had bunion surgery (mitchell) yesterday and I'm swollen!!
My mom arrived late Thursday night and she'll be here for 2 weeks taking care of me. We left the house at 8am yesterday so I wasn't able to show her where things are etc. Surgery went fine, my foot was sore but more from pressure rather than pain. Yesterday I was up a bit and this morning I had to show her something and I fell on my butt! I banged my foot but I don't think I hit my toes. That was around 9am. Slowly my foot has been swelling because I feel the pressure against the cast and it's what is painful. I've got it elevated, been icing it and yet it's still throbbing. I've had the ice pack behind my knee as well. Actually, the weight of the ice pack was even a bit painful. Any other ideas as to what I should do? I know I overdid it yesterday and now I'm paying for it. I'm used to being independent so having to ask someone to do everything for me is very difficult.
Re: had bunion surgery (mitchell) yesterday and I'm swollen!!
Fast forward 9 hours and it's getting worse. The tylenol 3's aren't doing anything for the pain. I can move my toes but I feel the pressure on both the top and bottom of my foot. Hopefully I can get some sleep tonight.
Re: had bunion surgery (mitchell) yesterday and I'm swollen!!
Continue to ice and elevate and if you wake up tomorrow with pain from pressure of the swelling and it won't go down and the pain meds aren't working, I would put a call in to your doctor. Good luck and let us know how it is!
Re: had bunion surgery (mitchell) yesterday and I'm swollen!!
It doesn't feel as bad today, still have lots of pressure on the top of my foot but now the bottom of my foot is cramping and because of the cast I can't stretch the muscles to get rid of the cramp.
Has anyone else had this problem? What did you do because it's driving me nuts!!
Re: had bunion surgery (mitchell) yesterday and I'm swollen!!
I think I had a couple episodes of arch cramping but they never were full on Charlie horse type stuff, thankfully. I luckily had enough room in my cast to shift my position enough to get the cramp to stuff. I also had calf cramps and these involuntary twitches on my foot or leg or it would jump. Those would be painful and I actually took a muscle relaxer on the days that was bad and it would calm it down. Sorry I am not much help.
Re: had bunion surgery (mitchell) yesterday and I'm swollen!!
What has helped me recover from the pain in my most recent surgery (as I'm really lame in taking care of myself) is RICE: Rest, Ice, Compression, and most important, Elevation. Also, taking my meds on time before the pain came back.
I basically parked myself on my sofa with tons of pillows under my leg, propped my bandaged foot on the top of the sofa packed in gel packs and watched Netflix, read books, went online, gabbed with friends and family, etc.
When I needed to use the bathroom, I had a chair waiting for me in front of the toilet so I could rest my foot on top of it as the added blood pressure from putting my foot down just killed me!
As long as my foot was above my chest, the pain was bearable.
Sounds like you have an aircast/CAM walker? I'm not sure if you can massage your calf in order to try to get rid of the foot cramps. I had a velcro surgical shoe so I was able to lift my leg and do ankle rotations to try to get rid of my cramping.
Rest up though. Hope this helps.
Re: had bunion surgery (mitchell) yesterday and I'm swollen!!
So I'm on day 15 and things are going good. The first week was bad - I was taking tylenol 3's and Advil Nighttime. I stopped the Advil after 5 days (so says the instructions on the box) but I took it twice this week when my foot was aching and I knew sleep would be hard to come by.
This is strange though - the 5 days ended on Tuesday night but last Thursday I couldn't sleep - I was up from 7am Thursday morning until 11:30pm Friday night. And it happened again last night - right now it's 12am Saturday night/Sunday morning and I've been up since 9am Friday morning. And I'm not tired?!?! I took the Advil on Monday and Wednesday night this week. Has anyone ever had that happen??? I haven't pulled an all-nighter since college and even then, I didn't stay up for 37 hours!
Anyway, I don't have any more cramping which is wonderful but what I do have is a hard cast rubbing against my toes. My big toe and 2nd toe were being rubbed raw from the cast so I've been wedging cotton pads between them. Thankfully I go to the doctor on Monday to get the stitches out and the cast changed.
Getting to the point - today I noticed that my toes feel funny. When I just let my foot relax it feels like someone is gently pushing down on my toes - so I find myself flexing my toes to stretch them back out. Is this a nerve thing? Is it normal??
Also, my foot doesn't feel swollen or hurt any more (the odd sharp pain) so I haven't really been keeping it elevated and iced the last 2 days. Right now I can feel the throbbing but I've had it down a lot today and I've been crawling up and down the stairs doing laundry. Should I continue to elevate and ice?? opinions please??
Re: had bunion surgery (mitchell) yesterday and I'm swollen!!
Ok first, yes continue to ice and elevate. The ice also decreases inflammation not just pain (it decreases the inflammation which decreases the pain) and there's more swelling going on under there than you realize (in the ankle part you can't see). I'm glad it isn't so bad you feel it in your cast unless you think that's why the cast is rubbing your toes raw? I'm glad your getting your cast changed on Monday! Surprised your doc's office is open though! As far as the lack of sleep...narcotics can not only make you sleepy (which is what they do for most people), but they can also do the opposite and wire you or make you stay awake (lortab will do this to me). Not saying that's definitely what's going on, but could be. Could be your body's way of dealing with the stress it's under with surgery and recovery. Maybe only take the Advil PMs when you aren't asleep by midnight to 1am? Cause you said it doesn't happen every night right? Or if you don't want or need the Advil every time you can't sleep, there are other OTCs that have just the benadryl in them (unison, etc) and then there's the natural melatonin in Midnite. If it keeps it up (because that is strange and not conducive to a great recovery), tell your doctor and see what they recommend. Another thing you can try (but it does require an Rx from your doctor) is Vistaril. It's an anti-histamine (like Benadryl), but stronger and it also potentiates the effects of narcotics (so makes them stronger) and a lot of doctors (mine included) give it with narcotics to help not only make the meds stronger, but to help patients sleep and some people say it helps if there's any nausea with the pan meds. So there ya go! I know the insomnia is frustrating. I've struggled with it for years and I take Ambien now every so often when it strikes! Hope that helps!
Re: had bunion surgery (mitchell) yesterday and I'm swollen!!
thanks for the reply hollywood48.
I'm positive that the insomnia is from the Advil PM. Although I'm on other meds I've never taken the Advil before so I can't think of any other explanation. I was up till 4am this morning - awake for 43 hours.
I was mainly taking the Advil because I'm a side sleeper and I didn't think I'd sleep well with my foot in the air. I toss and turn a lot and wake up each time so I had to take care not to just swing my foot around as I turned over. I was hoping they'd knock me out so I wouldn't move around as much and it worked. After this second time of staying up I won't be taking the Advil any more. It served its purpose. Thankfully the pain wasn't as bad as it could have been so I didn't use all my Tylenol 3's. I just have to remember to take them before my appointment tomorrow.
I'm in Canada so tomorrow isn't a holiday for us - last Monday was our holiday - Victoria Day.
Now that the swelling is down the cast feels like it's huge with my foot flopping around in it. Sometimes it rubs on the stitches but it's not too bad. When they made my cast they didn't specifically wrap my big toe but they did put a bit of the cast between my toes to separate them and that's the part thats rubbing. I hope when I get the next cast they don't do it again. I had my left foot done 24 years ago and I don't remember having my toes separated - and the bunion never came back. But from what I've read on here some people end up with a cast, others the velcro shoe and others the air cast. I guess it's the doctor's preference??
I don't have that "someone's pushing on my toes" feeling today but I also haven't been as active as I was yesterday. Maybe they're related, maybe not???
Re: had bunion surgery (mitchell) yesterday and I'm swollen!!
Ah gotcha on the holiday! What province? I've been to Ontario and BC twice and about to go again! I'm glad you figured out the cause of your insomnia! 43 hours! Ugh! Can honestly say I've never heard of Advil causing that, but there's a first time for everything! I'm just glad you figured it out. I am also surprised they separated your toes in the cast! I think that would drive me crazy! Hopefully, they won't do that tomorrow! How did they do that if they didn't wrap the cast material around/through your toes? What color cast do you have and will you get tomorrow? Glad you don't have the pushing on your toes feeling and it's normal for the cast to get loose the more the swelling goes down. Your new one should fit better. Good luck tomorrow, take your meds before you go and let us know how it goes!!
I was surprised when I went today and he didn't give me another cast - I'm wearing a toe splint and the velcro shoe. And he said I can start walking on the heel too - I didn't expect that either.
They removed 11 pins/sutures and it was quite painful (even though I took pain meds). I had another all nighter last night - been up since 10:30am yesterday, I haven't eaten much today and it's freaken hot for May. 30 degrees celcius and with the humidity it's 39. So 86F and feels like 102. I live in a small town south of London, Ontario. Anyway, after she pulled out the first four or five I started sweating and felt faint so she took a break. I just kept sweating so I told her to go ahead and pull the rest of them, if I was lucky I'd pass out and I wouldn't feel it. When she was done I had to wipe the sweat off my arms and legs but I didn't faint. The only time I felt like that was when I was donating blood and I didn't eat or drink enough during the day.
The pushing the toes feeling is back again and now that I'm out of the cast it kind of feels like someone's pulling on my big toe. I can't move the toe and I know I should start massaging the incision but it's just so gross. I can't even watch when they put the needle in my arm when I donate blood. blech!!
all in all without the cast my foot feels weird. I can't even begin to describe it. But I know I'll be elevating it and icing it again.
Re: had bunion surgery (mitchell) yesterday and I'm swollen!!
Poor thing!! Sorry you had such a hard time at the doctor today! Ugh! Sorry the pushing on your toes feeling is back too! I know that has to be annoying! Hang in there and keep icing and elevating!
I had bunion surgery April 5, was in a cast with the surgical shoe for two weeks then the cast was removed and another one put on. The rubbing of the cast seemed to cause more irritation than the surgery. The second cast was removable so I could shower without worrying about getting it wet. I think I know what your foot is feeling like and it's hard to describe. It feels kind of tight and pulls and just plain wierd?
I had the second cast removed 3 weeks ago and have been going for physio to make sure I don't hurt any other joints while I try to get my foot working properly again. I was told the full recovery would be at least 3 months so I guess I just need to keep walking.
By the way, I'm in Chatham so not far from you!
The tylenol 3's aren't doing anything for the pain. I can move my toes but I feel the pressure on both the top and bottom of my foot. Hopefully I can get some sleep tonight.
