Scarf + Akin Osteotomy - not a horror story!

In case this is of interest to anybody who's formed the opinion that bunion surgery inevitably leads to great pain and suffering, I had a bunion which was giving me grief, especially in cold weather. GP referred me to consultant, who in view of the fact I'm 66, advised Scarf + Akin with lateral release sooner rather than later.

After an 8-week wait, I turned up at the hospital at 8.30am last Wednesday. I was in theatre at 9.30am, and home with a bandaged foot and crutches just 4 hours later!

The foot was uncomfortable the first night, but perfectly manageable on a diet of paracetamol alternating with ibuprofen - mainly a dull ache from the bones and soreness from the wound area. During the next 48 hours it gave me some grief, mainly very sharp twinges every now and then, but they'd settled down by Saturday afternoon and the swelling had done the same so I ditched the painkillers.

So for what it's worth, the recovery story from here amounts to maybe 72 hours of a foot giving me grief off and on after a total of 5 hours in hospital. I'm now at 7 days post-op, bored out of my mind, but good at moving about the place and getting up and down stairs on my crutches!

I've learned two things that I didn't discover when I was Googling recovery from bunion surgery which may be of use to others. One is that the best way to keep your foot elevated while you're asleep is definitely to put something under the foot of the mattress to raise it (in my case, a rolled-up rug did the trick).

And the other is that if you're a bloke who's of an age to wake up in the night for a pee, sitting on the side of the bed and using a laundry liquid bottle sure as hell beats putting your magic shoe on and hobbling off to the loo. The only downside is that it tends to result in your other half waking up and needing a pee too ...

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