This splint was NOT made for walking

My unhappy foot

For the past three and a half weeks, I have been living in pain.  Each and every step was like stepping on a hot metal spike going farther and farther up my leg.  I am used to working through pain, I've done it for years.  But this time was too much for me and I took myself to the doctors.

The first doctor, a rather rude general practitioner, who was in truth only a Nurse Practitioner and not a true doctor, didn't do much for me.  Brushed her finger across the bottom of my foot, said something like, "Wow, you are in a lot of pain." And promptly dismissed me.  No pain meds, no X-rays, and very little sympathy.  But I did get a referral to a podiatrist.

A podiatrist who would make the world's best general practitioner were he not already a specialist.  I first saw Dr. Kump about 5-6 years ago when an ingrown toenail became infected.  He ended up taking the nail, nail bed and all.  He did a little more than just run a finger along the bottom of my foot...he also pressed into the side, right along the edge of the arch that I don't have.  He ended up putting a shot in my foot, almost at the same spot her pressed.  It was far more painful than the shot I had put in my knee about 7 years ago.  That shot I didn't even flinch at.  This one in the foot almost made me cry.

Flowers = Spring = Flip Flops

With the shot, came an order for X-rays and blood work.  And some restrictions I wasn't fond of.  NO flip flops.  :'(  Summer is starting, and I've been wearing flip flops since my wedding day last August anyway.  But no, not now.  Sneakers it is.  Ugh.  I did get some nice pain medication; not enough to take all the pain away, but good enough to make me not care that it still hurt.  And a week off of work.  We can't exactly afford for me to be off work that long, but my husband told me it didn't matter so long as I got better.  And honestly, I think my husband was a little upset that I didn't let the doctor take me out for two weeks like he originally wanted.

I also came home with the night splint pictured above.  Meant to be worn only at night while sleeping and not to be walked on (except maybe for a quick midnight jaunt to the bathroom).  And let me tell you, we are not getting along.  At first, it doesn't bother me.  I try not to get it too tight, because I don't want to cut circulation off.  But still I end up readjusting it a few times during the night because the top part of it ends up cutting into my calf.  There have been a few times I've taken it off early in the morning and slept without it for the last couple of hours.  I'm not sure if that means I'm not getting it on right the first time around, or if the splint is a little too small.  It doesn't seem to be too small, but I'm not sure what else it would be.

So far the order to take it easy hasn't translated into a ton of writing getting done.  I have finished season 3 of Being Human on Netflix - and they sorely need to get season 4 on there.  I've almost finished CSI: NY, hubby and I are down to the last 2 or 3 episodes.  We've also watched  Maximum Overdrive, which had a very young Emilio Estevez in it.  And a few episodes of House.

I've also slept a lot, thanks no doubt to the medicine.

But that isn't to say I haven't gotten any writing done.  I finished the blog post over at Broads of a Feather and posted that today.  I will probably get this one day today as well.  I wrote enough in Ring of Fire to know that I have to restructure chapter 18, because a conversation between two women took on a life of it's own and revealed to me just how little I know about my own characters.  But I can handle those kind of discoveries.

Hopefully I will get more writing accomplished during this unexpected vacation.  It is certainly in my plans.  I hope to get a few blog posts written up ahead of time for a change too.  I have had so many thoughts going through my brain, it would be nice to get them written down.

Keeping my fingers crossed.



2014 ~ The year of no flip flops :(