Cheilectomy Day 6

I woke up in the middle of the night in some discomfort. I think what must have happened was I inadvertently stretched the big toe where I had surgery in my sleep. It was pretty unpleasant, but it soon subsided and I went off to sleep again.

This morning my spirits are pretty low, as I had planned a big day celebrating in friends from near and far and having a picnic then heading to a party this evening. As it is, I'm stuck home and all my friends are out celebrating without me.

This is pretty difficult for me as the last couple of years have been incredibly isolating. My relationship broke down, we had endless lock-downs, I moved house a couple of times, and my dog has had cancer and surgery and is quite elderly now, my mum has been diagnosed with Alzheimers and I'm feeling like she's becoming less and less present. Some friends were coming from London and I was looking forward to being 'normal' again. Alas, it wasn't to be.

But when I was offered the surgery, I just went for it, and that meant keeping myself isolated for a week before the surgery to make sure I was covid free, and now being isolated because of the foot surgery. BUT IT WILL PASS. And I really hope to be able to recover the ability to walk again. Walking has been SO important all my life to my feelings of well-being. So I hope that by having this surgery - and then maybe getting the knee issues sorted out - I will be able to walk further and for longer and pain-free.

One good thing with all this - the knee sure feels better!

And The Dog paid a visit!

Comments

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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