10th Week — Post-Op Summary

Normal left foot placement
on the clutch pedal

DRIVING
I tried driving again. I went downstairs with my boot on. Once in the car I switched to a big sneaker. (Ace bandage on, of course) With much effort I drove a few miles to my favorite bagel place and back again. (Not before sitting and having a YUMMY bagel!)

Can only use this section of my foot.

The problem is that I have to be sure not to apply pressure to the 4th metatarsal bones. This leaves me with the first three to use. Doing this, places my foot more to the left, BUT there is a bit of a wall that doesn't allow me to go much more left than you see here in the photo.... 

With the sneaker, my foot placement on
the pedal puts too much pressure near the
4th metatarsal bones.

And with a big sneaker on, it takes up much more room than a naked foot as in the photo above.

So when pressing down my foot bumps into the left wall, and it forces my foot to the right, causing me to put pressure on my 4th metatarsal bones.

While trying to drive like this, let me assure you that the clutch pedal gives a lot more resistance than the accelerator pedal (all the way to the right). I can feel pressure under my bunionectomy incision and intensely in my ankle. That night my ankle swelled up. I won't be driving again for a while.

FELL
I didn't have my boot on. I had a little slip in the kitchen. I was able to stop the fall, but my heal hit the floor and bore weight. Yup, I had to take a pain killer and ice it all night.

PAIN
Outside of the pain induced by the fall, pain was bearable this week. It's an underlying constant aching. It sometimes goes up through my hamstring to my buttocks, and stays a while.

SLEEPING
This is getting better, thank God. I wake up a lot, but am able to at least go back to sleep. 

EMOTIONS
This was not such a good week. I can't stress enough how I do not recommend doing this post-op alone**. It's a struggle sometimes to not have a pity-party. The effort it takes to do things and the loneliness at times is too much to bear.

THERAPY 

Before surgery                             Post-Op

It does seem as though the bending backward of my toes is improving with my exercises.

         The way it is.                 The way it should be.

But the range of motion when bending my toes forward is limited by the Bunionectomy I had. See the difference? This will dictate the height of heels I can wear in the future.

This is my right foot. (no surgery) While the bunions cause their own problem, the range of motion (bending) is fine to fit into this shoe.

NWB - Non Weight Bearing

It took me forever to gingerly struggle to put my left foot in this shoe. It's not in all the way (I can't crimp my toes properly to shimmie into it like we women do.) But you can see I don't have the full ability to bend to walk in this shoe. But the two bunions look much better, no?

CONGESTION

Making Guacamole! ;o)

I still raise my leg up in the kitchen and bathroom to avoid the discomfort of the congestion.

DISABILITY
I'm on disability. I get 8 weeks at 100% salary coverage and 4 more weeks, if I need it, at 60% my salary. Normally a doctor determines when you can go back to work. But my post-op doctor is relying on me to tell him when I can perform the responsibilities to my desk job without pain because of the oddity of the situation. 

The oddity is that I can not sit upright and put my foot up and be OK. That causes pain up my leg after about 30min. I NEVER ANTICIPATED THIS! No doctor or other brachy-ers online ever mentioned this. I would need my job to supply me with a lap-top so I can be reclined with my leg up, instead of the desktop they gave me to work from home. (My public transportation commute-to-work is too dangerous for crutches.)

After the 12th week, if I don't return to work, three things happen:

1. It goes into Long Term Disability, which is like opening a whole other claim.
   
2. My job is no longer protected under the FLMA law. 
   
3. My 60% salary is no longer paid by my job, but by my disability company.  

I didn't like the idea of not being protected under the FMLA. So I made arrangements for my doctor to sign the proper "return-to-work" forms, and talked to me employer to get a laptop delivered to me. This is the only way I can start work again.


Working now means I will use up 11 of the 12 weeks allotted to me. This leaves me one (1) unused week, that hopefully I can use when I get my bunionectomies for my right foot in a few months— I hope. That 1 week, and one week's vacation time should do it for recovery for the bunionectomies on my right foot. I hope! I can still work from home after that surgery. Let's see how things work out.

**I do have a friend who comes every other week to take me grocery shopping. And another friend who visits every Friday with me. And sometimes I'm blessed and a friend is able to take me out for a bit on a rare free day. And still, the cabin fever and loneliness I feel is terribly difficult to manage sometimes. I'm alone sometimes for 5 days straight without human interaction or the ability to go outside.

I'm sharing this so those whom this applies to can prepare themselves, but the truth is, not too many people have my exact situation— 1. live alone, 2. drive a stick-shift vehicle, with Brachy surgery on left foot. Add all these together and it's very hard to bear the affects of the long post-op.

I have found that I've had to take my own advice and utilize some of the positive links on the right side of my own blog.