Weeks 10/11 - Breakthrough

There was a major breakthrough over the last two weeks - probably resulting from the combination of the very active exercising (swimming, running, badminton games), and the time that elapsed sing the surgery, allowing for natural healing. First, I noticed that the swelling decreased significantly; for the first time (for two years!) I have been able to see the dorsal tendon running to the toe over the affected joint. Second, the range of movement has significantly increased now (although it is not as good as the other toe yet). Third, the pain is minimal, I could run 4 miles non-stop @ 7 mph yesterday, and I could probably make another 3-4 miles - there was no pain while running (but obviously I am not as fit as I used to be before the surgery, I still need to rebuild my level of general fitness). And the nocturnal pain I wrote before about is gone.

I came to the point where I am very happy about the outcome of the surgery (4 weeks ago I was not so sure of this). My advice to all of you who undergo a similar procedure - do not give up, and move and exercise as much as you can (i.e. as much as the pain allows - but do not ignore the pain).

Week 9 - Back to court game

Very little to add. I am living a relatively normal life, the only bad thing is the night episodes of pain - I have not yet worked out what may be causing these; why lying on my back is OK, and any other position triggers the pain. If anyone has any idea, please let me know via comments.

The new thing is that on Friday I went to play badminton again - and I was really rubbish at it, as I was not able to move quickly on the court (and this is what is needed in this game). Hopefully, I will get better with time. I will be seeing my surgeon in a few weeks. If the pain does not go away by the end of October, I will probably consider a fusion. I will rather have a stiff toe without any pain. Anyone had it?

Week 8 - Coming back to normal life?

My foot feels quite OK now - I can wear any shoes I want, I do not seem to be much restricted in any activities. I ran regularly on the treadmill this week, up to 8.5 mph, and up to 30 mins. On Friday I was ready to play badminton - but it was cancelled during the summer holidays. It would be interesting to check how I could cope with the active rapid movements in all directions as well as jumps during the game. Yesterday tried throwing and catching a rugby ball with my son in the garden, I had to run & jump after the ball, it was surprisingly OK.

Occasionally, I get very strong at night, which wakes me up and I have to change the position of the body. The pain occurs when I am sleeping on my belly or on the side, but when I change to lying on my back, the pain subsides immediately. Difficult to say why.

The range of movements is still very restricted - plantar ~30 degrees actively (with my own muscles) up to 45 passively (with the help of my hand). Dorsal approx. 30 degrees no matter if I try to help it or not. But I must say that I am not very disciplined in training the range of movement (although I am staying very active).

To summarize - the recovery is not spectacular (as it was for the first 2-3 weeks after the surgery), but there is clearly a lot of progress.

Week 7: The Last Stitch...

... hopefully? My feet were bitten by furious mosquitoes, and I was scratching my toe when I felt something unusual (I had thought it was a re-growing hair). I took my wife's tweezers and pulled out a half-inch piece of suture...

That was the only change since last week. I can hardly see any improvement, and on two nights this week I felt a horrible pain in one body position (but cannot remember what it was. The pain was severe and I could not sleep - but when I changed the way I was lying, things were OK again.

A good thing is that I went to the gym today and managed to run 8.5 mph - and actually the pain while running is not more than while walking. Interestingly, I feel most pain at night when I am sleeping, and in the morning until I "warm-up".

I expect it to be gone in a few months!