It's been a little over a week since my cheilectomy and I'm feeling pretty good. Wednesday I had my first follow up with my doctor. I took an Uber and brought one crutch with me. It was slow going getting up to my doctor's office and if I stepped the wrong way or moved too fast I got a sharp pain at the incision site but I was doing ok just going slow. Some random guy kept telling me I should ask for a wheelchair. I told him I was all set. He insisted again. I again told him I'm fine and don't need it. After a cheilectomy you want to be back on your feet as soon as the pain allows so you don't get scar tissue in the joint. So you can screw off buddy, I don't need your unsolicited advice.
My doctor's visit listed about 5 minutes. My foot was unwrapped for the first time since surgery and oh boy did that feel amazing. FREEEEEEDOM! *William Wallace voice*. I was nervous about how bad it would look but it wasn't as bad as I thought. It's still swollen and there was some bruising but that's normal. The incision looks to be about two inches long. She told me that everything looked really good and to keep on doing what I've been doing. I think constantly keeping an ice pack around my ankle (cools the blood going into the foot) and elevating as much as possible has really helped. She moved my toe around which hurt like a bitch but it was tolerable. My upward range is good but bending the toe down is tighter and painful. I think that's from the stitches though. She tells me to do some toe bending a couple times a day. The stitches are dissolvable, which was news to me. No painful stitch removal. My next post-op appointment she will trim down the two stitches on the ends. There's also some steri-strips on there. I got the ok to get my foot wet in the shower, I just have to make sure not to scrub the incision site and to make sure it's dry before I re-wrap my foot. She wraps my foot back up but leaves the toes uncovered. She also gives me some extra bandages to take home. I decided to still wash up with my foot sticking out of the tub but I did clean off my foot around the site. It's still bad spray tan orange due to antiseptic stuff used before the surgery. I ditch the crutch when I'm just around the house.
Thursday I used Door Dash to order Dunkin Donuts because I wanted an iced coffee and a donut. Absolutely worth it.
Friday I decided I would finally go back into the office. The office was closing at 2:30 so I figured I could last until then. I took an Uber in to work but it's still a bit of a walk to get into my office building. I definitely had some moments where I went too fast or moved wrong and felt some pain. It was not coming from my joint though but near the top part of the incision site. I took an Aleve and propped my foot up on a recycling bin in the office. I continued icing but my foot was feeling tight (probably from swelling). I made it until 2:30 and iced it once I got home. Since I've been cooped up I wanted to go out for dinner. Around 5:30 I took an Uber to Washington Square Tavern to meet Derek and when I got out of the Uber my big toe (still in the boot but the front open) grazed something and I felt a really bad sharp pain in my toe. My own stupid fault. It was pretty painful but finally calmed down during dinner.
This morning I woke up and realized I'm feeling really good. My last Aleve was yesterday morning. I'm able to move around crutch free and have not had any sharp pain from moving the wrong way. The biggest change is that I don't have the aching in the ball of my foot and side of my big toe which is where I felt the arthritis pain the most and why I had the surgery in the first place. Any aching I do have is the top of the foot around the incision site. I'm very happy about that. I'm hoping after the long weekend I'll be moving much easier around the office.
Well that was a long post about my foot but hopefully it will be helpful to someone planning on having this surgery and as a reminder to myself when I eventually have my left toe done (probably not until next year).
