then the pain kicked in and it definitely wasn't funny anymore!
She picked a black cast . . . this was cast number one of many!
Carsyn worked at American Fork Hospital before her surgery, so it was fun to have her coworkers be her care team! They love her!
This shows some of the hardware put in her foot!
Dax was the best caretaker ever - and copied her position on the couch.
Carsyn was non-weight bearing, and all the while, she had just started a new job that required her to commute to St. George every single week. She was such a trooper. Rod drove her down the first week, but she drove herself from there forward. She worked all day using a knee scooter.
Her second week down there, she called me and said her foot was oozing from out of her cast. We were really worried she had ripped out her stitches, so we had her go to Urgent Care.
The doctor had to take her cast off to check her foot . . . and discovered that she had developed a fracture blister. Little did we know how complicated this would become.
The fracture blister took FOREVER to heal, and had to be checked a few times, so she ended up with a couple of new casts along the way. Why not change colors??
Carsyn ended up being non-weight bearing for 14 full weeks. Crazy.
In the summer and after multiple cortisone shots, we realized Carsyn was not healing. The bone wasn't fully growing back and there was still tons of swelling and inflammation. She had started reacting to wearing earrings, so we started to wonder if she was possibly reacting to the metal in her foot. We sent her to an allergist to see if that would confirm anything, and it didn't, but it was still our gut feeling and her surgeon's gut feeling that the hardware needed to be removed.
Surgery - Round 2
The doctor was able to remove all of the hardware successfully with the exception of one screw that he had to leave in to hold her toe in place. It was another excruciating surgery - and she didn't wake up funny from this one.
He was however able to also remove some of the scar tissue and realign the nerves, which was a good thing.
Another job, 9 months of wearing a boot, and a month of strengthening the muscles to try to get the nerve pain down = 10 plus months of hell, but man, Carsyn is a rockstar!
Even the doctor is so traumatized by how difficult and involved this has been - he told her he won't consider her other foot for at least a year, if not two. Poor kid. Hopefully it will all be worth it in the end and she'll be able to live pain free!
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