: : home     : : reviews     : : days gone by     : : who?     : : contact     : : nobel reading project     : : photos    

31 may 2002

good patient...eventually

Well, this was fun. I spent most of my afternoon at one doctor, then another to get my allergy shot. That'll make you all good and crabby.

Let's go back a few months--six, to be exact. Those of you who have been around for awhile will remember a little tidbit that I wrote last October, about me swing dancing with a clogger and his subsequent squooshing of my foot. I just mentioned it in passing, because I didn't think it was much to worry about.

What I neglected to share with you (for good reason, because it is grodie) is that I lost the nail on my left big toe that week. That, and I ended up with a more-injured foot than I thought. Being a busy sort, I figured that ignoring the problem would make it go away, and didn't listen to the first person who diagnosed it and told me to stay off it and blah blah yabba dabba. And the pain did go away, more or less. The nail came back looking all normal-like. Yay for footy...

...Until about a month ago.

Summer is here, and I'm delighted to be active outdoors again, dancing at festivals, and dancing wherever an outdoor band plants itself around here. After a particular weekend of dancing, however, I noticed shooting pains in that foot and some pesky balance problems when I'd get up too fast. Or, you know, walk. Running has been pretty much out for awhile, so I've been walking with the hopes of semi-ignoring problem so that it will go away.

It finally occurred to me this week that perhaps I should get this looked at by a professional and then (novel idea), follow their advice. Actually, it didn't occur to me at all. I was coerced. That, and I was becoming obviously wobbly.

Off I went to my friendly family doctor for a look see with freshly-painted toenails and a little powder. Cause that's just polite.

So footy gets all squeezed and compared to the other one, and bent and poked. Then, x-rayed. Then, diagnosed with old stress fracture where they can see the growth, and new injury where it didn't heal right, and also some "soft tissue damage", which makes zero sense to me since everything but the bone is soft. So what's damaged? The slightly firm but pliable tissue? The extra-squishy stuff? Is the fat in my toe inflamed?

Furthermore, precisely what is "inflamed"? It's not cut. It's not scraped. Nothing on fire that I can see. Is this different from "infected"? "Impacted"? "Interesting"? Hell if I know. I just want someone to discreetly fix footy so I can dance and run, and pronto.

So they fix me up with this clever, simple, streamlined splint thing, and a prescription for anti-inflammatories to treat this mysterious inflamation of yet-unspecified "soft tissue". The prescription is still in my wallet. Motrin works the same way, right, and I can pronounce that one. I'm not real hip on taking Vermoodledoodlactimin, 800 mg.

In somewhat better spirits, I later went to Robert and Gail's to celebrate his birthday, which turned out to be really nice. He was happy, the company was stellar, and it rained. Oh, how we need the rain.

But that's for next time. Happy weekend.