8 Months P.O. Screwfix Direct

I have been rather remiss about posting recently, mostly because there was nothing worth posting about but partly because I've been incredibly busy at work. However, today I am fresh out of day-surgery (well yesterday I was fresh out, today I actually feel fresh rather than doped up to my eyeballs) to remove my right heel screw and to repin my two problem toes. 

As procedures go it was considerably quicker and much less painful than the previous two metal work jobs, probably because I have come out with perhaps less, rather than more, metal work in me than before. According to the lovely Mr Rogers (getting that in there just in case Mr Cooke is reading this) I have a randomized trial of one for my two toes. The second toe (always less of a problem) has a Smart Toe Implant (pop it into google, its the first website that comes up) which is a very cool new piece of kit designed for fixing hammertoes. The third toe was, as always, a problem and despite trying for a fun new implant it was having none of it so has a traditional K-wire like before except without the unfortunate piece of cork sticking out the end of my foot. On top of these I have a large piece of padding absorbing blood quietly oozing from my heel where the BIG screw which was causing me problems, has come out.

Practically, this means that at the moment I am sat with my foot up in bed because it aches quite a lot. I had a number of different stories regarding recovery depending on who I spoke to. Mr Cooke at my appointment last December said 'in and out in a day, rest up for a day and then you'll be about your normal business'. Mr Rogers yesterday said 'rest up for 48 hours and weight bear as you're capable' and the day-surgery nurse Sharon said 'stay in bed for the rest of the week and only walk on it to go to the bathroom'. So at the moment I am torn. I feel I SHOULD be walking on it but have tried and it is extremely painful, mostly the heel-hole area so have decided to combine all three approaches and 1) stay in bed all of today and crawl around the house (no crutches) but put my foot on the floor and put some pressure on it while sitting down, 2) stay home for the rest of the week and work at my kitchen table and 3) perhaps try weight bearing tomorrow when I take the bandages off and change the dressings,

As for right now, I think some elevation, paracetamol and chocolate are required...will update you re walking asap.

6 Months P.O. Nothing to declare

So my toe issues continue. I managed to grab a part as an extra, contrary to my normal scientific life, and got out on a film set for the day. This allowed me my first venture into heels. Not comfortable heels but sad 1920s period heels. Actually felt relatively stable with the new tendon placement but the lack of toe bendyness hindered me somewhat. I have had a date through to fix said toe issues and to whip out the heel pin but it landed right in the middle of a week when I'm away for work (sod's law) so I shall have to rearrange. Its strictly a day job so I'm told will be no hassle so I shall update you as and when...

5 Months P.O. New Year New You blah blah blah...some notes on exercise

Its home truths time people. I am a person prone to expand. In order not to expand I must not overindulge in the chocolate department and do some regular exercise. A downside of this surgery is that not only can you not really exercise to your full capacity but that when you are in hospital/recovering people bring you chocolate. Not a great combo on the expansion front.

As of the beginning of the week I resolved to return to my pre-op weight (approximately a stone less than my current weight) so have set myself a somewhat rigorous exercise regime that started tonight with an hours worth of aerobics. As much as she may rub many people up the wrong way with her persistent perkiness I am a big fan of the Davina workout DVDs, I can embarrass myself in front of the TV with nobody watching and, possibly more importantly, all the exercises are explained so you don't do yourself (further) injury. There is also, handily, a low impact version of all the cardiac work. 

Being somewhat of a wimp, this being my first set of aerobics after this op, I voted to go with the low impact most of the way through. I finally plucked up the courage to do some higher impact at the end and can report no major problems. Ever so slight ache in both heels at the osteotomy site as well as a general loss of 'spring' when having to do things like bounce from one foot to the other but I expect these will recover in time.

Still stuck in the trainers for the time being but pin removal time I hope is imminent. I'll keep you updated...

4 Months P.O. - An Update and An Apology...

So I need to start by making many apologies. Firstly, if you've been reading and I haven't been posting, I am sorry, there was nothing exciting to report so I thought I'd keep quiet. My second apology is two-fold and comes as the result of my check-up appointment this morning. I was informed by a mildly upset Mr Cooke that I had constantly referred to the 'Lovely Mr Rogers' in my blogs and had not only mentioned him very little but also never referred to him as lovely. So I send my apologies out into the ether to the obviously adorable Mr Cooke but also to Mr Rogers who is now apparently called the 'Lovely Mr Rogers' by Mr Cooke.

This morning was supposed to be my last check up but I have been having issues with the head of the not inconsiderable screw (see photo below) in my right heel which is irritating me. I was informed, however, that it is a swift and relatively pain/issue free op to remove it so that's all booked in.

Other than that the new feet progress well. I am fully mobile and active, have not sadly done as much exercise as perhaps I would have liked but did a considerable amount of walking recently on a work related trip with no major issues. I also, joy of joys, tried on a pair of ballet pumps. Anyone who has met me will realize I was never meant to actually DO ballet but I enjoy the idea of a slip-on shoe that is flat but my previous issue with this design was that because my toes curled when I lifted my foot up they would simply cause my whole foot to slip out of the shoe at the front end. Not an ideal situation. HOWEVER, my new fun toes mean they don't curl when lifting so I can now wear said shoe-type with relative ease. Now the only trouble is finding a pair I actually like!

Side X-Ray, left foot. Nice screw to hold the heel together, pin on lower ankle to hold the re-positioned tibialis posterior in place, staple type thing to do something or other with the first metatarsal bone and pin in big toe better on the pic below...

Top X-Ray, left foot. Better view of staple in metatarsal bone as well as nice one of the big toe pin. Also, just visible are small pins holding the newly positioned toe tendons down at the very ends of each metatarsal

Before and After

I thought it was about time I changed my xray pic to a before and after shot so here goes...this is the one I took in the hospital before I had the second op.  As you can see, the toes are BEAUTIFULLY straight and the arch is considerably flatter.  One of my most exciting moments after the first op was putting on a sock and looking at my foot thinking 'wow...I look like I have normal feet'.  After acquiring more flexibility in my toes my second most exciting moment was when I realized I could wave my big toe...very cool, couldn't really do that with the crunchy 'before' toes!

After...............................Before

6 Weeks P.O. - Officially Nothing to Report

Toes still a pain in the proverbial but basically nothing I can do on that front.  On the other hand I am now in shoes and walking unaided, admittedly at the speed of a rather elderly relative but people tend to be understanding about these things.  I have also managed a number of other milestones, showering standing up, walking up the stairs, etc.Oddly the up stairs is much easier than the down stairs, possibly again to do with ankle flexibility.

So from here on in its just a case of speeding up the walking and reducing the ever-present puffiness. My marker for reduced foot swelling is when I can see my veins and when I can see my tendons when I wiggle my toes...I will of course update you when that happens but as far as I can tell, 6 weeks P.O. everything is almost back to normal!

40 Days P.O. - Shoe Time!

So I just thought I'd let you know I managed a one crutch trip to our corner shop at the weekend - twice!  Our corner shop is only a 5 minute walk away but you can imagine how long that took but it wasn't like I had anything else to do, and besides, there was NOTHING in my fridge!  I am also sporting the shoe look this week, thus far this has taken the form of either sloppy boots (probably very bad for my rehab but very comfy) or birkenstocks plus bandage.  The latter does look a little like I'm going for the socks and sandals combo but I think the crutch helps confirm that I'm not.

My one memory that is bought back that I will try and pass on is that right now walking is a little like exercise.  Basically you haven't done it for a while so muscles that you normally use, like your hip flexors, will suddenly start to hurt.  It's also a lot easier if you don't sit down for extended periods after walking because things tend to hurt more when you get up again.  The main example of this is the heel part of the op, I find that a good long (10-15 mins is long for me right now) walk, if it's followed by a half an hour sit down, will kill my heel if I try to stand up again.  It just feels super bruised.  The trick is to largely ignore it and gradually increase the amount you walk around on it.

Grim toes looking a little better although still oozing, will update pics later in the week!