Hello everyone, I took off my casts two weeks ago and things seem to be progressing well. I've taped my feet very tightly for the past two weeks and I feel the strength coming back slowly each day. Below is another image of my feet taped. I've also started to put on scar-reducing strips to help decrease the redness of the scars and I've had to put bandages on the side edge of my feet (underneath my pinky toe) to add a little more cushion. Wrapping my feet so tightly has caused the edges to bruise a little and be sensitive. It is quite funny all the things I have to do in the morning. I do not wear the tape when I sleep so I wrap my feet up early in the morning before I get out of bed.
I've now almost fully resorted to walking without my crutches. I bring them with me to work, but I barely use them. Wearing my sneakers with the inserts have made my feet feel very secure. I've also stopped using the wheelchair as I need to walk more steps to rebuild my tolerance of walking. I've noticed that when I walk quite a number of steps, my feet get tired and swell up a tiny bit. I still walk slow, but Dr. Wu says I can increase my pace gradually each week. I am tempted to walk my normal speed, but my feet tell me they're not ready yet. Below is a video I recorded of Dr. Wu explaining to me how I should be walking. He is teaching me to over-emphasize walking with my big toe, to build strength and also to learn how to walk correctly.
Besides walking as described above, I'm also supposed to continue my toe pressing exercises. The toe bending exercises, I do periodically when my toes are not as flexibile. A little bit of stretching every day helps the feet get back to normal. I am still concerned how much the bones may have shifted over this time. I will not know until my next X-Ray, which will be in about 2 weeks. Dr. Wu says they will still shift slightly and I hope it is not too much. This surgery does not guarantee that your bunion area will be completely straight after your recovery and I warn people not to expect that. I even have to remind myself and I have to remember that the ultimate goal of this surgery is not aesthetics, but better functionality and less to no pain. What I believe this surgery will do is to help restore better overall foot function and also get your feet back to within normal degree angles. Let us hope this proves true.
I have tried out driving once, but not yet on a regular basis. I feel that I can drive short distances around town, but again need to build up my tolerance. This is especially so for me since I drive a manual transmission. I use both feet quite often when driving and shifting, so I don't want to over tire them.
That is all I have to report for now. Here is a picture of my feet sans tape, strips, and bandaid. I hope to post again in another couple weeks.
Sorry for the delayed post, but with Chinese New Year this past week, Dr. Wu's office was closed for the holidays so I was not able to hear from him until very recently. I took another set of X-Rays on 2/9/2016 as requested by Dr. Wu. Below are the last two X-Rays.
Before I sent the X-Ray to Dr. Wu, I noticed another slight change in the gap, and I was disheartened to see that difference. One of the challenges about this surgery is that I need a tremendous amount of patience for the process, and also, not have my expectations be that everything will proceed perfectly as described. My sister helped me re-shift my perspective when she said "it is still much better than what is was." SO true!
Dr. Wu reviewed my X-Ray and explained everything is still looking well despite seeing another slight change. He once again said this change was normal and to be expected. My feet are still slightly over-corrected and will probably shift again over time, until the ligaments gain their full strength. I've been very cautious about not walking too much on my feet, but this can also be a detriment if I don't walk enough. If I refrain from walking, I will not be able to build the muscles needed and can experience more bone loss.
So how do I find the balance? I am not so sure, but will take it slowly and gradually to start. Dr. Wu gave me the option to stay in my casts for another week if I wanted to be extra careful, or I could take the casts off now. I decided to go with the latter option and completely removed my casts on a Friday night, so I could use the weekend to slowly adjust back to walking. Below is a picture of my feet without the casts and I cannot tell you how nice it felt to finally wet my feet! Obviously, it was not a pretty site when the casts came off and the skin was sensitive after thoroughly cleaning the feet to remove old skin (very gross!). But it definitely feels nice to not have that hard, protective cast anymore.
Right before I left Hong Kong, Dr. Wu explained that it would be beneficial to tape my feet with surgical tape, initially right after I removed my casts. This is to provide additional support for the foot to prevent stress fracture and also help prevent more loosening of the ligaments. The instruction sheet recommends to use this tape for at least 2 weeks, which will also help me slowly adjust back to normal walking. See below for a video that I took of Dr. Wu explaining how to apply the tape. I also included a picture of my first attempt at applying the athletic tape I had. I applied it in the evening and did so very tightly (as per instructions), but found I could not sleep well with them as they cut off my circulation and made it painful. Oops!! I probably should apply them in the morning and walk in them a little more to loosen them a bit before going to sleep. It may also be that athletic tape is too strong so I will try both surgical and athletic tape to see what works best.
For outdoor walking, I can transition back into sneakers but I have to use the inserts that Dr. Wu provided. The picture below shows my old black inserts (left) and the new tan-colored inserts (right) provided by Dr. Wu. Looks like Dr. Wu's inserts are more sturdy and hopefully more helpful for my feet. Dr. Wu had sized these inserts to my feet before I left Hong Kong.
When I tried placing my feet in my sneakers, including these inserts, the fit felt tighter than normal. I imagine this is to be expected since my feet haven't been in normal shoes for quite some time. I also don't know if the surgery has caused my shoe size to change since the big toe is now straight. I will check to see if more loose fitting shoes is better to start with initially. I will gradually return to normal walking and definitely not speed up my pace, otherwise this can cause a stress fracture. I need to also continue my big toe-pressing exercises for the next few months if not more. Since I am now out of my casts, I won't need to use the book anymore for these toe exercises.
When I asked Dr. Wu about driving, he said that the actual driving is not so much a problem now. It is just how comfortable my feet would feel if I needed to emergently slam on the brake. It's true in that right now, my feet feel weak to even pull my car in/out of my driveway. I drive a manual transmission, so besides the brake, I have to shift quite often. I rather not risk driving for now, and see how things progress over time.
My next X-Ray is scheduled about 1 month from now and Dr. Wu said I should feel almost back to normal by then. Let's hope everything will continue to progress as expected. I will try to post another blog in a couple weeks.
