Toe Surgery

After two knee and two hip replacements over the past seven years, you may be thinking “this guy must like to have surgery,” but I assure you this is not the case.  Arthritis destroyed the soft tissue in my knee and hip joints and I have a hereditary issue that has caused the three middle toes on each foot to dislocate toward my little toes.  As a result, I can only wear sandals without pain and a pair of very wide SAS shoes for a few hours without pain.  Here is the x-ray and you can see the screws in my left foot from a failed first surgery.  I know, I have ugly feet.

After some serious research, I made an appointment with the doctor who seems to be the best foot surgeon in the area and when I told her, I expected to live for awhile and did not want my toes to hamper my behavior or require me to try and find special shoes she said she could accomplish that.  The downside is that it will require six weeks of no weight on the foot for recovery so we will do the left foot at 7:30am tomorrow and the right one about four months later.

From a timing standpoint, this should allow me to participate in our RV rallies in Sep & Oct and the girls to make their annual trip to Marco between the two surgeries.

In preparation, I have raised my chair several inches and blocked the rocker function (a little Rube Goldberg engineering) and I bought a 5" commode seat extension so I can stand up on one leg from both.

I’ve been practicing using Cindy’s knee scooter to get around the house and getting in and out of bed.

I have to use crutches to get into the shower which is the hardest part for a guy my size who hasn't been on them in 50 years.

It’s hard to imagine doing this for six weeks at a time and giving up three months of life to this event but if I don’t, I will be severely limited for the rest of my days, which I do not want.  I’m hopeful these will be my last hospital visits for a very, very long time.

Bev and Cindy will be taking over the cooking so we’ll just have to see what I have to blog about while laid up but I’m sure it won’t be about the TV shows I’ve been watching and the meals will likely be simpler and healthier.

I still have several posts in the queue but I believe you’ll know when they end.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

07/26/22 post date