Bunions: 4 1/2 months after surgery

Remember when you were little and your mom made you eat broccoli? And you hated it and didn't want to talk about it? That's how I feel writing this update about my bunion surgery.

Please see the previous two posts for information about the surgery, severity of bunions, a link to a web site that gives you many perspectives about different surgeries and recoveries, etc.  Then regale yourself with this lovely (albeit distorted) shot of my new feet.  I just took my shoes and socks off, so my feet have "sock wrinkles" all over them.  That's partly because they always look wrinkled when I take my shoes off.  But they are especially wrinkled and strange-looking now because my feel are still swollen from surgery.  It takes six months for the swelling to subside and a full year for the foot innards to heal.  The doctor says the scars are coming along fine, but despite bending my toes on a regular basis, the left big toe is too stiff.  I have an appointment scheduled for some contortionist thing he plans to do to them, which requires that I take Valium before he injects something into each foot to make it numb because whatever he does would normally hurt like hell.  Naturally, I'm looking forward to it.  [sarcasm]

4 1/2 months post-op

Crimony, I must be a masochist to post this photo.  But honestly, if I had known I had bunions, I would have gotten help before they got so bad.  So if writing about my experiences will prevent even ONE person from going through what I've gone through, it's worth showing this.  Okay, so the main point here is that my feet are nice and straight.  If that's important to you, you'll probably be thrilled with your surgery results.  As for me, I am satisfied that each foot resembles a foot.  I just want to be able to walk more than five miles at a time and ride my bike for a couple of hours.  Bike riding season starts in about 4 to 6 weeks, depending on weather. 

To limber up in anticipation of cycling, I took my first mall walks recently. The first one was quite brief.  The second one may have been 3/4 of a mile and I was achy and exhausted afterwards.  Feel free to call me a wimp, if you like, since I cannot hear you.  I have better luck with my stationary bike, which I can ride for half an hour at a time.

UPDATE JULY 8, 2014:   I had a cortisone shot back in February that hurt like bloody hell, even though I was on painkiller and the doctor used a topical anesthetic before he injected my foot; afterwards, I could walk well, without pain and it was glorious.  But the pain returned in six weeks.  And the shot hurt so much, I will never agree to it again.  Today, over nine months since surgery, the foot swelling continues.  Walking makes my feet ache and I have trouble walking more than 45 minutes.  When I'm barefoot, my walking looks weird and stilted, as if I am somehow limping, yet I am favoring neither foot.  The bottoms of my feet sometimes feel sunburned.  My little toes, which were so very tightly squished in the bandages last autumn, actually hurt just as much as my big toes, which took the brunt of the surgery.  Bike rides are no problem, however, and that is enormously important to me.  Sorry, to those of you contemplating surgery, that I cannot give a more encouraging report.  I am not happy about it, either.  But when I think about all the other medical problems that exist in the world, I think I am lucky.

dj runnels
Life's an Expedition on Etsy.

Bunion post-op update. The agony of de feet.

Isn't this cute yet somehow sad?

It has been over four weeks since I had bunion surgery on both feet.  I walk like Frankenstein, which seems appropriate since yesterday was Halloween.  My feet are still bandaged and probably will be for another three weeks.  I tried to get a photo of my unwrapped feet while I was at the doctor's office, but I blacked out--not from the sight of my feet, but from the excruciating pain.  If you want to see gory photos of stitches and swelling, the internet can provide you with plenty.

I'll give you a few highlights of post-surgical progress, but remember, how you fare after your own bunion surgery depends on how severe they are and what type of procedure you have done. (See post just prior to this one.)  My bunions were severe and I needed an osteotomy on each foot, plus some fancy bone drilling on one foot.  I'd lost a lot of cartilage on one toe.  Curse you, Mrs. Lipman!  (My ballet teacher.)

After one week, I went to the doctor, who removed the bandages.  He happened to mention, "This is going to hurt," a split-second before grabbing a foot and re-wrapping it.  On a scale of 1-to-10, the pain was a startling 8.  Not as agonizing as childbirth (a 10), but it made me cry and I started shaking.  Fortunately, I was tanked up on painkiller.  But all the progress I'd made in the first week seemed to disappear, because I hobbled out of there as if I had just had surgery all over again.  Two days later, after applying ice packs for many hours, I felt better.  And when I say ice packs, I really mean bags of frozen peas.  They drape around the foot better than crushed ice.

Two weeks post-op, I went back for a bandage change, tanked up on a larger dose of painkiller.  This part of the proceedings went better than last time, but then my doctor did something I did not expect.  He bent the big toe on each foot forward and backward as far as he could, to gauge range of motion.  On a scale of 1 to 10, this was a freaking ten.  It was brief--just a few seconds--but very intense.  He says that when he does the toe-bending, sometimes his patients yell at him, order him to stop or even kick him.  I was better behaved than that, but it took enormous will power.

Some patients refuse to let him bend their toes during this phase of recovery and even refuse to bend their toes themselves at home between doctor visits.  Unfortunately, these patients then end up with severely stiff toes that do not make contact with the ground.  The toes stick up and won't flex when the patient tries to walk.  It's a major problem and ...I guess it cannot be undone...? I'm not sure if it's permanent or not, but dammit, I am NOT going to find out.  I know the importance of having it done, so I let the doc bend my toes.  I cannot sugarcoat it.  It hurts.  Or at least, it hurt like hell to have my doctor do it at two, three and four weeks post-op for the type of surgery that I had done.  I've heard other people say the whole bunion thing was no big deal.  I don't know why it varies so much from one person to another.

Three weeks post-op, the doctor recommended that I bend my toes myself 2 or 3 times a day.  He says I don't have to bend them as far as he does, but I need to start bending them a little more each time and make progress each day.  When I bend my own toes, the pain is mild--perhaps a 2 on a scale of 1 to 10, plus I feel better knowing I have control over the pain.  Even as I increase the range each day, I still only feel a level 2 pain.  And bending my own toes frequently in the course of the day does have the added benefit of helping me walk (or hobble) increasingly better, without crutches.  It is only when my doctor bends them, really forcing the range of motion, that the pain is intense.  At one visit, I started blacking out.  At another visit, I nearly threw up.  But as intense as it was, it only lasts a few seconds.

The bunions, before surgery.

So, if I had it to do over again, would I still have this surgery?  I can't answer that yet, since I am only four weeks through recovery.  But I don't think I had much choice.  I suspect I will never be able to run or dance again.  But walking and cycling are vitally important to me and I was beginning to have trouble with both.  I'm hopeful for a good outcome.  Meanwhile, I sleep a lot and feel achy from lack of exercise.

Hope this info helps, but without giving you nightmares.

dj runnels
Life's an Expedition on Etsy.  Yes, I survived and I continue to make awesome things for you.