... 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!
01 July, 2012
14 comments :
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I have one more week of school teaching 3rd grade. I can't wait until it's over, for so many reasons, but especially for my toe. I keep trying to not wear my boot at work and every time I don't wear it, one of my students accidentally bumps into it somehow. It is quite painful when that happens. My weekends and evenings are so good without the boot that I keep thinking that I'll be okay without it at work. That is just not proving to be the case.
ReplyDeleteI was interested in your comment about feeling most of the pain in the morning until you "warm up." I am experiencing the same thing. I had this same surgery four years ago and I don't remember that experience. This time, however, I definitely notice more pain first thing in the morning. My foot as a whole feels stiff and tight until I've been up and moving around for a while.
Improvement is much harder to notice now. I had one night when I felt like I was doing worse than before, but that happened to be a day when I was "injured" at work. I am bending my toe some without having to use my hands. I still bend it with my hands a couple of times a day because I can move it more that way.
I remember from four years ago that it was swollen for quite a long time after the surgery so I am okay with the fact that I still experience swelling. I can be patient as long as I see improvement in my walking and how much I can bend my toe.
How many weeks after surgery are you? I am sure wearing the boot dies not help with the mobility of the toe. iI your case it seems to be a compromise, since you are exposed to injuries at work, and an injury to the joint during the healing process is the last thing you need.... . Hopefully the summer holidays will give you a great opportunity not to wear the boot, and your improvement will be much faster.
DeleteI am seven weeks post-surgery. I am looking forward to not needing to protect it anymore. 3 1/2 more days. I am trying to make sure I spend time each morning and evening working on the mobility of the toe. I really don't want to wear the boot, but that has proven to be unwise.
DeleteThe good thing is that I think I can move my toe more than the other toe which I had surgery on four years ago. I think being paranoid about having to wear the boot is making me very aware of the need to work on the toe's mobility. (Last time I had the surgery on the first day of my summer vacation so I never wore the boot at work.)
5 weeks and 1 day post surgery, and I just had my 5 week follow up appointment with morning. He is happy with my range of motion, and has cleared me to start running again. The swelling he says is normal, and to continue to ice after hard workouts. I'm very happy with where I am at this point. After riding 53 miles last weekend it did swell a bit later on, but no "pain". Fine the next day. Same with 5 mile walks, elliptical, etc.
ReplyDeleteOf course, the first thing I did when I left his office was go straight to the gym and "test" it on the treadmill. Just 2 careful miles. No pain, and I iced it afterwards. I'll try running tomorrow and see how it does on the roads.
I am still not comfortable in many of my dress shoes for work, but each week another pair fits......baby steps! The high heels are taking a back seat for quite a while.
Runner in VA
I'm five weeks post op. I have two spitting stitches according to the doc. She said they will work their way out. I can't see them even wit a magnifying glass. I can feel the as there is a hard callus bump over them. I soak each evening in hot epson salt water. Any suggestions????
ReplyDeleteI'm drawing to a close of week 7 post-op for cheilectomies on both big toes. Progress is slow now - so slow it is invisible. Looking at other comments on this blog, this seems normal, so I'm not getting discouraged.
ReplyDeleteI'm still experiencing a "tearing" kind of burning pain in my left foot when I stretch it out (accidentally, usually when I'm asleep), and any pressure or friction on the left surgical site triggers the same pain, but it's less frequent than it used to be.
Overall, my feet hurt the most when I wake up, and I hobble around until they warm up. My feet are still not tolerating all of my shoes, so I'm sticking with running shoes and very loose fitting old dress loafers - I'm still too swollen, apparently, to fit into my good loafers.
I can walk, but still can't really run without pain, and I'll get some kind of inflammatory, itchy swelling pretty readily with activity. Sometimes the itching is really intense. I can bike alright, but it does make my feet sore. I can walk more or less indefinitely, but my feet start sore and stay that way.
The character of the soreness has changed. I think my nerves have settled down to something more "normal" at this point. The right toe still tingles, but is getting better. My joints and bones are achy, and particularly on the inside of the foot. It feels like they are really bruised.
Toe flexibility has improved a bit. My left looks like almost 60 degrees, and the right is around 40 degrees. Both are dramatically better than pre-op, and still look limited by swelling.
END WEEK 7
ReplyDeleteWOW - THIS IS A BEAKTHROUGH ALLRIGHT
Here are my tracking statistics = week 7
general joint movement for walking (qualitative measure ):
pre op 25%
week 2 40%
week 4(end) 60%
week 7 (end) 85%
target 90%
Pain
pre op 1-4/10 but after exercise 4-7/10
week 2 5/10
week 4(end) 2-3/10
week 7 (end) 1-2/10
target zero
flexibility upwards (pull)
pre op 0-5 degrees - awful
week 2 40 degrees
week 4 (end) 40 - 45 degrees - good
week 5 ( end 45 degrees - excellent
target >40 degrees
in surgery surgeon said he had this to 90 degrees but i cant see how he ever did that - my good left foot has 45 degrees movt and thats all i need
flexibility downwards (using tendon)
pre op 40 degrees - very good
week 5 20 degrees - very poor
target 40 degrees as pre op
week 7 end - good but not as good as pre op
i walked 3 miles today an absolute joy
started physion this week - highly recommended
i am avoiding running on advice from surgeoon and physion till week 10 - 12
i am driving and wearing normal shoes
scar still red and small swelling - have amazing photo pre op and as of today - incredible
its xmas day - sorry now boxing day and i have just driven back from a day with the "in laws" - now at home with a strong neat whisky - first drink today - ive just seen that parsifal has kindly posted the photos take a look -last page on this brilliant blog - still however not fully recovered but the results as you can see so far are wonderful - i only dreamt that this would be so good - i will put my fit bit back on tomorrow and do a long boxing day walk - it was sore yesterday and today and my next physio appt is on the 8th jan - i have 5 booked appts but i am now sure this will be my breakthrough week - i have not yet been jogging as both physio and surgeon said i should avoid. i cant wait to run again and enjoy it like i used to do - personal thanks to parsifal for his initiative in setting up this blog - i travel for work to china , singapore cincinatti in the new year so it will need to mend up fast - amazing
Deleteparsifal i have a before and after photo of my foot -is there a way you could load it on the site - it shows the dramatic improvement
ReplyDeleteplease email to inwi00-parsifal@yahoo.co.uk - feel free to add a paragraph etc. I will create a page with your photos.
Deletemy fitbit step profile since the procedure
Delete6-Nov
7-Nov
8-Nov
9-Nov
10-Nov 1545
11-Nov 12975
12-Nov 380
13-Nov rest
14-Nov rest
15-Nov rest
16-Nov rest
17-Nov rest
18-Nov 1 mile
19-Nov 1 mile
20-Nov rest
21-Nov rest
22-Nov rest
23-Nov rest
24-Nov 8956
25-Nov 6361
26-Nov 8039
27-Nov 11497
28-Nov 1432
29-Nov
30-Nov 3669
1-Dec 7794
2-Dec 11033
3-Dec 3016
4-Dec 7937
5-Dec 10681
6-Dec 5890
7-Dec 9952
8-Dec 4945
9-Dec 11006
10-Dec 15655
11-Dec 7138
12-Dec 9417
13-Dec 4540
14-Dec 7529
15-Dec 8838
16-Dec 10008
17-Dec 11908
18-Dec 12180
19-Dec 9614
20-Dec 16834
21-Dec 8842
22-Dec 9607
23-Dec 10584
unfortunately, after walking 11484 STEPS in the wet English mud my foot is now sore - frozen it in ice and now ready for a good brexit XMAS looking forward to parsifal downloading pre op and week 7 photo of my toe
happy Christmas to you all ..Rob
Ughhhhh.....still having pain on ball of foot,below big toe???? Totally different/worse than pre-op bone spur pain. Has to be related to surgery since new in both feet with bilateral surgeries! MD thinks it is due to increased ROM.....patience! Like others have said, it is worse in the am and in bare feet. Doing most of my usual activities and just sucking it up about the pain, along with a daily aleve or 2. Still some swelling and itching on incisions, which in general look pretty good.
ReplyDeleteI'm at week 7 and experiencing a lot of pain and soreness throughout the day. My toe hurts, esp. down at the end at the last joint, the ball of my foot is sore and the tendons in my foot and achilles feet tight. I seem to have regressed pain wise. It is depressing, but I am hearing others are having the same issues.
ReplyDeleteLast night I decided to try my own deep tissue massage on the foot and toe using massage oil. It did really loosen up my foot and the pain diminished. I tried a walk today and was only able to do about 20 minutes before I had to take 2 Aleve. Hoping this pain starts to go away. I am very impatient.
Week 7 for me involved a lot less pain overall, but still a lot of stiffness/low ROM/swelling in the joint. I start PT tomorrow, and am hoping it will help with that. In the meantime, have been alternating an ice pack and a heating pad on the foot, which has seemed to help with discomfort. I'm slowly easing into exercise again (though still less hardcore than pre-surgery): in the last week I did 4 outdoor walks and one 20 minute indoor bike spin. My first walk was a mile total (though spread out over an hour at an event), and it was almost completely pain-free except the last few steps, which was a pleasant surprise.
ReplyDelete