After two sleepless nights and lots of oxycodone, I had my first pod appt today posy-surgery. All is looking good, but I have a couple of interesting things for those of you with upcoming surgeries.

Shortly after getting home from the hospital, my foot bled a lot. It didn't last too long before it stopped, but it did gush. So, when the blood dried on the gauze dressing, it hardened and made the gauze almost like a cast, And the gauze dried and stuck the skin to the gauze]cast-like stuff. After I started moving around more on Saturday, my foot swelled up, which is normal. But there was no "give" in the hard gauze, so it was cutting into my foot, not to mention that it was stuck to the incisions! That's why I was having such horrible pain. And the bandages were on pretty tight after surgery, so that didn't help, either.

My pod cleaned up the foot and put new (looser) bandages on. My foot feels so much better! It's still pretty irritated from the last couple of days, so I'm taking some codeine yet to get me through, but it is so much better.

My foot looked better than I thought that it would. No more bunion bump! Ok, it does look like Frankenstein's foot, with stitches all the way down the big toe and also where the neuroma was. And my toes are really purple. The bruising goes up over my ankle. The bruising is only on the neuroma side, with no bruising on the bunion side. I will get the stitches out in one week.

My ankle has also been REALLY sore since the surgery. My pod told me that was probably from the tournequet (sp?) that they put on my ankle for surgery. I wouldn't have guessed that, and wondered if I was having some weird complication with my ankle!

So, recovery will be slow, but my worries about all the recent pain have been explained now, so I feel a lot better. I'm sure that my dr thinks I'm a total pain, cuz I ALWAYS ask him lots of questions. He's really good with explanations, and I really appreciate that.

Shelley, I know what you mean about getting neuroma relief, and then the bunion hurting more. When I would get some cortisone relief, the bunion would hurt more! My dr said that I wasn't getting enough arch support since I got the neuromas. I had gotten custom orthotics for the bunions before I had the neuroma pain. The orthotics really did help the bunion, but I was never able to wear the orthotics (or hardly any arch support) with the neuromas, so my bunions were being affected.

Sorry for all the rambling. Must be the narcotics!

Baby Blue - The same happened to me too. I think it is rather common to have that happen. I found that - with me at 10 days - when the staples were removed that I started to really feel some change and a lot of the pain lessened. I'm quite impressed with all of you mentioning follow up calls from nurses after your surgery, that certainly did not happen to me here in Canada.

I'm now at 3 weeks and 5 days after my surgery - I can walk around some what at home and stay on my feet for let's say 5 to 10 minutes, but with a lot of discomfort and swelling. Mostly I just feel really annoyed that I don't have my mobility (freedom!) back, and at times it's rather hard to imagine that I will be able to walk normally again.

But... there is - although slow - some progress!

Good recovery!

GranolaGal, that must really be frustrating to have to argue with your dr. It's a good idea that you are getting a second opinion. Even if the second dr says the same thing, hopefully this will be a dr that you can have complete trust in. That's so important!

Natasja, it sounds like you are doing really well. It sure is a slow process, isn't it??? I assumed that I would bounce back quicker than the average, but everytime I get up for a couple of minutes, my foot swells up really big. And I'm not putting any weight on my heel at all (most of the time)!

I guess that we just take good medical care for granted. The day after my surgery, i received two calls: one from the surgery clinic and one from the dr's office. They have been great.

So, one week out of surgery, and the nights have been the toughest. If I take something for pain, I've been too wired to sleep. If I don't, I'm in too much pain to sleep. Then last night I crashed hard and slept for over 13 hours straight! It was so great..... Of course, it's 2:30 am and I can't sleep now, but that's ok.

I wanted to ask all you neuroma sufferers one more question:

Do you feel like your neuroma(s) bring on additional problems in your feet/ body? I'm sure I just sound like a cranky complainer, but I have burning tendonitis in my right leg from walking funny I guess. And now my left foot seems to be growing a bunion on the little toe + has some weird cramping and burning under the little toe. It is sooo frustrating. I'm a little nervous that by the time I get surgery on both feet, I still won't be able to walk normally because of my other issues.

Sorry for the venting, but I'm just wondering if the rest of you have had anything like this.

P.S. Baby Blue, I hope you are getting some sleep tonight.

Neuroma Surgery Update: My surgery was postponed a week due to a conflicting personal obligation. Earlier in this forum I mentioned I had done 3 cortizone and 8 alcohol shots with absolutely no improvement.

I did have the neuroma surgery yesterday, Nov. 1 at 0830. The Pod removed the neuroma through the top of the foot. The neuroma looked about the size of a raisin. The Pod used a local only and was done in his office. He gave me a long acting (6-10hr) pain killer injection prior to wrapping the foot. The Pod wrapped my foot with a wad of gauze at the bottom centered below the cavity to limit fluid build up. Left the office walking out in a special post op shoe. I did stop and get two prescriptions filled for Vicoden and Amoxicillan for infection. Stopped for lunch still walking on the special shoe with no pain but not rolling off the front of the foot. Spent the rest of the day watching movies with the foot elevated, no ice. Got up for natures call several times with little to no discomfort wearing the special shoe only for walking. Went to bed with the foot elevated still experiencing no pain, only a very slight discomfort.

It's now Friday morning, early as this is my normal wake up time, 3am. Still walking on the post op shoe with only a little discomfort, no pain. I will keep it elevated most of today and try to limit the walking. I feel I could have gone to work today as I can stay at my desk if needed. I can walk fairly comfortably on my heel with my foot out to the side to eliminate weight on the forefoot to make the steps longer.

I still haven't taken any Vicoden and am experincing only a slight discomfort, and then, only when I think about it.

I'll keep everyone posted through the healing process. Scheduled to return for followup Monday.

I only know my Pod has always told me it was going to be a fairly easy and quick recovery and he seems to be right. He expect me to be walking fairly normal in less than a week and running in three to four weeks.

In fact, today I spent a half hour on my spinner and worked out with weights upper body only for an hour. My foot did swell up a little but never hurt.

The incision was about 1-1/2" long and I know he cut in fairly deep as my wife was watching and told me it looked like he was getting close to the bottom of my foot.

It's been over 24 hours and still no real pain, only minor discomfort.

**** Natasja,

That is a HUGE neuroma. I hope mine aren't that big!

I find it amazing RudeRod that you have such little pain and swelling. I also think you were smart not to suffer too long with your neuroma. In retrospect, I wish I had begged my doctor to take mine out this summer when I only had one and it had only been a few months. Every day that goes on, I really think they get worse and affect everything else.

I also think it is true that we just don't know how our bodies will respond to surgery. I guess I will draw an analogy with getting one's wisdom teeth pulled. Some people have absolutely no swelling and are chomping carrot sticks 24 hours later, while others have major swelling and have to drink a liquid diet for two weeks. I, unfortunately, was one of those liquid dieters, but I'm crossing my fingers that maybe I'll be a carrot chomper for my neuroma surgery.

Natasja, Baby Blue, and RudeRod, please continue to keep us updated.

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