My Foot Saga

WARNING!!!! THIS MIGHT GROSS YOU OUT!

Around the 4th of July I started experiencing a lot of pain in the top of my foot between my toes. It would swell up and I could hardly walk. Well, after ignoring it for about a month I decided to go see a Podiatrist. Well, I wasn't stupid, I knew I had a HUGE bunion on my toe but the pain wasn't anywhere near that so I didn't think it was related. I was wrong. My lovely bunion was pushing my big toe towards my little toes, as you can see in the picture below. This was causing a nerve between my toe to be pinched, therefore causing the pain. It has been pinched for so long that it built scar tissue on the nerve and the only way to relieve the pain was to remove the nerve. Also, my bunion had to be removed otherwise my big toe would continue to drift towards my little toe and more nerves would be pinched. Surgery was scheduled for August 29th and I was having my bunion removed and the nerve taken out. No big deal right? I think I can go on the record for the most naive patient because I had no idea what it all entailed.

Surgery was great! I would go under anytime, any place. I have never slept that well in my life and when I heard the nurse waking me up I was angry. I wanted more drugs and more sleep. I wasn't in a lot of pain but I had to wear a cast on my leg/foot for 4 weeks. Of course I chose the most obnoxious color there was.....HOT PINK! Those 4 weeks were probably the worst weeks of my life. I had to hobble around on a cast and try to keep up on everything in my life....oh....and Mike was in England for 2 of those weeks which made it harder but, I did survive.

I was so looking forward to the day I got my cast off. I decided to take the day off and go to the zoo with Sadie after it was all over. Here is where I get really naive. I showed up at the doctor's with my shoe in hand ready for the cast to be removed and me to walk out the door. The nurse removed my cast and all the gauze that was wrapped around my foot. It was disgusting! To my surprise when I looked down at my foot, there was a pin sticking out of the top of my foot. Now, from the x-rays I knew that I had pins INSIDE my foot, in fact 6 of them to keep my toe straight, I had no idea that I had one on the outside. I politely asked the nurse what it was and she said, "That's your pin dear....he will be removing that today, don't worry it doesn't hurt." I was sick to my stomach and wanted to run out the door right then. Well, she was right, it didn't hurt BUT the doctor had to use great force in removing it which was a bit shocking. I didn't watch and was bracing myself for the pain, luckily it didn't hurt but once the pin was out, I looked down and there was a geyser of blood coming out of the hole where the pin was. It was awful, I had no idea that was going to happen. Apparently that is normal.

So...needless to say I did not put my shoe on and walk out of the doctor's office that day. I put a lovely black shoe on that I have to wear with my wrapped foot for 2 weeks and then we'll see about putting my shoe on. It has been a long recovery (going on 6 weeks) and very annoying. I will be glad when I have full use of my foot again and can bend my toes. The bright side of this whole saga is that I might just be able to wear pretty shoes that I've never been able to before. Happy Day!

Before

Before


During

After (sorry this ones a little gross)