The Cut that Won't Go Away

The one area that continues to cause me some grief as I continue my recovery is the place where they cut the skin. It is just a tough area of the body to get healed I guess. Applying Neosporin whenever I have the chance seems to help as does keeping it unwrapped and exposed to air whenever I don't have to wear a shoe. During the day, I've been wrapping it in 4 inch gauze and tape, however last night I got some of those oversized band-aids which seems to cover the wound pretty good and is a little less of a pain to apply. It still doesn't look all that pretty, but there are no signs of infection and it is improving, so I guess I'll take that for now.

The flexibility of the joint is improving as well. I can now confidently say that I have better range of motion post-surgery than I did prior to the surgery. Prior to surgery, if I used all my physical and mental strength, I could lift my big toe high enough to slide a piece of paper under it. Maybe two pieces on a good day. Today, I could probably slide a 300 page book under there. Soft cover. While that may sound impressive (or it may not, I have no idea), there is still work to be done with my toe exercises. The doctor said that you basically have 6 weeks post-op to get as much range of motion back as you can. After that, you're not going to improve much. So I'm trying to stay diligent with them, which isn't always easy.

As far as running goes, I didn't run at all since Thanksgiving until today when I did 5 miles on the treadmill. The toe joint felt the best that it has in a long time...probably even before the surgery. There was absolutely no pain in there for the entire run. However, when I finished, I did have a strange pain behind my knee, which could have possibly been caused by some over-compensation that I didn't realize I was doing. It subsided after a little stretching, but it is something I need to keep an eye on.

So for now, things continue to progress. If you'd have told me that I'd be running pain free only 3 1/2 weeks after the surgery, I would have been thrilled. The goal is still to be able to handle a marathon build up by the 1st of the year, so everything I do between now and then is in preparation for that. I need to keep reminding myself of that though so I don't overdo things. I have a tendency to do that.