Tarsal Coalition

Dec. 2025 - February 2026

They told me my right foot won’t be 100% better until 4-6 months post surgery.
It won’t be normal until June 2026.

It might never be normal.

For the longest time, my foot felt disconnected from the rest of my body.
I don’t know how to explain it besides telling people to imagine that you can see your foot, you can feel your foot, but you can’t control your foot.
You can’t walk.
You can’t bend it.
You can’t put weight on it.
You have to relearn how to stand up, balance, and walk again.

The most essential limb becomes utterly useless.

So useless I needed help to preform my basic tasks, like bathing myself.

Mind you, this is my dominant foot.
I guess this is what I get for having my bones connected together by more bone (“the extra bone.”)

Now, I have a larger scar than I once had.
I also had iodine covering my whole entire right leg, it was nasty to wipe off.

I don’t think my leg has ever felt more gross in my life.
I promise I take care of it better, just the surgery got in the way.

No one told me how itchy my foot would be 24/7.
Or how it felt like it was on fire for the first 5 weeks.

I woke up crying some nights because of the pain.

Hopefully, this fixed it.

I found it hard to take pictures around my mom’s home.
I’ve stayed here for months.
I grew up here.
I never moved until I went to college.

But, it was so hard to make art here.
It was hard documenting my recovery.
Especially because I couldn’t leave.

It was agony.