I’ve been released!!

I saw the doctor on Wednesday and he said I was released for both feet! No more doctor appointments, no more physical therapy sessions! Yee Haw!! He said that it’s not unusual for me to still have some pain when I’m on my feet for long periods but it should get better with time. As he likes to say “that’s a lot of surgery”.

I’ve noticed a huge difference in my left foot lately. The heel (which has been my primary source of pain since I started walking again) doesn’t really hurt at all anymore when I walk. So I’m hoping that in a few more months I’ll have the same luck with my right heel. Right now I can only be on my feet for about 2 hours before the pain in my right heel gets too intense for me to keep walking.

Overall I think my feet look pretty good, especially considering how they looked the first time the casts came off. The Mederma Scar Gel seems to work pretty well, too. I noticed a big difference after only a few weeks of use. Even the therapist noticed a difference. It really seems to flatten and fade the scars in a very short time. You can see in the photos that the scar on top of my left foot looks better than the one on the right foot. That’s because I’ve only been using the gel on the right foot for 3 weeks. I’ve already finished the 8 week course on the left foot.

My arches look VERY different in the before and after photos. They don’t even look like the same feet! I still have a little swelling in the right foot but as soon as that’s gone I can’t wait to buy new shoes. There are so many more options available to me in the shoe department now…it might seem like a little thing to some people but it’s pretty exciting if you’ve never been able to buy fashionable shoes before.

                     Left BEFORE                                                            Left AFTER

                    Right BEFORE                                                          Right AFTER

I starting going to the gym again this week. It only took 10 minutes on the treadmill for me to work up a sweat! I could really tell it had been awhile since I’d been, but it felt great. And the best part…I wasn’t embarrassed for anyone to see my feet when I was changing in the locker room. I’ve always been terribly embarrassed for anyone to see my feet, even with socks on, because you could tell that my feet were deformed. Now my feet look just like everyone else's!

Overall, I am very pleased with the results of the surgeries and I’m glad that I did it. I can’t say that everyone would feel the same, but for me, it was worth all the pain and the effort to have better balance, better fitting shoes and normal looking feet.