Cheilectomy - Day 20-21

It's the 3 week mark and it's been a busy weekend - well, it's all relative. I've been able to get on a bike - lowering the saddle so I can easily put my foot down. It's been more a case of rolling along at walking pace than actually 'cycling' - the foot feels too fragile to go straight off out of the traps onto the road in case of any sudden mishaps that could mean mucking up the osteotomy before it's healed.

On healing, the incision wound is finally sealing up and looking less angry. Still haven't gone swimming - still looks like it needs a little more time to scar properly before risking the water (submerging the skin, risk of tearing, and infection from sea water). Hope that changes this coming week. I can't feel the top of the toe near the incision at all - it's numb. Hoping that changes.

Doing the exercises as directed - push and pull until it's uncomfortable twice a day for 5 minutes. I was able to walk the dog to the park and back - slowly and carefully - last night. So today the foot - especially the underside - feels a little tender. It also aches on the outer side of the foot - no doubt due to being cautious and walking along the outside rather than roll of the toe yet. I think there's a tiny bit more flexion - both dorsal and plantar - but still a fair amount of swelling around the toe joint (to be expected with the osteotomy).

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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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