This post is mostly for my sister, Kristina, who is going to school to be a nurse. She just loves this gross medical/surgery stuff and wanted pictures so that's what this post is for.
I had a mild to moderate bunion on my right foot. What is a bunion you might ask...I didn't really know either. A bunion is an enlargement of bone or tissue around the big toe joint. It is most often caused by faulty mechanics of the foot (which is hereditary). The doctor explained that it has to do with the bone of the big toe being too long and the joint not in line with the middle toe joint how it is supposed to be. There's more to it I'm sure but wearing tight shoes can make it worse which I believe is what happened to me after wearing tight Army boots. Here is a picture of my foot before the surgery. You can see on the left side of my foot a bump around the joint of my big toe...that is the bunion. It causes pain when walking or exercising and especially when wearing high-heels. It also makes it very hard to find shoes that fit the extra width in the foot.
The surgery:
The procedure performed was a Chevron Type Bunionectomy. They basically shaved off the bunion and shortened my bone so the problem will hopefully not come back and my joint can heal normally. I was given a local anesthetic in my foot and then was given Monitored Anesthesia Care (MAC) which means I wasn't completely out. I did fall asleep for the first 30 minutes but was in and out after that (another 30 minutes). I did wake up hearing the drill and feeling the pressure on my foot. YUCK! I do remember asking to see my foot so they helped me lean up a bit to see it. Things were a little too fuzzy the first time I tried to look but I could see a little better by the time they got the stitches in. I was in and out of sleep until they wheeled me into the recovery area and I woke right up. I was ready for food and water since I had been fasting since midnight and got out of surgery around 2:30 pm. I scarfed down 3 packets of soda crackers (2 in each), 2 graham cracker packets (2 halves in each), a small container of chocolate pudding and 3 glasses of water. I was SO hungry and ready to get out of there.
My mom and sister were there to take me home and things were fine until I started taking the Percocet. I couldn't keep that down the first day so the doctor gave me another prescription called Darvocet. That started giving me pain in my chest and upper abdomen which was more pain than I had in my foot. I also had a huge headache so I stopped taking that too and just resorted to good ol' Ibuprofen.
Here is my foot all wrapped up after the surgery. Look at those swollen toes all covered in iodine! The first few nights were the most painful. I did cry a few times and realized I had to get up every hour to crutch up and down the hall for a bit to make the pain tolerable, then I could go back to bed.
I was able to stop using crutches one week after the surgery but was walking very funny in the post-surgery shoe shown below. It's stiff so I can't bend my foot and gives me a tiny bit of height which really just makes me feel like my leg is too long when my other foot is not wearing a shoe to match the height. I got the stitches out yesterday and my foot is getting better every day. Another week or so and I can get out of this dorky post-surgery shoe and just wear an athletic shoe. At six weeks (after the surgery) I will be able to start some vigorous walking and by eight weeks I should be running again.
I left out the really nasty looking pictures I took of my foot that show it all bruised when I got my first bandage taken off one week after the surgery. If you want to see those nasty pictures of a poor bruised foot with stitches and covered in Iodine as well as the rest of the pictures I've taken, click here.
I had a mild to moderate bunion on my right foot. What is a bunion you might ask...I didn't really know either. A bunion is an enlargement of bone or tissue around the big toe joint. It is most often caused by faulty mechanics of the foot (which is hereditary). The doctor explained that it has to do with the bone of the big toe being too long and the joint not in line with the middle toe joint how it is supposed to be. There's more to it I'm sure but wearing tight shoes can make it worse which I believe is what happened to me after wearing tight Army boots. Here is a picture of my foot before the surgery. You can see on the left side of my foot a bump around the joint of my big toe...that is the bunion. It causes pain when walking or exercising and especially when wearing high-heels. It also makes it very hard to find shoes that fit the extra width in the foot.
The surgery:
The procedure performed was a Chevron Type Bunionectomy. They basically shaved off the bunion and shortened my bone so the problem will hopefully not come back and my joint can heal normally. I was given a local anesthetic in my foot and then was given Monitored Anesthesia Care (MAC) which means I wasn't completely out. I did fall asleep for the first 30 minutes but was in and out after that (another 30 minutes). I did wake up hearing the drill and feeling the pressure on my foot. YUCK! I do remember asking to see my foot so they helped me lean up a bit to see it. Things were a little too fuzzy the first time I tried to look but I could see a little better by the time they got the stitches in. I was in and out of sleep until they wheeled me into the recovery area and I woke right up. I was ready for food and water since I had been fasting since midnight and got out of surgery around 2:30 pm. I scarfed down 3 packets of soda crackers (2 in each), 2 graham cracker packets (2 halves in each), a small container of chocolate pudding and 3 glasses of water. I was SO hungry and ready to get out of there.
My mom and sister were there to take me home and things were fine until I started taking the Percocet. I couldn't keep that down the first day so the doctor gave me another prescription called Darvocet. That started giving me pain in my chest and upper abdomen which was more pain than I had in my foot. I also had a huge headache so I stopped taking that too and just resorted to good ol' Ibuprofen.
Here is my foot all wrapped up after the surgery. Look at those swollen toes all covered in iodine! The first few nights were the most painful. I did cry a few times and realized I had to get up every hour to crutch up and down the hall for a bit to make the pain tolerable, then I could go back to bed.
I was able to stop using crutches one week after the surgery but was walking very funny in the post-surgery shoe shown below. It's stiff so I can't bend my foot and gives me a tiny bit of height which really just makes me feel like my leg is too long when my other foot is not wearing a shoe to match the height. I got the stitches out yesterday and my foot is getting better every day. Another week or so and I can get out of this dorky post-surgery shoe and just wear an athletic shoe. At six weeks (after the surgery) I will be able to start some vigorous walking and by eight weeks I should be running again.
I left out the really nasty looking pictures I took of my foot that show it all bruised when I got my first bandage taken off one week after the surgery. If you want to see those nasty pictures of a poor bruised foot with stitches and covered in Iodine as well as the rest of the pictures I've taken, click here.
7 comments:
aww emily i had the same surgery on both my feet, two different operations. it wasn't that bad, but to this day if something hits up against the inside of my foot where they shaved it. it hurts really bad. so just watch out for that. hope all went well :)
I wish you a speedy recovery!
Hope your foot gets better fast.
Hope you're healing well. And you were very kind to not post all the nasty ones. :) Some of us (Kristina) have stomachs for it and some of us (me) don't. ;) Good for Kristina, though!! I hope you're back to 100% soon! :)
You need to get better soon! I love the icko pictures. lol
Yikes! That doesn't sound to fun. I hope that you are doing better.
I was thinking of you guys today. I hope you are feeling better Em and Jaren-Happy Birthday! I love you both and I'm sure its hard not to be together.
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