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Day 27: cheilectomy recovery

I’ve pretty much resumed normal life. I can live life normally, so to speak, on the immobilizer boot. It makes walking supremely comfortable on my right foot. It also makes life supremely cumbersome in that I have to remove it to drove, put it back in at each destination, etc... so a three errand trip involves removing or putting the boot on a lovely 6 times. It slows things down. My life is already slow and cumbersome with two kids in tow, so at least I’m sort of used to the patience aspect.

What I’m impatient about is that I cannot live life normally without the boot. Wearing regular shoes is not comfortable for walking any distance. I’m starting to try and imagine what sort of footwear I will wear once the doctor says to be done with the boot (another week or two, not sure?)... and I’m perplexed on that. I wear comfy moccasin slippers around my house in the evening once the kids are in bed and I’m no longer on full time cook/chauffeur/maid/referee/laundress duties... those work for slow walking. But I can’t wear slippers in public. Sneakers, cute flats, boots... all seem tricky. Part of the discomfort is where they’d rub against the incision, part of it is that some spots on top of my foot remain a little swollen, and part of the mental challenge is imagining how my toes would have to flex to slide into a shoe. Hmm.

My toe is bending well - a pretty nice range of motion. I can flex my foot so all my toes bend onto the floor as my foot goes up (like a ballerina might do) and it doesn’t hurt at all. That’s cool. The pain when walking is two part - first, pushing off on my toes with each step (a motion I’ve never thought about for a second before the last two weeks, but that we do thousands of times each day) and second, a deep pain under the ball of my foot on the left side. Despite my best efforts now to, I continue to walk favoring the right edge of my foot. It feels protective of my toes to do so, but I also sense that in messing up the right side of my foot in the process. Not sure how I’m going to be able to change this/walk normally again. That sounds dramatic but it’s true. 

The incision is healing really nicely. Whereas a week ago it hurt a little when water fell on it from the shower head, now that isn’t really a factor. 

I’ve been on the exercise bike - totally fine. That felt nice. I’m starting up Pilates reformer again in 4 days... I’ll take some private sessions to ensure the exercises respect my limitations. 

Driving is good. I’ve got to watch that I don’t get too complacent. It would still hurt if I had to break hard... out of instinct I’d probably not think about my foot and I’m sure it would be unpleasant (if not injurious). I try to keep a very healthy driving distance between my car and others. 

I’m seeing my doctor for another follow up appointment in three days.

We don’t just walk with 
our feet in this family...
we read with our feet too!

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