My doctor was really conservative on top of the mutliple procedures. I don't know how much was his usual and if there was more caution because of how long I waited; I am not sure that everyone gets a walking cast with him but I only think that because at one point he said I'd get a boot around 8 weeks and his resident said at 6 weeks. Instead I got the walking cast at 6 weeks and it came off at 10. That may have intentionally been to take care of my Achilles issue too; they didn't explain a lot and sometimes I didn't think to ask. My podiatrist planned a crazy quick Brostrom recovery-he said 2 weeks in a cast, 2 weeks in a boot and then a few weeks in a brace. I'm glad he didn't do the surgery...Not thrilled with him anyway because he also didn't do anything about the MRI reporting saying that there was something on the edge of the scan on my Achilles that it recommended be scanned again and that was my nodule before it got painful. I think if he'd noticed that and casted it early on I might have avoided some pain. But I wasn't complaining that my Achilles hurt so maybe he thought it was nothing.
My casts were extra large as well, from above normal at the knee to over my toes at the foot. My niece thought it was pretty funny that I couldn't tell what toes I was wiggling and she liked to look into the cast and tell me if I was moving all 5. The longer cast did what it was supposed to do and protected my toes but made steps really hard. I had to have home health PT at 2 weeks to help me get up the stairs safely because I couldn't bend my knee behind me enough and with it sticking straight out I would catch it and tip. I had to get really strong at hopping with it awkwardly far out using one crutch.
I am sure having to wait on all this joint stuff to have a baby is so hard. I would have had a much harder time waiting to have this surgery if I had something big waiting on recovery like that. I guess it gives you something to really look forward to. Don't focus too much on your sisters. I know that's hard but my mom had a very hard time getting pregnant with me and then I had early menopause starting around age 33 or so. My mom also had early menopause. My sister has been fine and has 2 girls that were born when she was 31 and 34 and she hasn't had issues with early menopause or any other issues that I had signs of (my gyn thought I had symptoms of PCOS although my ovaries were clear; I had a number of symptoms though and that seemed reasonable although when my tubes were removed they had narrowed so much that the pain had been from eggs getting stuck which was kind of a huh? diagnosis that was just weird. There are so many factors at play with fertility just being your healthiest self is the best thing you can do. Which I'm sure doesn't help since you've had to be patient through so much but at least this time you are hopefully on the other side of this orthopedic mess.
I think after dealing with orthopedic issues for a long time it becomes hard to believe they are ever going away. I'm doing so well but every so often step on a cat toy or take a misstep or something and even when the ankle holds I have to remind myself that it wasn't a fluke, that it is going to hold up from now on. I have a feeling that's going to remain until spring when I am not trapped at home by ice and snow so much (the thing I will not test this leg out on). When you have something waiting for you I'm sure that's even more true. But they will get better. When the dr started talking about basketball and tennis after 5 years of that not being something I could think about I knew that I had the proof that this really does work, given time to heal and all that.
I know though that "take it one thing at a time" can be the hardest advice on earth to follow. It is for me with many things. I thought that would improve as I got older and wiser but it definitely did not

. It doesn't seem to matter who says it, it just isn't advice that comes naturally to me. At all. Ever. No matter what they say to enforce it. I think if I ever learn that it will be the biggest life lesson I master, possibly.