The Process

Day after surgery

So after Day 0 (day of surgery) I went home, and 90% of time had foot up on pillows (higher then heart) and rested. I pretty much did the same for today, the day after surgery.

I used no crutches or canes to move, which going upstairs on the day of surgery was slow, and not bad as still had good drugs running through me.

But today, the only thing using is the weak hydrocodone (nothing compared to Oxycontin, which they provide rarely, thanks to the opioid overdose epidemic).

So at rest, the pain level was around 1 or 2, but getting up to walk, you could feel the blood rush to the foot and was around 4 or 5 when walking (aka hobble) on the heel.

But overall, was off the feet most of the day. Kept up with 3-hour rotation between hydrocodone and ibuprofen seems to keep the pain at bay. At night, slept with a pillow underfoot to keep it elevated, helped pretty good. I woke up around 3 AM , to take hydrocodone as the pain was started to elevate and it was past due of pain medicine. All good shortly after.

Day of surgery

Arrival time for surgery was 8:30 AM and had to fast (no food/drink) after midnight of the night before. We got there (wife came along as you can’t drive after surgery) and checked in. Wasn’t too long later we were buzzed (they give you buzzer to hold) as they were ready for us (well me) to come back and get ready for surgery.

We got walked back to the room I would use for both post/and recovery. They gave me the cool gown to wear, good news is you get to keep your boxers (and some dignity) while you slip it on. Then they put some sticky heart monitor things all over your chest/stomach so they can monitor you.

Then they stick you with the needle to pump the drugs/fluids or whatever else you may need. They asked if I wanted to numb the area first (which is still prickly needles with numbing juice), I forgoed that and just got stuck, it was fine. Due note, I am pretty good with needles regardless, but also heard the numbing stuff is just as painful (if you call it painful) as the actual needle poke.

The anesthesia doctor came in and recommended general anesthesia (your completely out during whole time). I was fine with that as I have done it before and my body works well with it (not sick or anything). She did see, other option would be local with nerve block (they poke you in lower spine to block nerve) and then do some happy gas, but I said, no lets stick with full general anesthesia. <resource for difference of anesthesia methods>

9:45 AM and am being wheeled to surgery room, since all my vitals and everything was looking good. Along they way, they asked if I want to start with a relaxer, I said sure, so they pumped something through the IV and almost immediately felt like I was a 6 pack into the progress.

We got to the surgery suite, and I popped on the surgery table. They took my arms and laid them out and draped some towel like over them (no clue why), and then they put a gas mask on, and less then 10-20 seconds I was out.

11:00 AM I started waking up in the post-op recovery room. They said surgery was 55 minutes, and I was only laying here for 20 minutes, so since I was waking up, they then wheeled me to the room I was in prior to surgery (where you clothes etc.. are kept).

They then called back my spouse to join me. I was waking up, feeling good and had a big wrap on my toe. I was actually hungry and thirsty, not sick at all from the drugs. You may differ though of course. So they named off some things to eat, and I stopped them at chocolate muffin, ended up eating two and drinking coffee and water.

12:35 PM, I was discharged, hopped in a wheelchair and they pushed me out to my waiting spouse in vehicle. They gave me hydrocodone for the pain reliever, and said I could take hydrocodone , then 3 hours later take ibuprofen, then back to hydrocodone and repeat until able to stop hydrocodone or it runs out.

Off to recovery.

Have you had it done? What is your experience, or do you have any non-medical specific questions before hand? Let me know in the comments below.

My name is Jace, and I will walk you through the experience of the surgery I had to have to rectify my hallux rigidus (bone spurs on joint preventing full functionality of movement).

I am pretty active and play quite a bit of volleyball (sand/outdoor/no shoes) and during that time, had a fair share of big toe injuries (stubbing toe, stepped on, slammed on etc..), all on my right foot. That combination of sports injuries is perfect to develop this so called hallux rigidus (hallux = big toe, rigidus = limited motion).

I am in my early 40’s and this finally caught up to me and started affecting my walking as my big toe lost enough flexibility movement upward making me shift my walk. Knowing something had to be done, I went to the podiatry office and got xrays, sure enough it was super easy to see I was stage I (there’s 3 stages of this type of arthritis), I is the best stage to be in, meaning the joint itself was pretty good, but the rest had bone spurs growing like weeds in a garden.

So after talking through options (wear stiff sole, continue as is etc..) surgery was the obvious choice to get back to normal life. So surgery was scheduled. See Day 0 to see what surgery day was like.