Toe update: two weeks post-op

I've hardly been out since 8th January, when I had my toe op - just two visits to the clinic, three essential household shopping trips, a couple of lunches with my local girl friends, and one trip into Horsham to get a birthday present. Some of that left me limping for a while.

I went out again today, for a quick stroll on the coast at Saltdean. Saltdean seafront is all unbeautiful concrete and shingle, and rather unrewarding to visit. But the walking is easy. And even if the exercise didn't do a lot for my toe, the rest of me appreciated the fresh air. I'm starting to feel rather cooped up at home, with all this enforced (but sensible) inactivity. I am not one for sitting still in front of the telly, and you can do only so much reading or photo work. I have been meaning to get out a few more posts, but, oddly, I write best when a little crowded for time, and not when I have oodles of it.

I was glad to find that walking around at Saltdean was a more comfortable experience than my visit to Horsham a few days ago. I still wouldn't care to stride out briskly, nor walk for any distance, but clearly some healing is under way - as should be the case by now: the nasty nail came off two weeks ago. I have of course been taking pictures of the grisly surgery every couple of days, to monitor the healing progress, but those pictures could be stomach-churning to some, and so I won't show them here.

Where the nail was still looks a bit red and raw, but the lady who performed the surgery assured me when I saw her four days ago that all was as it should be. In fact she was very pleased with the appearance of the toe, despite the redness and despite the fact that it still weeps a clear fluid, especially if I am on my feet.

She told me that the nail bed - essentially an open wound - was free of infection and doing fine, but I must expect the recovery process to go on for a while yet, possibly as long as mid-February. The weeping will stop, and, after scabbing, a stiff surface will form. I can help things along a bit - if I have my feet up at home - by exposing the wound to the warm air inside the house, thereby hastening its drying-out. So Best Medical Advice is to bask on a recliner (with a cup of tea and a book to hand) as the sun streams through a garden window! But I must be remain very careful to avoid infection. I can go back to doing pilates, but only exercises that don't involve flexing my feet.

So the daily saline bath for the wounded foot will continue. I'd better check my supply of sterile dressings, and get some more if necessary.

Meanwhile, I will try to get out more. I hadn't realised quite how active I usually am, even when at home all day. In ordinary times I am a bit fidgety, and constantly getting up on my feet for one reason or another - which of course is good - and because of it, I must be burning off calories. Not many, to be sure, but enough to ensure no accumulation of new fat. However, if obliged to sit still, those calories clearly don't get used up. When weighed last week at Slimming World I found to my consternation that despite keeping rigorously to my eating plan on most days, I'd nevertheless put on three pounds in fourteen days! One and a half pounds each week since the op! That's got to be down to keeping my feet up as much as possible, because I haven't been eating more. Well, some more lounging around is unavoidable; but I really look forward to getting back to normal.