For the first time three months, I’m not sporting a bandage on my foot.

It began early last year when I bought what I considered to be the softest and most comfortable pair of shoes I could find (that happened to be the most expensive I’ve ever bought) just so my tootsies wouldn’t hurt. But it didn’t help. The shoes that felt like butter on my feet when I bought them, hurt so much the first time I wore them, I had to buy another pair as soon as I got to work.

You see, like almost half of the women in the U.S., I have a bunion, a deformity of the bone at the base of my big toe. Actually, I have one on each foot and they made it painful to wear regular shoes. Forget anything with heels higher than an inch or two. And pointed toes? Well, you get the idea.

I was relegated to wearing shoes not even my mother would wear and I was beginning to feel older than my years.

So when I told my friend, Connie, that I was going to give away my new soft, comfortable and expensive pair of shoes (and several others) because they were too painful to wear, she told me I should see her podiatrist, Dr. Bernard F. Martin, who had just performed her bunionectomy.

I had two questions for Dr. Martin: would it hurt and would I be able to wear my beautiful shoes after surgery. He reassured me it wouldn’t, as long as I followed his instructions and yes, I would be able to wear my fancy shoes.

Though minor, my bunions had begun to curve in and push my second toe out of alignment. Dr. Martin explained that he would shave the bone and put a pin in my toe to realign it. Dr. Martin spent about an hour describing my options and told me think about them. I didn’t have to think, I knew what I had to do.

My first surgery was at the end of October. The procedure itself was not painful – I was under local anesthesia. I was back home that night and and two days after, I was off all pain medication.

I hobbled around in this attractive looking number for the first three weeks after.

But I was feeling so good, I was up and down the apartment. As soon as Dr. Martin saw my foot at my next appointment, he knew and reminded me that continued swelling would slow down my recovery. So I kept my foot elevated and iced and when I did, the swelling.

I was thrilled when I graduated to the next show – a designer look that was the rage on all the runways in Paris last season.

I was able to walk better and a little faster and after three more weeks, I moved into my own running shoes.

Most people wait a few months or more between surgeries – I didn’t. I had a personal deadline and needed to have both surgeries completed by December, 2010.

My recovery from the second surgery went even better than the first, I was in my running shoes a week early. So last Saturday, Dr. Martin removed my last bandage.

So what will I do now that I have my feet back?

Well, the first time I did was get a pedicure.

Next, I went shopping. For three months, I couldn’t go to the store or the supermarket. It was great to be able to walk around a store and look at clothes, even shoes.

I can take the subway without fear of someone stepping on my foot.

I’ve got my feet back, I can travel – woohoo! My first trip will be in a few weeks to Washington, DC . Hope to visit London in a couple of months.

We depend so much on our feet, we only recognize how much when, for whatever reason, they’re out of commission.

Take care of your feet.