Day 1: cheilectomy surgery and post-operative recovery

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 medicine set in. I dozed in bed for about 3 hours and decided to get up and read or watch some tv. Ouch. Putting weight on my foot or even just moving it from a non elevated state was not comfortable. At all.

This was about five hours post surgery and there was one hour until my next dose of pain medicine. Thankfully I have a pharmacist for a mother and she said it would be fine to take my second dose of medicine a little early, and this brought some relief... going from an ouch ouch ouch wincing pain to a scenario of less pain but still a lot of pressure. It feels like someone was working over my foot with power tools - which they were. It’s a very deep, pressure-y type of pain. It does not make me look forward to the next 24-36 hours... but I know it’s just a hurdle I have to get over. Keeping my foot elevated is SO KEY right now. Setting it on the floor in a nonreclined position really hurts.

The doctor told my mom that three bone fragments were removed as well as a lot of inflamed tissue. Apparently my cartilage didn’t look great. The whole scenario in my foot was described by the doctor as ‘not good’ - which weirdly, made me feel better that this wasn’t just something I was being a wimp about. This arthritis is a real thing! But still, not happy to hear about the poor state of my cartilage, at all. A small piece of Amniox (amniotic tissue) was included in my surgical site to aid healing. I’m really eager to hear more from the doctor about the procedure and where my foot goes from here, at my post operative appointment with her on day 6 (after surgery).

Today’s foot inspiration

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All about my feet... and, why I started this blog

This week I turned 39. I will have a cheilectomy on my right foot (the foot I use to drive) in one month. In the years during college, and more than a decade afterward, I lived in Chicago. I love fashion and wore a lot of high heeled footwear. Given that I lived in a large city, I walked almost everywhere I went - a block to the grocery, several blocks to the train station, a couple miles during a day of shopping and fun with friends. I loved city life and I loved walking. I realized quickly, upon moving to a big city where my walking would total miles each day, that high quality footwear was important, so I did not skimp on inexpensive, poorly made shoes. I invested in well-made shoes. I say this for no other reason than to dispute one idea put forth as a cause of foot problems - that poorly made or ill-fitting shoes are to blame. That was not the cause in my case. Following the birth of my first child at age 31, I started to notice that I was not able to walk comfortably in high...

Day 18: cheilectomy recovery

I’m really starting to round the bend in terms of feeling normal again. Don’t get me wrong, I am a long way off from walking normally in shoes, but with the boot I can move through life and do almost anything I need to do… Well, anything one can do in a giant ski boot type thing. This weekend I spent a lot of time on my feet - playing with my children, potty training one of said children (oy), doing laundry, in the kitchen. I drove on the interstate, and in some busy traffic, and felt fairly confident. It’s not normal driving conditions for me but I know how to work within my parameters and it’s going ok. I noticed this evening that I was walking more comfortably around my house in flip-flops. Whereas the last few days I’ve tried flip-flops, but have had to walk by kind of rolling each step on the right side of my foot (to protect the left side of my foot where the surgery occurred), today I find that I can kind of bear weight evenly on my foot and even push off on it a little bit. T...

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 ...

Notes on a Cheilectomy

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