Fireworks and Freedom

What JOY. I sat with a group of friends on the grass to enjoy some fireworks. As night fell and rockets soared I looked down and saw my beautiful feet in flip flops. 

I hadn't noticed that beside me was a friend who forsook his flip flops completely. I smiled to myself that here I was just enjoying his company with no hiding or worries. Just free to be. God is good. :)

"Not knowing when the dawn will come I open every door."

                       ~Emily Dickinson

Sent from my iPhone

Life After Brachy - SUMMER

Well, life handed me a few curve balls after surgery, so NOW is when I'm really venturing out to let you know what life is like after Brachy. 

I'm at the shore today and oh how sweet it is. No hiding. And I'm wearing the feminine flip flops I always envisioned. :)

Last night I went to two of my nieces graduations and wore some strappy sexy sandals. Yay for me. All worth it now, praise God. 

Sent from my iPhone

Daily Life After Surgery

Hi all. Well it seems that blisters at the bottom of either my 4th or 5th toe are a normal part of life now. 

If you want to know why this is for me look at past post early on right after surgery. Basically, my surgeon placed my 4th toe much lower then the rest.... blah blah. 

Sometimes the blisters are no big deal and sometimes they are. You just have to get past stuff like this because otherwise you go through a very long process of healing after this surgery just to be unhappy with yet another thing about your feet. I choose to be happy. 

This pic shows me getting over a recent blister. 

"Not knowing when the dawn will come I open every door."

                       ~Emily Dickinson

Sent from my iPhone

Another Blister

Hi all. I did a two day volunteering thing this past weekend. I was on my feet an insane amount of time. I got a wTer blister. I wore cowboy boots the first day, 8hrs.

I wore foam flip-flops the second day, 18hrs. This pic is after all that was over and I removed the top skin. 

The blister is on my Brachy toe. No surprise. What did surprise me was that I didn't notice when it was happening. I got it when I was wearing the boots. I noticed it before my second volunteering day as I was washing my feet. 

It wasn't full of water. Not sure if it popped on its own. and I'm not sure why I didn't notice the pain of it. I honestly think it was because I was extremely distracted by what I was doing. 

So it's possible that blisters will be a part if life with my Brachy toe sitting lower than my others. My surgeon did this on purpose to avoided a floating toe. 

"Not knowing when the dawn will come I open every door."

                       ~Emily Dickinson

Sent from my iPhone

Sprained Toe

Well I did quite a job on this toe. It blew up last night and I was in some serious pain so I put ice on it and elevated it. I also took an Aleeve. This is what it looked like once the swelling went down. 

I thought it might be broken cuz I looked up a couple YouTube videos and all the broken toes I saw were the same color as mine. 

But it didn't look out of joint, I could move it, and I couldn't see/feel any bumps indicating a broken bone. So my guess right now it that I sprained the heck out of it. 

Sent from my iPhone

OUCH!

OUCH!!!! I totally clocked my toe. It hurts as bad as it looks!! Lol

Sent from my iPhone

2 Year Post-Op — UPDATE VIDEO

In this video I discuss outstanding issues, the excitement of my first yoga class, and many things you just don't think about before this surgery. When I was researching to do this surgery I read nothing about how it affects your pinky toe, or how the 4th toe still remains different from your other toes. Watch the video to know how.

(I'm hoping doctors doing this surgery will consider my comments as feedback. The comments will help them realize the after affects with one-stage surgery and perhaps begin experimenting with new methods to remediate such issues.)

 

This photo is to demonstrate something I discuss in the video about the 4th toe.


After the video go to "Labels" on the right column of Blog and click on "Sciatic" and "Congestion". Those posts will help with understanding some of my discussion in the video.

Talk to you soon!

Been a While

Hi all... Getting use to closed shoes.

 

Shoes

Love these!

Sprain

I sprained and bruised my toe if you can believe that. Man, it hurts. I'll spare you all the details of why it happened, but basically it sits lower than my other toes and got caught on the carpet during an emergency with my dog Missy. Ouch!

But I'll survive. ;oD

Best Foot Pic EVER!

Now this is just about the best image of a foot I've seen yet.

Happy Feet

© Pioneer Professional Carpet Care

What is life like after Brachy, emotionally? I'm so glad you asked! Well, I don't feel as though something has been ADDED to my life. I feel like something has been TAKEN from it. There is an absence of concern for my feet. I no longer have to think about it. Don't have to plan to hide them. Don't have to worry of exposure, etc. 

I was reminded of this when I was house hunting last week. It was raining, and when I opened the door to this home I saw the nice carpet so I flung off my muddy flip-flops on the outside stoop. I walked in and started talking to the home owner. Inside of me I stopped and realized my toes were enjoying the nice carpet and I wasn't trying to hide my feet. I was smiling ear to ear.

Truth is, without my surgery I would have planned my day when I got dressed. I would have been forced to wear sneakers with socks. So that if I had to remove my shoes in a home my socks would back me up. I'm freed not to have to do that in the morning when I get dressed. Praise God.
 

Another little something. (I discovered this 10 years ago when I started venturing to wear open shoes.) The skin of your feet will be much dryer. Brachyers who wear closed shoes all the time usually have suppler skin on their feet because they are not exposed to the elements.

So if you decide to start wearing flip-flops, with or without surgery, expect to have to pay much more attention to the care of your feet. More time and more money to keep your skin in good condition. It may seem to you like a small price to pay, but don't say I didn't tell you. ;o)

All I wear now is flip-flops. I have to scrub my feet everyday now. I use to scrub them before, but if I missed a day it was no big deal. Now I can't do that. With flip-flops your feet get real dirty and real dry. Constant maintenance. I don't mind though. ;0)

Tootles!

First Real Brachy-Free Summer

Howdy. Well, working from home I've spent most of my time in flip -lops. I sometimes wonder if that's a bad thing. Perhaps I should get my x-bunion sites and x-Brachy toe accustomed to closed shoes? I just can't bring myself to wear them at home.

So, my feet aren't perfect or the prettiest,
but I love them now regardless. 

(I'm thinking of adding a flower or something to these to make them a little more feminine.)

I always consider the alternative.

I wish I were out and about, able to share pictures with you of every wonderful place my feet will trod. I was sort of looking forward to experiencing all these new things with my new feet.

But I'm very stationary these days because I have an elderly dog at home to tend to. I can barely leave to go to the market. I'm a little shut in. It won't be forever though and I'll be sure to share it all with you when I get to do all those wonderful things.

Enjoy your summer!

When Did You First Notice Your Brachy?

If you read my first post you know how Brachy runs in my family (when it shoes up), and how many of them share Brachy with me.

My sister is one of those people. Here is a picture showing how her toe began showing signs of Brachy before me because she is older. It also shows how I was born with normal toes. Flat and wide, but normal looking. ;o)

Click to enlarge

So when did you first notice your Brachy?

I thought you'd like to see this close up. The blue is how it was, the red is about 6mo post-op.

Did you know that webbed toed are very common? I remember as a child I had a neighbor, Daniel, who had his 2nd and 3rd toe that way. With all the toe issues in my family it seemed so normal to have a friend with something like that. ;o)

As I mentioned in this past post, there is always someone who has it worse than you:

Check out this FB page of very special feet

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Some more shoes. I got these last summer. Again, way too over zealous, coudn't wear them. The straps are way snug. But today I put them on and VOILA! They don't hurt. Walked the dog, cleaned the house and all is well.

In fact they are tight in all the right places. And as I mentioned in this past post, "pressure" is the best thing for, (and to avoid), hypertrophic scaring. 

I'll leave you with a flower I've never seen before in my life. It came from a very tall and huge tree in the park.

CIAO!

Some inspiration if you're on the fence...

I did have my first ever professional pedicure on my cruise back in November, but I'm mostly a do-it-yourselfer. I haven't been back into a salon since.

Base coat is done.

I wish I had taken a photo of my Brachy toe in the sponge separator before my surgery, it looked crazy-funny!

Decisions, decisions...

Hmmmm, what color should I choose?

Waiting for my footsies to dry.

Purple it is!














I got these last summer while I still had sutchers. But I couldn't sport them.

They have a sunk-in center. And that put pressure on my bunionette site that still had sutchers. I couldn't believe how much it hurt when I wore these just 9 months ago.

But I can wear then now! I was way over zealous last summer! ;o)

Life without Brachy is great. It can be great with it too. Everybody is different. But I'm sure enjoying just flip-flopping and not thinking about hidding. Worth all I went through.

Hope this helps if you're on the fence. Tootles!

Future Brachy Doctors

Another little wonderful thing in reference to my last post, is that I have found some doctors viewing my Blog! That's SO great. If those of us who have had surgery document the POST affects, doctors can become educated and aware of what we are really feeling and experiencing.

This increases their knowledge and will help them treat their future patients.

Sometimes patients have difficulty voicing their honest thoughts/feelings, leaving surgeons in the blank.

So keep Blogging, it helps everyone. ;o)

The Number of Brachy Blogs Are Growing

So the number of Brachy Blogs are growing! I keep researching to keep myself up-to-date. I'm noticing people going through the surgery, putting their experiences online. Even more so, these are people who have read my Blog and have modeled their blogs after mine, using it as a guide as to what to include in theirs.

Do I mind this? NO I DON'T!

It's great. That's one of the objectives for creating mine. I don't want to be the only one providing information. Brachy-ers need to be able to research different methods, outcomes, locations, perspectives, etc.

At this point there are more External Fixater blogs than One-Stage. I hope more people doing the one-stage method will consider capturing their experience online for other to benefit. Also, there are next to none of Men! This needs to change too.

I realize it may be probable that a woman's Blog would be more detailed, but I'm not inclined to make that conclusion for all men, or say that it matters at this point. The Brachy world needs to hear from men who opt to have corrective Brachy surgery. (So if that's you, get crackin' ;o)

As always, these stories are on my right column (Other Correction Stories). This list is often updated.

IMPORTANT

I'm very happy to see that others going through this surgery have discovered what I did, that a 6 week recovery period is a gross understatement and misrepresentation of recovery.

Remember this past post?

Well, Chris read my past post, and found it to be true for herself. 7-weeks in, and this is her post. (It takes a whole lot of time.)

BUT SO WORTH IT! I just love my feet now. I wear flip-flops all the time and have to stop myself from looking at them. I'm so grateful to have had this opportunity. What a blessing?!

Take care I'll talk to you soon! Thanks for following!

I Can Wear My Old Stuff!

14mo post-op

I've had these shoes for about 10 years. They are made from denim. I didn't mind my Brachy in these but my bunions made it uncomfortable to wear because the big toe slot of the shoe is straight.

But now I can wear them! Isn't that great!?

 

Tootles!

Short Update

Howdy,

So on the treadmill, these are the happenings...

1. My pinky toe seems to still be experiencing some issues. It seems to get stuck in position in my sneaks. I should be going to the gym continually to let you know the consistency of this but I'm not. Shame on me.

Water blister.




2. Good News!
Remember this post about the Tendon situation?

Well after that post I went on a few challenging hikes. 6 miles, rugged terrain. and the tendon issue went away. YAY!

14th Month Post-Op!

 (8mo post-op for my left foot's bunionectomy)

Hi everybody, hope you are all enjoying Spring. I would love to be buying tons of new shoes, but I'm now working PT and on a budget. ;0) I don't have the room for new shoes anyway.

I did invest in 2 new pair that I intend to last the rest of the year. I really do like them. (2" wedge heel.)

They were pretty plain so I added the turquoise beads. ;o)

Again, you can see how my prior Brachy foot (left) is narrower than my non-Brachy foot. There is more space in my shoes as you can see below. I'm not leaning to any one side, I am standing straight with full bearing weight.

But aren't they pretty? Shopping is still sorta weird. I don't know my style yet with open toe shoes. Another complication is fashion trends. Somehow the styles of this year, platform 6" heels, aren't my thing. lol.

Tootles! KLU!