Post Op Appt.

Tuesday, April 5th was the day to visit Dr. Carlo Messina at the South Florida Institute of Sports Medicine in Weston, FL. (right next door to where I work) After a nice car ride out to Weston, my mom drove me, a walk through the parking lot and in I went. Having an appointment in the morning is a good thing here as it tends to get busy. The assistant took me to the exam room and told me to remove the boot (camwalker). Went to take some xrays and then back to the room. He posted the old (before) xrays and then proceeded to cut the wrappings/bandages off.

OHHH MYYYY, boy did it look pretty darn ugly. Well, it is black and blue and that is pretty normal for my fair skin. Doc came in and took a look, new xrays came in and got to see how it looked and what they did. I have a pin in the metatarsal head to help align the toe better.

Dr. Messina rewrapped the area and I was given a pass to use a surgical (flat bed) shoe just to drive in and otherwise it's still the boot. Das Boot.

This was also the day I took my last oxycodone as I was also told I could take ibruprofen. I didn't like the way the pain med was making me feel, so glad I am done with it and feeling ok just using the Motrin when I need it.

Took an 8 min walk around the block with Das Boot to get out and about.

Wednesday, April 6th, was grocery day. Got up and out of the house to make a deposit at the bank through the drive through and then off to Publix. I did pretty good walking around the isles and gettin back in the car. Starting to see a lot of black and blue around the edges of the wrapping and around the ankle area. Just lovely.

Cruella de Toe

Cruella de Toe is the name I have given my right big toe. I had to give it a name because I had to separate how the toe was making me feel from it's physical attachment to me. I had surgery on this toe joint back in 2006. I have Degenerative Osteoarthritis in the joint. It builds up extra bone and those are like spurs, the spurs got so bad before 2006 that the toe would get stuck when I would bend it. I had a procedure called a chilectomy to clean out the area. While healing from that I read an article on someone who walked the WDW Half Marathon, sounded like something I could do and so I found a training program to do it and as I recovered I trained and completed the 2008 WDW Half Marathon.

It's been about 5 years and the degenerative arthritis issue is still there (you are never cured from this) so bone builds back up, things healed a bit weird from the first surgery and the toe started to lay a bit on its side. It wasn't functioning correctly, so the toe next to it was trying to do the job of the big toe, which started causeing me pain in races. Used to be around mile 9 I would feel like a stone under the middle of foot near the 2nd toe joint. Then it just got worse, but mile 6, then 5, then most of the time I was just walking. I started to suffer in races. Talked to a new Podiatrist as to my options. We decided after the races I had already signed up for and I had a break then surgery would be done again.

Wow, the last Half Marathon I did before surgery (end of February) I was really suffering, I broke down with about a half mile left thinking if I couldn't get my toe fixed I would have to stop doing these races as I was just in so much pain.

SURGERY: APRIL 1st, 2011 -

Surgery day was a day of mixed emotions, I was a bit nervous of just the surgery itself, but happy to be getting the dang toe overhauled!!! I was home by about 10:30 and chilling out in the recliner. Foot was completely numb that whole day!! so really no issues that day and I didn't take any pain meds until bed time. I felt some feeling coming back and so I took 1/2 a pill before bed, woke up after 2 hours sleep and took the other half. I didn't sleep well, couldn't get comfortable at all.

Day 2 (Sat)-Pain started to creep in and taking that first step in the morning was very awkward. So, I started taking the Oxycodone regularly every 4 hours. This helped alot. Spent most of the day in the recliner with foot elevated and icing on and off.

Day 3 (Sun)- Pretty much most of the feeling is back. Getting some little twinges and a definate pushing pressure feeling in the joint. Still using pain meds and ice and elevation.

Day 4 (Mon)- Sleeping is better and gave up elevating the foot in bed. Doing ok without it. Started to get some swelling in the ankle area at the end of the day yesterday and some today. Noticing some black and blue areas.