I'm Not a Masochist, Really!

This is where we revisit the wonderful world of foot torture. Blah. I saw Dr. Irving again Monday. My feelings are that the various therapies, massage and prolotherapy sugar injections, have reached a plateau. My feet don't seem to be getting worse (yay!), but while they are better than before starting they don't seem to be showing much in the way of further improvement (boo!).

I've now had four injections in my right foot and one in my left foot. That last injection on Monday was very painful, I didn't kick the doctor though. It's now Wednesday and my foot is still sore from the injection. I'm writing this longhand while the bus is creeping along in the express lanes, on my way home to get the car and head off to Carmen's foot massage. Neither Carmen or Dr. Irving has brought me to tears, yet. But both have made me question my tolerance for pain (it's increased loads) or fondness for pain (ya, really not so much). But I keep going and asking these professional pain inflictors to inflict more pain and paying for the privilege, mind you. WTF?!?

I'm seriously wondering whether I should continue with these therapies. Dr. Irving suggested that it may take upwards of three months for the injections to completely do their thing. I plan to hold off seeing him for at least that long to see how things develop. Carmen, though, I'm torn. She works on more than just my footsies and the back work helps lots. For now I think we'll try every other week versus the weekly visits we have been doing and see how well that works out. Fingers crossed.

More Foot Torture

I went to see Dr Irving, the pain specialist, on Monday and this time he injected both feet. I had a second shot in my right foot in early April and that seemed to help even more than the first one. Carmen, my massage therapist, commented on how much more freely the tissues were moving in my right foot and how much more bound up things were in the left foot. I was feeling much more pain in my left foot while she was working on it. So, this time Dr Irving did both feet. He tickled the tendon on my right foot again, owwie, owwie, owwie! When he'd finished it felt like I had giant water blisters on both heels.

I hobbled out to the bus to go back to work. I felt like a weeble only one that actually could fall down. After I'd been at my desk for an hour or so the lidocaine wore off and ohmygod did it hurt. I took two Alleve and that didn't seem to touch it at all. Another 45 minutes later I took a percocet and that hardly took the edge off!

I finished the bit of work I had and decided my suffering would be better suited for home use. Toddling down from my office to the bus tunnel entrance (literally across the street) made me wonder if I could seriously make it all the way home. I felt very old and frail, grabbing all the had rails getting on and off the bus. Got home around 4:30 and thankfully a kind neighbor (Kyle you rock!) was able to potty walk the boyz.

I promptly mixed myself a dark and stormy, took another percocet and settled in on the couch for the evening, waiting for the potent mixture of chemicals to work it's magic. Well, it didn't, so I made another dark and stormy and tried to care a little less that it still hurt a heckavalot.

I saw Carmen tonight (Wednesday) for our regular torture session. She treated me gently given my advanced suffering Monday. She worked on the knots in my calves and then my feet some. She said the left foot is already moving better! I am so looking forward to the day I can walk easily and essentially pain free, it's gotta happen, one of these days, one of these days ...

Cautiously Optimistic

The foot was a bit achy last night, pretty much only when walking or standing, though. And this morning I was able to take the boys out with no limping! It is feeling better. I ran a couple of errands this morning, another round of allergy shots (no reaction this time!) and then to REI to get some new gloves for paddling; having my index finger poke out is proving to be more distracting than the cost of a new pair. While walking around REI foot was reminding me that while it may be feeling better, it's not back to 100% and I should just cool my jets! I think I'll spend the afternoon working, as I intended anyway, and daydream about a bright sunny day for the race down in Tacoma Saturday. How nice to have a race were I don't need to leave town at 6:30 to get there. Planning to leave nearer to 8 am.

Feet & Numerology

I've been battling plantar fasciitis for over two years now. It feels like my heel is very badly bruised, it's painful to stand or walk, or sometimes even just sit there. I'd gotten some custom orthotics for my shoes in August 2005. I wasn't given clear instructions that I should break my feet in to them slowly. My feet have suffered ever since. I went back to the podiatrist who suggested I may have plantar fasciitis but then never did anything beyond that. I had to go back repeatedly to have minor adjustments made to the orthotics to no avail. In March 2007 I saw a different podiatrist, the first words out of his mouth were: you have plantar fasciitis, we need to do this, that and the other thing to treat it. Which included a walking cast for 2 months, 2 rounds of cortisone injections, and ultimately 2 more sets of custom orthotics (anyone seeing a pattern here, just wait there's more). The second set actually made my feet much, much worse. :-( Finally, this doctor suggested a couple of experimental (read: not covered by insurance) procedures. I don't think so.

Last April I started seeing a new massage therapist, Carmen Strand, specializing in myofascial work. Oversimplified, the fascia is the stuff that connects the skin to the muscles. There is nothing quite like having someone dig their thumbs into the already very painful, tender soles of your feet. The upside is that it actually gives me some relief. Unfortunately it is only temporary relief. Carmen actually pointed out that I have plantar fasciitis in both feet, I can just feel it more in the right foot. I don't want to post her phone number here but if you want a great massage therapist contact me and I'll put you in touch.

The day after Christmas I saw a new doctor who specializes in managing pain. One of the things he does is called prolotherapy. It involves injecting a sugar solution into the painful location causing the body to go into a super healing mode. I finally made my appointment. Get this, I'm going in on 2/20 at 2:20 and the appointment should last about 20 minutes. If only we were doing both feet, it could be 2-20 minutes. I'm not sure what the numerological meaning is, but it looks like it has to mean something.

I'm still seeing Carmen and I'm hoping the prolotherapy will really help. Keep your fingers crossed.