I am supposed to return to full weight bearing this week. (three weeks post bunion op) I am a little nervous.

Will it hurt? How will I know if it is a "normal" pain or if something is wrong? Where does it hurt? At the side or underneath? Did everyone here return to fwb all at once or a little at a time? I am still in the velcro shoe for three more weeks, by the way.

I am expecting it to hurt but don't know how much to try and push myself.

I did drive today, a day early, and it was fine.

Edit on 7.18.06 -- Now that I have been driving and walking a bit I see that the stitched area on the top of my foot is oozing a little bit. Yuck. I thought that was completely closed but I guess I was wrong. It just has steri-strips on it right now. Should that be happening at three weeks?

evelyn...i actually went out and bought some steristrips....bc i removed a couple of them, a bit early, and wanted to press the incision back together. it does seem like it was still oozing a bit, at 3 weeks post-op...but not much. as long as it doesn't look like the incision is infected, i'd think it would be ok...but if you have concerns, you should be checking with your doc.
i do think it's pretty cool that they can use dissolving stitches on the inside, and steri-strips on the outside....and everything knits back together!
i had foot 2 done, 3 weeks after foot 1...so foot 1 was fully weightbearing at that point -- meaning that it bore all of my weight --- the weight was still on my heel, not my toes. it did hurt a bit, but nothing a little advil couldn't help.

both my OS and PT have expressed the attitude that this is something you can't just sit through...you've got to continue to push yourself, if you want to continue healing -- but that's me. again, i'd check with your doc.

Thanks Moondancer. I was a little hesitant last week, putting my foot down flat but not rolling through with my stride all the way to the balls of my feet.

This week I started walking correctly without even really thinking about it. I guess your body lets you know how far to go and when! And if anyone is wondering, it does not hurt a bit, although last week when I tried the full stride it did hurt and I let quite a few days go by until I tried again.

I think if I were wearing two of the same shoe (one is the velcro beauty) my stride would be perfectly normal. Two more weeks in the velcro shoe!