The Process

That was not so bad

The post-op appointment was slated for the afternoon. Was feeling pretty good and even got my foot in my walking shoes by having the laces very loose. Still protecting the toe when walking as it’s still slightly painful when it bends.

Got to the doctors office and checked in. After waiting some time, finally got in and saw the initial nurse assistant to do the typical pulse and heart rate check (required so they can bill you for an office visit).

Next was the nurse practitioner who had me hop up on a table and said, “I will not try to make this too painful”. I said sounds good to me.

Whats it like?

For those never had stitches out before, you may be wondering what its like. I honestly don’t remember when I had stitches removed, my last shoulder surgery was arthroscopic so it only had small holes and self dissolving stitches were used.

So she started the magic, and honestly, there was zero pain. It felt like a string was being pulled or tugged on top of your toe (which it technically was). So all in all went very nice.

Then shortly after, my orthopedic doctor/surgeon came in to do a final check. I showed him my progress of bending the toe (heel about two inches off ground and he said very nice. The wound (even though looks kinda gross) said its looking great. I am sure they see many more wounds then me and know what there talking about.

What was surprising was how surprised the nurse and doctor were of me walking in with a normal shoe (abit mostly unlaced to make it loose). I think they said some would still be in that big flat heel boot they provide after surgery. But much of this I believe depends on the healing potential the individual has, as well as the physical therapy being done during the first couple weeks post surgery.

Whats next?

So now we have to play the game of keeping the wound healing while doing physical therapy on the toe to keep it from stiffing and the fibers flexed. So all good and off I go (slowly hobbling that is).

View surgery wound after 13 days of healing, and stitches removed.

Warning slightly graphic picture..click to proceed

Did you complete the procedure? If so did your surgery/healing thus far match mine or differ in someway? Lets hear it in the comments below.

Can drive, but toe swells

So there was some traveling coming up this day requiring some traveling an hour or so in a car each way.

Any type of traveling after having some sort of surgery is probably not ideal, but its especially not ideal if you have surgery in the foot that controls the pedal and brake (right foot in this case).

At this point, I can put a shoe on (leave laces lose) and drive, but decided to let the spouse drive knowing the foot still swells and I actually have an option to defer driving.

This allowed me to put my foot up and rest on dash as needed. And walking around at the destination, the foot did get warm and swelled a bit, but didn’t seem as bad as other days.

So I will take this as a win. I think, if had to I would be able to drive a bit on day 9, any other days would have been uncomfortable to say the least. I have worked my way in

Only couple more days until the stitches are removed and the post-surgery followup is completed.

I am an avid lifter and workout to relieve stress and such, but its been 12 days since I did anything, but am doing some pull ups and one-legged push ups (just rest the surgery foot on the back of your good leg).

I have to say it was nice doing something, foot is warm but all good. Here is the picture of its healing progress today. Last one before we go get the stitches out tomorrow.

View surgery wound after 12 days of healing.

Warning slightly graphic picture..click to proceed

Did you complete the procedure? If so did your surgery/healing thus far match mine or differ in someway? Lets hear it in the comments below.

Some decent progress occurring

As you can see in the image, there is some flex occurring, I think is pretty good considering its only been 11 days, and stitches are still in.

I been able to do some PT several times a day. What I do is just stand, and then pick up heel, forcing the toe to flex to the point where it feels light pain (1or2), and holding it for 30 seconds and then putting it back down for 30 seconds. I do this for about 5 minutes a time, every couple hours.

I think the muscle/old muscles that have not been flexed a whole lot prior to surgery (the rigidus part), is in need of the extra flexing.

If you have the surgery, where is your progress at? Are you able to flex at all, some or none yet? Let me know in the comments.

Pillow for propping foot up removed

Finally, feeling pretty decent in hopping around, having slight flex in the toe and much less pain in the base/joint area is allowing me to move around. Even went to town (passenger)

Was able to put some of my bigger pair of sneakers on where I made the laces on them pretty lose. Eventually, felt some tightness in foot during the wear of these shoes.

But eventually walked (with slight limp of course) about 5k steps apparently via my fitbit. Foot swelled a bit, and changed the bandages, was nice to see the would looking much better (and less disgusting). No fluids leaked out and took a shower just fine.

The most painful things noticed now is during PT or walking, its right in the joint/base of the foot, which makes sense as they cut some bone out and tore around in that area in respect to moving the toe muscle and other things out of the way to perform the cheilectomy surgery.

I think for a short 9 days after surgery, feeling optimistic.

View surgery wound after 9 days of healing.

Warning slightly graphic picture..click to proceed

Did you complete the procedure? If so did your surgery/healing thus far match mine or differ in someway? Lets hear it in the comments below.

First day not having to elevate foot

Finally, was up and around much better today. Even left the couch and did work most of the day at the desk. Getting slight flexibility back, and feeling better overall.

Changed bandage and took a shower. Wound has no visible leakage anymore, so feel good to increase PT (which is simply putting your foot on floor and slightly picking heal up).

Icing foot couple times a day continues to help with swelling and speeding recovery up I believe. With it not being elevated that often today, the foot does seem a little more red colored and swelling, but that quickly subsides when I elevate it or ice it.

They say the swelling in the foot can continue for months after any type of foot surgery. Hoping this is not the case. At least if you stick around long enough, you will find out.

View surgery wound after 8 days of healing.

Warning slightly graphic picture..click to proceed

Did you complete the procedure? If so did your surgery/healing thus far match mine or differ in someway? Lets hear it in the comments below.

Another day of recovery

Not much as changed since day 6, but pain is pretty good, can hobble on the heal much better. Not able to put too much pressure on the toe joint, so walking on outside heal of course.

And for drugs, down to just taking ibuprofen occasional (no more then 400 mg every 4-6 hours).

Tried putting a sock on, but it eventually seemed to tight and was making the wound start to hurt from the light pressure of the sock. I am able to move the big toe just slightly, still feels like a vice grip around the joint, so taking it easy.

Also not doing too much PT (moving toe up/down) as letting the wound heal some more, after seeing it on day 6.

Starting some soft stretches, bends in toe

They say, or at least my doctor, states as soon as able to to start some light movement, and some activity without causing more pain, issues.

Of course this is going to vary for each, so I started doing a little today, but noticed I was getting some bleeding out of the wound yet and it kinda looked like it needed to lay low a bit, so I stopped stretching for the day.

As you can see from the picture below (warning slightly graphic), the stitches are fully intact, but some seepage was occurring.

So word of advice, even though you may feel up to trying some physical therapy (PT) to get a jump start, keep an eye on your pain level and your sutures/wound area to see if you good to proceed.

View surgery wound after 6 days of healing.

Warning slightly graphic picture..click to proceed

Did you complete the procedure? If so did your surgery/healing thus far match mine or differ in someway? Lets here it.

This day was little better then previous, which is the goal of course. Hobbled around on the heel a litter better, probably down to a pain level of 2-3. Still can’t bend the toe really.

Lots of swelling still occurring, but probably only on the couch 70% of the time.

Reduced the pills for the day. Took first hydrocodone around 6 AM, last time was 9 PM the night before. Then took one at Noon, and another at 9 PM at night. Only one dose of ibuprofen in between.

All in all, much better around this time.

72 hours after surgery

Slept better at night, was pain level of 0 during sleep and didn’t need to take hydrocodone until 5am this time. Progress.

So I was provided instructions from the medical team that the wrap they did (which covered entire foot/ankle) can be removed after 72 hours.

So I did that, took a quick shower and put a small dressing on it.

In the featured pic on this post I blurred the true image of the wound to date. If you want to see the non-blurred image, you can click below.

View surgery wound after 72 hrs of healing.

Warning slightly graphic picture..click to proceed

Did you complete the procedure? If so did your surgery/healing thus far match mine or differ in someway? Lets hear it in the comments below.

Slightly better then day 1

Slept little better, still got up in middle of night to take a pain reliever, and then was better. Kept foot on a pillow in bed seemed to help.

But when you get up to go to the bathroom, you feel the blood rush to the foot and it gets pretty tight, thus the reason and recommendation of keeping the foot elevated, especially for the first few days.

Occasionally there is slight tingling and pricking in the big toe at times, when resting, watching more TV or working on the computer.

Hobbling on heal was down to a pain level of around 3, versus 4-5 day before. So that is a good direction. Other then that, today was very similar to yesterday.