Week 15 — Post-Op Highlights

Howdy.
A picture is worth a thousand words right? I'm definitely visually adept, but there is more going on than this photo can tell. So I'll tell you. ;o)

IN A SNEAKER!

Saw Dr. Yes last week. I've graduated into sneakers. Went out and got a good pair. I choose a men's (I need the extra width) Nike Air Max Run Lite +2. They were the most comfortable to me out of the selection. I also choose them because I would be able to add some comfort insoles in them without a problem. I needed a sneaker that would have enough space top-to-bottom (vertically) in the front.

I got 2 kinds of insoles. One for Heel pain relief and the other for the Sole.

I wanted them both in a men's size for the extra width, but was only able to find one. ;o(

Nothing seems to take the pain I feel away, but this is better then just the insole that came in the sneaker from the manufacturer. ;o)

Because the ace bandage would be too bulky, in a sneaker my Doc gave me this snazzy TIGHT sock. It does my scars good. (Remember the post I made about pressure being the best thing for scars?) 

My ankle and foot need the support (especially while driving my stick shift) so the sock is a good thing. But I do find that my foot starts to ache after about 5 hours. It's too snug after that time.


But I still wear my ace on top of that for ankle support.

PAIN
Let me be clear, while I am now out of my boot and off crutches, I'm walking with a great deal of pain and discomfort.

There are three things going on in the pain department:

    1. Both front and back of the sole of my foot
        are quite painful when I walk. It feels as though have metal         plates there, right under the skin of my soles.

     2. The Achilles tendon (Heel cord) is very tight

     3. My sciatic nerve

I had complained of this pain maaaany weeks ago and after describing it again to Dr. Yes this past week, he simply told me what it was. GO FIGURE! He gave me stretches to do.

The exercise was to stand arms-length away from a wall. Place palm of hands flat on wall, lean into wall by bending elbows... bringing the body toward the wall while heels remain on the floor. I found that this addressed the Achilles tendon, but not my sciatic nerve pain. 

I knew nothing about the sciatic nerve so I looked it up. I found this stretch was the best one so far:


For me however, I need more than this stretch. (The pain is persistent.) I have sent an email (because it's the weekend) to both of my doctors explaining the pain even though I am doing all the stretches, and requesting actual physical therapy. I'll let you know what they say. (In the meantime I've started taking Advil for the Ibuprofen. I'm hoping it relives the inflammation.)


WALKING

Stretching the Achilles tendon (heel cord) is Soooo necessary. With effort, I am able to go up stairs one foot in front of the other like normal (need bandage on).

But going down stairs is a totally different story. There is no limberness in that tendon. Until this happens to you, you never realize how it actually helps you go down the stairs.

I'm working daily to stretch this out. While I do not have permanent improvement in my sciatic nerve, I do experience permanent improvement in this tendon with my stretches. ;o)

There are stretches on YouTube for this tendon, but I find they aren't the best for those of us who have had Brachy surgery because we can not fully put weight on the foot yet. This is what I came up with that works best for me:

SLEEPING

I'm now enjoying full sleep through the night! YAY! ;oD

CONGESTION
This is improving also. (See: STRANGE)

NUMBNESS

(the images used to show the numbness areas in this post are old images of my foot. Just the highlighted sections are current status.)