Cheilectomy - Day 12

I went out last night! Whoa! OK so it was just a 2 minute drive to the local park to sit on a bench while a friend walked the dog, but it was amazing to be out. Made it feel like a bit of a milestone.

Last night was the most restless the foot as been. I kept being woken up with the toe going through full stretching. It felt pretty tired and achy this morning, but more mobile than it has been. Icing it this morning and taking a paracetamol for any swelling.

The area around the incision is lively in the evening now, and I can feel it more. Not pain, just healing I guess. Can't wait to get the bandage off. I've seen some posts where folk have had the dressing removed/replaced a few days after surgery, but my discharge notes clearly state NOT to disturb the dressing or bandage until the follow-up appointment 10-14 days after surgery (14 days for me). In fact, I watched a good video on how to do the type of bandage I have (linked to here Meyerson's Wrap technique), and it does look like it's specifically for supporting an osteotomy/bunion type procedure (which I've had), so it could be that a straight up cheilectomy isn't so reliant on the bandages staying in place.

I'm more mobile and actually was able to scoot around packing for a weekend away - am decamping to a friends for a bit of company and a change of scene. This would not have felt possible this time last week, so that's progress.

Keep on elevating, keep on icing. Onwards, and up...

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Cheilectomy - Day 14

Lots of mobility now - whizzing around doing everything for myself, except shopping and walking the dog. Can walk ok in the surgical shoe and do stuff like preparing meals and washing up, getting up and down stairs, walking to the car. Still icing the foot just to ward off any swelling, wiggling the toe and stretching it. Sometimes, without warning it has a sudden ache - similar but not as intense to the pain I'd experience often before surgery. Went out to the local tea rooms for a couple of hours with the Sunday papers, so feeling a little more normal. Looking forward to tomorrow when I have my post-op appointment back at the hospital, and to losing the surgical shoe and the bulky bandages.

Cheilectomy Week 8

As I go into week 8 from the date of the cheilectomy and osteotomy to treat hallux rigidus stage 2, I'm mindful that this is supposed to be a big turning point. In my notes that I was discharged with it states, "You should return to your normal daily activities (and stop the PT exercises) after 8 weeks, although exercising the joint from time to time may still help." Now I'm a bit literal, so I'm tempted to follow the guidance to the letter. But I actually think my PT has really only just begun. Maybe that's because I had the osteotomy, maybe the guidance is pretty good for cheilectomies on their own. And as for getting back to 'normal' activity, well, given that normal activity was much reduced due to the condition of hallux rigidus in the first place, this could be a little difficult to measure (and since I'm not a runner, and I'm in my mid fifties, it puts me a little at odds with the experiences of many in blog posts and discussions I&#

Cheilectomy 5 months

As each month milestone approaches, it feels like the toe is worst than the month before, but when I read back, I can see that's a fallacy. I guess, as it gets better, I just measure its progress day by day, so some days it feels worse and some days it feels better. And that's kinda the lesson learned in this post. For example, the last couple of weeks we've had a cold snap in the UK (temperatures down to -2 in the daytime), so I've had to swap the trainers to more suitable walking boots (something I couldn't wear last month). I've been in the walking boots every day now for a couple of weeks. It feels roomier than when I tried the boots last month, so that indicates the swelling (from Covid probably) has gone down. It's more comfortable to wear the boots now, so clearly that's progress. I've been doing around five miles in them, but do find that it's a matter of one day on, one day off. So if I do a five mile walk one day, I'm not up for a

cheilectomy-diary

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