Life after a MTP fusion

sorefootsophie

Hi Lizzy, Good to hear from you!! Are you walking around in regular shoes now? I am not quite where you are yet...I am still wearing a boot (and a cast on the other foot for another 2 1/2 weeks). I am supposed to start wearing a shoe instead of the boot for a couple hours a day and gradually increase if there is no pain and/or swelling. So I put on my running shoe today (they are one size bigger than normal) and went and did the grocery shopping. When I got back my foot was sore and a little swollen so back in the boot!! I wonder if ice still does any good??

1. So, since the toe is fused and is supposed to be bone...if someone were to step on my toe, would my toe break or just hurt a little?
I did ask my doctor this and he said it will be one bone when fused totally. It would be as if someone stepped on any of your other bones....if any of your other bones would break...so would this...but it will be as strong as any other bone.

I'm sorry that I can't answer any other questions for you but I will wait to see what others say. I was told that after complete healing there would be no restrictions on footwear but I probably would not be able to wear a heel higher than 1-1 1/2 inches. (That seems a long way off!)

I have another question to add to the list...I hope you don't mind. When I tried to move the joint for the doctor...it actually seemed like the joint itself was moving and felt that way too! There was no pain trying to move it but it is numb. So numb that I couldn't feel the doctor squeezing it!! There was (and still is) a clicking that I thought was the joint but the doctor said it was probably a tendon since the tendons above and below the joint are still working. My joint line is still partially visible. Does anyone else have this clicking?

Thanks for your help and good luck with continued healing Liz!! (I posted earlier on the other fusion thread.) Sophie

lizzy21

Hi Sophie!
It is great to hear from you I am so glad that you are able to walk now in a shoe, even if it is only for a little while!!!

I am wearing a shoe pretty much all day long (when I am in class and at my practicum site), but just go around barefoot when I am at home. My foot is swelling still, but it seems to get a little better everyday. I don't have a clicking feeling in my toe, but my foot in general clicks sometimes.... I am guessing it is from being immobile for so long.

Thanks for answering my question! I hope we can get someone out there to answer the rest


Liz

janieab

Hi Lizzy.

In answer to a couple of your questions. The doctor told me that it takes up to a year or more for the fusion site to totally solid. Up to that point I guess it could be a little weaker but I'm not sure.

The clicking in the foot could be the tendons and such getting reacquainted with walking. I am still using a can of soup to roll my foot over the top of it to stretch the tendons. It helped with the clicking I had and also the side of my foot where the big toe was fused.

Glad to hear that you are back in shoes. Swelling could take up to 6 months or more to lessen (from what I heard!)

Janie

eko

Hi all-

Prettier shoes and a small heel, give it about a year for things to settle down. It will take about 9 to 12 months for things to feel "normal".

Running, if your doctor says okay, go for it, but have a good supportive shoe. Also the walking with some pain, normal for awhile. Remember your foot just had a traumatic experience and is adjusting to a new "normal".

Calf tightness, sounds like you need to start doing some calf stretching exercises regularly. With the toe fused, my calf seems tighter then normal, so I just do more calf stretches during the day.

-eko

__________________
"Every good has a better and every bad a worse."

lizzy21

Thank you all so much for your replies!


Liz

kimann

Hi, Liz! Some pain/swelling are going to persist for some months. One poster from awhile back said it can take a year for a normal size and the feeling of "nothing ever happened" to return.
Clicking, wow, I didn't know tendons did it. I have it in the front of my ankle and thought it was scar tissue on ligaments. I reckon if it could be tendons as Janie and Ellen suggest, maybe it WILL go away, we just gotta be more patient, LOL! I pray you will just keep getting better!!!
Kim <--- Not so patient