Plastic surgery on foot - any experts in the house?

[Ponders]

DS1, at a drunken end-of-year uni party last night, managed to stand on a broken glass or bottle in bare feet & has lacerated the tendon/s & an artery in one foot (blood everywhere apparently)

He was taken to A&E, bandaged up, & sent home again with an appt for plastic surgery at 8am tomorrow. He can't stand up other than very briefly currently, because he feels faint & it bleeds a lot. It hurts a lot too.

He is supposed to be off on a European jaunt in 2 weeks (mostly paid for & no, it didn't occur to him to get travel insurance when booking ). He does normally heal quite quickly. Does anybody know if he's likely to be signed off by then, or if they'll say he has to stick around?

If he needs a tendon repair, then he won't be travelling in 2 weeks - they take a while to repair I'm afraid

I'm afraid that when I had major reconstruction surgery on my foot including Achilles Tendon I was in plaster for 3 months but this was almost 30 years ago so techniques may well have changed.

Poor chap though - must be very painful. Bi hope all goes well tomorrow.

oh dear, I was afraid of that

thanks, CMOT

I won't tell him that, I'll wait & see what they tell him tomorrow, but he'll be gutted if he can't go - his last 2 summers have been ruined by having to have knee surgery (on the other leg) & being laid up & unable to work or travel, he was really looking forward to this one.

He is very lucky in many ways but is def accident prone...

thank you, PigeonPie

not looking good then

An Achilles repair is a pretty major op - repairing a small tendon to a toe is more 'minor'.....tbh, you are going to have to wait and see what the plastics team say tomorrow when the see the specific injury.

I guess he could still go to Europe using non-weightbearing crutches?

thanks, timetosmile - it was the sole of his foot, afaik, so it won't be the Achilles??? He was fairly out of it when it happened so has no idea exactly what the damage is. I'll keep fingers crossed it's a teeny-weeny unimportant tendon

The trip is by bus to Amsterdam for a few days, then on to a music festival in Germany, then flying to Spain, so even if he misses the first bits he might be able to catch the others up

so, what's the upshot re tendon repair and Europe just being nosey now..

aw, thanks for coming back, timetosmile - I did mean to give an update!

He came home yesterday, very pale & feeble - he must have lost buckets of blood...well he did, DH went over to pick him up & says the house looks like a murder scene, blood sprayed over most of the walls & the bathroom floor awash with it, & as none of the others had even begun to tidy after the party - well, you can imagine! DH did clean up the bathroom before they came back.

Anyway I gathered from DS1's vague gesture towards his foot that the damage was on the outer side, not under the arch, which was what I had assumed. He was incredibly lucky according to the consultant - there was no tendon damage after all, they had just assumed that there must be - he can wiggle all his toes & has sensation in them all. The glass went quite deep, but missed everything important apart from (I think) a minor artery (is there such a thing?), so it was just a case of putting all the bits back together. He was in surgery for over 2 hours he thinks.

His foot is swathed in bandages so I can't see anything, & since arriving back at about 5pm he has been asleep for all but 2 or 3 hours - I imagine that's a combination of the GA & the blood loss. He has hefty painkillers & antibiotics to take & can go to our local treatment room to have it inspected & rebandaged on Friday. I am dosing him up with Vitamin C & multivits with iron.

So (getting to the point finally) HE CAN GO TO EUROPE!!!! YAY!!!! The consultant said he can take the stitches out himself in due course. Until it's definitely healed he'll have to be v careful with hygiene, and I will suggest that he gets some shoes surgically attached He has no decent sandals atm, we'll buy some before he goes.

He's also got quite a few random bumps & bruises from passing out & falling over occasionally

The hospital couldn't do anything with him right away on Friday morning, because he was so drunk, but I wish they had kept him in for 24 hours instead of letting him go home first...I think they might have, but he drunkenly insisted on going home; as he drunkenly insisted on changing his clothes before going to A&E with the paramedics, because he was wearing a fluffy pink pig outfit, oh you couldn't make it up really, could you

So glad it's turned out better than could have been hoped. Love the thought of a fluffy pink pig going to A&E would have made the nurses laugh!

I suppose that's where the phrase 'bleeding like a stuck pig' comes from......

yes, the stuck pig in A&E would have been fab!

He got up eventually at about 2pm, & has been up ever since so is getting better. Still pale & weary but not as bad as yesterday.

Thanks for thoughts