8 months ago I walked in the 3 Day / 60 mile breast cancer walk. Best thing I've ever done in my life. And if you recall, during said walk I bruised the ball of my foot. Remember?
Well 8 months now I finally went to Dr. Foot to see what was wrong with said foot because they are numb and still sore. I know. I know. Really? It took me 8 months. I'm a chicken. That's all there is to it.
Dr's scare me. Period. I'm convinced that any Dr. visit will result in immanent death and or amputation. I just don't want the bad news. It never actually crosses my mind that the point of the dr. appt is to avoid future bad news, but that's neither here nor there.
So, finally, I made an appt to Dr. Foot. I got to the office early because I knew paperwork would be involved. It was a very pleasant office too, no elevator music playing which was a plus in my book. Paperwork filled out, co pay handed over, I was showed back to a room. Nice big chair in the room to hop up on and a few button pushings later and I'm 3 feet off the floor with my shoes off and my sparkling toes wiggling free.
The nurse entered to get the down low on why I was there. Before she could even ask, "So what are you in for?" I blurted out, "My feet are really ticklish!" Actually it was so much a blurt as it was a squeal. She just nodded and said they get that a lot. Which really didn't set my mind at ease. But I continued with my sordid tale. She excused herself and I waited...anxiously for Dr. Foot.
All the while I'm working myself up to amputation. Sure they're gonna have to take all 10 piggies and my two feet. The plus is I'd lose like 10 Lbs instantly and I'd never need a pedicure again. The downside is I wouldn't have any feet.
Dr. Foot softly knocked and entered. Now picture if you will a rather tall mad scientist with bow tie. That is Dr. Foot. Very soft spoken, intelligent looking man, but with a bow tie. Made me feel at ease immediately. I blurted again about my ticklish feet and he said it was noted in my chart.
Relaxed a little, he had me go through my job and what I do - making small talk while he was touching my feed. Distracting me really...he was good at it. I didn't flinch one time.
After the examination and whatnot, he handed down his diagnosis...Sesamoiditis. He threw out a bunch of other words too, and when I asked how I was to remember what this was he said to think of it as Sesame Street of the foot.
So what is sesamoiditis? The ball of your foot is made up of two smaller bones underneath a bigger bone. Those two bones aren't connected to anything and their job is much like the knee cap, they help flick your big toe. The inside of the two bones, I've bruised. Apparently I have high arches. He said that actually my arches are so high that it's almost like my foot is folded in half, but it's not obviously. The high arch coupled with the repetitive strain of long distance walking, caused the bone to bruise. And the left foot, he suspects, bruised because I was over compensating for the right.
My prescription is I have to wear these very sexy foot pads just under the ball of my foot. They are about 1/2 inch thick and their job is to alleviate the stress on the ball of my foot by adding to my arch so it's not so high. I get to wear this sexy little number for 3 weeks. And I gotta tell ya, just walking from the Dr. office to my car, my foot already felt better. The pads are going to annoy the hell out of me, but after a couple of days I'm hoping I don't even notice them.
AND on top of all that, the muscle around those bones is inflamed. So I am now on Feldene for 10 days to help with the inflammation.
AND finally, I get to do a contrast bath. Effectively once a day I get to soak my feet in ice cold water for 3 minutes, then hot water for 1 minute and repeat this for 12 minutes. He said very few people can stand the 3 minutes in ice cold water the first time...but it gets easier - he says.
The bottom line, in 3 weeks he expects my feet to feel 100% better and we can then discuss how to deal with the high arches.
3 comments:
You have been in pain and agony for 8 months...you should listen to your mother instead...I think I told you the day after the race to go to the doctor..
BigBro mentioned this over a year ago.....then had to put up with the whinning all summer.......repeat after me "BigBro is wise...BigBro is good"
I'm glad you made that appointment and went! Good on ya! I hope you treated yourself to some post-dr-appt Starbucks -- that always helps me. I hope Dr. Foot is right and that your foot feeling all better very soon. The contrast bath sounds kinda unpleasant though. I can't even think of putting my foot in ice water for that long -- it just sounds so COLD!!!
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