Franken Foot Update

Haven't heard about the feet for quite a while, huh? Well, tomorrow I'm having a little "procedure" done and I thought I'd tell you about it. It's been two years since I had the first surgery for the torn posterior tibial tendon. I laid on the couch for six weeks, then went back to work in the boot till school ended. I finally got back into shoes about mid-June and it felt rather sore still. But, hey! It'd had been totally rebuilt only a few weeks earlier, so I didn't worry much about the pain. I did head back in the doctor to complain about it a little. He really thought it just needed more time, too. About the first of October, I realized one morning that my other foot was now the messed up one. It was really flopped over, in a lot of pain, etc. etc. I went in, got it diagnosed and we started up the whole stupid process again--months of wearing the cast, then the surgery, then the recovery, etc. etc. Well, the right foot was still in pain.

And I don't just mean a little achy...I mean an icepick stabbing me in the side of my foot with each and every step. That kind of pain. I attributed it to my having to favor my new messed-up foot. And then stomping around in a cast for months. But, finally, I got the new messed-up foot all fixed and well again, and still I was in agony. We tried this and that and another thing. Finally, when nothing made any difference at all after nearly a year of messing with it, my doctor referred me to a neurologist.

Which brings me to tomorrow's "procedure." We're pretty sure that a group of nerves got pinched in that area when the bone was healing around the metal insert that was put into my foot to restore it to a normal position after the tendon graft. Rather than go in there and try to un-pinch them, because there are so many little tendrils of it, the neurologist is going to cut the main branch of that nerve up in my shin, so that the impulses from that area will be shut off for good. Of course, I'll have a numb toe, too. BUT...I would choose that over the excruciating pain-with-every-step I've been dealing with for two years.

So, tomorrow afternoon, I go in for a short visit to my old friends at the hospital, and once again get conked out, and cut open, and sewed up. However, this will be a much shorter, less complex surgery and I should be home fairly soon to sleep off the anesthetic. I'm staying home from school until Monday to let things heal up. Then, back in the saddle on the run-away horse of the Last Month of School. And hopefully, I won't be on the lame horse anymore!!! Wish me luck!