Day 16---Austin Bunionectomy

bigbadfeet · 09-24-2003, 11:13 PM

Hi everyone

I wanted to give a belated update of my surgery. Would have done it sooner, but I've been staying at my boyfriend's since the surgery and I couldn't access this site from his computer....didn't have my password. I hope to do a decent job with the chronology here, but since I wasn't writing on a regular basis, it's all from memory now.

Surgery was on Sept 8, right foot. Chevron cut with two permanent screws.
My foot didn't look too bad before. Not nearly as bad as some photos I've seen online. Toe wasn't angled much, and the bump was noticeable, but not real prominent. I had the surgery done because of pain, not cosmetic reasons. I'm 45, slim, but not athletic.

I was concerned about post op pain (see my earlier post) but I didn't feel anything when I woke up. The local anesthetic keeps it numb for awhile. I did take a Vicodin before we started the 1 1/2 hour ride to my boyfriend's house because I wanted to kill any pain before it started. I was in a splint and on crutches.

The first night I got very little sleep and took Vicodin every 3 hours. I know this was because of my boyfriend's tendency to move around a lot when he sleeps and every time he shifted or moved his legs, it jiggled the bed and thus my foot. I was about ready to go through the ceiling. I couldn't bring myself to wake him and kick him out of his own bed, but I told him the following morning. He volunteered to spend the remainder of the 2 weeks on the couch. I slept much better after that. The next two days I slept a lot, actually. Decreased pain med a lot as the days went on, taking only at bedtime by day 3 or four.
The pain really was minimal except for that first night.

I learned that crutching is exhausting and I spent most of my time in bed with my foot elevated. I used ice packs even though I couldn't really feel it through all the bandages, but I figured if the bandages got cold from the ice pack then a little of it would seep through to my foot. Couldn't hurt.
Took first bath on day three. Had to climb a spiral staircase to do it. Went up on my butt and came down the same way. That was exhausting too.
Learned to wash my hair in the sink, since I couldn't shower.

At my 1 week visit, I got the splint changed and my surgeon showed me the stretching exercise to do in order to gain back mobility.
I was afraid to look at my foot at first, but it wasn't really too awful. Big toe was partly purplish-red. Green bruising on inside edge of my foot....where that fleshy part is right behind the arch. He told me I had "appropriate bruising", and said that if my other toes were bruised, he would know that I wasn't keeping my foot elevated. I had very little swelling. The incision was longer than I had expected and not straight. Slightly curved from the side of the bunion over toward the top of my foot.

The second week was pretty uneventful. I got better at crutching, but I noticed that my foot would throb when I got up, which it didn't do the first few days. Every day was a little bit different....some new sensation would crop up. I developed infrequent, sharp pains. Not horrible, but they got my attention. :-) And then there is the maddening itching that occurs on your leg, down inside the splint just out of reach. Arrggghhh!!!

This morning (Sept 24) I got the splint removed and was given the lovely black velcro shoe. I couldn't begin to walk in it when I first got up and had to crutch out of there. The Dr said I would gain strength quickly and within a few hours I was much better at hobbling around.

Now that I'm back home and more mobile, and also out of the elastic bandage, I've noticed some swelling. I have to be more diligent at keeping it elevated. Now that I can get around easier, it's too tempting to be up and around. Shame on me.

I guess that's about it. More than enough, probably. I don't usually chatter on about myself, but I know how helpful it is to be able to read about other's experiences when you are anticipating your own surgery. This website sure gave ME a lot of info.

Bye for now.....Janet

Terrimisu · 09-25-2003, 08:57 PM

The more of your posts I read, the more I'm liking your story. It sounds like I might have had the same kind of procedure.

But really, you are remarkable. Your boyfriend sleeps beside you? My poor husband has been on the couch since the day of the surgery. We're both afraid--me more than him for obvious reasons--that he's going to kick my foot in the middle of the night. He has that restless leg syndrome, and that's all I need is a good whack in the foot.

I just hope he doesn't need a chiropractor when all of this is over!

bigbadfeet · 09-25-2003, 11:18 PM

Terrimisu--

Oh, my boyfriend only slept in the bed on the first night. He spent the remainder of the 2 weeks on the couch. I'm sure he is thrilled to have his bed back now that I am out of his house.
Somewhere around day 5 or 7 I told him he could come back to his bed. My pain was practically nonexistant by that time and I felt bad about him sleeping on the couch and I knew it was bothering his back. But he said he was afraid he would kick me in his sleep. I hadn't even considered that because he's not usually quite THAT active in his sleep, just restless. But there's always a first time and we decided to play it safe.
I'm glad your recovery is going so well. It sounds like you will be back to your normal lifestyle in record time.

Janet