Its good to be over a week in, and you don't need pain meds. Once you have that much distance from the actual day of surgery, you start to realize the healing going on.
I had local and sedation, well the local was just bizarre to me, I've never had to deal with that before, needles don't bother me, once they got that leg "twitching", was actually a good thing, so they can inject and flood the nerve to numb it if I recall how this works correctly. Then off to the operating table, more sedative, it put me right out, did not seem any different than general anesthesia, 'cept one key thing, its a whole lot better after because though you cannot even move your leg, let alone feel it, it lasts a lot longer and helps you get over the hump, the initial pain. I doubled up and took the pain meds right away, and I had a friend come over for awhile, I was going up and down stairs too! I took the pain meds for 2-3 days, but I read they can "back you up" hmmm, ok that explains something, will leave it at that, I immediately stopped taking those. I do not like over the counter or prescription drugs unless absolutely necessary, so the remainder of those went in the fridge in case they're needed. There was really not much pain, it was sore, some swelling, overall it went well, but over the course of 9 months now, the soreness is still present.
The boot cast is a good thing, the cast gets old quickly, eventually became annoying and overkill. I came in for my follow up with a shoe on, no crutches, ran smack into my doctor ! He looked down at my foot, afterward I went back out with a boot on ! The thing was it was just the incision, and putting weight on it too early may cause it to open, stress it etc. given my circumstances, knowing how I heal, (having been stitched many times before) just used my heel for weigh bearing, gradually started using the foot, and let the tape kind of fall off, I gave it a good head start, nothing do with bones so the doctor said it was ok that I kind of expedited things, had it been different, there is no doubt as to follow the doctors orders for non weight bearing. Theres a lot worse in life than this, I did fine with it, but am facing other surgeries, now my back is sore as heck every morning, you just get to a point and wonder why so many things ache, then wonder how to deal with it in 20 years, best to get repaired now is how I see it.
Considering what they did on your foot, it looks great, the doctor warned me about swelling, but it really never swelled that bad, enough to make a shoe tight at first and uncomfortable, short trip to the store was ok, I took a walk out on my land, even bucked another cord, I seemed to bounce back in no time. One thing is for sure, I am very careful with my feet, don't need to drop a chunk of firewood off the splitter or similar.
Looks like your doing well and on the road to full recovery, you'll have to give us another update at the next mile stone, good luck and best wishes !
