It’s been 7 years since I’ve written in WordPress and I suppose time really had gotten away from me. Perhaps it was a little writer’s block, if you will, but I thought I’d give it another dabble and exercise the brain.
The skinny lately is all about the left foot that has been a Pain (quite literally) since a Summer fall, about 8 years ago now. An avulsion fracture that took about 6 weeks to heal, complete with a stylish walking boot. In the course of that injury, the arch in the foot had fallen, which caused an array of other problems down the road.
Fast forward to earlier this year when a surgery was done to try to remove 2 very angry nerves in the foot, suspected as neuromas. This surgery was supposed to be the end to 8 years of incredible pain while walking or standing for long periods of time. Sadly, this may have been a misdiagnosis – since neuroma were not visible on the ordered ultrasound pre-surgery.
8 months later, as pain continued and never improved, I sought out a 2nd opinion. According to the X-rays and MRI, there was a lot missed from Doc number 1. There was a tear in the plantar plate, caused by dysfunction of the foot that wouldn’t have been a problem had the arch not fallen 8 years prior. Crazy, right?
So surgery #2 was done to repair the plantar plate, as well as an osteotomy to correct an aggravating hammer toe and a fusion for the 1st tarsal metatarsal that was not stable. If fusion goes well, I can expect the first 3 months to be the hardest. It will be 6-12 months before I’m completely back to normal functions of the foot. There will still be pain, swelling and frustration in those 6-12 months – but I’m well aware because the Doc gave it in straight terms. You get your life back in a year, pretty much.
I’ve been trying to keep it on a positive path, but I will say there are emotions involved with having to get a 2nd surgery because things were ‘missed’ the first time around. That was 8 months of time that I kept thinking the increased pain would eventually stop, things would come full circle and I’d feel better. I had no idea that the biggest culprit in the issue was definitely not a couple of nerves in the foot. No, they were simply firing because of other dysfunctions in said foot.
This road will be a long one and I’m sure I’ll have bad days, but right now I’m envisioning Thanksgiving time of 2020 and how different my life could potentially be without pain. The thought of walking more than 3 aisles of the grocery store pain-free or even the goal of a 5k as a reward makes me happy.
I have put a countdown on my cast for when it comes off (4 days left) and I’ll go in a medical boot that can be removed at bedtime. I’m searching for small pockets of joy in this process and a boot-free foot at bedtime gives me reason to smile. 🙂
One day at a time, one foot literally in front of the other…for the next 50-ish weeks.