CAUTION! A Picture Montage of Paul Bunion

Thank you for following my story of Paul Bunion for the last 3/4 of a year. This is my story of Paul Bunion as shown in pictures...some of them are graphic (just to warn you).

First there was a bump (April 2009):

Then there was a surgery(July 2, 2009):

Then there was a large bandage, crutches and a medical boot (and getting over the antiseptic which really tore me up):

And I was drugged out of my mind for about over week (and then mildly drugged for another few weeks):

Next the stitches came out (my foot looks weirdly flat on the outside now) and the wound was covered with a big bandage that meant I still had to keep it out of the shower:

About a month later the big bandage came off (woo hoo for real showers once again):

While healing rather well, I then ran into a shopping cart and injured other parts of my foot:

All of the bandages are gone now and the scar is healed (though still very obvious). I am beginning to be able to lie on my right side again after almost 10 months of not. It is still very sore if it get's hit and my little toe is still not quite right, but I think it's about as good as it's gonna get. Thanks for sharing my journey!

Thanks for sharing this journey with me. I'm glad to be mostly better!

Why oh why?

I have always been a klutz, I have no idea why some people are prone to this and others are not. A friend of mine in college told me that he thought it was tied to our emotions, the more emotional a person you are the more likely that you will be klutzy, I don't know if this is true but it seems to fit.

In the last few weeks I have stopped wearing the surgical boot and begun wearing normal shoes, and by normal shoes I mean that I have one pair of sandals that I can wear that does not hurt my very fresh surgical scar. I have to wear these sandals with everything, despite the fact that they are navy blue. I suppose I could go and buy a new pair of sandals, but I just can't seem to justify buying a new pair of sandals that I don't like for a healing process.

At any rate, last week I was shopping and managed to ram my bad foot directly into the shopping cart wheel. My little toe was scraped badly and the toe next to it began to bleed profusely. You know how there are times when you get cut and within seconds the blood is everywhere? Well, I quickly reached into my purse and grabbed a bandaid to cover the bleeding toe (I always have several in my wallet specifically because of being prone to injury).

Well, my foot already looked pretty ridiculous, with an enormous bandaid on the side where the scar is still healing and a huge blister on the other side, so adding a bandaid to the top of this toe just enhanced the bizarre appearance of my foot. But this is not the end of the story.

Sunday I was shopping again. As I walked I again rammed my foot into the shopping cart wheel (how did this happen?). The pain was immediate, but this time I had hit my little toe directly. At the time I was convinced I had somehow ruined what the surgery had fixed. Several days later I now know that while my bunion surgery is intact, my little toe is broken.

Since my surgery (July 2) I have injured this foot six times. Six times I have been injured by no-one's fault but my own clumsiness. It's beginning to get ridiculous...I just want this foot to go back to normal, is that too much to ask for?

What's up with my toe?

So...I have begun walking on my foot. I've gotten rid of the crutches and am doing pretty good hobbling around. The foot doesn't look too bad, just bruised near the bandage and a little puffy all over. Brett feels pretty good about my progress. However, there are a few things going on that are creeping me out:

1) Most importantly, my little toe will not lie properly. It sticks straight out from the bone and does not lie on the floor like normal toes do. Put your feet on the ground, don't all your toes hit the floor? Only 9 of mine do.

2) I have been trying to exercise my right foot toes because I'm afraid if I don't the toes won't work anymore, and I can only bend three of them. I can't move the pinkie toe or the one next to it on their own.

3) I am having trouble sleeping because of my foot making it uncomfortable to sleep in most positions. I'm afraid it will never feel right again.

I guess just in general I'm worried that my foot will never be right again. I feel freaked out about that actually. I am going to the doctor on Tuesday for my scheduled check up so I will let you know what happens there.

The Detox

Narcotics withdrawl...not a pretty sight. I went from taking two percocet to taking two vicoden to taking one vicoden and yesterday I finished the last of my drugs. I thought I'd better ween myself off the drugs so that it wouldn't be as bad. I'm glad I did what I did, because last night was miserable.

I had trouble getting to sleep but once I finally did it didn't last too long. I woke up and felt...well crazy. I'm not sure how to describe it besides to say that I would rather have the pain of surgery than ever go through that again.

It was as though my body was rejecting itself, I was hot and then cold, my muscles wouldn't stay still and I couldn't get comfortable. Again, there's no good way to describe this, but the feeling is worse than pain.

I cried for hours and Brett sat beside me doing what he could, poor guy. At about 5am he called his dad to see if there was anything else we could do (Jack had major surgery last year and was on oxycontin for over two months). I finally crashed at about 6am, so exausted that it was painful. This morning was better, I could function but my body still feels strange, and not really itself.

And I was only on the stuff for a week and a half.

Surgery for Paul Bunion

Last Thursday I had surgery on Paul Bunion. I went in feeling nervous for my first ever surgery but expecting to be over and done with it in 24-48 hours. I know now that we were very unprepared for what would happen. The first two days are completely a blur to me and the next three weren't much better. I slept, ate crackers and took pain killers. My 4-year-old neice was very sympathetic and concerned. She layed beside me quite a bit and told me things like "You'll be ok, Tante, don't cry anymore" and "No matter what happens, I love you." She's the cutest thing ever.

I couldn't really do anything for myself and so Brett took care of me. He had to carry me anywhere I went because of pain, nausea and dizziness. The pain is more than I thought it would be, I'm apparently not very tolerant to pain. I had little recollection of things that had happened during the first 5 days and conversations I had have mostly been forgotten (sorry).

On Wednesday my hard core meds ran out and I started on a less aggresive pain medication; I started to come back to life. My brain is once again functioning, though probably not 100%, but things are on the up and up.

Today I went back to the doctor and he took out the stitches (ouch). I have pictures of the foot from today, it's pretty gross looking though so I may not post it. I have to keep the bandage on for another month until my next appointment, which means no real showering, as I have to keep it dry. He also said he would suggest that I didn't drive for 6 weeks...sigh*

The weird thing is that my right foot is now flat on the outside. If you will take a look back at the picture of my feet you will notice that even the foot without the bunion had a little bit of a protruding bone, we'll have to wait and see that it looks like when it's healed. Right now I have a wicked gash that's oozing blood.

Thanks for all the prayers and thoughts.

Foot surgery here we come!

I saw the specialist today and we talked about my options, he was very kind and nice. I'm having surgery at the beginning of July. Stupid bunion...this will be my first ever surgery, besides having my wisdom teeth pulled, which doesn't really count.

I also read a pamphlet called Foot Owners Manual, the title made me laugh.

Paul Bunion is back

So it is in fact a bunionette. Doc was wrong, but it's ok, he not a podiatrist. They x-rayed my foot and we took a look at it and it is a bunion. *Sigh*

The guy I saw yesterday said I would have to meet with another doctor (the one who will do the surgery) to discuss surgical options to remedy the problem. There are a few I guess. It will be awhile though because he’s a specialist and is apparently one of the best. So I am meeting with him May 27th to discuss my options, so the story will continue then.

My stupid feet, I’m too young for this.

The Saga Continues...

So, I went to Doc today, to check out my foot. He looked at it for almost a minute and pressed it a little and then said, "Huh..." Let me tell you, you do not want to go to a doctor and have them say "huh" to anything on your body. He felt the bones in my toe and foot, he said it was not a bone issue, so I guess it isn't a bunion. He also told me that because of the way my feet were created by God, I would have issues with my feet.

He looked and poked and then said, "I think that there is an infection and I really want to stick a needle in it and see what comes out...but I won't." He looked up at me. "Thanks," I responded. He looked at it a little longer and told me he didn't think he was the one to deal with this. He's a lovely man, he's a friend of the family and because he couldn't do anything he didn't let us pay. God truly uses people to bless others, and I noticed...thank you God.

He referred me to a podiatrist. I'm going tomorrow to see what's really wrong.

The Saga of Paul Bunion Begins

Ok, so a few weeks ago my foot started hurting on the outside part of my foot, under the little toe. I didn't really think much of it at the time, but it kept hurting and it was very red. Last week it started getting tender to the touch and I had to be careful what shoes I was wearing. I said that if it didn't get better soon I'd go and see a doctor.

Discussing this with my girlfriends, and thinking perhaps it was a bunion (but not really knowing what that was), they named it Paul (Paul Bunion you see). So when I got home I looked on the world wide web and webmd, to see if I could find anything out. Based on the feel and the look of it, it did appear to be a bunion...well actually it appears to be a bunionette, as a bunion is on the big toe side.

So I started freaking out a little bit, because it seems to be more serious than I thought and I made an appointment with Doc. I was away for the weekend and it has started hurting across the top of my foot and underneath a little. So I'm glad that I am headed to the doctor today.

Check out how much different it looks than the left foot!

I will let you know what happens.