Humble Pie, I mean Toes

So I have pretty cute feet. I've often marveled at this photo at my cute little piggies (I'm in the middle). OK, I'll say it, maybe I've even been smug. I like my toe polish, I like my toe ring, and I like my flip flop tan line. I even like the perfect little separation between my big toe and my second toe. Well, I did. Recently I started to notice pain in the joint of my big toe. This caused me to look at my foot and to my surprise, not only was my big toe bending toward my second toe, but there was a huge bulge on the side. Know what I'm talking about? If not, scroll down. Daringly, I documented it here.

YIKES, right? Nasty lookin' thing! (Sorry for the state of the rest of my toes. I was instructed to remove my toe nail polish.) Out of frustration I took myself to the podiatrist and was quickly schooled on the lovely hereditary condition of bunions. So I have a bunion? Seriously? I'm 38! Evidently, a lot of people suffer from this unsightly condition, but no action is taken unless there is pain involved. Well shoot--I'm in THAT category! The fix? SURGERY. That's right....surgery. Seems like a stupid little thing to require surgery. But this STUPID little surgery requires them the make a 4" incision, shave off excess bone, insert 2 screws into the toe bone and close. Ouch! I probably would have put this surgery off indefinitely but since I already had a surgery in January 2010, this one would be free. All pain aside, FREE is my language!

So, here I am days after surgery. Just for the record, this is about all I'm looking at these days.

The recovery bites! 24 hours elevation and ice, 1 week limited walking, 1 month walking with my lovely new assistant--the surgical shoe, and then 1 more month in an athletic shoe--and I don't suppose that's requested for running. So I wait. I'll let you know how this thing turns out. (Or not, I definitely DON'T have the best track record for keeping up with my blog. But for now, I'm a captive audience.)