The big reveal

Day 13 post op: Staple Removal day!

I had been looking forward to today - the day when the 60 staples would be removed from my wound. 

This week I have been feeling a lot more confident with my progress and the bruising and swelling around my leg, compared with last week, has been reducing. 

We set off for the GP's clinic this morning. I imagined that removing the staples would be a relatively easy painless process.  The nurse set about removing the bandaging and we all had a good look at the wound.

The wound itself seemed to have healed quite well. The nurse and the GP spent some time peering at my leg and poking it because they were concerned that it was still hot and swollen.

After showing them comparative photos of my leg from last week when we went to ED, they agreed it would be OK to take out the staples. Apparently the staples can't be left in too long or else the flesh grows over them...(yik).

The nurse had some very tiny sharp scissors that she used to cut each staple and to pull them out of my skin.

Frankly it hurt like crazy. I hadn't expected that. Maybe it is less painful if your leg isn't hot and swollen and you have a haematoma? The GP observed that my right leg looks about twice the size of my left leg -"it looks like it belongs to someone else". My foot put on a spectacular swelling display as well and puffed up like a marshmallow.

It took about 45 minutes to have all the staples removed...this is how the wound now looks.

And here are all the staples.

The wound has been re-bandaged (with the most fantastic high tech sticky plastic).

The GP and nurse are still both concerned at the heat of my leg and the haematoma so I am booked to go and see the specialist next Monday.

The good news is that the wound looks clean and healthy and the flexibility in my knee is improving.  I now have 90 degrees range of motion - which was my first target. This means that I can put my foot flat on the floor with my leg at a right angle. Both Sarah, my GP and I, thought that was fantastic.