Saturday, October 16, 2010

7 Weeks After 1st Surgery - 12 Days After 2nd Surgery

It's been almost 7 weeks since my first surgery and 12 days after my second surgery. The 1st surgery was on my right foot.  It was the more severely hyper pronated (flat) foot.  That foot is at about 80% now.  My left foot was just operated on 12 days ago. I was in a half-cast for 8 days and did not put any weight on it. The cast was removed in the morning, and amazingly by the evening I was able to walk on it barefoot with almost no pain.  It's healing very quickly.  I don't know if it's mental since I already went through it and was not nervous, or if this foot is just less flat and therefore will adjust to it's new corrected position more quickly (that was my doctor's opinion).  After the half-cast was removed, I was in a walking-boot for the entire day.  It was pretty painful walking in the boot for the first few of hours.  However, by the evening it didn't hurt at all.  So I went home and removed the boot and was able to walk barefoot with almost no pain.  I didn't walk around much, and was very careful not to roll-over my ankle as that could cause the implant to pop out or displace.  Dr. Kass told me if there is no pain, I can transition to the air stirrup ankle brace (by aircast) immediately.  So now I'm walking around with the ankle brace in my own sneakers.  In 2 weeks I can loose the ankle brace altogether as that's when the scar tissue will have successfully bonded to the stent preventing it from ever displacing.  So far the surgery is working perfectly.  For the first time on  my life, I've been walking a decent amount with no orthotics and I have almost no back, knee, or leg pain!

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Day 35 - three days after 2nd surgery

I had the second Hyprocure stent put into my other (left) foot 3 days ago (five weeks after my first surgery).  I had the 2nd surgery so quickly because now my body was off balance and walking with only one flat foot was causing me pain and delaying healing of my corrected foot.  Dr. Kass recommended I get the other surgery soon as my first foot is healed enough where I can put minimal weight on it. I'm currently in a half-cast and know what to expect as I just went through the first surgery.  The pronation in my left foot was less severe so I'm expecting to heal more quickly from this surgery.  It's already less stiff and less painful than the first surgery.  Knock on wood... if all continues well in 2 weeks I'll be walking without orthotics for the first time in 18 years.