Help!! Nerve pain in big toe following scarf osteotomy for bunion on right foot.
Hi Everyone,
I am new to these boards and after doing a lot of reading I've decided to post. On Wednesday June 13th I had surgery for a bunion on my right foot, I had a scarf osteotomy with a bone graft. I had IV sedation with a nerve block. The first few days were painful but more of a pressure pain from the swelling. It wasn't until Tuesday the 19th when I started experiencing a nagging, irritating burning, pinching, pulling pain on my big toe at the base of the toe nail and it actually extends down 4-5" onto my foot (near my inciscion). I do still have numbness of my big toe, the outside of my big toe from the tip to the base. At first it was just really irritating and I thought it was my sutures pulling on my dressings, but that was not the case. I am 1 week and 4 days post op and the burning, pinching pain is so severe and constant that I sit in tears unable to concentrate on anything. I have talked to my podiatrist on Wednesday at my 1 week post op appt and she said it sounds like nerve pain. She also mentioned that I seem to be very swollen still, more than she expected. She checked for a hematoma and said everything looked good. I do notice that I get some relief from my hydrocodone 5/500 but it usually takes an hour or more to give my toe relief and even then it only lasts for a short amount of time. My doctor prescribed neurontin 300mg 1/day for 10 days, I'm going into day 3 of the meds and I've noticed that when I wake in the morning for about 5 min the pain in my toe is gone but before I get too excited, it's back and as strong as ever. My pod has mentioned if I don't see any relief from the neurontin she wants to send me to a pain mgmt specialist for cryo laser therapy. Does anyone have experience with this?
Can anyone give me advice or support. My bunion surgery has turned into a nightmare of constant pain.
Thank you,
Sabrina
Re: Help!! Nerve pain in big toe following scarf osteotomy for bunion on right foot.
Gosh, I'm so sorry. I had a bunionectomy, a bone spur shaved off and all 4 hammertoes corrected and pinned... a bit over a month ago now. I only had that kind of pain the first few days, so that definitely doesn't sound normal.
I would notice that if I didn't keep my foot elevated pretty much 24/7 for the first 3-4 weeks the swelling would really be uncomfortable. Are you elevating as much as you can? I know it's a pain, but it truly does help. Also, when my pain was truly horrible, my ortho surgeon ok'd the use of motrin when the pain pills weren't enough. I took 800mg when the swelling was at its worst, and it really helped a lot (along with the pain pills).
I've had friends who have done the cold laser therapy and they swear by it for pain relief.
Last edited by CrochetAddict; 06-23-2012 at 11:13 AM.
Re: Help!! Nerve pain in big toe following scarf osteotomy for bunion on right foot.
Hi, thanks for your response. I do elevate 24/7, except for the 3 minutes when I take a bathroom break. I've done this since day one, I'm also still icing, 20 minutes every hour. I had backed off to 20 min everytime I took a pain pill but decided to increase the icing, it really hasn't helped. Due to the swelling I can't even use my crutches because the pain and pressure of my foot dangling behind me is so intense, I'm using a wheelchair for trips to the bathroom. I had no idea my surgery would go in this direction. thank you again for your response.
Help!! Nerve pain in big toe following scarf osteotomy for bunion on right foot. 
