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I’m sorry I don’t update this blog very often anymore. Third year nursing is a lot of work, and I’m still working at that damn grocery store every week, so I don’t have much time to do other things anymore. But I’m here to update you on my bunion chronicles, as tomorrow will be eight months since the surgery!

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Well the pin has been out for three days and my foot is feeling great! Okay, well, maybe not great, but much better than when I had the pin in. As soon as I got home from the pin removal I exfoliated my foot, because the skin was dry and rough and disgusting. That felt so good! It seems to be healing well although I am still covering up the incision and the pinhole when I have to walk somewhere. I have an Air Cast… but more about that later. Here are some photos of my foot just before and just after having the pin removed.

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I got my pin out yesterday! It was epically exciting! My foot feels sooo much better! And I took a video of it!

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So on Friday I had another dressing change by Dr. L. He said that my foot is healing nicely and that I may be able to get the pin out next Friday! So that would be August 14 instead of the original date of August 17. So, only three days difference but that’s an exciting three days for me because the pin is driving me nuts. It’s mostly the fact that the skin around the pin hurts like hell, and well, who enjoys having a metal foreign object sticking out of their skin (besides piercings, of course!)

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Finally after almost 3 weeks my stitches are OUT! I am very happy with that, even though my foot hurts a lot after getting them out. Dr. L is a good guy but he wasn’t very good at taking stitches out in my opinion; being a nursing student I have learned how to take stitches out and he did not do them the proper way. Also he didn’t really sterilize his equipment properly. When he took the stitches out, he was ripping at my skin so much, it hurt like hell. I was squeezing Steve’s hand so hard I put dents in it. I haven’t had anything that painful for a while. Don’t think stitches are supposed to hurt that much, but anyways.

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I got my dressing changed today! It was a little bit painful, but not too bad. I didn’t realize quite how much gauze had been on there; there was about 18 layers or so and it had bled through every single layer. When he changed the dressing, he left the bottom layer of gauze on because it was some special “silk gauze” and he said that ripping it off may rip the stitches. It feels good to have a new, fresh, non-bloody dressing on. I couldn’t see too much, but I did take some pictures.

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Wow, so I had my surgery on Monday around 2:00pm. It went well, but I’m in a lot of pain! The whole thing was a very strange experience. So here is the story, and some pictures.

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Okay, so here’s what’s going on. I am a 23 year old nursing student from Vancouver, Canada, and I have bunions. Bad bunions. And after years of pain and suffering, and lots of money spent on custom orthotics, shoe inserts, splints, cushions, etc., the time has come to get them fixed with surgery. Well… just one of them for now.

For those who don’t know, a bunion, or “hallux valgus”, is “an enlargement of bone or tissue around the joint at the base of the big toe (metatarsophalangeal joint). The big toe may turn in toward the second toe (angulation), and the tissues surrounding the joint may be swollen and tender. Today the term usually is used to refer to the pathological bump on the side of the great toe joint. The bump is the swollen bursal sac and/or an osseous (bony) deformity that has grown on the mesophalangeal joint (where the first metatarsal bone and hallux meet). ” That definition was taken from this Wikipedia article, which also explains more about formation, treatment, and why people have surgery done on them, which can be summed up in one word: pain!

In three weeks I am having surgery on my left bunion, and then after that, I get to spend the next 8+ weeks on my couch unable to walk. I’m going to be doped up on some awesome painkillers, while simultaneously learning several new hobbies such as knitting and making cute stuffed animals, as well as watching tons of movies and playing lots of games on my new Wii (but at the same time, will be temporarily saying goodbye to Wii Fit!).

But what could make all of this even more fun? Blogging about it, of course! So I welcome you to the Bunion Chronicles.

This is how my feet look now! Ouchies!