Bunionectomy Post Op: Day 6

Warning: This post is very long.

Warning: This post contains photos of my gruesome stitched up foot just days after surgery.

(If you react badly to photos of gore, then I suggest stopping at the last warning down below, for the photos will be towards the end at the bottom of the page.)

I’ve decided to go a little more in detail with my surgery for anyone who’s looking for information on what I’ve been experiencing. I’ll try to explain everything as best as I can.

So it’s almost been a week since I’ve had my bunionectomy and osteotomy, and earlier this morning I had an appointment to go back to my doctors office to change my dressings and see how my foot is doing. I’ve been so anxious and excited for today since I finally get to see my foot! Yes, I was aware that it would be all ugly, BUT I’ll be able to see how straight it is. Which I’m happy about.

My doctor talked to me about pain and she was shocked that I wasn’t in constant pain. Other than that one night when I woke up crying, I haven’t had any pain at all. (You’ll get to see why I was in such pain that night in one of the photos later on.) My doc said that that pain I was experiencing that night was from the splint rubbing against the side of my pinky toe joint and causing pressure, not from the actual surgery itself. But she was impressed that I’m not having any pain. So either everyone else that’s had a bunionectomy is just a wuss, or I have an EXTREMELY high pain tolerance. I know I have a high pain tolerance anyway, but she says anyone else would’ve been in excruciating pain all day for the first few days. I, on the other hand, was not phased.

(I find this kind of funny and ironic because if I happen to stub my toe into my dresser, I’ll be rolling around on the floor sobbing, but I can endure surgery and be cut open and not have any pain at all. Lol)

The first 24 hours, I didn’t feel a thing because of the numbing agent that was put into my foot. After the numbness wore off, all I experienced was slight throbbing. It’s not bad at all. I had people telling me that when they had the same surgery done or when their family member had it done, they were in so much pain and they had to be on top of their pain meds at all times and it was terrible and that they felt bad for me. And I’m here like .____. Thanks for those words of encouragement. Idk, I guess I’m the exception. I can honestly say I don’t have any pain. On a scale of 1-10, I would say my pain level is a 1 or 2. I’m smiling all the time and everything seems well.

Of course pain levels will be different for everyone because everyone is different. You could have really bad pain or you could be like me and barely experience anything.

I currently have one, long, straight incision in my right foot. Starting at the big toe joint where my doc went in and shaved off a portion of the bunion that was protruding outward and then realigned the bone; and ending at the start of the first metatarsal joint where she took out a piece of bone, realigned, and fused the joints together. I now have three screws in there that keep the metatarsals in place and parallel to each other. My doctor told me that my bunions are very large for someone of my age. (Which you’ll be able to see later.) She says there’s so much movement in my foot in the first metatarsal that a simple bunionectomy and just shaving the bunion growth itself would not put an end to it because it will easily come back. With all the movement in my bone, it’ll be easy for the first metatarsal to slowly swing over and cause a bunion again. This is why some people complain that their bunion came back after they had bunion surgery. Because they simply fixed what was wrong on the surface instead of going to the root of the problem INSIDE the foot.

This could all be gibberish to the people who don’t have bunions or have never inquired about it…

Anyway, this hasn’t really been much of a problem for me but I feel I should still address it. TWITCHING. My foot has twitched only twice since I’ve had surgery but when my foot twitches, man IT IS PAINFUL. It’ll come out of nowhere. I’ll just be sitting on the couch, relaxing, watching some television and then all of a sudden my foot will twitch. I’m pretty sure the twitch is generating from my big toe. Whenever this happens I always feel like the screws in my foot shift and move out of place or something. Which doesn’t actually happen, but that’s just the feeling I get. It goes away in about 20 seconds though.

Let me describe how it’s like getting to the bathroom. I have a knee walker that I use if I need to get around the house or go to the bathroom. My bathroom is fairly small and it had just enough space for me to fit myself and my knee walker in there. I park my walker right in front of the toilet, remembering to keep my foot properly placed on the walker’s cushion. Since I had my right foot done, and my shower tub is to the right of my toilet, I have to sit at an angle to make it work. And when I sit down, it gets awkward. I have to swing my foot around carefully but quickly so that it is in front of me, and gently rest it on the cushion as I begin to sit down so that it’s still elevated. I have to grip my toilet seat and lift myself so I’m positioned comfortable, then I do the same process again, just reversed. I’ll hoist myself up for a second, then swing my leg back and put it back to the normal resting position on my knee walker, and that’s it. It’s a hassle, but it has to be done. It definitely requires a lot of energy just to use the bathroom.

One thing I am not looking forward to is muscle atrophy. That’s where you lose muscle tissue in a part of your body because you haven’t been using that part of your body. So in my case, I will lose muscle in my calf. Of course it’s gonna happen because I can’t bear any weight on this foot for six weeks. I just hope I don’t lose too much muscle. My calf will look all weird. I’ll definitely have to do some exercises to get the muscle back. I honestly really love my calves. I always have. I think they’re perfect in size and shape and everything. I’ll have to work to get that back, but that’s alright. I’m a trooper and I can do this!

And now onto photos.

Warning: These photos are kinda gory and may gross some people out.

I think they’re awesome, others may think it’s disgusting. To each his own.

But because I want to show the progression throughout my surgery, I will post them to show the extreme difference in my foot(:

This is the main bloody bandage after all the other bandages and splint were removed.

Now earlier when I talked about how I woke up that one night crying because I was in so much pain and the pain was from my splint digging and rubbing up against my pinky joint, well this is what that side of my foot looked like and what caused that pain. THIS is more painful than the so called pain after the surgery.

And now for the actual gruesome stuff(:

Obvious bruising and swelling. And I have sausage toes… BUT LOOK HOW FREAKING STRAIGHT THAT BIG TOE AND THE FIRST METATARSAL IS! Woo!

And there’s my long incision and stitches.

Oh, and here’s a photo I took two weeks ago of my feet together with my ugly bunions.

You can see how my bunions are very large and protrudes outward, causing the big toes to deviate in the direction of the other toes.

And that’s it for photos.

Overall, I have to say my experience has been a very positive one. Even though my foot is swollen and stuff, I think it looks amazing! I don’t have a bunion on that foot anymore and the bones are straight. It’s honestly a little weird seeing my foot ‘normal’ and straight because having bunions is all I’ve ever known. Having bunions is my ‘normal’. I’ve had them for over ten years and I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have them and they weren’t a problem. So it’s a big deal for me.

On a side note, I’ve stopped taking my pain meds. I don’t have any pain so I don’t need them. I haven’t taken any all day today. Since yesterday actually. This is a good thing. I don’t need to be dependent on meds for any reason. But I’m seriously not experiencing any pain at all. The slight pain I did happen to have throughout the past few days was just from the splint; and since that’s been removed there is absolutely no pain. Yaaay(:

On another side note, to avoid any confusion on the ‘days’, I do consider the day I had my surgery, Friday the 26th, Day 1. Instead of the day after my surgery being post op Day 1, I consider surgery day the first day because it was scheduled at 7am, and I came home well before noon. So I was home all day and basically had a long full day. Just to clear things up(: It still may be a little confusing to some people, but whatever.