Notes on a Cheilectomy

Yesterday and today I decided to stop taking the perscription pain medication. Now I’m taking a normal dose of ibuprofen once each day - about 30 minutes before I wake up (my foot still consistently hurts when I wake in the morning) or maybe twice if I’m up and about a lot. I still have some sharp and deep pain during the day but I can deal with it by resting my foot. I had my second  post operative appointment with my doctor. She removed my bandage and my stitches. The wound is completely closed, which is amazing considering how big it is and that it is only been two weeks since it was cut open. I received a thin compression sock (it looks and feels like super control strength nude pantyhose), which provides a nice barrier between my foot and the world, but is much more sleek than the bandage. I can now take a shower without any kind covering over my foot. She gave me permission to drive and exercise so long as I feel comfortable and confident doing so. Basically, I cannot easil...

So I skipped a day since my last post… Mainly because it would’ve been the exact same thing that I wrote for Day 10 as I did for Day 9. However, here I am on Day 11, and I do feel like I am even better than I was three days ago. I have gotten through today without any of the prescription my pain medication… Yay! I find that spending a maximum of 30 minutes on my feet is doable… As long as I am able to rest and elevate them for a while afterward. I still find that the most uncomfortable position is when I am sitting or a chair or as a passenger in a car, with my foot on the ground and my leg bent at a 90° angle at the knee. This sort of position makes my foot feel even pressure that is very uncomfortable. I have started to do small bits of household chores such  as laundry and kitchen work. I really do feel like I am coming back to myself again. Not being able to drive is a huge bummer… I am not used to being stuck around the house, and not being able to run errands, go get a ...

Not much to say today - more of the same. I did try to hold off on the pain medication today but that does result in intermittent deep pain after 6 hours or so... and that’s while resting with my leg elevated (not while on my feet). The worst my foot hurts each day is right when I wake up (when I haven’t taken pain medication for 8 hours or so). Definitely not gonna say bye to the pain meds just yet. Also remembered that at my next doctor’s appointment I want to speak specifically about my ability to return to the gym (Pilates reformer, cycling, swimming, seated/recumbent stair climber), as well as the Cartiva cartilage implant… Which I am very curious about for way off in the future. Since there isn’t much to say, why not look at some pictures of my son’s feet when he was a cute, easy baby? Take care of your feet, son. 

My surgery occurred one week ago today and I’m pretty impressed with the speed of my recovery. The second day of this blog I felt like I wanted to chop off my foot - the pain was terrible. The difference in just 5 or 6 days is staggering. I can walk without too much difficulty (doesn’t mean I should, but I can)  and I’m taking pain meds but in modest dosages. I painted my toes and feel a hundred times more civilized! I celebrated Thanksgiving at my sister in law’s house - the hardest part was being a passenger for the  hour long car ride (having my foot on the ground - ie. the position I have to sit in as a car passenger - is more painful than walking). I took it fairly easy with the family but can’t deny it was the most ‘active’ day I’ve had since surgery. It caught up with me by 6pm when my foot grew quite sore. Tomorrow will be a day of rest and nothing else.

Not a lot to say today. Still taking pain medication minimally but regularly. Still sleeping well, still walking well in the boot. Still trying to stay off my feet. I went to a movie today with my mom and daughter and it was a perfect outing - I got some time out of the house and the theatre has reclining seats with full footrests so it was very well suited to my foot elevation needs! Thankful tonight for my feet and their ability to walk all around this beautiful world in which we’re lucky to live! Feet. We’re lucky to have them! (Someday mine will look like this again...)

Night 5 into day 6 I slept well. However, I woke up with some pretty sharp and uncomfortable pain. Chalking this up to trying to ease off pain medicine yesterday as well as returning to my kids/house/being up on my feet more than I should have. Thankfully a dose of medicine dulled the pain.  My goal for my pain medication is to stretch out the time between when I take it, in hopes of gradually not taking any more by week 2 or 3.  This afternoon I went to see the doctor. I saw my incision, of which - you’re welcome - I’m not going to include a photo. It is larger than I thought... 3 inches long and 6 stitches. I got a new bandage in a classic red color that is going to inspire my next pedicure. Next week I will have this red bandage removed and then no more bandages! I will still wear the boot for a few more weeks thereafter, however. The doctor showed me several great photos on her phone of my foot in the middle of surgery... mixed in with photos of her son playing basketb...

Today I continued to feel even better walking in my boot. (At this point I’m barely using the crutches anymore.)  Still taking pain medications - the low amount (rather than the max prescribed). Last night’s sleep was the first night I didn’t set a timer to take it. I slept through the night just fine, yay! But this afternoon I didn’t take it and the pain was sharper than it has been in a couple days. So I’m going to keep with it a little longer.  Probably the pain was sharper this afternoon because I returned to my house/two little kids. (I had been staying at my parents’ house so as to more easily stay off my feet and heal.) Not surprisingly, being back at home had me on my feet significantly more than I have been since the surgery. Combined with trying to go off the pain meds, things got a little painful. Still nothing as bad as the pain at the beginning though.  Oh, I also had a short outing today to a store with a very limited amount of walking. It was overwh...

Not much has changed today. I am still managing the post surgical pain with minimal pain medication on a regular basis. I am waiting to feel the pain today to take medicine, rather than taking medicine on a regular basis (ie every 4 hours).  I guess one change is that I am using the crutches less. When I have the boot on, I can walk in it fine (in terms of pain). When I don’t have the boot on, I am using crutches. But mostly, I try to have the boot on when I’m up on my feet.  And even more than that, I’m trying to keep off my feet - with my foot elevated. It’s getting a little boring but it’s a nice change of pace from running around after two kids so I’m trying to enjoy it. Today is Boot Day. It’s on. 

On day 3 I woke up feeling better about life. My pain had moderated, and night 2 into day 3 I had slept fairly well. I did set alarms twice during the night to take pain medication, which probably helped me sleep. Right off the bat I did not feel like eating normal food for breakfast - still a bit of nausea - but as the day went on parts of my normal diet started to sound appealing again… Namely coffee and iced tea, and even pizza.  Pain was much better managed today with pain medication. I still took it at regular intervals, but reduced the dosage. I can imagine being off of pain medication within three days or so at this rate. Today I put the boot back on my foot, and walked in the boot independently as well as in the boot with crutches support. The hybrid boot/crutches movement is very doable. Clearly I am going to have to adapt to moving much more slowly throughout life this way in the month to come, but it is not too bad. Before today, the pain in my foot was too much ...

I woke up on day 2 to great pain... despite having been taking the maximum amount of pain medication prescribed to me. It was very demoralizing.  I slept poorly night 1 into day 2, probably in part because I wore the immobilizer boot in bed. It protected my toe but made middle of the night moving around highly clunky and difficult. (Think sleeping in a ski boot.) I didn’t sleep for the first 4-5 hours of the night... maybe a bit of dozing but nothing deep. I did sleep a little more deeply for a couple of spells in the last half of the evening. So, upon waking up I was not only in pain but very, very tired. As a result, I slept off and on for the entirety of day 2. The good news was that the pain, which was much worse than anything I expected, was horrible in the morning but eased up as the day went on. By the time I went to bed on day 2, I felt like I could deal with the situation. I even decided to take a slightly lesser amount of pain medication overnight from day 2 into day ...

This morning was my cheilectomy procedure. I was excited to go in - probably not many patients show up to surgery with big smiles on their faces! The procedure was easy. The anesthesia took hold incredibly fast and when I woke up in recovery (one hour after being wheeled to the operating room) I felt like I’d had the best night’s sleep of my life. God bless anesthesiologists!! I recovered in a bed from the lingering anesthesia for about 45 minutes and was removed from various machines. Nothing hurt. My foot was in what looked like an ace bandage type thing from maybe four inches above my ankle to my toes. They strapped my immobilizer boot onto my foot and I walked to the restroom unaided. It felt great! Of course, I was still numb from local anesthetic. I ate some graham crackers so I could take my first dose of pain medication on a non-empty stomach. Soon after that we departed the surgical center and I had an egg sandwich and a little coffee. I felt great and grew sleepy as the m...