Double Bunionectomy, week 1

Warning: this post has yucky images of my foot with stitches in it.

Another warning: this is a really long post.

So, I thought I would let you know how it felt to have a double bunionectomy: it hurt. That being said, it was not the excruciating pain that every one had told me it was. This is either 1. because everyone else was a TOTAL wuss, 2. I am tougher than the average bear, or 3. because I had a tonsillectomy last June.

That may not make sense to those of you who haven't had a tonsillectomy at age 26. I didn't believe my doctor when he told me it would be super painful because I am "older" (i.e. not 10 years old). He was right. OW. It hurt so badly, even on the strong pain killers, and a numbing prescription gargle that cost $50 per bottle!

I was miserable for three weeks, and in week 3 I was really cranky because I was just SO HUNGRY but eating meant HORRIBLE PAIN IN CAPITAL LETTERS. And then the scabs came off early and my throat bled for hours (how am I supposed to spit out blood coming from my throat, when I am supposed to keep my head elevated????). I had to have Rick The Saint take me to the ER at 1:00am. Worst experience of my life, but worth it to never have gargantuan tonsils ever again.

Anyway, back to the feet - maybe I should let you know what I had done, because there are a few types of bunion surgeries. For my surgery I have three incisions: one on the side of my big toe joint, one on the top of my foot in a straight line back from between my big toe and the next toe, and then one on the top of my foot directly above the bone that leads up to my big toe.

In the surgery, my doctor had to reposition my bone going up to the big toe (I think it's my first metatarsal), so he cut the bone at that bumpy part on the top of my foot and repositioned the bone to point more straight forward, instead of out from my foot. He kept this in place by putting a metal plate and two screws at this juncture. He shaved off a little bit of the bunion on my big toe joint.

And then, just for fun, he also had to detach and reattach the tendon that pulls on the inside of my big toe. This tendon was pulling my toe to the inside of the foot, since the bottom of my toe was being pointed toward the outside. He attached the tendon to a lower point on my big toe so that it would not be pulling my toe over after the surgery.

So my feet were definitely uncomfortable after the surgery. No. Wait. For the first 24 hours, they were TOTALLY fine. They obviously gave me some kind of magical numby thing for them after the surgery. So between that and my oxy, I was fine the first day and part of the day after. On a scale of 1 - 10 I rated it a 4 on my meds. Not bad.

The next day the magical pain drug wore off (the surgery was a Friday), and to my dismay, I could feel my feet. So my hubs and I though it might be a good idea if I took the strong pain meds. They are the strongest ones you can get in tablets.

Now, normally I read the entire drug information sheet when I get a new prescription. I was of course not in a reading mood, so I just took this strong pain pill. It worked great! Until it gave me a migraine.

Huh???

Did you know that some painkillers have sulfites? Like the ones in some wines that give me migraines. Rats. And no, the migraine did not distract from foot pain. It made me feel like I maybe had foot surgery the day before, and like I DEFINITELY had a migraine. Not. Helpful.

So after reading the info sheet about the drug I had just taken, I switched back to my trusty oxy and I was fine.

One thing that bothered me more than the pain (from the foot and the migraine) was the knowledge that I had these screws in my feet. I was SO afraid of doing something bad to my foot that would make the screws crack the bone! So just thinking about that made me concentrate on the pain more. Yipes!

I kept getting foot twitches in - where else? - my big toes. Ow. Just random twitches while I am sitting quietly with my feet elevated above my heart. And then when I am trying to sleep, oh jeez! You know those dreams you have when you are just falling asleep, and you trip or fall in them and your legs twitch? Those REALLY hurt when you just had surgery on your foot!

One of the funnier occurrences of this was actually one morning when I had been fast asleep, and having kind of a scary dream. Some guy was trying to hurt me and I went all ninja on his a**! I was like, "Hi-YA!!!" and I did one of those double kicks where you jump up in the air and kick with both feet, but one foot at a time in the same jump.

Cool in the dream. Not cool in Reality when I wake up because I karate-kicked myself in the foot. :-|

So my feet definitely were at a 4 pain level for a few days, but I think I went off of my meds all the way after a week and a half. I love prescription pain medication when I need it, but I hate the side effects so I go off of them as soon as it's comfortable. It was comfortable when my feet were elevated, but when I took them off the pillows the pressure in my feet was enormous. So I only got up to go to the bathroom. Which I had to do every hour, which is super annoying. I was drinking a lot of tea to counteract the Evil Pain Med effects.

One effect of the constant bathroom breaks was waking up on Tuesday and feeling like I had been hit by a truck. Getting in and out of a wheelchair is hard! To go to the bathroom I have to get off the couch, into the wheelchair, wheel over to the bathroom door, get out of the chair onto the floor, scoot over to the toilet, lift myself onto the toilet, then off the toilet, across the floor to the chair, up into the chair, over to the couch, and back to the couch from the chair.

Now, I am a physically fit person, but this requires a lot from your body when you can't put any weight on the front of your foot. So.... I could barely move on Tuesday morning. It has gotten better from there, but I can still feel an active day in my abs and hip flexors. I will be a pilates star when I am done with this recovery!

I am so lucky to have a wonderful family - my husband was doing everything for me at home, and I felt so bad! Luckily my mom came over on a few occasions and did some cleaning and cooking for us, and my younger brother came over and hung out and unloaded our dishwasher. *Thanks Mom, thanks Nate!!

So I went for my one week post-op appointment, and here is where the gross picture is. My feet were all wrinkly and atrophied. They took off the HUGE bandages and took out my stitches, which looked like this:

Eeew, gross, right??? I know. Let's take a look at the before:

I do realize that with the stitches in, the before pictures look better. But you can tell the bunions are gone.

So when they took out the stitches I almost passed out. They had me sitting in my wheelchair, and the guy started in and I think he was maybe five sutures in, and I gave the first warning. I know when I am about to pass out because after having a horrible fainting seizure while getting allergy shots, I used to pass out every single time I got poked with a needle. For three years.

So I knew I was getting close, so I gave the first warning, and then about two seconds later I was like, "Yep, I'm gonna faint," and Justin (the guy working on my feet) and my husband sprung into action - Rick scooped me up and laid me down on the exam table and Justin gave me some cool water. It was one of those moments where I was SO glad to have a 6'5" strong husband (I am 5'10" and 130), and Justin was glad that I wasn't a 300 lb man. LOL. His words.

So I was fine after that. Justin took out all the stitches, Husband held my hand, and all was well. I got my foot re-wrapped and went home.

Oh, and I forgot to get stitchless photos. I'll get one tomorrow when I go in for my four week bandage change.