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Bunion Surgery
Issue: Basic bunion surgery.
Suggestions: This is a surgery I had on my right foot, at the metatarsophalangeal joint of my big toe. Many people seem to have problems after this surgery. Either they eventually go back for another surgery, develop a Morton’s Neuroma, or simply never regain full function. I noticed that after my surgery, my doc didn’t have much advice for me. There was no physical therapy, and no suggestions about how I should rehab. He did a little ultrasound and praised me constantly, saying I was rehabbing better than anyone he had seen, but he never asked why or made any suggestions. So, this is what I did and do: Yoga. Some of the poses, like up dog, where I am on the tops of my feet and stretching the fronts of my ankles, hurt like hell while I’m in them. Because my toe no longer wants to go into flexion, but I make it go that direction. It will only go into flexion so much, so I am incapable of pushing it past its limits and I can’t break it at this point. But if I don’t stretch out the tissue on the top of my foot and front of my ankle, I have a hard time walking, leading to more stiffness, leading to a harder time walking, etc., etc. Yoga is what did it for me, and something called Yoga Toes (I think you can get these at Walgreen’s now under a different brand name). These are rubber ladders (kind of) that fit between your toes, creating space and keeping the metatarsals open.
Tags: surgery
