OT Foot Surgery

Well I'm having foot surgery on Sept 26th. Two bunions removed and three bones cut and screwed back together. No weight on it for 4 weeks he said. May take a year for the swelling to go away. This gives me ten days from today. I keep looking for what I should be getting done but the list is unending. Guess I'll just keep pluggin along and some of it will be there when I'm able again. Gonna stock up on wor search and crossword puzzle books and some movies for the first two weeks. Mabye a couple of plastic models too!!

Best of luck John!
A laptop will keep you on the forum so you're not too bored......

I broke my ankle the first of June. The biggest surprize to me was the swelling, it caused a great deal of pain and prevented me from doing any thing with my foot down - had to keep it elevated. My plans were to putter in the shop etc, no way, I could not stand or sit to work. The final x-ray was taken on August 27 and verified the bone was healed. I am now able to walk with only a slight limp and if I take a short break in the middle of the day to elevate the foot I do fine. The joint is still very stiff with limited motion which causes the limp. It still swells but not to the point of pain.

My advice is to consider accomodations to keep the foot up. I did catch up on my reading and enjoyed that. Also, start a file, keep records and copies of all the bills and what you have paid. I just returned a bill for clearification, I could not get any of the amounts to add to the amount due and the patient balance column was blank indicating I did not owe anything. Some of my bills are on white paper, some on pink paper then they combine the two amounts on green paper and bill me again.

Good Luck and enjoy your down time.

Best of luck, John,

My wife had a bunionectomy and other corrective surgery on one foot about 15 years ago. It was very painful for her and it took months for her to recover. She has needed to have the other foot done ever since, but says that she isn't willing to undergo the ordeal.

I hope that you have a really good support system around you. Linda was in a wheel-chair for a while, on crutches for a while, used a walker for a while, walked with a cane for a while, and finally got back onto her feet somewhat normally albeit very carefully.

Simple functions of bathing and visiting the bathroom were very difficult for her. She had to have two follow-up surgeries to remove the pins that were put in.

Now having said all of that, the foot that she had the surgery on is much better than the other one.

Hopefully you'll recover much more quickly than my wife did, but I believe that you should expect a lengthy recovery.

Tom in TN

I can relate, having a similar surgery back in mid January. I would assume they are going in from the top to do this.

I was in a similar position, always something or multiple things that need to be done, schedule some down time for repairs (your foot) and all of a sudden those things become all of your focus LOL !

I had a bunch of wood to put up or go without just prior to my down time, got it done, but just under the wire, never again.

If they go in the top, you could lose some sensation at the base of the toes, top side, my swelling was not bad, always been a good healer, everyone is different. The local into the nerve at the hip or leg was kind of weird, so was the fact that my leg did not work after that, local vs general anesthesia, I will take the local, keeps it numb longer, then it comes back, same thing as being paralyzed.

Healing was no trouble, downstairs it stays cool and dry, heat is per how much I load up the wood stove, let my foot rest up, wintertime, low risk for infection, in my case it was not mechanical so to speak, tho the doctor wanted me off that foot for weeks, I gave the incision about a week, favored my heel and started putting weight on it, having arthritis, I could not take crutches, stairs, by myself, said the heck with it, have to do it, the concern was the incision opening up.

I gradually kept at it, they put me in a plaster cast, I had that off much earlier, and actually had a shoe on soon after, some swelling, but not like a balloon, nor any bouts where it blew up. I gradually did more, even bucked another cord of wood, weather was good, could not sit around any more.

Of course, its going to be sore a long time, I had a 4" incision, he removed a mass that was like a 3/8" fuel line on top of my foot, traced that to the roots, ganglion cyst, then went into my ankle and cleaned out degenerated bone matter, mid 40's here, I'm like what.. degenerated bone matter ? Doc said all of this is due to arthritis.

Still sore today, takes a year for the incision to heal, glad I had it done, the mass was in tangled in or adjacent to nerves and causing me a ton of grief all the way up my leg. I can't feel the top side of my large and next few toes, he told me before hand, not an issue.

He expected my swelling to be more too, I walked in with shoes on to my follow up, he put me in an air cast which I did not need, wore that home, took it off, and got a bill for it. I wish they could have put me in an air cast instead of a plaster one, took that as long as I could, got a little itchy and fidgety at night, could not sleep, what a relief to take it off.

I would think that with your surgery, you absolutely have to stay off it, dealing with bones etc. had best follow the doctors orders to the letter.

The other thing is once healed up enough and you can walk, light work, remember with everything you do, keep that foot out of the path of anything that can step on, fall on or what have you, I was doing wood, but took my time, would have been awful to drop a chunk of firewood on it.

Best of luck with this, and let us know about your progress, figured I'd chime in having been through it and facing more of it if the other ankle gets unbearable, which it has not, thankfully.

John my wife had bad bunions on both feet. She had surgery one and had the other one done the next year. By having one each year she could get around by using crutchs. She said that she should have did it years before if she had known it was going to take the pain away and she could buy shoes that fit right. Do what the doctors tell ya and you will be back on your feet before you know it.

Good luck John.

I went through that several years ago.

Unfortunately my foot didn't heal after six weeks in a cast. Ended up with what looks like a giant roofing screw in my foot.

I guess the only bright point was that I was able to stay reasonably mobile with the cast.

Best wishes to you,

Brad

Thanks for all of the encouragement everyone. Seems what I've been told here and thru friends, it must be more painful for women than men for some reason. One thing they all agree on though, is "Listen to what the Doctor Says" .
It's just the waiting and anticipation that's killing me...LOL! Thanks everyone!! I'll keep everyone up to date. Maybe some pictures!

Usually the waiting is tough.

We lucked out when my wife had quadruple bypass surgery 9 years ago. She went from not knowing she had a problem to the operating room in less than 12 hours. It all happened so fast we didn't have time to think about it.

I could probably save you some money on the surgery. I'll bring the chute over.