Week 20

Hi all! Sorry for not updating sooner, it feels like it was just yesterday that I last posted.

With that said, it's update time!!

Here are some questions I've received via email that I thought I'd list & answer:

How do you feel physically? Pretty good! Better than I thought I would at this point, actually. 

Are you in pain? No, it's more of a tired ache/soreness at the end of an active day.

Can you run? I can! I started up on badminton again just this week and played very comfortably even though I felt like my heart was gonna explode lol! Months of taking it easy will do this to you.

Can you bend your toe? I can with my hand but not much on it's own. It bends as much as it did back at week 14.

Does your cut hurt? Not really, it stings lightly sometimes but it's probably because the scar away sheet is so sticky, it sticks to the skin so it doesn't let it move like it should. BONUS: Everyone thinks the sheet is a band-aid so they extra stay away from my feet haha!

What shoes are you wearing? I made the switch to very cushy comfy flats, both open and closed toe. The closed toe fit comfortably but I do feel more tired on the days that I wear them. Because of this, I haven't bothered with heels. It would be too tiring.

How's the swelling? There is still some if I walk around a lot. I just take off my shoes for a while if they start feeling tight. It doesn't last very long. 

Are you limping? Yes, if I'm tired I walk with an obvious limp lol

Have you bumped your foot/toe? Yes. I slammed my toe into the corner of the couch a couple of weeks ago. It hurt but no more than if it had been any other toe.

Did you ever bump it while wearing the fixator? No.

Did you get an infection? No but this is not common. Most people get minor infections that clear up quickly with antibiotics. I have absolutely no clue why I didn't; everyone is different. 

How is your toe nail growth? It's normal which was unexpected. The nail bed stretched with the rest of the toe and now it looks like a good ol' normal toe nail :D

Are you still using the bone stimulator? Yes. I'll use it 'til it dies I guess!

On to the pictures!

Closed toe cushy flats! Very comfy :)

Scar Away Week 10 :)

I'm feeling great emotionally too. I'm really happy with my results and sometimes forget that I got it done. It goes both ways: sometimes I forget my foot is normal now and sometimes I forget I ever had brachy. A good friend of mine threw a pool party recently and while I didn't hesitate to take off my flip flops and get in the pool, I could not help but think about the strangeness of the situation. NEVER in my life did I think I would actually be able to do that but as I sat there with a my group of friends on the pool edge with my feet in the water, I thought to myself "this isn't that different from before". In other words, I guess I had some glamorized view of what it would be like to not have brachy, but really my life was already great all along.  I'm exactly the same person and my friends are the exactly the same great people. Even with brachy, I accomplished a lot. The reality is that brachy didn't hold me back as much as I recently thought it did. If anything, it taught me to be resourceful and problem-solvy. Flip flops and barefoot walking are cool but I can't say that I didn't have a great life before surgery. With THAT said, I'm still very glad I did it. I know I probably sound completely mental to anyone but brachyfolk (and even then lol). I hope this made sense & I'll try to tone down the crazy next time ;)

Thanks for following & have a wonderful week!

Week 15

I'm back from my last appointment! Everything went well & the x-rays look great. I'm allowed to go bicycling and wear my heels again! HEEELS! I had secretly tried on some lower heeled sandals a couple of days ago and it felt fine. My foot doesn't go all the way in yet because of the slight swelling but I'm almost there. Also, I have to hold off on running for another month. My latest x-ray showed 24.7mm lengthened. Clearly I had forgotten to include the first 2 full turns at the office in addition to my 22 day distraction so that's the official length ;).

Anyway, I asked Dr.Nagler to send me the picture he took on my first appointment back at the end of March. I've mentioned previously that the only "before" pic I have is the blurry one posted in the first post. So here it is:

Before & After

It's kinda painful to look at and shocking to see it in detail. The curved middle toe, the corn and the tiny nail on the brachytoe. It sounds harsh but my internal reaction when he showed me the pic was something along the lines of "kill it with fire!!". Not very nice of me but it's the truth. I don't feel that way about all brachytoes, just the one that used to be mine. Most brachytoes look adorable as you can see on the facebook group I've posted on the right. In my opinion, mine was too severe. I had already forgotten.

I'm so grateful to Dr. Nagler and his staff, they're all amazing. This whole ordeal is a long process and God bless them for doing it. I can't think of a better way to express my gratitude than with food so I brought them my favorite cupcakes from Crave.

ScarAway Week 5

Scar update time! It looks the pretty much the same as last week's pic hehe. I still have several weeks of ScarAway to go so I'll keep posting pics. Also, I'm walking normally. I got another pair of sneakers in my regular size and am now using those. YAY for reduced swelling!

I've gotten several questions via email about my treatment. The main one is "who is your doctor?". With his permission I've posted his info on the right panel of this blog under "Who fixed my foot?".

The second most asked question is "would you do it again?". The answer is yes yes YES. If I had brachy on my other foot, I'd be in the middle of distraction right now LOL!

@ the beach

Squeezing into a 3 1/4 inch heel sandal

I went to the beach on Saturday and took a pic of my feet. No more burying in the sand. So that's it for now. If you have any questions, feel free to email me or just ask in the comments section :) Have a great rest of the week and weekend and as usual thanks for following!

Week 14

Here are some pictures comparing toe flexion. As you can see, I am sloooowly starting to bend the 4th toe with the others and even the others are able to bend further down. I'm attributing this to the reduced swelling.   It's nowhere near my pre-surgery flexibility or my left foot's flexibility but I'm hoping to get there eventually. If  I don't get there I'll still be 100% fine with it! Anyway, it's bending more than I thought it would considering it's only been 4 weeks since the fixator was removed! All pics were taken with me bending my toes with all of my might.

Trying to bend!

Comparing left & right foot flexibility

Here's a scar update pic:

Starting week 4 with ScarAway

My scar was feeling a little sting-y today when I got home from work because I did a lot more walking than usual. The stinging didn't last long :). Other than that there isn't much else to report on so that's it for now! Thanks for following ;)

Week 13

Getting back into the groove!

I'm back at the office and it's been going great! My job is pretty tame so it's not really a major transition. My coworkers have been great and they threw a welcome back party for me! It was so sweet. It's good to be back. And to my surprise my sleeping pattern returned to normal immediately but then again I've never had sleep issues.

I'm still wearing my tennies. I've ventured out in flip flops twice this week after work and have done well with them since they're cushy. But for the most part the tennies are on my feet. They look funny with my business attire but oh well! Also, I wear my bone stim at my desk and sometimes walk around with it on to stir up my coworkers LOL!

Here's a picture of my scar starting week 3 of ScarAway:

The scar is 1.5 inches long and it's totally flat. Before I used the sheets I could tell that the scar was starting to sink in but it has now smoothed out. It's hard to believe this is the same foot that looked tattered and bruised just a few months ago. 

So that's it for now. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. This whole experience is still fresh in my mind. I'm glad I have this blog to look back on once I start to forget what I went through. And if you're going through a rough time in your recovery please remember that everything heals eventually. We are much stronger than we think. And like I said, this is the same foot that looked like a discolored zombie foot a few months ago: 

I'll be posting more pics and maybe a video showing toe flexibility. Have a great week and weekend everyone!

Week 12

Week 12 is here! It's been an eventful week and weekend, I entertained family from out of town. This means there was a lot of walking around doing fun tourist-y things around the city. It was tiring but fun and painless.

Back at home on several occasions I kept mindlessly covering my foot. My husband quietly brought this to my attention as I started to burrow my foot into the couch cushion. I couldn't believe myself! After everything that's happened the past 3 months!! LOL! Force of habit.

Anyway here are some new pictures:

My scar is very flat to the touch. It's painless and the redness is actually the mark left by the silicone sheet which I've cut in half because the thin scar doesn't need all 1.5 inches of width. The sheets are very easy to use and I forget I'm wearing them :).

Oh and I finally hung out in the pool! It was long overdue since we're halfway into summer already! I'm still wearing my tennis shoes although I tried to cheat and wear some sandals out but it feels A LOT more secure/supporting for now to wear the tennis shoes. And I'm still using the bone stim.

So that's pretty much it! It's going pretty great & I'll keep posting scar updates. Have a great week everyone and have a great 4th of July!

Update

So it's going on 5 days since my pins were removed and it's been great. I was walking around normally with the darco shoe up until yesterday. I bought some Champion sneakers at Target and went up full size. They're very comfortable and very cheaply priced which is good because there is no way I'll be able to wear them once my foot is no longer swollen. I wore them yesterday with my regular socks (of which I have quite the collection due to years of hiding my foot) and drove to lunch!

It felt so good to be able to drive again and I had no pain. I was nervous at first but my foot was fine so off we went! I walked around a lot, we went shopping afterwards and only got tired once we were waiting in the long line at the tea shop. I sat down for a little while our drinks were being prepared and then I was off walking around again. I'm walking around normally but with a slight limp once I'm tired. My foot didn't get as swollen as I thought it would so yay for that!

Here's a picture of my scar:

Yesterday I started wearing the ScarAway silicone sheet (the beige part) taped down with medical tape to keep in in place. I'm wearing it already as a preventative measure. The box says not to use on open wounds and although it appears pinkish, the middle part of the scar has been closed for weeks now. It was really stiff and I can already feel the silicone softening it. The pin holes don't hurt at all but I'm giving the top 2 more time to heal before I move the strip vertically & cover the entire scar.

So this is my last week before I return to work. My goodness these 11 weeks flew by quickly but I've got to say that cable, Netflix, and my laptop made things a lot easier to deal with. Not to mention the recliner I've been nesting in. And I'm still not used to the new look of my foot. I was trying on my flip flops by the mirror and I still can't believe that's my foot in the reflection. I'm so happy I did this. I can hardly believe I actually did it and went through surgery and everything else. I'm proud of myself for not bolting out of the doc's waiting room on my first appointment even though it was all I could think about. I was sitting there with all that doubt in my mind thinking "how could I be this self centered and consider SURGERY for something non-life threatening?". Luckily I got through it and dived right in anyway. It may not have been a life threatening condition but it was holding me back. I sat there and thought about how this past January I was invited to go to Miami at the end of July and how my excitement immediately turned into dread because I'd be worried the entire time about hiding my foot on that beautiful beach :(. My only gripe now is that it's blazing hot outside and I don't want to wear socks & sneakers while I'm out wearing cute outfits...but it's no big deal! It won't be for much longer anyway :) 

Thanks for following & have a great week!

Pins Are Out!

I'm back! I'm excited to say that my pins were removed today. I went in to my appointment and they immediately took xrays. The doc came in, took a look at the xray and said "you're good to go!". 

He put on gloves, went to get pliers and screwdriver and got to work. He unscrewed and removed the fixator (the black bar) first. Then he took the pliers and started back to front unscrewing each pin. I bled a tiny bit (less than the girl in the youtube video I posted a few posts back) and I felt nothing! Just a slight pulling at the most but no pain whatsoever. I kept bracing for pain but it never came. Keep in mind that this was with no painkillers or numbing shots. I was very nervous and I'm so happy that the whole ordeal was over so quickly, it took maybe 5 minutes MAX. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat.


So here are the new pics!

4th toe is relaxing even more probably due to fixator removal 

The doc says to keep wearing the darco shoe for a couple of days to adjust without the pins and then transition to athletic lace up sneakers. I may have to go up a size to accommodate the swelling. He says to keep using the bone stimulator and stay away from high impact exercise for the next 6 weeks. So that's it! My next follow up appointment is in 4 weeks and they said I'll be doing so good I'll probably cancel it haha! I'll start using those over the counter silicone sheets on my scar as soon as the pin sites are closed.

I want to give special thanks to Brachynomore for creating and keeping up with her blog and for her support.    Her foot looks absolutely fantastic and I wish her all the best in her healing :) I'll be checking her blog as usual for new posts ;). 

And to Byebyebrachy and Brachychik who are going through this process at the moment, I want to say thanks for your support and stay strong! It will be all over before you know it :). 

Brachygoneforever is having her surgery soon & I want to wish her good luck! 

To all the lurkers: you are not alone and feel free to ask questions! We Brachybloggers don't bite.

Have a nice rest of the week & weekend everyone and thanks for following!