I need to have foot surgery, but with muliple procedures. What's recovery time and what am I dealing with?

Question

I have to have surgery on my right foot. Derotating my little toe, cutting out a ganglion cyst on top of foot, a small bunion off the little toe side (what the podiatrist called a bunionette), a planter's wart and a corn removed from the baby toe, a rhuematoid nodule cut out from the middle toe and a corn cut out from the 4th toe.. The wart and corn is from pressure from the little toe curving under 4th toe. Am I kidding myself to gave a goal to be back to normal by the 6th week after? How bad will the pain be? Or should I go with just a few procedures? I was prepared to have surgery on the derotation of the baby toe, but the rest is too overwhelming. I am scared to death and have 2 kids......I don't feel that I have time to be laid up for 2 months and not be able to walk. Any help, information, past experiences, opinions would be helpful. I do have rheumatoid arthritis and have been treating it for 5 years now.

Answer 1

I work at a foot doctor office. Usually 6-8 weeks is what we say. You are having alot done, the bunionette is going to be the biggest of the surgeries. The wart and corn is a simple procedure we do in our office, no anesthesia necessary. The rheumatoid nodule, I would say it depends how deep in the toe it is. Ganglion cyst is an easy procedure also, but my bet is the bunion will be the most painful because you are moving bone and using a pin to hold it. If you are having your pin buried, it will be somewhat painful to remove it. Most of the time they don't bury the pin but be very careful with it. DO not bump your foot. Try to keep your kids away from it and don't do any unnecessary walking around on it either. Your doctor will know if you have or havent. The best thing would have it done at once since like I said the other procedures are relatively minor to the bunionette. It won't be no 2 months. How old are your kids? Maybe you can have a mother in law or friend help out a little. You won't be feeling like doing anything the first few days and you may need to be under pain medication. I would see if you can square away your kid issue, then do the surgery.And you will most likely have a post operative shoe on your surgical foot.

Answer 2

wow, i work in a podiatry office, you sure do have a lot going on. the procedures listed will require about 6wks recovery but i'm guessing the swelling won't be down entirely within that period of time. your shoes may not fit quite right and a long day on your feet could cause some additional pain and swelling. i have a good website for you to go to that offers a discussion forum with a doctor who could give you a little more definitive answer. i know our saying is little surgery area does not mean little recovery, you are still doing surgery and it has a recovery period just like anything else. most bunion surgeries require some bone resection and positioning [broken bone] they require healing just like any other broken bone . you also do not mention if these are all on one foot or bilat? ultimately it sounds like a big set of procedures that will require healing time that you need to consider. check out the sources for a direct link to articles, i think you'll find them helpful and good luck! i couldn't find the exact article for the bunion procedure [but you can inquire on the forum] and under arthritis check out the psoriatic arthritis article, that may be what the are correcting by removing nodule.