Bilateral Bunionectomy

I’ve had bunions for as long as I can remember, but they have never really bothered me. Just in the last six months or so, they started to be a bit painful and I started kicking around the idea of having surgery. I love my mom, but looking at her wonky toes and remembering my Grandma Cardon’s was enough to push me over the edge. I want to be all healed up for summer hiking and waterskiing, so I decided a winter surgery was the way to go.

I had the surgery yesterday morning. We had to be to the hospital at 6 a.m. My alarm was set for 5:00, but the stupid wind woke me up at 2:48. I certainly had plenty of time to get ready. Everything at the hospital went really smoothly. The nurses and staff were all fabulous. They took good care of me. There was even a nice nun that came in and prayed for me before I went into the operating room.

I was very glad that Nate was there with me the whole time. I always get really nervous for medical stuff and it calmed me down a ton to have him give me a blessing before we left and to have him there for all of the pre-op and post-op stuff. He got a few laughs out of the deal. They hooked up a warm air hose to my robe that inflated me up like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. Nate said I looked like Starla (of Rex Kwon Do fame). It was awesome. The best part was when the sedative kicked in. I only remember the first 10 seconds after they shot me up, but Nate says that I kept talking for about a minute after that. As they were wheeling me out, I kept saying “I’ve never done drugs before, but this is really nice. These are good drugs.” Waking up was more of the same. After some incoherent mumbling, I said to Nate “I guess I didn’t die because you wouldn’t have stubble in heaven.” He pointed out that if I had died, he wouldn’t be the one in heaven. I said “Oh, right.” Then we had the exact same conversation ten minutes later (it was the first time for me). I’m still pretty vague about everyone I talked to and what I said for that first half hour after surgery. I guess I’m not really cut out to be a druggie. I don’t like that your mouth still works even when your brain doesn’t know what it is saying.


The doctor sent me home with drug pumps hooked up to both of my feet. Every six minutes they automatically shoot a dose of anesthetic into my feet keeping them pretty numb. My kids thought it was so cool when I got home that they could touch my toes without me feeling it. I’ve had a bit of pain, mostly when I have to get up and walk for a minute, but overall it hasn’t been too bad. Nothing like how sick I was after my lipoma surgery. By comparison, this has been a breeze so far.


I am grateful for how helpful everyone has been. My mom came and stayed Thursday night so she could get the kids off to school. She kept the kids entertained for hours with an I Spy book while I finished getting things done around the house before I was bedridden. Claudy picked up the kids for school and volunteered to drive them all of next week too. My mom made my favorite comfort food (chicken, rice, and veggies) for dinner last night. Jody came and picked her up so Nate wouldn’t have to drive her home (and they dropped off a package at the post office for me on the way). Nate has been a dove and kept me iced up and fed and entertained. He installed the wall mount for our TV so I can lie on my back and still have a good angle to watch hours of movies and cooking shows. The kids have been sweet and mostly well behaved. Since I couldn’t make it down the to the movie room, we had a movie night in my room last night. They all dragged their bean bags in and we watched Dolphin Tale. Today Nate took them all to Michaels to use their quality $5 off $5 coupons while I took a nice little Lortab-aided nap. Surgery is never fun, but I’m glad I am in good hands.