So far it’s pretty much been a walk in the park.

I knew this surgery would be easier than the last two but I’ve really been surprised at just how easy it’s been so far. I was able to stop my pain meds after only 4 days. I do occasionally have a little burning so I’ll have to take a few ibuprofen tablets but that’s no big deal. The pins don’t bother me at all but the incisions burn just a bit when I’ve walked around too much. I’m actually more bothered by the surgical shoe than the incisions or pins. It’s not very comfortable. The velcro straps go right across the top of the foot but not quite as high up on the foot as they should. So to keep the shoe from flipping up and down my heel as I walk, I have to pull the straps pretty tight. The problem with that is that the plastic loops that the straps feed through land right on the plates in the top of my foot so the rubbing bothers me. Also, the bottom of the shoe is hard plastic rather than rubber. So when you step onto linoleum or tile it’s like ice skating. The other day I nearly wiped out in the breakroom at work. You would think that they would put a non-slip sole on the bottom of a surgical shoe…doesn’t make sense.

The first time I took a shower after the surgery I got my bandage wet…of course I was cautioned not to get it wet. I used the same cast cover that I used when I had the casts but unfortunately it slipped or something because water got inside and pretty much got the entire bandage wet. I called the doctor’s office and the on-call guy said to unwrap as much as I could and carefully blow dry it. So I threw the ace bandage in the dryer and used the hair dryer to dry the gauze. It worked out fine. This is what it looked like once I finished rewrapping it.

Unfortunately, the blood soaked gauze got pretty uncomfortable fairly quickly. As I walked, the stiff gauze rubbed between my toes…it felt like sandpaper. I called the doctor’s office to see if I could get the gauze bandage changed but I wasn’t able to get through, I just kept getting transferred around the office so I eventually lost patience and decided to rewrap the whole thing myself. It wasn’t that hard once I figured out how to get the bandage off…it was all stuck together due to the dried blood. I decided to ditch the ace bandage because I couldn’t see any reason why I needed a bandage that went all the way up to the top of my ankle when I just have a few toe incisions. Here’s a couple pics of the foot unwrapped and rewrapped. I think the incisions look pretty good for only being a week old. You can still see the needle marks and some bruising from the nerve blocks. I put a couple pieces of medical tape on the pins after I rewrapped the foot because I kept getting the pins caught on the blanket at night.

I ended up creating a toeless sock because without the ace bandage my foot was a bit chilly but I didn’t want to go back to all that extra bulk. It was pretty simple. I just took one of the pairs of terrycloth slipper socks that the hospital gave me during my previous surgeries and clipped off the toe seam then hemmed the raw edge. It’s very comfortable. Maybe I should market these. LOL

I go back to the doctor on Friday to have my stitches removed. I’m hoping that I won’t need any gauze bandages once the stitches are out. The gauze is a little bulky and doesn’t always want to stay where it should (even before I changed it). I’ll be happy to be done with it.