In one sentence, getting that bunionectomy on my left foot was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Even though it cost a lot (my school’s medical insurance wouldn’t cover any of it), I’m not in pain anymore! When I had the bunion, it was always so red and swollen and painful just to touch. I tried all the remedies mentioned in one of my previous posts, but they only helped temporarily. Since getting the surgery, I can walk without being in pain – well, my left foot isn’t in pain, my right one still is! But I will get the right one operated on when I graduate from school, because I don’t have a long enough break before then.

A bunionectomy, especially an austin bunionectomy, is very painful, and has a long recovery time. I couldn’t walk for a good eight weeks – six of those on crutches, then another two in an air cast. And, after that, walking was still painful for a couple of months. But as of right now, I have full range of motion back in that toe/foot and NO pain at all. None.

If you are going to get bunion surgery, I highly recommend getting physiotherapy afterward. I cannot stress that enough!! It can be costly depending on your insurance company (luckily my insurance covered 80% with a note from my doctor) but it is so worth it. My foot healed so much faster because of physiotherapy, and without it, I think the joints in that toe would still be very stiff and sore.

As for the scar… well, I don’t have any very recent pictures, but this was the scar in December:

It basically looks exactly the same now except a little less red. I will post a more recent picture soon!

So, all in all, I am very happy I got this done and can’t wait to get the right one done! More updates, pictures, and articles to follow soon.

I also ordered two Pro-Tec Achilles Tendon Supports which helped quite a bit. Those combined with shockwave and ultrasound therapy have made me able to walk again, which is so great!

As for the, what used to be a bunion and is no longer, it’s doing great! Like I said, pretty much full range of motion, no more pain, and the scar is not as bad as it was before either. Pictures to follow I promise. I have a nursing gala in the middle of this month so we will see how the foot does in high heels!

At the moment I am sitting here with three ice packs: one on my post-surgical bunion, and one on each heel. Jaymie, my physiotherapist, did some more range of motion exercises today with my post-op, which hurt a lot.  The entire area where I had the surgery has been really painful the last couple of days, but especially today, even before I went to physiotherapy. I could barely fit into a normal shoe, and it looks like I may be going out in an Air Cast tonight. It’s very swollen and Jaymie said it looks like I’ve overdone it in the last couple of days with the amount I’ve been walking in a normal shoe. She’s definitely right; I have been going out and walking on it way too much. In fact, I should have stayed in an Air Cast for a little bit longer than I did. I guess I am not patient enough!

Jaymie worked a lot on my heels today, which was great. I wish my physio appointments were longer, although I do go back on Thursday. She did some ultrasound therapy on my heels to try to reduce the inflammation, and did some soft tissue massage in my calves to try to release some tension. It helped for sure, it already feels less painful. I really hope that conservative treatment measures work, because severe cases of achilles tendonitis can only be treated with surgery. It certainly is deblitating though.

I’m still also having pain in my right bunion. Even with my orthotics and toe spacers, it hurts. Pain pain pain! This is not fun at all, and I start my 3rd year of nursing school next week. I am certainly in the wrong profession to have bunions and achilles tendonitis.

I will admit that I am in quite a bit of pain now since having physio, but it is a good kind of pain, because it is increasing the movement of my toe/foot and I go back to school two weeks from today.

Most of the appointment was her flexing my big toe just slightly past where it was comfortable for me. The pain remained at about a 4 out of 10 and she didn’t push my toe more than that. She said that I should work on moving it at home, also to the point of moderate pain. She also said that starting physiotherapy is painful, but that in two weeks my foot will be so much more flexible and less swollen that going back to school will be much easier. She also gave my scar a good massage, and recommended for me to do the same thing, massage the scar quite deeply, while rubbing Bio Oil into it.

The exercises I will be doing at home will mostly be the following: While sitting in a chair, put feet flat on the floor, and raise my heels up so that the toes, including my big toe, bend at the base of the toes, and my foot lifts up. I have to make sure to keep my feet straight because if my knee turns outward, my foot will also roll outward, meaning I’m not getting that stretch in my big toe where I need it. I then lower my feet to the floor and, keeping my heels on the ground, lift my feet the opposite way so my toes come off the floor, and spread out all my toes for a stretch.

I’m supposed to do these exercises 3-4 times per day, so I’ll have to be really disciplined with myself. I am going to physio twice next week. It will hurt, like it does now, but it will hopefully be worth it! No pain no gain, right?

It was actually a sandal I wore, but nonetheless. I said goodbye to my Air Cast and went to the barbecue in a pair of sandals. Now, sandals aren’t the best shoes for support, and they certainly didn’t help my heels, but they didn’t put any pressure on my bunion which was nice. I am still limping, but overall my night in sandals went okay. At first I just sat down the entire time, but I ended up playing a game of croquet on the field with some of my co-workers, sitting down in between turns. My foot was a little bit sore at the end of the night, but not too bad. It was great to see everyone again and they were fascinated with my awesome scar!

My foot doesn’t look too different at the moment from when I first got the pin out a week ago, but I will take some more pictures as it progresses with its healing.

My heel pain is still there, still bad, and I’m not sure what to do about it. It’s bad enough trying to recover from bunion surgery without having to deal with my heels as well.

I am walking with an Air Cast to take the weight off of the front of my foot, since I’m not quite ready to put full weight on the front yet. Air Casts are quite heavy but they sure do beat crutches, and my foot is almost painless while I walk with it on! Around the house I go barefoot without crutches, but I find myself automatically putting weight on the side of my foot where my baby toe is. I seem to have a hard time putting weight where my big toe is. Not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but the only time it really hurts is when I’m putting full weight on it.

My foot and leg have really atrophied since my surgery. I am finding that even if I walk around for 10 – 20 minutes straight with the Air Cast my legs get really achy and sore. I go back to school in 3 weeks so I had better get my endurance up before then. I’m trying to walk a little bit each day, even if my leg does hurt.

Another thing I have found is that even with the Air Cast I am still getting really painful heels. No idea if I have heel spurs or what but they hurt so much. Dr. L told me to just stretch my achilles tendon and I have been, but it doesn’t seem to be helping.

I can try to fit into a normal shoe in about a week; that’s what Dr. L recommended. Dr. M recommended I try to do some swimming and biking and activities that don’t put a lot of weight on the foot. I think I may also look into physiotherapy to get some of my range of motion back. I can only bend my toe a tiny bit at the moment.

My toe is still very swollen and feeling very heavy at times. I am told it can take up to six months for the swelling to go down. That’s okay as long as I can still work, because at this point I can’t afford not to go back! I want my foot to heal faster but I guess I need to learn to have a little more patience.

Click to see full size.

Just before. You can see how much the pin is irritating the skin. Extremely painful!

Just after.

The pin.

I took the elastic bandage off pretty quick, to expose my gross scaly foot.

I can’t explain how good the water felt on my skin after 6 weeks! I had bought a special loofah just to exfoliate my foot with.

And, afterwards, smooth foot!

And my feet as a (somewhat) finished product.

And, finally, showing the difference in my range of motion.

Hope you enjoyed the photos! More to come as my foot progresses in its healing.

The pin coming out was a bit painful, but nothing near as bad as I was expecting. He had to twist it a lot in order to loosen it. When it came out, it bled a lot, and the doctor said that it was blood from the bone, not from the skin (hence why it was such a dark red). The bleeding stopped eventually, and he put some antibiotic ointment on the pinhole and bandaged it. My foot hurts 200 times less now than it did just 24 hours ago. The pin was pressing on the skin, and my skin was trying to heal around it; it was becoming so that every step was agony.

I still used crutches to get home yesterday, but I don’t really need them now, as long as I stay in my surgical shoe because I can’t put too much weight on that part of my toe yet.

It is such a relief having the pin out, I can’t describe it enough. I am going to make a separate post with before and after photos, but I shall leave you with the video I had my lovely boyfriend take!

Because it has been really hot this summer, I have mostly been wearing a sandal on my right foot, and my surgical shoe on my left foot, when I go out. Lately the more I’ve been going out, the more my right bunion has been hurting. So, anticipating a lot of walking, yesterday I decided to wear an actual shoe on my right foot, with my orthotic in it. I haven’t worn my orthotics since my surgery, but they have been adjusted about six times to try to help my bunions. I figured that walking around the mall would be easier with my orthotics. I also wore a toe spacer on my right foot to try to further prevent bunion pain.

Today my right foot is so sore… not the bunion, but the heel. Before I went for my bunion surgery on July 6th, when I was working a lot, every day I would come home and couldn’t walk. Part of it was from the bunions, but a huge part of it was also form my heels. My posterior heels hurt so badly, and I don’t know what it’s from. Before my bunion surgery I mentioned my heels to Dr. L. He didn’t say much except that it was probably plantar fasciitis, but having researched that, and judging where the pain is, I really don’t think it is that. It feels more like a heel spur, but I am not 100% sure. I was sitting there last night trying to compare my side view x-rays to those I could find on the internet of heel spurs, but still I am not sure. I will have to talk to Dr. L about it on Friday and beg him to help me, because I can not go back to nursing school or to work like this.

I also seem to have developed a blister on the bottom of my right foot from my orthotics. I’m not sure if it’s because they were altered badly or because I haven’t worn them for so long.

Oddly enough, my left foot is not doing too badly, apart from being very swollen today. It doesn’t hurt much. The incision is looking good and I get my pin out in TWO days! I am very excited about that. And of course I will take pictures! My friends all want me to keep the pin, but I think Dr. L might think I’m completely insane. Dr. M wouldn’t think that because he has a great sense of humour. Oh how I wish I were in Vancouver.

It is so frustrating being in pain all the time on the part of your body you need in order to function. Especially because I’m in nursing… how am I supposed to be a nurse when my feet hurt all the time? Please, feet, don’t prevent me from what I want to do with my life…

The incision of my foot looks really good, it is healing up quite nicely. My foot is much less bruised, however it is scrawny! My foot has really atrophied since the surgery, even though for the last little while I have been walking on it (with crutches, but I still put some weight on it when I walk). I’m kind of worried about how it’s going to be when I return to nursing school in less than a month. I’m not sure if I should seek out physical therapy or not, or how much I should use it following the removal of the pin. I should write down some questions to ask Dr. L this Friday, and if I don’t get sufficient answers I can always call Dr. M I guess. Dr. L is having me wear a toe spacer now to keep the bone straight. It is uncomfortable, like I’ve said before, but I feel safer wearing it, the last thing I want is another bunion or a botched surgery!

Anyhow, here are some photos of my scrawny foot for your viewing pleasure. I forgot to mention that, two days before the dressing change, my gauze started coming off so I basically unwrapped it and re-wrapped it myself (which I wouldn’t have done if I wasn’t in nursing). So I have photos of my foot with nothing on it in my apartment, and also photos of after the dressing change. Click to see full size.

Check out how straight that foot is! NO MORE BUNION!