Surgery

I had surgery on Wednesday, January 2nd, at Shoreline Surgery Center in Guilford, CT. The surgery was done by Dr. John S. Reach.

The surgery took longer than Dr. Reach had expected, but it was successful. Dr. Reach did an ankle arthroscopy and removed an "impressive" amount of scar tissue. He also treated an osteochondral lesion on my talus. The spring ligament tear was small, so he simply freshened up the edges of the tear and brought it together with a suture. If the tear was big, he would have had to use a collagen graft from a cadaver. Finally, he inserted, through the lateral side of my foot, a titanium implant to protect the ligament repair and support my arch.

Before the surgery, Dr. Reach warned me that foot surgery is very painful. I was prescribed Oxycontin and an additional painkiller to top off the Oxycontin in the event it didn't alleviate the pain. Fortunately, I have no pain, so I didn't have to take any of the painkillers. The nerve block and painkiller during and after surgery, respectively, and keeping my foot elevated were enough.

Pain is subjective. What is pain to one patient isn't necessarily pain to another, Dr. Reach informed me.

Running the marathon was much more painful than this.