Ouch

So... Friday I had a little surgery on my foot. It was a long time coming. Back in July, we were headed home from a weekend in Minnesota, when I noticed my right foot was a little sore. Not a huge deal, but it was a little uncomfortable. A week later, my foot (specifically the joint where my second toe meets my foot) was super sore and starting to swell. Because I didn't have a primary care physician, it ended up with a visit to Urgent Care where, without taking any x-rays, diagnosed it as gout and prescribed some pain meds. It helped somewhat. Eventually the swelling went down, but the pain never completely went away. In fact, shortly after Christmas, the pain became much, much worse. Frustrated, I finally made an appointment to see a foot doctor (um, duh!) Because of the location of the pain, he was quick to diagnose a "plantar plate tear" - a fairly common problem that most occurs most often in the joint of the second toe. 

TA DA! There were several treatment options- but most of the less invasive ones were temporary fixes... leading back to a surgical "fix" in a matter of time. So... I opted for  surgery. THIS is what should have happened on Friday... but it's not quite what transpired. 

When the doctor opened my foot up, there was no plantar plate tear after all. What he did find, however, what that the cartilage in my foot was flapping and unattached to any bone. Hmmm. He ended up trimming the loose cartilage, shooting my toe full of cortisone, and still proceeded with some of the bone shortening, screws, etc to alleviate the pressure on my toe. Lovely. At some point prior to surgery, my foot suffered some sort of "trauma." While I can't specifically remember injuring it last summer, I did fall in the shower about a week before Hattie was born (try NOT to picture that, OK?) and I bruised my foot pretty bad and was fairly certain I had broken my toe (Dan was under strict orders to not let ANY nurse come near my foot when they were in stirrups for delivery....) I may never know if that was the source of the problem... and, because it wasn't the repair he was planning on, my foot doctor cannot guarantee that I won't have more problems with this toe in the future... Sigh. 

Long story short- I have 3 inch incision across the top of my foot, a prescription for Vicodin, and a wonderful "boot" I get to wear for the next 4-6 weeks. Dan and the girls have been outstandingly patient and helpful. Today Dan went back to work and my parents were so amazing and jumped in to help drive me to doctor appointments and get the girls to and from school. 

Oh, and at the rate we're going in Wisconsin, my foot will be healed LOOOOOOOONG before flip-flop season gets here.