Friday 25 January 2013

Recovery without casts - the first few days

Well, the first night after the casts came off was agony. Not in my big toes, but in my left middle toe.

When the casts were removed, I noticed that toe was very red. It seemed like it had been crushed by the cast over the previous five weeks and when I touched it, it felt bruised, so I decided in my wisdom that what it needed was a massage.

Bad idea.

Massaging it sparked off agonising pain that continued for hours. I took two codeine at 2.15am but they didn't seem to do anything, and by 3.15am I was nearly crying, and wanting to bang my head against the wall to distract myself from my toe.

I must have fallen asleep eventually because I woke up in the morning and thankfully it had stopped hurting, but I haven't dared touch that toe since! I have asked Mr Nugent on email about it, in case I should see someone.

In fact, today (Friday) is three days after the casts were removed and the toe has a purple spot on it in the middle of the red, so I think my bruising/crushing theory is probably right. I guess it's just going to take time to heal.

Here's what it looked like yesterday (Thursday) two days after the casts came off.



You can see how sore and inflamed it is.

The day after the removal, the Little Lady went to preschool so I spent the day rubbing cream into my feet, especially on the scars, and trying to manage to put my weight fully through the forefoot.

It felt really sore and tight, especially around the incisions, and I was amazed at how little flexibility I have right now.

Yesterday, I put my trainers on (no pictures, I can't bear it!) and walked the Little Lady to and from preschool at both ends of the day.

What is a mere 0.4 miles, and takes five minutes at adult pace or around 15 minutes at child pace, took me TWENTY-FIVE MINUTES.

And I had to go back again as well. So it was just under an hour for drop-off, then I rested until it was time to fetch her, and did just under an hour of shuffling again.

Big mistake.

My feet swelled up, were very sore, and today my legs and hips are aching like I ran a marathon! Crazy.

It doesn't help that my right toe spacer feels lumpy under the next toe, and when I walk (shuffle) it is painful as it digs in. I've emailed Mr Nugent to ask if it's OK if I cut it down a bit to try and stop that happening as I need to be able to put my weight through my foot.

I have some pictures I took yesterday of my scars. All the dead skin has come off now, and although they are still very dry and need a lot of cream, they're pretty much back to normal skin-wise.

Here they are looking great.



Look at those straight toes! *big grin*

And have a look at my scars! I am beyond delighted with how they are looking.



I am so pleased. Obviously they are still pinky red right now, but they are so thin and neat! Mr Nugent has done a fantastic job and I can tell that when they do go silver they will be hardly visible.

I know that's a bit of a vain concern, but it is important to me tthat my feet look as normal as possible in future.

The only thing I'm disappointed about right now is how little range of motion I have in my toes, but that's for the next post.

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