I love shoes! I love buying new shoes. I love having excesses of shoes. My closets are practically exploding with shoes. One can never have too many shoes! Did I mention I love shoes?

Since I am a shoe enthusiast it has been difficult to go from my normally huge shoe selection to the meager options I have currently due to the status of my left foot.

Since my Peroneal tendon repair surgery I have gone through several footwear phases; they have each required a different type of shoe. For any of you that are going to be getting a similar surgery, especially you ladies, here’s what I recommend in way of shoes for each phase of your foot’s recovery.

Phase One, cast phase: After my surgery I had to wear a cast for two weeks. I was in bed for the greater part of those two weeks so I didn’t do a whole lot of shoe wearing. When I did wear a shoe, I wore a snug fitting flip-flop and that worked very well, but you could definitely wear other types of flat-soled shoes with your cast. Things to consider when choosing shoes for this phase: wear something comfortable, you’ll be in enough pain as it is. Also, you won’t be very coordinated, unless you are a crutching prodigy, so don’t wear anything loose fitting or prone to make you fall flat on your face-you’ll do enough of that without any assistance.

Phase Two, non-weight bearing in the boot: After I traded in my cast for a boot I still couldn’t put any weight on my foot for two more weeks. I was much more mobile those two weeks than I was the first two, so I was wearing a shoe much more often. I wore shoes that were as flat and comfortable as possible. They, once again, needed to be snug too so I didn’t fall out of them as I crutched gracelessly along. Since I was already back at work at this point, I needed some flat shoes that were work appropriate also.

I found several cute pairs on Zappos.com. I would highly recommend this site. They have literally thousands of shoes and their customer service is fantastic. They also offer free return shipping, which is great in case the shoes you ordered don’t fit.

Phase Three, weight bearing in the boot: This was a very uncomfortable phase. Not surprisingly, it hurts to start walking again. But walking in the boot hurts more than just your injured foot. Because the boot has an odd curved heel, it’s very hard to match it up with an appropriate shoe. Therefore, due to the uneven elevation of your feet, you end up throwing out your back and hips when you walk. I recommend shoes with some sort of heel or platform for this phase. But don’t expect to find any with a heel height that will match your boot exactly, I discovered that that was an impossibility. You can get relatively close though, keeping the aches at a minimum. A small, one to two inch, heel or platform seemed to work best. You men, I’m afraid, are definitely at a disadvantage during this phase. There aren’t too many manly looking shoes that come with one or two inch heels.

Phase Four, walking with a lace-up brace: I am currently in this phase. This phase is also particularly challenging as far as shoe selection goes, but unlike the last phase, it’s not heel size that’s the problem, it’s finding shoes that accommodate you bulky brace. Sneakers and tennis shoes definitely work, however, there is no way I’m going to wear sneakers every day for the next two months. Not only am I a girly-girl, I am a working girl, and wearing sneakers with a skirt isn’t exactly the kind of fashion statement I want to make.

I went shoe shopping last week to try to remedy this situation. I can’t tell you how depressing it was to try on one adorable shoe after another, only to find that none of them fit with the brace. Finally, after trying on at least a dozen pairs, I found one style of Sketchers that worked. I bought both the colors the store had in this style. Thankfully they are dressy enough to wear with skirts but casual enough to wear with pants.

So there you have it, my shoe dilemma. My recommendation: do some major shoe shopping and get the shoes you will need after your surgery, before your surgery. Break them in so they are nice and comfy. You don’t want your good foot hurting too when your bad one is already hurting plenty.

While I am on the subject of footwear I should also add my two-cents about socks.

For your injured foot I would recommend chenille socks while you are wearing the boot and then when you graduate to the brace, I would suggest socks that are thin but still comfortable. I’ve found that if I wear a sock that is the same color as my brace, the sock’s not noticeable when I’m wearing a shoe that exposes the top of my foot, such as my new Sketchers.

Good luck all my surgical friends. May you find some functional and fantastic shoes! Remember, just because you can barely walk doesn’t mean your feet have to look unfashionable!

It has now been six weeks since my surgical escapades. My wound has healed fabulously. I went to the doctor for my check up today and was completely floored when he told me that I didn’t have to use my boot anymore, that instead I could just use a lace-up brace. This was a shock because I was originally told that I would have to wear the boot until I hit the three-month mark. But apparently I have a body that’s tough like Wolverine and it has repaired itself at superhuman speeds.

Although it hurts to walk without my boot and my muscles are incredibly weak, which forces me to hobble much slower than I was traveling with the boot, it feels so good to be walking again that I can’t dislodge the perma-grin from my face. Yahoo!

Pain pills: a necessary prescription after any surgery. The first couple weeks after my Peroneal tendon surgery were hellish enough; I don’t know how I would have made it through them without my pain pills.

My doctor first put me on Percocet. It worked well at keeping the ankle pain at bearable levels, however it left me sleepy, spacey, and made my stomach hurt like crazy. The first couple days after my surgery, when I was on a relatively high dose of the pills, I would regularly nod off in the middle of a conversation with my husband, sleep for a few minutes, and then wake up and continue talking where I left off, as if I wasn’t even aware that I had fallen asleep. Jason found this a bit disturbing and was sure the doctor had somehow screwed up my head when he’d messed with my foot.

After about 10 days of using Percocet I switched over to Vicodin, a less powerful narcotic. I slowly decreased my dosage of Vicodin over the next three weeks, then I decided it was time to get off the pills altogether. Since, at this point, I was only taking half a pill in the morning when I got to work and half a pill at night to help me sleep, I thought that I wouldn’t have any withdrawal symptoms…I was definitely wrong.

Twenty four hours after I took my last pill I started feeling lousy: an upset stomach, a strange headache, chills. At first I didn’t even recognize these symptoms for what they were, I didn’t make the connection. I simply thought I was getting sick, or just having a bad day. (I’ve had a lot of those in the last 5 weeks and have grown quite accustomed to them.) But it finally dawned on me that what I was experiencing could be due to my body’s dependency on these pills. After looking up withdrawal symptoms online I realized that that was probably the case.

Over the next few days my odd headache and raw stomach pains continued, I even had a little bout of vomiting. Now, thank goodness, those symptoms have finally dissipated.

I am grateful that I had the pain pills when I desperately needed them, they made life manageable that first post-surgery month, but I can see how someone could become addicted to those opiate based pills very easily. I was very careful with my usage of them and weaned myself off as quickly as possible, and yet, in the short period of time I took them, my body already became dependent. This was a very sobering realization for me. Thankfully, since it has been over a week now since my last Vicodin, I can safely say that I am no longer a pill-popper; it will be just good ol’ Advil’s for me from here on out.