Fibular Sesamoidectomy

Ready for a super exciting foot update? haha! I mean you totally come to my blog to hear about my FOOT, right? ๐Ÿ˜‰

If you don’t know what I’m talking about…here is my last foot post. When they first did the second cortisone shot I was feeling pretty good! I followed the drs instructions about wearing shoes that I know feel okay and being mindful about it. Almost two weeks later I wanted to test it out. It was BEAUTIFUL outside and Zach was out of town so I wanted to take the kids to the playground. It’s less than a 10 min walk from our house so I put on some tennis shoes and we went for it. My foot felt fine on the way there. Fine on the way back. But that night it was INTENSE pain and the pain lasted for three days. 

After that I continued to have pain. I’m only 28. I’m TOO YOUNG to not be able to do anything without hurting!!! I’ve been living with this pain for 6 months now and I was just over it. I decided that at my next dr appointment we’d discuss surgery.

My foot dr had to reschedule my original appointment for a week later which was frustrating because I just was READY to KNOW the plan of action for surgery! When I went in to see him I just started the conversation off telling him I knew surgery was the route we needed to go at this point. He felt the area of the injury again (and, again, super painful) and said that he agreed. With it getting warmer out I can’t go barefoot or even wear flip flops without pain and that’s ridiculous. I can’t live in winter boots year round! 

This past week I’ve been getting everything lined up for the surgery. I went to a dr to get clearance (lab work and an EKG) then went to the hospital for a chest X-ray. I also had to go to the hospital for pre-op which I did last week. So I’m all ready to go!

Here’s what is going on with my foot! I finally have a legit diagnosis ๐Ÿ™‚ 

I have issues with my sesamoids. When I found this site I KNEW it’s EXACTLY what is wrong with me! You can see in this picture where the sesamoid bones are located:

And this picture shows WHY I feel the pain I do. It’s from the bending motion of my foot which is why when I wear shoes that don’t offer enough support or when I go barefoot that the pain becomes worse. Most likely my issues was caused from some type of injury or fracture. 

I have been in CONSTANT pain for the last week because the cortisone shot has completely worn off. It seriously makes life so much more difficult to be hurting all the time. It’s hard for me to get motivated to do anything because I just want to lay down and prop my foot up. It’s hard to try to look cute when I just feel cruddy and when my shoe choices are so limited ๐Ÿ™‚ Up until I went to my pre-op appointment this last Friday I wasn’t even nervous about the surgery. I just want it done so I can feel better!!!! I’m ready to be ME again!

My surgery is scheduled for this Friday…April 5th. I will go to the hospital that morning and will be put under,but not fully under. When talking to the anesthesiologist on Friday we decided the best route to go is similar to what they did when I had my wisdom teeth out. Give me some stuff to make me loopy and asleep enough to not wake up (or at least not fully be awake) during the surgery. Whatever they gave me for the wisdom teeth worked great because I literally don’t even remember walking into the office that day. I am VERY easily affected by drugs. Heck, benedryl will knock me out for like 14 hours easy haha Since I do get drowsy so easily and since I’ve never been put fully under before, we agreed that this is a MUCH safer route. Plus my dr said he only needs me out for like 30 min to do the procedure.

Once I’m asleep my dr will perform a “fibular sesamoidectomy” which is where he will cut open the top of my foot and go in and remove the bone that is causing the pain. He said he could see on my MRI that I injured that bone so this should be similar to Zach’s back surgery. They removed the piece of bone causing Zach the pain and he had INSTANT relief. I will have stitches that I will get removed the following week at my post-op appointment.

Signing my life away on all the forms made it all more REAL to me. I’ve never had surgery before (other than the wisdom teeth and lasik which I don’t think either count as they weren’t in a hospital). I’m scared. Which I know is natural! But I also BELIEVE this is now my only option. It’s been 6 lonnnnng months of this. Even my dr, who is super mega conservative, agrees that it’s time to go the surgery route.

It’s an outpatient procedure and I’ll be home the same day. The biggest downside of the surgery is that I will be out of commission for 10 days. TEN DAYS. How is that even going to be possible?!?!?! I cannot stttttand having to ask people for help, but I really have no option here. Thankfully Mrs. Charlotte is a SAINT and I know she will find a way to help with my kids and won’t ever make me feel guilty about it. Casey is actually off work on surgery day so she’s going to watch Kye and Britt for us so Mrs. Charlotte can be there with me, as I know she would be too worried about me if we didn’t let her come ๐Ÿ˜‰ Zach will be home all weekend and will watch the kids then. We will just kinda feel out the next week after surgery but I’m sure the kids will probably stay with Mrs. Charlotte for at least a night or two just so I can REALLY REST. 

I tend to like to push through and tough it out and in this situation I CANNOT do that! I MUST let my foot heal properly. I don’t want to risk damaging the remaining bones or have it heal in a funky way. I also MUST take all the pain meds. After I gave birth to Kye I didn’t take any of the pain meds and OMG I felt like I’d been hit by a truck…lesson learned and whatever they prescribe me I’ll be taking! My dr said to expect 10 days of rest. Then it should get easier. I’ll have my walking boot and crutches. I can expect a lot of swelling for awhile but he said a month from surgery I should be back to normal. Basically that means I’m ready to just fast forward April and be into MAY!!! ๐Ÿ™‚ I also found this blog post from someone who has been through the same procedure so I know what to expect!

I kinda regret not buying a laptop now as it’s impossible to blog from the ipad and I don’t know how much I’ll be able to get on the desktop. I’ll be spending this week trying to prepare the best I can for everything. I want to have food and stuff planned that Zach can easily make while watching the kids. I want to have blog posts scheduled for while I’m unable to post. I want to have my house cleaned. Laundry done. Etc. Luckily it’s Spring Break so we’re at home and I can hopefully get all of this done!

I’d greatly appreciate the thoughts and prayers on Friday! And especially for the time period it will take to heal. I am a VERY independent person and it’s super difficult for me to ask for any kind of help but I know I’m going to have to. Hopefully it’ll all go smoothly and this MESS can be behind us!!!

If you’re looking for an update on how my surgery went and the healing process you can read that HERE!

5 Comments

  1. Anonymous
    April 2, 2013 / 12:28 am

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  2. tara caldwell
    April 2, 2013 / 4:53 pm

    Best of luck with the surgery and recovery!! Being a mom and having been told to stay off your feet is tough!! Glad you will have the help you need to recover.

  3. Joe
    April 23, 2013 / 3:05 pm

    How has the healing process been? I have the same surgery scheduled may 17. I was told total recovery time 6-8 weeks if all goes well.

  4. Maren
    July 1, 2013 / 9:31 pm

    I had a fibular sesamoidectomy June 13th! Things are going good for me so far, but the tingling! AHH! lol I like that the nerves are coming back together… but yikes! My Dr. went in from the bottom though! I get my stitches out tomorrow! So excited! Thanks for your blog entry!! Hope all is well now!

    • Pam
      November 5, 2018 / 5:38 pm

      Hi! My dr went in from the bottom as well! Any advice? Iโ€™m so ready to walk, I am 4 weeks post op. Walking is very painful… pamhoward515@gmail.com

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