Day 8: cheilectomy recovery

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.

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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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