Day 13 - Phase 2 Begins

I handle pain pretty well. What I don't handle all the great is the anticipation of pain. I get nervous when I need to get a shot. I get nervous before I have to do a hard workout. Heck, I get nervous before I jump into cold water. So, I'll admit that I was looking forward to, and dreading, today's visit the doctor, where I was scheduled to get the stitches removed.

Of course, the actual removal turned out to be no big deal. It didn't hurt at all, except for a few little tugs and it was over in about 2 minutes. I still managed to work up a pretty good sweat as I was sure that as each new stitch got cut, the student assigned to the task would surely lop off half my toe.

After that was done, the doctors came in to give me some instructions for the next few weeks. They said I can start wearing a normal shoe immediately, and as far as everyday activities, let pain be my guide. They said I do need to be careful, as there is some healing that still needs to be done to the underlying tissue, but didn't give me any hard restrictions.

They also said now is the time to really start working the toe. They didn't give me a script for physical therapy yet, but said if they don't see progress when they see me next (in 3 weeks), they will have send me at that point. For now, I'm on my own though, which I like. With 4 kids at home, making time for PT would be difficult. Again, they said let pain be my guide with the toe exercises as well, but in this case, I want it to hurt. The doctor actually said "no pain, no gain" so hopefully I can make it hurt. We'll see.

As soon as I got back to my desk at work, I quickly took the boot off and put my shoe on. I'll admit it felt weird. After having no pressure on the top of my foot for almost 2 week, it was a new sensation to now actually feel something up there. However, despite being pretty tentative, there is no real pain when walking in a regular shoe, which is encouraging. I think I mainly need to gain some confidence for a day or two and then things will be close to normal. At the very least, there are no more bag foot showers, which is definitely a gigantic step in the right direction.