Bits and Bobs— 9.5mo Post-Op

While this Autumn has been a warm one, allowing me to continue to spoil myself with flip-flops, the cold weather will come and my feet will have to get use to closed shoes again.

I bought a pair of boots. Aren't they snazzy? A little higher heel than I would have wanted (2.25"), but I do like them a lot. I wore them for 7 hours. My foot hurt for the rest of the day. Mostly where the bone graph is. That bone area seems to get pressure whenever you wear any kind of a heel.

With my foot as it was, I would not have been able to wear these boots. My bunions wouldn't have allowed it. And the vertical room in the front of the boot wouldn't have allowed for my Brachy toe to fit.

Click for larger view.

Another thing I discovered while I shopped for shoes these past few months, is that I felt lost while shopping.

Not so much because I was in a weird in-between stage, where I wasn't in closed or dressy shoes yet, but because I just don't know how to shop for my new feet yet.

I found I kept going for shoes that I use to have to wear. It turns out that your style and taste for shoes has been greatly influenced by having Brachy. I would pick up a pair I liked... then frown cuz they were what my closet is full of.... square toe, with high vertical space in the front. 

I will not be buying the real popular sharp-pointed toe shoes because I don't want my bunions to return, but it's plain to see that I will have to develop a new taste in shoes for my new feet. I did not anticipate this lost feeling while shopping.

But I'm not worried at all, this will straighten itself out in time I'm sure. ;o) Lol.

Lastly, wearing flip-flops has allowed me to feel something I can't remember ever feeling.... the cool/warm air on my toes in the car! ;o) When this first happened on a hot day, I was pleasantly surprised at the feeling of the air conditioning on my exposed feet. It was so nice to feel that! 

I had to wait a few months to wear these. The straps are real snug. While I waited, I sewed on some small beads. ;o)

Where my toe would have been.

Sometimes my foot doesn't look right to me. It seems to me that my fourth toe doesn't belong. It's weird. Not use to seeing a toe where there is a toe now. Lol.

 Tootles!

9mo Post-Op —My Cruise

I'm back! My vacation was great. Was good to really get a change of scenery after so many months. I packed my prescription pain killers that I hadn't used in quite some time just in case. 

I had sciatic pain once I got onto the cruise (I suppose it was the travel)... But I discovered I hadn't packed them after all. 

I don't know why I had this pain nearly the entire trip, but I pretty much popped Aleve like it was candy. Perhaps it was the fact that I was constantly walking around taking pictures. (got a new lens) But I don't believe my sciatic pain is induced by walking. The pain goes up beside my hamstring and into my buttock. I just think I'm getting over some aggravation to it during surgery.

My feet did swell each night, Aleve helps with inflammation.

What kept me going was the photography! There were many christian entertainers on this cruise, so they became my subjects.

Oh, my Pedicure! My first evening on the cruise, I went up to the spa and booked an AM pedicure appointment for the following morning— my birthday, yay! It was a great experience! 

Preeeetty. ;o)

My quick recap is that I get better each month. And that I'm working on the range of movement of my big toe on my Brachy foot.

**I didn't realize this, but because I had Brachy on the same foot, my bunionectomy DID NOT get the post-op attention it needed to regain my mobility there. With Brachy you don't do anything with your foot for at least 3 months... this actually harmed the mobility in the joint of my big toe. Normally you'd be working on it about 3 weeks post-op. ;o/

So my left big toe is much stiffer than my right. But what's done is done and I just work at it as best I can now. ;o)

Not in heels yet. Not sure if I will ever go back to really high heels actually. It's been a warm Autumn, so I still do flip-flops! ;o)

Tootles!

8 Month Mark

          (34 weeks) 
Hello all. Autumn is here! Isn't it lovely?! ;o)


At this point I am pretty sure that the Sciatic nerve issue I've experienced is not usual. I really haven't heard anyone else who's had this surgery mention it. 

I also no longer think it was ONLY due to how I was sitting post-op. I think it's more than that. When you look at how this nerve runs all the way down your leg, and to your heel, I now believe that the heel surgery itself had something to do with this. I think it was aggravated somehow during surgery.

I had Brachy and Bunion surgery on my left, and only Bunion surgery on my right. The sciatic issues are only on my left. I really feel the "heel" surgery aggravated my nerve because if it were the sitting position I did months ago, it should really be gone now, and it's not.

I believe I will be well again and it will be gone at some point, but for now, after 8 and a half months it comes and goes.

I am now on the treadmill several days a week. I do a max on 4.0 speed and 7.0 incline. Only walking for an hour. Because the pain comes and goes so sporadically I still don't know if exercise helps or hurts it. I just started on the treadmill so time will tell. (update: I had to stop the gym, it got to be too painfull.)

It's still not freezing out so I'm mostly in flip-flops. And I work from home so the only closed shoes I am really wearing are sneakers. Because of my bunionectomies, wearing closed shoes will take a while. If it was only Brachy I'm sure I'd be wearing them already.

GOOD NEWS! Remember that trip I booked?! Well it's in 3 weeks!!!!! Wow it's been a long haul. Remember this? 

Well things do get better. I look back at my struggles and I'm very grateful to be past them. All I have now is the sciatic pain that comes and goes (it flows into my buttock and makes me limp), and my feet still swell a bit.

But now it's time to look forward to my trip! YAY! I'm planning to have my first ever professional pedicure on the Cruise, ON MY BIRTHDAY!

I will try to take snapshots of the event to post. lol. Next post will have foot pics for sure, I promise! ;o)

Tootles!

7.5 Months Post-Op Update

Feeling even better!                                                     (32 weeks) 

I took the risk and went on a very short photography hike. It was great! It was a very slow pace and it lasted two hours. When I got to my car to drive home my leg was starting to hurt (sciatic nerve), and my bone graph in my 4th metatarsal was actually aching. 

But again, once I rested things were fine. So I think it's all good.

Recently I did wear a wedge heel sandal. It had no cushion whatsoever. I could walk to where I was going and sit with them. But walking back to my car I noticed I was limping and favoring my right side. (So even though I had surgery only 3 months ago on my right foot, it still feels better than my Brachy foot surgery from 8mo ago.) But it's still progress. ;o)

There is less swelling in my left foot so it looks more defined now.

Nice to have the bunion reduced on my right too.

These socks actually press in areas that really accentuate my bunions. They sort of still look big don't they?  lol.  But I feel it's partly the socks. I think once I start taking photos of my new feet IN shoes, I'll appreciate my surgeries even more.

Sure, I wish I had a straight line for my 1st toe, but you can't have everything.

These are the very first flip-flops I purchased after my surgery. I LOVE them, they are so soft and comfy. I hope they last forever. 

Seven month scar update.
They are coming along.














Numbness 
My skin is still slightly numb in these areas. The areas use to bit a bit larger. Compare it to the 6th week here.

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

6.5 Months Post-Op Update

  (28 weeks)

I'm doing better, thank God. It has been touch and go with trying to walk in sneakers at the track with a reasonable pace. As you would imagine it's difficult at the beginning, but if you keep at it, it gets better. It feels good to get out and move. 

I did have a little something I'm not happy about though. Because the fourth toe sits lower than it should, while walking, the entire bottom of it (its full length, not just the tip) rubs against the sole of a shoe with more force than a normal toe would. This caused it to blister. 

I didn't want this to derail me at the track so I would wrap it with a band-aid. The healing seemed slow no matter how much Neosporin I was using. One morning I got the the track and realized I had forgotten to bandage it, but I wasn't too worried because the blister had been drying out. I improvised and wrapped my toe with a piece of paper. That seemed to work fine until I got home.

I then realized that the paper prevented my 5th toe from moving properly and it now had a blister as well! Fun stuff huh?

PAIN

The pains I use to have in my heel are gone.

The congestion is also gone.

I'm working on the sciatic nerve pain that developed during this whole process. It has lessened, but very slowly, and I have to work at doing exercises to accomplish this. I'm happy that it's improving.

The past month has been a time of endurance. Going out to do a few errands and getting home with a leg that begins to ache. I rest it and then I'm fine again. So it's a matter of building up my endurance. I can't wait till I can go to a museum and walk through the art for a day and not be hurting by the end of it. The thought makes me smile. ;o)

So the platelette feeling on the bottom of my foot was temporary. At 7mo, it's gone.


So is the tendon pain, and need for prescription painkillers. Halleluyah!

What I have now is stiffness. In the morning, the tendons and joints (bunionectomies) are very stiff. I have to stretch it all out to get started.

I've been walking for 4 months now and I have yet to walk in closed dress shoes. I've spent my time in flip-flops, I was unable to fit into a pair because remember, I had the bunionectomies on my right foot just 8 weeks ago. It still gets swollen and the incisions are too sensitive for a hard closed shoe.

Winter is coming so maybe I'll spend the time in a comfy boot. Hard closed shoes may have to wait for the spring?

One of my biggest lessons is this blog. I love that I accomplished what I set out to do, which was to tell all of it in detail so those considering it will be able to plan and anticipate accordingly. But the negative side affect it had on me was just that, negative. It made me focus each week on what was not working, the pain, etc.

I believe this did not help my own healing process. It's a lesson learned for me. I always knew that staying positive can work wonders and now I have my own personal proof on that account.

So in your journey, get the info, compare notes, but feed yourself good thoughts DAILY! It will help a lot. ;o)

Shoes In My Future ;-)

I've decided that I will have a shoe-buying-problem in about a year. LOL. ;oD I will be making up for years and years of never being able to purchase what I felt was lovely and feminine.

My next place will have a walk-in-closet to accommodate them aaaallllll. ;-)

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Because of my bunions, thin

high heels have been a thing of the past.

After I heal completely I will be sticking to
1" heels, maybe 2" with a very thick heel.

I can't wait to be able to wear sandals!

I remember as a young girl in Puerto Rico, I wanted so badly to be able to wear the flip-flops that were in style then. I am so going to get them! ;-)

The straps were leather and they said Puerto Rico on them. Silly, but it's a childhood thing.

I'm so excited, this time next year I'll be enjoying open toe shoes as well as long walks on the beach... barefoot. Yay!

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