Flat Foot Surgery: Pre-operation

 In a way I was fortunate because I had plenty of heads up about my surgery to repair my tendon and fix my flat feet. We had a family beach vacation planned the week after my appointment with the foot doctor, and I refused to cancel it because we had to cancel our vacation last year due to COVID-19. I wasn't going to do that to our kids. My doctor had his vacation scheduled directly following ours. So we landed on the date of Wednesday, July 14 for my surgery. 

Dr. P. could clearly sense that I was panicking about the recovery timeline of the surgery, so he left me time to gather myself and visited another patient. I texted my husband, whose immediate response was "You have to get it done. Better sooner rather than later. I don't want you to be in pain." I pointed out that he is going to be carrying a heavy load with caring for me, and driving once school starts - we just signed our son up for fall soccer, so that will be a lot of chauffeuring for him. He said we will make it through, and we will- it just caused me a lot of panic at first.

I had a pretty traumatic experience when our daughter was born- she was delivered via emergency C-section after I was diagnosed with severe pre-eclampsia, and I have been going to therapy the past two years to help deal with the anxiety and medical PTSD I developed after that event. In order to handle my anxiety about this upcoming foot surgery and recovery, I dove headfirst into finding out every possible thing I could. I found the following blogs and blog entries extremely helpful while doing my research:

- https://flatfootsurgery.blog/

- https://www.themomcafe.com/20-truths-about-life-after-foot-and-ankle-surgery/

- https://www.healthboards.com/boards/foot-ankle-problems/737812-tactics-coping-while-non-weight-bearing-after-foot-surgery.html

- I also saved specific articles to a Pinterest board, here: https://pin.it/5hEx3GH

Another helpful thing was reading post-op recovery documents from various foot and ankle doctors and services that I came across on the web. My own doctor gave me a very interesting lecture - complete with illustrations - on the anatomy of my foot. I made dozens of lists and did whatever I could to overprepare my home and brain for this surgery.

One of the things that caused me extreme stress was that I will not be able to start the school year- our first student day is slated for 8/19, and the earliest day I'll be able to teach - strictly according to timeline, which will flex according to how well I recover - is 9/8. Luckily, I was able to get into both of my classrooms (I teach in two buildings) and set them up enough that a substitute can cover for me at the beginning of the year, and I can navigate around when I am able to return. I also took pictures all around my classroom, including with cupboard doors open, so that if anyone sent me a message asking where something was, I would be able to help them locate it. Once that was done I felt a lot better.

I also took pictures around the lower level of my house. We live in a split level, and I knew the stairs would be a challenge. So I took pictures of bookshelves downstairs, and the front panels of our washer and dryer - that way I could help with laundry from afar as well. : ) Also - lots of cleaning, trying to do as much fun stuff with the kids while I can, putting some freezer meals together for the crockpot, taking clothes for consignment, taking the dog to the vet and the kids to their well checks to get that all in. Cleared pathways in my home, secured a knee scooter, set up a "nest" in our recliner with my things within reach. 

Then... surgery time finally arrived. 

Flat Foot Surgery - The Prequel

 Hello there! As I prepared for my own surgery this past week, I found it helpful to read blogs others had written about their own experiences. I figured I would pay it forward by recording my own, and hoping that it will help others who are experiencing similar foot and ankle problems.

I am a 34 year old music teacher in rural PA. Last fall, I began experiencing dull aches and pains in my right foot- something not completely out of the ordinary, as I have had completely flat feet my entire life and a diagnosis of tendinitis for both of my feet when I was a kid. Because of anxieties related to COVID-19 and visiting the doctor's office, I put off making a call until April of 2021, when one day I was having difficulty walking without pain. I figured it was time. (Incidentally, if you are also a music teacher, it was the day after I taught the "Sasha" dance to my 2nd and 3rd graders - so a bit more movement than usual.) 

My family doctor is part of a much larger practice of physicians and programs, so I was able to directly make an appointment with a foot & ankle doctor within my practice without needing a referral. My first visit involved X-rays and, after the doctor pushed around my foot and ankle a bit, he diagnosed me with a torn posterior tibial tendon in my right foot. I was prescribed a walking boot for four weeks. 

One of my coworkers, upon spotting me with the boot, advised me to make an appointment with a chiropractor. She said when she had worn a boot for a foot injury in the past, it threw off her gait and gave her hip and back pain. After just a weekend of wear, I could see she was right. I quickly found a chiropractor in town and he was helpful in adjusting my back and hip throughout the last few months. (Honestly, I wish I would have thought to go to a chiropractor when I was breast-feeding my babies. That was so hard on my neck and shoulders, and having adjustments would have been miraculous... but I digress.)

After two weeks of wearing the boot, I was feeling significantly better and my foot doctor was impressed with my progress, so he downgraded me to a brace, which I was to wear with sneakers at all times. After two weeks of the brace, he started transferring me to shoe orthotics (I was familiar with these, having worn them as a kid). Then, over Memorial Day weekend, something happened within my foot to send me straight back to where I'd started with pain. I honestly have no idea what caused it - I didn't do any out-of-the-ordinary activity, but when I woke up that Monday morning I put my boot back on because my foot hurt so much.

I had a follow-up appointment scheduled for that week anyway, so I told my doctor that I was back to the same pain as before. He scheduled me for an MRI and a follow up appointment to go over the results. At this point he was warning me that surgery was becoming a more distinct possibility. When I returned to his office post-MRI, he asked if I looked at the results. I told him I'd looked at them, but they hadn't meant much to me between the medical jargon and images. He said, "Well, we'll talk about your tendon first, and then move on to the other things." My brain immediately went on alert - other things?! Basically, my tendon was definitely torn and the only way to repair it was going to be to build an arch in my foot. 33 years of my lack-of-arch pulling down on my PT tendon had stressed it to its breaking point. If they would just try to repair the tendon but not the arch, it would be pulled down again in no time- a worthless surgery. Official Surgery Conversation then began.