Lapidus Procedure Questions and Concerns

I was told 8 or 7 week NWB (First post op appointment said i shouldn't walk on foot for 5 more weeks) and days after initial surgery the pain hurt the worst 3rd and 4th days and i had a splint on and a wrap.

1st post op appointment they took off the skin tape over the stitched area then put gause over it and wrapped it with white cotton thing then put my splint back and ace bandage it up the rest of the way and sent me back home. The days after were very painful and felt very weird with muscle spasms and tension that rolled around (likely from swelling and slightly increased circulation) and last 2 days and day of second appointment i couldn't sleep at all but the day before the appointment was the most painful from toe joint stiffness and popping then the night pain for me was something i called almost-as-painful-as-childbirth pain because the tension was centered at ball of foot, and in an elliptical shape with ends of it between big toe and second toe down to low inside of foot (the side where the big toe is) with tightness and shooting pain, toe joint popping, spasms, and stiffness, along with the semi bearable pain of them (minus the elliptical pain thing) being more excruciating to the point of sobbing (but factors that could have made it so bad on my part was that it was storming, it was night and both have weird effects on bones and pain, menstruation which lowers pain tolerance, and possibly how I didn't sleep for two nights straight before (i didn't sleep that night either so i had sleep deprived hallucinations). The explanations I had from the doctor was: Joint stiffness because the splint restricted my movement for 2 weeks straight, and the sleep problem and most of the pain was from swelling and the muscle spasms were from the circulation and movement from the first appointment when he took off the wrap and bandaging and manually moved my ankle.

Durring the appointment he too x-rays and he actually did extremely well on it and he took the wrap and splint off and since we brought a sock and the surgical boot he put the sock on and boot and told me to work my ankle to avoid stiffness and to always wear the boot when moving and that i could take it off when sitting, laying down, and sleeping (the second appointment was yesterday and i slept in the boot because i was worried i might hurt my foot in my sleep) he said I could now wash my foot but i shouldn't soak it and use room temperature water (I usually bathe in hot water and I am accident prone and im like 4 weeks clean from sh so i understood why, because when you have an injury and submerge it in hot water may the injury be from that morning, from a few minutes or seconds before, scabbed, or slightly old but not completely healed, its going to hurt and burn and pain will be worse the larger or deeper the wound and I knew that since this was a stitched surgery wound that it would hurt A LOT) I dont like anything touching the top of my foot including myself unless it was wrapped like before so i'll likely wash around it lightly to get the dye from whatever cleaner they used on my foot after the surgery to keep it from infection or whatever (The dye colored my foot a greenish color with maybe blue or something either way the most evident color was green and made it look like it was a zombie foot) and maybe try cold water to be safe. I just want the colorent to be washed off and I don't really care about washing anything other than my hair.

He said i can now put ice ontop my foot instead of behind my knew because I still had some swelling but no brusing and I was given toe spacers and it worried me (I read that some others had gotten cramping from it) and the top of my foot and most of my toes, except the tips of them and bottom of foot, were numb like the kind of numbness you get when you go to the dentist for a filling so you only feel the pressure when you make contact with the area (I really don't like the feeling at all personally) so when he moved my big and second toe it felt really odd and a little painful since the incison area is a straight line from under the knuckle of my big toe to maybe halfway down my foot probably where the bone under my toe ended and where he needed to put the plate since I have large bunions on both feet but just had my right foot done instead of both at once so I still have some mobility and won't have to relearn to walk from not using my muscles and all that but i really wish i also got a kneewalker (scooter you put your knee on and scoot around in that also lessens the chance of accidentally stepping since the leg is held up) because the crutches are really exhausting and are not kind if you have mental disabilities that can effect your balance (i have adhd and my dad has it too and he had problems balancing from it but he is gonna be 62 in July so his adhd was called disobedience and a bad kid and the treatment for it was a willow switch, belt, or paddle) and the pain killers and other problems can make your head blurry and also mess with balance so falling and placing the foot of the crutches wrong and stumbling and all that is scary and can make you fall on your butt and your stuck on the floor till you can get someone to help you or land on your foot and cause problems if your still NWB, and if you have problems with breathing (Asthma, live with a smoker, low endurance, live in a wet heat climate with high humidity, or mental problems that will effect your breathing) you are going to have a bad time and need constant breaks when moving place to place (I live in Missouri which is a humid heat area and its been raining a lot so the humidity make it harder to breathe and my dad is a smoker but a few years ago he started tryin to smoke less and has an E-cig with water vapor instead of smoke that he uses on occasion because its expansive, nearly 11 years ago i started my adhd meds that had a big appetite loss effect and i was under weight for 6 years and effected my growth and after almost 5 more years getting better my maturity is late and my lungs are slightly smaller than normal ones and i also dont move around much or am in any sport so i have problems getting enough air in with smal upright actions with going from my bed to the dresser that take only 2 crutch movements or even trying to stand for a bit) and also being still upright using crutches arent going to help you if your center of gravity moves foward or backward slightly (Unless your reflexes are quick, you slept enough, and have alert people nearby you have a high chance of falling over, i have good experience with stumbling around with crutches and its scary) unless you got your supplies for surgery recovery and practiced them a lot you are likely going to have problems with obsticals in your path and stairs (I have gotten my crutches stuck twice on coats on the wall and one of the times before the first appointment i accidentally hit the side of my foot and freaked out because i was taking full pain killers at the time and it was maybe 3 or 4 days after surgery, and i didn't use google to help me understand things so i was in the dark alot, so i had pain i wasn't used to and didn't want to try to and took one when the 4 hours in between doses was over if the pain started up again, so my brain was foggy and I didn't know how to deal and i also freaked out over the bump from the splint curve because I was barely told much, my dad ended up finally telling me about the med's effect on my head, the amazing outcome of the surgery [my doctor, who had been doing this for years and was really highly rated, told my dad it went better than expected and it was his best work and my dad didn't tell me for days, i was half relieved and half ticked off because I was worried for days that something might have gone wrong] and that the doc put a splint on my ankle which kept my foot in a slight down angle comfortable for my ankle, and that the crutch slip up wouldn't have effected my foot unless it was a hard hit. If someone in the home uses a tube to help with breathing, my dad, you have a chance of the crutches getting caught, Steps are easy going down if there isn't many, move the recovering foot up and put your crutches at the end and just bypass them but if there is many have someone help you move down or just get someone to carry you if you really must. Going up steps is harder but you raise your recovering foot up, put the crutches on the step, then use your good foot to jump on the step and use the crutches to stabilise, do this for every step if its few or have someone carry you for multiple. Getting in a car for appointments, first time i tried i fell on my recovering foot and freaked out but it was ok and either my dad or brother finally told me how to actually get it but after i finally got in the seat but i also chose a seat with little leg room and moved over to the front seat but did what they told me to, first is don't try entering facing the seat, around 4 feet away from it turn around and back into it and don't have your recovering foot up or you're prolly gonna hit the car or seat with it, get close enough where the edge of the car could touch your legs, then sit down and turn, and a great place to set the crutches down is beside the seat and door. Getting out is easy, plant the crutches on the ground and hold the handles, use your good foot and the crutches to help you up. I have more situations to help with moving just ask me if needed.) Crutches hurt at times and after a while the joint where your leg and hip meet might start hurting because most of your weight standing is on that leg, it might not just be with crutches but its a problem im having and its keeping me from moving mostly, but in all get another mobility helper and crutches or just something other than crutches. Im only 15 and have large bunions that almost were severe (my case the bunions came from putting my size 4 feet in size 2 shoes in maybe 2nd grade idk all I really remember was that I was in elementary when I did it and i did it for a few months or something and now at 15 it caused my big toe to start moving under my second toe like it wasnt under it enough for my toe to be slightly up but it was just enough to do so soon but i got inserts last year around november to slow it so it would take maybe a year and a half to start possibly lifting it idk im just making a general guess) so if your young with them you're not the only one.

Your meds for recovery might also cause some problems, pain killers can make your head foggy (could also just be anxiety if you were diagnosed professionally or believe you have a high chance of it for a long enough time but the foggy head could just cause more over thinking too) and how to know it is if you find yourself verbally freaking out more than usual over simple things more than usual, slower reaction or mental processing (could also be adhd making your mind forget its exsistance by distraction or mental process moving too fast and realising something too late, it's just my experience with my adhd,) than usual, having moments of thoughtless actions (zoning out, [in my case, picking fallen hair from clothes, blankets, pillows, and seats.] picking at things, repetitive brushing, mainly just mindless actions but watch out for hard habits developing [small signs are having trouble snapping out, unconciously doing the habit even if you don't want to, doing it for hours ignoring drinking or eating.] if you have this happening from just one full pain killer try taking only half a pain killer instead.) during the first week you are likely going to be constipated either from anesthetic, meds, or both and if it last multiple days ask your doctor if you can use a laxative (my dad gave me a natural herbal colon clenser and helped a few days later.), you might have slight apetite problems from the meds but if you also have daily meds for something else that also causes appetite problems the recovery meds could make it worse or make meds you have taken to help the problem in the main med stop working tell your doctor and they might help with it. The meds could affect your sleep (It also likely can be the pain itself, it can get bad, i couldn't sleep for 3 days straight even with over the counter melatonin every night and started hallucinating but thankfully the 3rd day was the same day as the second appointment and my doc gave the all clear for stronger sleep meds and i slept like a rock).

I had my second appointment yesterday and unlike the usual for others my stitches stayed but last appointment he said bring the boot again and thick socks so I have a sock on and boot (probably already said this but that sleep deprived thing still messes with my memory and i just have bad memory) it might be scary and disturbing seeing your foot looking normal, dyed, and/or the stitches on your foot and may take lots of time getting used to and you probably are scared of touching your foot (if you are, same fam) but if your boot has a detachable sock padding thing and need something more than a sock on it to stretch your ankle, take the thing out around your foot and set the boot nearby because its hard to fully stretch your ankle but stretching it keeps the disturbing toe joint stiffness and more disturbing joint popping away, and try working on stretching your foot one way at a time and manually stretching the other if you don't like the feeling of your foot being numb on top and contact of it in areas (moving your foot in from the bottom with your hand and using your muscles to move it out) but you still need to try to move it in with your muscles after moving them out so you can gain mobility there.

I might lose mobility in my big toe from the surgery incision but im not that worried because on the knuckles of both my big toes have spots of scar tissue that affect its mobility but after a year slowly moving them kind of wore it down, i cant move it as far as i used to but its really close and i might be able to do the same, possibly easier since its a thin straight line and pretty perfectly done instead of a chunk scraped out from a wet slippery sidewalk, to my toe after i get the stitches out...im scared of the pain of that honestly but oh well.

This is pretty long and the original comment is 3 years old but i wanted to contribute and maybe it can help someone else too.