Well, that is mostly due to my continuing (will this ever end??) leg and foot problems. I have an open sore on the bottom of the middle toe on my right foot. Hey, it's just a toe, right? But it just will not heal. It has been 4 or 5 months. Just when I think it is OK, it gets infected (again) and here we go again. Well, until I can figure out how to walk without the bottoms of my feet touching the ground, I am stuck. Hmm, not exactly. If you read my blog, you know that my podiatrist put my right leg in a boot. This was his idea for relieving the swelling and to keep my toes from touching the ground. I would let him do anything as long as I got the cortizone shot in my over-worked left leg which was the purpose of the visit.
I was pretty happy with the boot, at first. At least, it seemed like it might work. The hassle of removing and putting on the boot in order to drive seemed like a small price to pay as long as I could get the foot healed. 2 working feet mean that I can walk with the 6:30 AM walkers where I live. Walking is about all the exercise I can do because of the emphysema. So walking, though simple, is my big goal.
At first, I noticed that the boot was certainly put my right side higher off the ground. It was tricky to figure out how to walk without looking like I had a load in my pants. Or like Chester on the old TV show Dodge City..."Mr. Dillon, Mr. Dillon". The boot lasted about 10 days. Last Thursday I stood up from my desk and by the time I walked out of the office and up the hall, I noticed that my left leg felt heavy. I got into the car that my husband had waiting at quitting time. I mentioned that the left knee felt funny. I had not bumped, stumbled or fallen so I knew that I was probably just tired after a long day at work. But when I got home, I could not move the left leg; it seemed frozen at the knee. I couldn't lift my left leg either and there was some pain involved. Oh crap, now the left leg doesn't work either.
(Thank you wikipedia for the drawing).A 4-hour visit to the emergency room told me that I have something called Iliotibial Band Syndrome. It happens to joggers who run on uneven pavement and to long-distance bikers who cycle hilly areas. Yeah, that's me, the athlete. Are you kidding me? So I gave the boot the boot, it is gone. Now I have an ice-pack as my constant companion. And I take small steps, not my normal gait, until I heal.
Will it ever end....?
