Foot Surgery

On Monday I will become a voluntary cripple.  But after 6-12 months of healing and physical therapy, I hope to be the dancer I was three years ago.

Out the blue, my feet locked up in September 2017. It was this weekend, in fact.  I had gone to Zumba as usual, maybe pushed my arches a little farther than usual in the “Jamaican Love” routine.  But no problem.  Family came, we saw the Frozen musical and I walked around LoDo in heels.  No problem.  Then on Monday my feet couldn’t bend at the big toe and they hurt like the dickens.  Weird.  I massaged, stretched, and figured they would get better.  They sort of did.  My left foot stayed stiff in the big toe.  I mentioned it to my chiropractor, who ordered an x-ray.  It showed some mild arthritis, but nothing to worry about.  I continued to stretch and try to work it out.

Over time, the left foot got better and the right foot got worse.  Then they switched again. Then they were both kind of bad, then on the verge of healing, then bad again.  Maybe cold weather made it worse?  Was it turf toe?  I never had redness or swelling or any sign of injury.  Just limited ROM and pain when the joint is pressed or bent.  I stopped wearing high heels, then stopped wearing anything that wasn’t flat.  Then it was painful to walk in ANY shoe.

A year ago I started yoga to see if intense leg and foot stretching twice a week would work out the problem.  Nope.  No change, and it continued to get worse.  There were only two pairs of shoes I could comfortably walk in for limited time.  Dance class and yoga always made my feet hurt, and I could no longer balance on one leg in releve, do any one legged turns, no lunges, or anything else that needs a bent foot.  After poking around online I finally found my diagnosis – hallux limitus.

In November I booked an appointment with a podiatrist.  He confirmed my suspicions and explained that hallux limitus can have many different causes.  He ordered an MRI and found out I had almost ALL the causes – bone spurs, arthritis, asymmetrical joint thinning, cartilage loss, marrow swelling, and little floating chips of bone in the joint space.  He recommended surgery when I was ready, but for now gave me a steroid injection in anticipation of our Disney trip.  I also had gotten these awesome MBT shoes with a solid, rocking sole.  The shoes and the shot allowed me to have a fairly pain-free trip.  But this was not a solution, just a stalling tactic.

I decided to get a second opinion and see an orthopedic surgeon.  The podiatrist was fine, but I could tell his office wasn’t exactly cutting edge tech, and joint replacements on 75 year olds was their comfort zone.  This new guy was great, he’s had more experience with patients in my condition who desire to restore as much function as possible.  He seems confident that surgery will greatly improve my ROM and end the pain.  He says I’m on the younger end of the spectrum, but he has had success with younger patients before and there’s no benefit to waiting it out.  He also recommended doing both feet at once!  Only one recovery period instead of two.  This was my initial desire, but I worried it would be too crippling to be off both feet at once.  But he says I should be up on crutches in just a couple days and walking within a week.

I scheduled the surgery for the Monday after the musical.  This was back in early February.  Then the world went crazy.  They didn’t call to reschedule the surgery until a few weeks before, and just moved it to May 11.  I was unsure that the date would stick, but here I am just 4 days before and they are still sending me info and reminders about the procedure.

So that’s my long backstory.  Hopefully on Monday I’ll be able to get this bilateral cheilectomy, and in a year I can pirouette!

I took some “before” pictures so I can mark my progress in recovery.  I’m standing on the ball of my foot as high as I can.  I used to have a nice 90 degree bend, with a flat line from shin to ankle to toe.

Warning! Pictures of feet ahead!

After two years of back and forth, the right foot has been worse for a year now.  The MRI showed equal problems in both feet, maybe even a little worse in the left foot.  I wonder if the differences in presentation are caused by those floating bone shards shifting position in the joint.