September 4, 2009
Today, was another crazy day, like many crazy days. What made this day crazier than most, is that it is also the day my 14 year old son is having a birthday/slumber party. No biggie, except that it is also the same day I have to travel to Seattle (2 1/2 hours away) and get my cast recast. Two weeks ago I had my 9th foot surgery on my left foot. Today was the day to remove my stitches and get another cast on. All seemed to go ok, until we got home and had 1 hour to prepare the house for a slumber party. Luckily 14 year old boys don't really care about decorations and goody bags, like they used to.
The party has been strange, the boys have been trickling in and out. Upstairs and downstairs. They have walked 2 blocks away to go to Rosaur's and buy my son his birthday presents. We have spent most of the night waiting for everyone to gather together...again, so that we can do a group activity, like eat pizza. We have a pirate pinata outside so that they can hit something and get some of their teenage energy out. The presents, wrapped in traditional newspaper wrapping, are stacked on the table, waiting to be opened. My youngest daughter, who is prepubescent, keeps screaming and jumping up and down since she is having the "worst day of her life" (at least the worst day so far this week). I need to introduce her to Alexandar who also has many terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days. Finallly, the boys sauntered inside to watch the presents be revealed underneath their newspaper coverings.
14 years old, and he got a refridgerator, a storage ottoman, a visa gift card, a gift card to 7-11, a gift card to Subway and a couple boxes of his favorite snack, goldfish. WOW! He recieved gifts that most people would get if they are moving out, not still living at home. Kids are so self-sufficient and reliant nowadays. I was teaching 1st grade and had a fridge in my classroom, for snacks and treats. Once I went on disability, I brought my fridge home and my son had it in his room, downstairs, to keep some snacks in and prevent him from having to go upstairs for a cool drink. His "NEW" fridge is twice the size, with a freezer too! How many 14 year olds need their own fridge? Well, now that I can't walk again for another 6 weeks, it will be nice to have my own, small fridge in my room, to keep some protein drinks and cold water in, so that I don't have to leave the comfort of my room for a little snack...
Ok, party going, things kinda quiet while they eat cake and take a few minutes to chill. Now back to my story...
Two weeks ago I had surgery number 9 on my left big toe. This surgery removed some screws and a plate that was holding my toe together. I had been having lots of pain in that toe, and after a bone scan, it was determined that I had another nonunion at the joint, under my plate. Sooo, it was decided to remove the plate and screws, fill in the nonunion with bone grafts and then put 2 screws back in a criss cross formation to help hold the toe together while the bone graft grows together.
My toe is still hurting quite significantly, even 3 weeks after my surgery. My doctor is concerned, because I am still having quite a bit of pain, and I shouldn't be having much if any at this point after surgery. To put my pain in perspective, I have been on STRONG pain medicine for over 5 years now. Currently I'm on 8 mg of diluaded every 4 hours. I've been going to my local pain clinic for a year now, trying to get relief from the pain in my foot and my fibromyalgia. So far, I've had several injections in my spine, a rhizotomy on the left and right low back, and discussions about putting a pain stimulator in my low back, to help with the entrapped nerves on the left side of my left foot. Currently, my pain doctor does not want to put in a battery stimulator until I get off of the majority of my pain meds. If I still have the pain, how am I supposed to get off of the pain meds? I don't think that the pain will go away if I quit taking pain meds, if anything, I would predict that the pain would only get worse. When I asked my pain specialist how I was supposed to get off of the pain meds while I still had pain, he said that he didn't know, but he did give me a hug and told me to call him once I figured it out. WHEW! That hug really did the trick, I felt so much better....NOT!
My foot doctor does not know why I am still having pain in my toe 3 weeks after surgery. We both know that I am still having pain on the left side of the same foot because of entrapped nerves. We (foot doc, pain doc, general doc) have been unable to fix these nerves which cause so much pain, that it hurts to walk, and the slightest pressure on them causes searing pain up my foot. So I wear socks or slippers most of the time, which do not help protect my fragile toe at all. My foot doc wants me to see another pain clinic, to see if they can help me get off of the high dose of medicine I'm on, so that we can deal with the extrapped nerves more realistically. I left the office today withOUT an appointment, since the other pain clinic would not return his phone calls. No answers, still pain...same story!!
I have asked 2 doctors to put me into a coma and reset my pain receptors and allow my body to go through withdrawels while I'm asleep and not suffering through them. I've seen it done on House and on Royal Pains. The doctors aren't sure how the procedure works and are leary of doing it. I don't want them to do it if they aren't comfortable, with my luck it would go disasterously! Believe me, if something could go wrong, it will go wrong, with me...I am eager to get this blog going, and to share my story with others, so I've started today. My 3rd foot appointment since my last surgery. Old cast removed, stitches removed, new cast put on...no xrays, still pain in my toe and doc's suggestion is to try another pain clinic. I'm not against going to another pain clinic, I would like to get off of these strong pain medicines which are affecting my memory and mood too often. I am concerned that the pain in my foot could be foreshadowing another problem...a problem that originally caused all of my foot problems...December, 2005 I had a cyst removed on the left side of my left foot and a bunion removed from the big toe of my left foot. The cyst grew back, causing increased pain in that area and the screws put in, to straighten my toe from the bunion, disintigrated my joint, separating the joint from the metatarsals and shattering all the bones in my left foot because nothing was holding them together. The botched bunion was the beginning of one nightmare that continues day after day...more details to come...
