_{*Quick Summary: The author discusses his ankle surgery.*}

If you’ve seen me walk the last couple of years, you know something has been wrong. A year, a month, and a day ago, I finally got the first of two ankle surgeries. I initially injured my ankle while moving my then-girlfriend into a new apartment in early 2006. I stepped off the back of a moving truck while carrying a table, landed partially on my feet, but severely dislocated my ankle, broke off some of the bottom of my leg bone, then when I took a step back, it all somehow popped back in place. As bad as it hurt at the time, I finished moving her, and worked to reduce the swelling for a few days afterwards. Being entirely too stubborn, I continued to walk around in tremendous pain with all those broken particles of bone and stretched ligaments in the joint for the next year and a half, doing quite a bit of damage. It sounds odd, but because everything snapped back into place, I wasn’t fully aware how badly I’d hurt myself. The debris wiped out the cartilage in the ankle, and did other long-term damage. Time finally came where the pain and lack of mobility were too much, and I got it addressed.

Fast-forward to post-surgery, and I had to have a second little surgery to remove a suture knot that was causing pain. I was totally conscious for that and was able to watch the surgeon remove it. That was kind of cool!

I am not at all “right” as of now, but I am quite a bit better, and gradually walking with less and less of a limp. I still have times of tremendous pain, but that will probably be the case from now on as there was substantial damage to the cartilage. The lesson is – when you hurt one of your wheels – get it looked at ASAP! Feet and ankles are so important. You don’t fully realize how important until you lose that mobility.

Anyway, this is kind of gruesome, but here are some photos from the surgery, immediately after the bandage was removed, and a little later after much of the bruising had improved. If you’re squeamish, stop scrolling now.