Nic Dempsey

It’s been 5 days since the osteotomy, honestly, I’m surprised by how easy and how difficult it’s been.

First up pain. It is painful, someone cut open my foot, shaved off some bone and moved my toe to a new position. That’s pretty traumatic for my foot. However, the local anesthetic they gave me didn’t wear off fully until Saturday night which got me through the worst of it.

The hospital did give me some good drugs to get me through the initial two weeks, they proved to be a good guide for me because they gave me 30, which is two a day and I can take up to 8 a day if needed. I took some on Sunday and Monday but haven’t since. This is not to say that I am stoic and can take the pain or anything, I am a total wuss about things that hurt, but my foot has hurt for over ten years as the bunion has deformed it and if the pain of it healing isn’t worse than it has been, I’m good. On Friday and Saturday, when the foot was numb, I was doing more than I should, now I think the pain is a good guide to what I should be doing. The pain is worst in the morning, after I’ve washed, got ‘dressed’ and had breakfast, so when I’ve been on it for about 20 minutes! As the advice is to spend the first two weeks resting my foot as much as possible and the pain subsides when I return to the sofa and elevate my foot, the pain is ensuring that I get the rest I need.

I’m able to entertain myself just fine but I miss being able to go for a walk! The worst thing about the rest is that it’s bad for my back! I’ve had to add stretching to things that I need to do and it’s harder to stretch when you can’t put weight on one foot than you would imagine! I’ve spent quite a bit of time lying on the floor with my legs up against the wall!

The hardest thing, and something I didn’t expect, is being reliant on other people. I live alone and I’m fairly self contained, but there is so much that I can’t do! Ma has been a star. She’s hoovered, done laundry, ironing, shopping and gone to the library for me, on top of providing me with Jelly Babies, I know other people think they have the best mothers but you’re wrong, I do!Kathy visited on Monday, with lunch and her eldest, which was fantastic, we made a bracelet, beads chosen by a 4 year old! Sarah is going to come and see me on Friday and Ben is going to take me to the hospital when I go to have my stitches out on 4 November. I am so lucky to have all these people around me, but I’m not used to asking for help. Yesterday, as I lay on the sofa, and Ma washed up, hung laundry and did some hand washing, I did point out that this is against everything I was raised to be, I was brought up to do this stuff not expect my mother to do it for me! It’s odd, to have Ma do things for me that she hasn’t done since I was a child, like wash my hair, I’m out of the habit of being dependent and it’s taking some adjustment!

One of the things that is really driving me nuts, is the bandage, I want it off my foot. I’ve got another 8 days before the stitches come out and I can see my foot and maybe have a shower.

Roll on November!