After bunion op...how to get muscle back!!!

Okay, so I had a bunion surgery a little over a year ago (last June) and this was my experience, but you mileage may vary because I had to have an unexpectedly more complicated and invasive surgery than originally intended. If you were anything like me, your incision was about 2.5-3 inches long, four bones were broken, three tendons were cut and resewn in the right place, first metatarsal was moved about an inch, and 3-4 pins and screws inserted to keep it all in place. This is considered a medium level bunion surgery, so if your podiatrist didn't go over all that stuff but said you had a low/med/high level than you can kind of relate to what that means. First of all, so absolutely no leg exercises with that leg for the first six weeks. ABSOLUTELY NONE. IT WILL COMPLETELY UNDO YOUR SURGERY IF YOU MESS UP. I would also suggest none on the other leg or really your lower torso because my podiatrist told me it gave a much higher chance of straining that leg on accident. After the first six weeks and you lose the boot, my incision was still so raw that I could not comfortably wear anything but extra loose flip flops, slip ons with open tops and fuzzy, thick socks for the first 3 months of recovery, so that is another 9 weeks there, and I still did not "feel right" in any of my old closed topped shoes for another 3. One thing to take into consideration: the shape of your foot has changed now. It will feel different in your shoes. If you genuinely feel good enough to put on shoes and do whatever, I strongly suggest trying on your shoes and really seeing if you need slightly different ones to accommodate the new shape of your foot, and also ones you can put arch supports in while still feeling comfortable (assuming you got your bunion from low/high arches, you NEED arch supports for bunions or they will just come back in the next few years). If your incision is not as big or as slow healing as mine was, awesome, you are technically clear to do whatever you want after the 6 weeks. But be prepared to not be able to wear workout shoes for at least a little bit because for me, the pressure on the top of my foot was absolutely excruciating, and all the vicodin in the world would not get me back in those trainers. And finally, it is not uncommon for full recovery to take up to 6-9 months. I would say fully healed for me occurred at 6-7 months and I still do not have complete flexibility in my toe. I took intermittent pain killers through out those six months, and for the first three I was taking 3-4 vicodin pills a week because the recovery is painful, long and well worth it to really take your time. Sorry for the wall of text, I just wanted to tell you everything I could about my process.

In short: don't push yourself, listen to your body, and for the love of god, do not even look at your foot in a stressful way for the first six weeks at the risk of undoing the surgery and permanently damaging yourself. And if you have any questions, let me know.