Best Foot Forward.
Early Recovery Day 13

I Can See Clearly Now

Mon, July 13, 2026
Gloved hands working a pair of surgical scissors through layers of tan elastic bandage and fluffy white cotton padding wrapped around my right foot and ankle, one toe just peeking out of the top, with my left foot in a white-and-orange HOKA off to the side.
Pain
1 /10
Weight-bearing
NWB
Mobility
Out of the surgical wrap and into the heavy metal boot; still NWB with one job: don't snag the toe pin
Mood
Glorious. Two weeks of wondering what was under there, and the reveal did not disappoint
Swelling
mild

Today was a BIG DAY! It was the “unveiling of the foot!” Aka, the day all the surgical dressing came off and I finally got to lay eyes on the masterpiece that Dr. Stein forged. And it was glorious.

Now, heads up here… there are going to be some squeamish photos, so if you don’t want to see the work in progress, do not scroll any further. You’ve been warned. We’ll start with the unwrapping. So much padding and wrapping goes into keeping this thing protected the first two weeks! It’s like a giant surgical pillow wrapped around my entire foot and ankle. TBH I didn’t really mind it, although it did get hot at times. You can see why with all this padding!

Gloved hands working a pair of surgical scissors through layers of tan elastic bandage and fluffy white cotton padding wrapped around my right foot and ankle, one toe just peeking out of the top, with my left foot in a white-and-orange HOKA off to the side.

Ok, now it’s going to get graphic, so stop reading or click here to jump to the end and skip all this.

You’ve been warned! Last chance…

The first reveal: the inside of my right foot and ankle with a curved incision below the ankle bone, closed with black stitches and traced in purple surgical marker, yellow-green bruising fading across the skin. A view from underneath: the sole of my foot with yellow-green bruising across it, a long stitched incision with purple marker running along the edge of my forefoot, and a small mesh bandage stuck to my heel. An angled look at the top of my foot: one stitched incision running from my big toe down the top of my foot, another suture line along the inside of my midfoot, purple surgical marker everywhere, bruised toes, and the tip of a metal pin sticking out of my second toe. The full top-down view: a bruised big toenail, the wire pin poking out of the tip of my second toe, stitches circling the base of that toe, and two long suture lines running down the inside of my foot with traces of yellow mesh dressing still on the skin.

Ok, now we can get back to the story. This is where I am now:

The after picture: my right foot and lower leg freshly rewrapped in tan compression bandage, a white DARCO toe alignment splint strapped around the forefoot holding my big toe straight, a few bruised toes and the pin tip peeking out, with my left foot in its white-and-orange HOKA nearby.

Basically, everything looked amazing and is really healing well. But if you saw the photos above, you know there are a LOT of stitches. And there are two sets on the top and inside of my foot that are pulling the muscles and tendons below the skin in opposite directions. Since there are so many incisions, they thought it best to let it all go one more week before removing the stitches, just so nothing accidentally reopens. And honestly, I’m fine with that. Nothing hurts. Why tempt fate, right?! So I’ll return next Monday for all of those to come out. In the meantime, as you can see above, the foot has been rewrapped and I’m wearing a toe spacer/sling that holds the big toe straight, again, to provide some support and help with healing alignment. We’ll also hold off on x-rays until 6 weeks, so that nifty set of hardware will continue to remain elusive for the time being.

So today’s win was dressing off, shiny new heavy metal boot on, with the goal of not snagging that pin coming out of my second toe on anything. Oh, and that will come out at 6 weeks as well, so lots to look forward to next month 🙂

Onward and upward.

Firsts & Wins
  • Surgical dressing off; everything underneath looks amazing and is healing well
  • Graduated from the giant surgical pillow to the shiny new heavy metal boot
  • Nothing hurts; stitches get one more week purely out of caution, not concern
Tags early-recoverymilestoneunveilingstitchesbootfollow-uptoe-pin