I do not know when it happened, what happened or how it happened, but all I know is something needed to happen fast.  My feet were in pain.  I like to call it denial pain because I would still wear the cutest shoes to work.  When you work in a call center, wearing cute shoes is the thing to do.  You are sitting down all day so wearing some super cute, less comfy shoes is no big deal.  The problem would be when I would get home and peal off those sexy size eights only to experience the throb of my life.

You would have thought that I was walking kids across the street all day in stilettos by the way I felt.  My husband would help to soothe the pain by caressing my tootsies with a mid-evening massage.  It would be generally romantic until he would make unnecessary commentary about the “strange knuckle” growing on the inside of my foot.  Ugh, the nerve, but he was right, something was happening, and the pain was just a symptom to something that needed to be addressed. 

I ended up going to see a podiatrist and learned that I needed a bunionectomy.  Basically, they were going to get rid of the two identified “strange knuckles” as my husband calls them, growing out of the insides of my foot.  They would not do both surgeries at the same time, but they would do one, wait 8 weeks and do the other.

I am not going to lie; the recovery was horrific.  I never felt pain like that before.  But with each day the pain got better to where there is none. I would not worry too much about the pain, your doctors will make sure you have the right pain meds.  My advice would be to listen to the bottle and take as prescribed, because if you think you are smarter than the doctor who prescribed it you will quickly learn that you are not. 

Another bright side to having the surgery and healing over time, and when I say over time, I am saying about a year’s time to feel 100% taking time wearing a boot and later wearing flats or tennis shoes. A huge silver lining was at the time since I was wearing a medical boot and had a note from my doctor I was able to get preferential treatment at Disneyland which enabled me to skip the lines.  

I can now wear the cutest shoes and I do not regret having it done.  Scaring is very minimal, and I feel free again. 

By D C Beckner