Posts Tagged ‘bunion’
Well it’s been one month since my last post! I haven’t forgotten about The Bunion Chronicles, I’ve just been so busy with nursing school and work and physiotherapy, and also figured people were tired of reading about my pain!
Following the recommendation of another girl I know who has had this surgery as well as my podiatrist, I decided to go into Physiotherapy in order to increase the range of motion in my toe and also help with my feet in general. The appointment went really well, and she thinks she may be able to help with my heel pain as well as my surgery.
Tonight was the annual summer barbecue for the grocery store I work at. Because it’s summer and it’s been hot out, combined with the fact that I was getting a ride to and from there, and didn’t have to walk much at the barbecue, I tried wearing a normal shoe!
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.
I think I did too much walking yesterday. I’ve been so tired of being in the house and yesterday I really wanted pancakes. So Steve and I took two buses and went for breakfast, and the place we went was right across from the mall. After breakfast we went to the mall because I just wanted to look at a couple of things, but that ended up turning into me wanting to look at everything. The entire breakfast/mall journey was only about 3 hours in total, which may seem like a lot for the condition my foot is in; however, it is my good foot that is sore and not the one I had surgery on!
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!)
Wow, despite my foot it’s been a pretty crazy week for me. This past weekend I went home to Vancouver for my dad’s 60th birthday. Steve rented a wheelchair for me on the ferry because of the long walk to the passenger pick-up. It was quite interesting with everyone staring at me! At least we got a ride to the ferry terminal from a friend so I didn’t have to try to catch two buses with my foot being the way it is.
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.
I’m so stoked!! I woke up this morning to see an Amazon box on the kitchen table, and when I opened it I saw a book I’ve wanted for years. Pearls Before Swine is my favorite comic strip, but I don’t have many of the books yet. Since I’ve been feeling pretty cooped up after the surgery and haven’t been able to go out and get anything, my boyfriend ordered this from my amazon wishlist for me!! For those of you who have never read Pearls, you should definitely check it out. They have several books out now, so far my favourite ones are BLTs Taste So Darn Good, This Little Piggy Stayed Home, and The Sopratos.
I recently got an email asking if I’d used any over-the-counter bunion products to help with the pain before considering surgery. I thought that other people might be interested in my response.
Hi there,
I found your website and started reading it because I have bunions too. I don’t think mine are as bad as yours, but I may consider surgery down the road. Did you try any non-surgical methods for pain relief before considering surgery, and if so where did you get them?
Thanks,
Samantha
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.
Tomorrow will have been one week since the surgery, and I’m going to get my dressing changed by Dr. L. As of right now I’m still in quite a bit of pain, but am tapering off of the Percocet. I am still getting random stabbing pains in my foot, although there is still a large portion of my big toe that I don’t have feeling back in yet. My friend is going to drive me to my appointment tomorrow, so I don’t need to taxi which is great.
I’ve had a pretty steady stream of visitors so far, and some of my best friends were over on Saturday night which was great. My friend Katelyn brought me some pretty flowers, and others have lent me movies and video games. They’ve also brought me yummy food, berries and chocolate and stuff. I still have very little appetite, but it’s slowly coming back as I take less Percocet.
Well I will update again after my dressing change tomorrow.
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.
I have a long day ahead of me… I actually have to work a full shift until 6:00pm, and then I catch the ferry to head to Vancouver for my surgery (I live in Victoria B.C.). My parents are in Vancouver, so my mom is picking me up tonight, taking me for surgery tomorrow, and then driving onto the ferry with me and taking me back to Victoria.
Instead of having to buy crutches, my grandma had a pair from when she broke her hip, some very nice, aluminum, barely used, adjustable crutches. They are at my parents’ house, so I haven’t had a chance to practice using them.
I had better get ready for work now. It will be sad saying goodbye to all my co-workers; I work with some of the nicest people in the world. Hopefully some of them will come visit me.
I am so nervous about tomorrow! Wish me luck!
Even though I’ve been working a lot this week, I’ve been getting out a lot and trying to enjoy what little I have left of my summer before I’m unable to walk. Working so much is really hard though; I come home every day after being on my feet for 8 hours and they ache so badly I can hardly walk. Mostly from my left bunion, which is the one I’m getting operated on. But soon it will be gone, and hopefully that will reduce my pain.
The type of surgery I’m having is called an Austin Bunionectomy, where basically they shave off the bone of the bunion, cut the tendons and the bone in my first metatarsal, realign the bone, and hold it in place with a long pin. There are not too many good websites that I can find describing it, but a lovely (not graphic) youtube video here: Austin Bunionectomy Demonstration.
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!
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One girl's quest to share her bunion surgery, recovery, and foot pain with the world…