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.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Friday, December 2, 2011
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.
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.
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