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.
08 July, 2012
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Thank you for writing this very helpful description of your Cheilectomy experience. I read it through completely before I decided to have the surgery, and your complete and candid descriptions of each day's recovery were what made up my mind to go for it. My recovery has followed yours quite closely day by day, week by week, and I've recommended your blog as a guide to another friend considering the surgery.
ReplyDeleteAs you mention in this post (week 8), I too am having some nocturnal aches in the metatarsal bone in my foot. They started last week, and are worst for me when I lie on my back. As you say, the pain subsides when I change position, and I rarely notice it during the day. I think we may be able to call it an expected side effect. I have been thinking it might be due to increased motion and decreased swelling, allowing the foot bones to move about more freely.
One note to your readers - consider asking your doctor to prescribe physical therapy to improve your range of motion. It has really helped mine. I'm very close to the range I have in the other foot now, even though the joint and toe are still pretty swollen.
I do still have some pain when bending the toe to the extremes, and while walking on "push-off", but it is not any worse than before the surgery. I'm looking forward to Week 10/11 where you noted that you were completely out of pain and happy with the outcome of the surgery.
Again, many thanks!
Can you give an overview of what type of PT you are doing I am at week 6 of a bilateral cheilectomy and have had suture abscess on both feet (dissolvable stitches didn't work for me. This has slowed recovery down. Both joints are tight, strangely so for downward movement. This may be the scar tissue.
ReplyDeleteI am wearing low pumps for work, and do walk quite a bit. By the end of the day the joints are slightly swollen. I have been doing yoga, but haven't jumped back onto the toes as yet!
At week 6, I was just bending the toe up and down.
DeleteI have been going to physical therapy since week 4 post surgery. They did ultrasound that helped underneath and all around the joint. I think my toe had been so immobile that scar tissue had formed. The ultrasound helped alot! The therapist also massaged the joint and had me start walking at a normal gate focusing on the heel to toe on the treadmill. He also had me do heel and toe raises. THey always end by icing. It is now 7 weeks post op, and I have been going 2x per week. I really think physical therapy helped immensely! They have me do alot more in regards to balance, and showed me exercises to help my hip. I had been walking wrong for 3 or 4 years due to the pain in my toe, and my gait is very off. It still is swollen and achy pain if I use too much. Not into my old shoe, but had to get a larger size. I was told that there is a window period of when to get the most from therapy, so for those of you who have this option, please get into PT
ReplyDeleteHello, I've just been diagnosed with this problem and told I need surgery. Can anyone recommend a surgeon in the NYC/ Westchester area? I called Hospital for Special Surgeries and they said that while the hospital takes my insurance, none of the Drs do. Any suggestions would be welcome. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI'm now at 2 months post-op bilateral cheilectomies (Stage 4 on the right, Stage 3 on the left). Recovery has basically stalled out, but I'm pretty functional, with some annoying hangover effects. I have been riding my bike 60-80 miles per week (commute), and went for a treadmill run for the first time this morning (got to 7.5 mph for 15 minutes without issue other than being out of shape, although I guess round is a shape...). I don't feel restricted much in activities, except I don't do well on variable terrain (foot instability) so no hiking for a bit.
ReplyDeleteMy feet are still pretty sore, particularly in the morning. The bones are a bit achy. I think this is pretty normal. It's not debilitating, and less painful than pre-surgery, so that's a win. I'm slowly getting better at pushing off with the toe and very slowly starting to normalize my gait. I walk a few miles a day and it's not awesome, but again, not worse than before surgery.
My feet are still swelling randomly. I cannot wear all my shoes - I'm restricted to some old, worn dress loafers, running shoes, and sandals. My right foot (the worse one) is very close to fitting, but my left foot is having other issues.
By far, the biggest issue that I still have is a lot of sensitivity around the surgical site and in a tendon that runs alongside it toward my ankle(?). If there's any pressure directly on the site, or pulling at the skin due to torquing my foot, I get a burning/stabbing/tearing pain. It's enough to make me suck in my breath, but I've been getting used to it, and chalking it up to nerves healing. As a result, I'm trying to wear shoes as little as possible to avoid triggering the nerves, but this hiccup in recovery is pretty annoying. I hope to see it improving (it seemed to get a little worse until I gave my foot a whole day's break this past Saturday), but only time will tell.
I almost 9 weeks post surgery, and my joint is still swollen. I can comfortably wear most of my shoes, and my range of motion is probably a bit better than before the procedure. As far as pain, I don't have any really, but there is definitely some sensation/discomfort when I walk....more so in some shoes than others as well as in the morning. Since I learned that my bone has not healed fully, I have not gone back to running yet, but I do bike at the gym around 3 times a week. I also started taking calcium/vitamin D supplements. We'll see...
ReplyDeleteYou're a few weeks ahead of me, and it's been very helpful to follow your progress. Thanks!
DeleteI am a getting-fit-again 49 y.o. man, and am into my 8th week on a left toe, which was stage 2 or a weak 3. (1) I can wear any shoe I want, though I lace a bit looser (there's still a tiny bit of swelling) and some shoes feel better across my instep. (2) I STILL have a scab, which I don't think anyone else has mentions. It has reformed a few times, and my skin is still flushed around the incision, especially after I work the ROM. (3) My biweekly PT, which I also do at home, is ROM busting up the scar tissue, which hurts a lot, plus pushes and pulls against a resisting hand; plantar flexion is much worse than dorsal, and the ROM is less -- all those shin and calf and toe curling muscles had atrophied over the years. (4) every step still hurts a bit, maybe about the same as pre surgery, and less than earlier in the past 7 weeks. (5) I've stopped taking pain or anti inflammatory medication. (6) Everyone's progress heartens me, especially seeing that many people still hurt at this stage, but don't in the future.
ReplyDeleteI'm 8 1/2 weeks out from bilateral cheilectomy (exactly 2 months today) and feeling kind of discouraged, although that's more from not progressing as fast as I want to rather than from not progressing at all.
ReplyDeleteI went back to my first in-person ballet class last week, and another one two days ago. While the range of motion of my toes is definitely more on both sides than pre-surgery, the rest of the muscles that help me stand on my toes are out of shape. And it hurts to crank my toes up there, but hopefully that will decrease over time.
There is still a lot of scar tissue in the joints that I have to work through each time I use them. Walking is always more painful in the morning, and then as I use my toes more and work through the joints, the pain decreases. Today I was at a theme park, so I was going up and down stairs a bit, which I haven't really had to do since the surgery, and I needed to take it slow on the way down in order to roll through my foot properly and work the joint. But whenever I started to feel more pain in my feet, all I needed to do was stand still or sit for awhile, and then they felt better and I could continue on. So that was encouraging.
I'm still using the Dynasplint devices to hold my big toes in the dorsiflexed position for up to an hour three times a day. Lately it's only been twice a day at most, but I figure that going to ballet or walking 4 miles should also count!
Last night, I tried doing pushups using my feet instead of my knees, but even though I could do it a little, it was pretty painful to flex my toes that much. I'll have to work up to doing that as the range of motion increases.
It's a rare day that I don't take 600 mg of Motrin for pain or before a workout that might be painful (like ballet class). I was told both by the surgeon and by my massage therapist that there isn't any damage I can do to the joints at this point simply by using them. It's just important to avoid any kind of sustained inflammation. And it's important to keep working on increasing the range of motion and avoiding scar tissue build up.
So I'm careful to see how I feel the next day, and if there's any leftover pain, to take it easy that day. So far, the thing that has been the hardest has been walking on the beach. But it's also very good for all the muscles in my feet and for working the joints, so if I do it, I'm just careful to do less the next day.
I can't wear all of my shoes yet because I think there's still a little swelling around the joints, on both feet. I hope I'll be able to wear low heels and shoes that are somewhat narrow in the toe in the future for fancy events, even if I need to take them off to dance.
It's helpful to read others' experiences at this point, since I guess I'm somewhere in the middle with my rate of healing. And also I think the recovery is harder when it's both feet. For ballet, if I had one good foot, I could put more weight on it, and gradually shift to the more painful foot. When both feet hurt, things are more symmetrical, which is good, but still...both feet hurt.
My scars are looking good--I'm keeping a shea butter and vitamin E ointment on them, and mostly keeping them covered with bandaids. I've been told to make sure they're not exposed to the sun for the first year, since the new skin won't make melanin until then, and the scar would be lighter than the surrounding skin.
This whole process is more gradual than I expected, and taking much longer. When the surgeon said 6 to 8 weeks to be back at ballet, I thought that meant fully back to where I had left off, but with more flexible toes. That is definitely not the case, since not only do my toes hurt, but despite all the biking and walking I've been doing, I'm not yet back to the level of physical fitness I had before the surgery.
I am surprised that you even tried ballet! It is so early after the surgery, and ballet is so demanding (I have never done it, but I watch a lot of ballet). Based on my experience - I would say 6 to 8 months rather than weeks before even trying anything like ballet, I would not risk damaging the joints again.
DeleteThe good news is that I am 10 years after the surgery now, and I can do any activity I want.
Thanks for responding! Wow-10 years out. It's great that you've had such a good result.
DeleteI'm going to post an update on the week 10/11 page, but I think any activity is a matter of riding the thin line between underuse and overuse. I've been told that the only way to damage the joints is to overuse them to the point of inflammation and then NOT give them a chance to calm down. I'm finding that rest and 600 mg of Motrin seems to take care of any lingering pain or soreness I might have after ballet or walking on the beach, and if there's still any soreness the next day, that's a sign to put my feet up more and have that day's exercise be bike riding or maybe a long brisk walk in rocker bottom shoes, but nothing that over-stresses those 1st MTP joints.
Luciole reporting at 8 weeks. I've had a bit of a hiccup. My body is trying to push out the absorbable sutures, so I've developed a bit more swelling than I had at 6 weeks. I'm dealing with more swelling and inflammation at 8 weeks than I had at 5 or 6. It's actually pretty normal for the body to "spit" a suture rather than absorb it, so I'm trying to be patient (but I'm not patient). When I look at my 6-week pics, my foot looks great. Not much scarring or swelling. Now you can see these pointy spots and lumps where the suture is working its way out. Unfortunately, not enough of the suture is showing, so we can't just grab it and pull it out. Boo.
ReplyDeleteI am now at week 8 and I have been back to see my surgeon. He was so pleased with my progress and couldn’t believe I had walked in wearing some small wedged heel sandals. The scar is so neat and tidy and I can now get into a few of my old shoes. I find myself walking around at times and totally forgetting about my toe. The surgeon has referred me to have some PT in the next few weeks. I am so grateful that I have been reading this blog from day 1 and so I started dancing and trying to get a bit of movement in the toe joint before this visit.
ReplyDeleteI will post again after my physio begins.
I'm just past 8 weeks and it's been a nice improvement over week 7! I've had 2 PT sessions, and for me, the extra structure (progress check-ins, exercises to do at home throughout the day) has really helped. I was pleasantly surprised to learn at the first consult that my dorsal flexion was better than I thought--52 degrees, assisted. Plantar was a little worse than I thought (I'd thought 5-10 degrees, it's at 4 degrees) but we're working on it.
ReplyDeleteIn the last week, I did have a couple episodes of pain in the joint while sleeping. There's still some swelling/redness in the foot during the day when I've been on it for a while, but overall, stiffness and swelling seem to be coming down somewhat from where things were even a week or two ago.