Having bunion/osteo Thurs May 22nd. There's a girls night out Id like to attend night of the 23rd? I know I may not be driving by then but will I even feel up to going out?
How long were you stuck to the house before you felt like getting back out into the real world?
(Im sooooo not going to be able to do this)

*chuckle* You sound like me! In fact, there were many days after the surgery that I was saying, "I am soooooo over this!", and, "I am soooo not doing the other foot!" Ha ha.......

I'm going take a leap here and say........um, yeah.......day after surgery you aren't going to feel like doing much of anything. You'll barely have gotten the feel for your "new" foot let alone get out and about and with other people. And forget about driving for a couple of weeks! By the way, which foot is it?? If it is your driving foot, then I believe you won't be driving for at least 4 - 6 weeks...at least.

Read more of these boards...you'll see what kind of endurance your going to need for this. I too thought, "Oh. Piece of Cake. I'll be up and around 4 weeks tops." It took 7 weeks just to get a shoe on my foot! Some people take shorter, some longer. If you rush it, you'll end up doing more harm than good. Take the time to heal correctly...if you don't think you can do this now, how will you handle a repeat surgery to fix what hasn't healed right??

I was "stuck" in my house for about 6 weeks. In the 7th week I finally was able to find a pair of shoes that didn't scrape and press on the incision (mine is on the top of my foot) and that fit on my swollen foot which was about two sizes bigger than my normal size. I also could finally start to put partial weight on my surgery foot. In that 7th week, I was able to drive and run MAYBE one errand every couple of days. Just to walk from the car to the entrance of a store was an endurance trip of its own. It almost wasn't worth the effort because of the pain I experienced in trying to put weight on my foot.

I'm not saying any of this to scare you...only to help you get perspective on how long it really might take. I too was thinking it would be a short run. I'm at 3 months post op and I really can't see myself giving up another three months for the other foot at this point...yet, I know I still have to do the other foot. I'm still dealing with incision pain at 3 months post op. I never planned on that at all. I also still have some swelling in the ball of my foot and if I do any kind of exercise or walking my foot re-swells to post surgery size. You will have swelling up to a year after your surgery.

You will be fine. It is really not a good idea to go out with the girls, how about a girls night in, where they come over to your house? Your foot might hurt worse the second day, but some people find the pain not that bad. Personally, when I am in pain, I do not want to see anyone, but it might bring up your spirits to see your friends.

I would strongly recommend that you DO NOT go out on the 23rd, even if you feel up to it (unlikely). My doctor told me that if I stayed off my foot for the first 4 days, I would make life a lot easier for myself for the next 6 months. You really want to do everything you can to reduce swelling and movement in your foot for the first few days, which means keeping it elevated, icing every 20 minutes, and not moving except to go to the bathroom.

It personally took me a week to get out of the house. And let me tell you that I probably should have listened to my body and stayed home for another few days after that. But I promised myself that if I took it easy and followed Dr's orders for a full week, I would reward myself with a wild night out (dinner at Applebee's down the street with my bf). So, 7 days postop, I hobbled out in my surgical shoe and crutches. After two hours, I was in tons of pain and crawled into bed, but it was totally worth it! I can give you plenty of ridiculous stories about how I overreached my goals (for example, the time I got stuck on a scooter in the grocery store!) in the first two or three weeks. The good news is that I was walking around for small amounts of time after a week and a half, albeit very slowly and in clown shoes. At 6 weeks, I was feeling mostly back to normal, although I still overdo it sometimes.

Everyone IS different, so it's important to listen to your body and accept that you'll be limited for a while. If you can do that, you WILL be back at girls' night the next time around!

Stuck at the grocery store on a scooter? Oh come on...PLEASE tell that one!!:jester::D It is always great to have fun stories and humor to read when you are "stuck" at home!!

Let's see, there was the time, about the middle of last December, when I decided that having moved to the wonderful crutches, instead of hobbling with a cane, meant that I could "run" marathons with them. I'm 27, and most of my body is in excellent shape. In fact, I did manage a half-mile in about 10 minutes one day. A guy passed me running, looked like 5 or 6 minute miles, and I said, "Hah! I'm burning more calories than you!"

A couple days after that, my good leg gave up the ghost. Just quit, and left me sitting on the sidewalk. In an ice storm. (Don't try this at home, boys and girls, crutches do very poorly on wet ground and far worse on ice.)

3 or 4 people were moved by the Christmas spirit to get me a cab and more or less physically put me into it. I didn't leave home for days after that incident...

Of course, that was the motivation for finding a new doctor, which eventually led to a real diagnosis and my successful surgery. So, every ice storm has a silver lining, eh?

Stuck at the grocery store on a scooter? Oh come on...PLEASE tell that one!!:jester::D It is always great to have fun stories and humor to read when you are "stuck" at home!!

I just can't resist the chanting of the crowd! OK, let me try to make this short:

1 week post-surgery, I decide I'm ready to go to the grocery store w/ my bf. I thought I'd be fine with the scooter. First, you would expect that scooters would be available at both entrances. Wrong! I had to wait at one entrance for my wonderful (but unamused) bf to get in the scooter at the other end of the store and then ride past the registers to get to me. There truly are no words to describe the look on his face, so I won't even try. I get into the scooter, which has such little room in the basket. So my bf walks behind me with my crutches in a regular cart. Then, after about 3 aisles, the scooter starts beeping and the "low battery" light starts flashing. BF keeps telling me not to worry, there's NO WAY the scooter is going to run out of juice after 5 minutes. I keep getting anxious, and lo and behold, I start riding s-l-o-w-e-r and s--l--o--w--e--r. I make it back to the entrance just as the scooter dies...and there are two other people stuck with their dead scooters! So my poor bf is stuck finishing the shopping while I sit in the scooter (plugged into the wall), with my foot and surgical boot resting on the basket, and my crutches in the basket. At some point, I got terribly bored and started talking on my cell phone. Every time someone walked in, they stopped mid-conversation to look at me, relaxing on a scooter in front of the Acme. I guarantee everyone thought I was nuts!

Just to put the cherry on top, the name of the scooter is "Amigo." With friends like these...... :D

Great story!! I had a great time laughing! And the visual!:D

maybe we ought to start a thread for "funny foot stories"?

Day after surgery .. not
You may not be in as much pain as day 3 or 4 as you might still have some of the effects of the local they give at surgery.. but regardless of the pain.. the risk to your foot at that point is not the best idea. You just had your toe broken and reset.. if the foot gets bumped or hit or you trip or anything..you could make things much worse..
I had to give up a trip to tennis camp with my husband and friends who are all going (and this is 10 weeks post) because there is no way I will be ready to run on it. I was really upset at first but then decided there will be other chances. .I will do something else that weekend thats fun and the most important thing right now is to be sure my foot heals and I don't delay any longer when I can go back to full activities again.. SO I am following docs orders to a "T"
Once you start reading posts on this board you will understand how impt that is..

How soon after surgery did people fly? I have a trip planned about 4 months after my surgery and I hoping that the foot will not swell in mid-air.

i think you will be able to fly without a problem.