Today I am 11 weeks post op from my right foot Lapiplasty® Big Toe Joint Fusion. I have been doing very well and life has pretty much been back to normal. I had thought of trying jogging as early as two weeks ago, but I have been busy (and lazy) so I hadn’t mustered the motivation, but I did it today! I haven’t done any cardio for 11 weeks and honestly, while I hate to admit it, I hadn’t been doing much for some prior to that also due to my schedule, discomfort, and laziness. I went for 20 minutes, with a 2-minute power walk/ 1 minute run interval. I was able to run between 6.5 and 7.2 and had no pain in my big toe at all! I stopped at 20 minutes due to lack of more time, a little knot in my left thigh that I am working out still from the immediate post op time, (need to get that massage scheduled!), and walking in the boot/flat footed, as well as my difficulty breathing from being out of shape! The bottom of my toe felt a little “weird” as there is still some mild numbness there (which has been improving at a good pace) and my 5th toe where I had my hammertoe procedure was a little “irritated.” It is now mid-morning, and my foot still feels great- no increased pain or swelling. I am hoping this is the start of my getting back into running consistently again…maybe shoot for a 5 or 10K this summer?

You can see my running here and there is no abnormality of my gait or limp appreciable.

Last week our surgeon team was in Tampa, FL for our annual scientific conference.  That was the first time I wore any shoes besides tennis shoes or Keens.  I was able to wear 2 different pairs of dress sandals.  One had absolutely no arch support, so my foot was tired by the end of the day and the big toe region was “annoyed” and the other was a small chucky wedge Dansko with two straps up front and nothing on the heel. This one felt good as there was more arch support, but it did feel a little “odd” and took some time getting used to not having a back on it, and that made me feel like I wanted to limp a little at first, but I adjusted better throughout the day.  The second day that I wore this sandal all felt pretty normal.  I did change the sandal every day as they both hit me at a different spot along my incision, which made it look a little angry and was slightly uncomfortable to just the soft tissue by the end of the day.

I will check in again in a few weeks, or if anything changes.  Things are really progressing well, and I am excited to be able to get back to my activity without the pain in the big toe joint that I had prior to surgery. I am also looking forward to being able to wear more of the shoes in my closest than I could before surgery.  I really had to be careful prior to surgery because so many shoes rubbed on the side and top of my joint and the joint itself became painful inside if the shoes didn’t have great support.