Apparently I have broken my foot in two places. Both are on the 5th metatarsal. The original Jones fracture has opened up and looks like a wedge has been taken out. Closer to the toe, the bone appears shredded and the docs suspect another break there. They plan to take a bone graft from the knee to fill the bored out bone ( this was from when they tried to remove the screw, it broke, and they had to bore it out) and then put in a plate. I just hope the plate is less painful than the screw😟

I guess my message is that hardware removal is not always a good thing. We live and learn.

Six weeks past my screw removal and things suck. I am still in a cast with instructions to be out of the cast as tolerated. I haven't really been able to tolerate it. When I go castless, I usually regret it the next day. Saturday, the foot hurt quite a bit. I did my normal grocery thing with a bit more added in because of Thanksgiving coming. Halfway thru Costco, it hurt pretty badly. I soldiered on, but was in  a lot of pain that evening. At the moment, it's about a 5. That's worse that right after surgery!

Tomorrow is my 6 week x-ray and I hope they say it is healing. I'm pretty scared Things are not going well. I keep hearing the nurse practitioner saying, "If we'd had your ok, we would have done a bone graft. Of course, now I worry about that.

Anyway, pain is a 5, swelling on top by toes is about a 4.

Here I am again, updating this very old post. It seems the foot issues will be with me all my life.

Yesterday I had my original screw removed from an old Jones fracture. The screw was done previous to my reconstruction and has always given me pain. The doc found a small stress fracture in the fifth metatarsal, but felt having the screw removed would still help my pain.

The surgeon got me opened up and had trouble getting the screw out. They had to cut it up into pieces to remove it. This resulted in a larger incision than the one we planned. Now I am in a cast for two weeks and am not able to get around as well as I planned. Bummer!

I just hope this will help with the pain. I could feel that damn thing in there. I swear it moved sometimes. It poked out and, with pes cavus feet, I walk on that side of my foot. Things would get swollen and sometimes bloody. I was unable to wear even tennis shoes.

The doc says that I will eventually need a fusion. I didn't ask for details. I did not want to know. That can be dealt with when the time comes.

Anyway, if anyone is wondering, the original reason to start this post, the reconstruction, is still somewhat satisfying. My feet are stronger and I can twist the ankle without falling. I wish it were more stable. I have balance and weakness issues which are some times worse than other times. Cest la vie.

2 years +

two years out and I finally feel like I can say I am semi-satisfied with my surgery. I know I needed it. I also know I am way better off now than I would be if I had not done it. The slow process of strengthening my body is finally at a place where I am satisfied. I am up to swimming a mile a day and hoping to find a group to do open water swimming with. Personally, I'd like to do it alone, but I don't want to die, so I guess I better find like-minded old people who also want to swim in lakes and oceans. The only weights I lift are my continuing physical therapy. It is hard to fit in more with my schedule, but I keep hoping to get going on a gym workout. So, my life is back. The foot is acceptable. My blog is done(:

1 year

Yesterday was my one year "anniversary." Overall, the whole process has been bittersweet. My foot is definitely  improved. It isn't as good as I had hoped, but it is better than it was. Along the way I've had some related issues that have been a challenge. Probably the biggest one is my back. I was really strong before, regularly swimming a mile, walking 2 miles daily and lifting weights. After surgery, my muscles all went away and an old back issue came back with a vengeance.  I first noticed pain while doing my PT, but just thought all I had to do was get strong enough and everything would be fine. The problem was, everything I did to try to get strong just made it worse until I was regularly in screaming pain every time I moved. There were times when walking was a real challenge. After stubbornly thinking I knew enough to deal with it, I finally went to PT again and am now baby stepping through about 40 minutes of exercises daily - that is - daily when the damn back is not flaring. I am seeing improvement, but it is sloooooooooooooooooow! My PT guy is sending me to see a physical rehab specialist because he feels my back is severe enough to need it.

I guess my regret is that I didn't jump on this right away and ask the PT people at my foot surgery place what to do. I just thought I had it under control. Those of you with older bodies (like mine) who find old aches and pains coming back after your muscles turn to jelly from sitting on your butt for so long, don't let it go. Bring it up. Insist on help with it. If I had done that, I don't think I would be where I am today.

So the second issue related to this is that I've gained about 25 pounds - ouch! I'm working on that now, too, but not being able to be as active as I'd like makes it hard.

Day 201 (I think.)

I had my final meeting with my surgeon today. Basically, my foot is still more unstable than I would like. He said the only surgical way to deal with that would be a foot fusion. I already have a small one on the right side, but this would be more on the top. It would prevent my foot from moving like a normal foot. There is no way in hell I would even consider that at this point. The foot is better than it was, but not as good as I had hoped. I am going to try bracing and perhaps wedges in the lateral side. He told me to talk to my PT about those things. I also am going to continue physical therapy with a focus on balance, proprioception and strength. My balance and proprioception are evaluated as "poor" so I certainly want to work on those. He said I will probably always have minimal proprioception and will just have to keep an eye on where I am putting the foot and be careful.

I asked about removing the screw on the 5th metatarsal and it is doable but I think I will wait and see if I can just adjust. It would take a while for it to heal and the chance of breaking it again would be higher. Time will tell.

I am still glad I had the surgery. The foot is better than it was. I wish things had worked out better, but I have no regrets.

Day 183

Yesterday was the 6 month mark, and I am finally glad I had the surgery. On average, the docs said I will be at 80% of what my foot will eventually be at 6 months. I would guess that I am at 70% of what I had conservatively hoped for. If things get better, I will be very happy, but if they don't, at least the foot is more functional than it was.

I had hoped to wear a lot of the shoes in my closet that have been bought over the years and then turned out to not work for my feet. I'm not sure that will happen, but it's been fun buying new shoes. I'll never be able to wear heels, but I've never wanted to. The brands that seem to work the best are Haflinger and Finn Comfort. The latter is very expensive - as in $200 to  $300 dollars, but well worth it. I can't wear all of their styles because the toe box is not deep enough, but the ones I can wear are extremely comfortable. The Haflingers are less expensive - about $100. They have a wide and deep toe box and are really stable. They mainly have wool clogs. These shoes seem to work better than tennis shoes which is a shame because I've always been a tennis shoe girl.

The biggest downside about the whole experience has been that I've developed some pretty painful back issues. I'm still working on dealing with that. It gets worse at night and is sometimes so painful I can't sleep. Every time I try to work out or even swim, I make it worse. I think I just don't know how to start over from square one which is stupid because I've done it before. I'm forcing myself to just walk and am going to try to go back to the gym this next week and use the treadmill and some really conservative weights. Hopefully I can slowly work up to being strong again because I miss it.

I would recommend the surgery to someone thinking about it. Make sure you get the most experienced doc you can, hook up with a good physical therapist and do the exercises religiously. Plan on it being hard, boring, frustrating, not only on you but on your loved ones.

Off to meet friends for dinner.