Recovering From Your Foot Surgery
If you are unfortunate enough to experience significant problems with your feet, these issues can have major impacts on the quality of your life. While many foot problems can be corrected through foot surgery, patients will need to be prepared before they undergo this procedure.
Take Steps To Manage Post-Surgery Swelling
Post-surgery swelling can be a significant issue for patients that have recently undergone foot surgery. In addition to being uncomfortable, excessive swelling can slow the recovery of your foot. This is due to the pressure that the swelling can put on the incision site as well as limiting the circulation to the surgery site. Combating post-surgery foot swelling will require you to follow a few strategies that can greatly reduce the amount of swelling that you experience. Keeping the foot elevated whenever possible can be an effective way of reducing swelling by limiting the ability of fluids to pool in the foot. Additionally, ice packs can help to limit the amount of swelling that occurs, but you should generally avoid placing the ice pack directly in contact with the skin as this could be painful and even damaging. Rather, a thin cloth should be between the ice pack and your skin.
Limit The Amount You Use Your Foot During The Initial Recovery
During the initial recovery period following your foot surgery, you will want to stay off the foot as much as possible. In addition to being extremely painful, putting a lot of weight on your foot can set back your recovery process as it may lead to the incision site having a harder time closing. While this can be true of incisions anywhere on the foot, those that are made on the bottom of the foot can be especially prone to these complications. While it may not be possible to completely stay off your foot during this part of the recovery, limiting it as much as possible can help with keeping the recovery time as short as possible.
Follow Any Physical Rehabilitation
As a result of the surgery and the recovery process, your foot may be greatly weakened. To avoid the risk of further injuries occurring as a result of the foot being weak, you may need to undergo physical rehabilitation services. These services will be able to help to gradually strengthen your foot so that you can get back to using it as you normally would. While it is important to start this rehabilitation as soon as possible, you will typically need to wait until the incision site has at least fully healed.
