The Surgery was a Success but the Patient Died!

I saw a new foot doctor last week; an orthopedist who specializes in problems from the knee down. This was my first "foot visit" since 1994, after the last of many foot surgeries. I don't know what I expected to accomplish with this exam, but I wanted someone to take a fresh look and tell me if anything can be done. The best hope is that it could be done without surgery. I need help with the awful foot pain and wanted to see if he had any helpful advice. I wanted to have them examined by someone familiar with the technology that has emerged since my last foot surgeries.


I really liked the new doc. As I waited in the exam room, I was happy to see that it was filled pictures, posters and memorabilia of LSU sports. I knew right away that I had a bond with this young doctor through knowledge of unusual foot problems, along with an enthusiastic love of LSU sports. When he came in, I introduced him to the what would probably be the best looking pair of "feet from hell" he will ever have an opportunity to examine. 


He was impressed with the brilliant array of Band-Aids covering my toes. In all, there were probably six or eight bandage strips. I'd purposely left the bandages on my feet; mostly because I needed them to pad the blisters, callouses and pain spots beneath them. But I also wanted to show him how I survive day-to-day foot pain. I pad the places that hurt most and try to move on with my day. I uncovered all the spots as we reviewed the long list of prior surgeries. We talked about the unusual aspects of my surgical history which covered about a 10-year period from 1985 to 1994. We discussed the reasons that the last five or six surgeries were performed in The Texas Medical Center in Houston. 


At the time, the foot pain kept getting worse instead of better. Since there was no orthopedic "foot" specialist here in Baton Rouge at that time, I wanted to ensure that I had no more "botched" surgeries and that I had the best possible care I could find. He apparently agreed that I'd found good help. He referred to the x-rays and showed me that, from an orthopedic standpoint, my feet had healed perfectly. He was impressed that, on the x-rays, he could barely see where the surgeries had been performed. The x-rays showed little evidence to match the numerous surgical scars on both feet. 


On the screen at least, they looked perfect. All the bones were straight and showed visible evidence that the surgeon had done a great job and my feet had healed as they were supposed to. Indeed, on the screen, they looked like normal feet. He said most of his foot patients could only wish for x-rays that looked quite so normal. Deceiving to say the least!


He looked at the freshly unbandaged spots as I explained where the most of the foot pain surfaces. We discussed the long history of recurring neuromas and how the nerve damage that ensued is not reversible. 


His opinion was much the same as my own, that pain from the nerve damage is here to stay and I should continue to deal with is as I have been. The blisters and callouses, he explained, are simply the result of the way I walk on my feet. It's the way my weight is distributed when I walk. It seems that because of the nerve damage, I unconsciously try to compensate by shifting weight away from the nerve center. Unfortunately, that puts added stress on other parts of my feet. The results come in the form of blisters between my toes, along with scattered and predictable callouses over the longer term.


I do have to admit that I gave doc a bit of a pause when I explained that, through the years, I've found that no amount of pain medication will help the nerve pain in my feet. On the other hand, I've found that alcohol does help. "Hey, a Margarita or two and I may be ready to dance."  There was a definite pause and a nearly audible gasp. I quickly followed with, "But lucky for me, I don't like alcohol. And I've witnessed far too much alcohol abuse to MAKE myself drink something I really don't like. Maybe an occasional glass of wine or a Margarita but basically, I don't routinely consume alcohol."  I definitely saw a moment of relief cover his face as he breathed a sigh of relief.  I don't use alcohol as a means of relieving foot pain. Whew! 

So. That's it. It's "the way I walk on my feet!" Not much I can do or say about that. But he recommended more "creature comforts" which will require frequent visits to my old friend "Dr. Scholls" on store shelves. He recommended toe separators, toe covers and some expensive memory-foam insoles. Wow, if I had a dollar for every pair of expensive insoles that have made the pain disappear!  Hmm. By now, I'd probably have . . . a dollar? No wait. I haven't found them yet. And, by the way, the new creature comforts haven't added any more relief than I'd found prior to this visit.


I think my pain management doctor put it best when she said it was an obvious case of what doctor's refer to as "the surgery was a success but the patient died." My foot surgery, from the view on an x-ray, was completely successful. But my feet still hurt like hell!


So the bottom line is that I have a new foot doctor and he has determined that there's still not much that can be done to help my foot pain. Any additional surgery would be intense and probably counter-productive. So I continue to cover most of my toes with bandage tape. I pad the callouses to help ease the pain. I still can't wear shoes that put pressure on the spot where there used to be a bunion. I still can't wear shoes that put weight on the balls of my feet due to the irreversible nerve damage. My toes still rub together and create painful blisters! In short, life goes on. 


Maybe it's just me but it's still hard to comprehend how, in this day in time, I'm still forced to allow a three-to-four square inch area on each foot to control my life. But it happens. My life of "walking on broken glass" continues.

Time Out

We've been on vacation so I haven't been faithful to my blog spot. More importantly, my computer has been out. Like dead. Gone. Totally unresponsive! Ahhhhh yes! Dealing with "technicians" from far across the world has not been entertaining. In fact, it's tested my patience to the limit. What's worse, it certainly wasn't getting my computer fixed. 

So I couldn't keep up with ANYTHING while we were gone. My work, my family, my friends, Facebook and blog page - I was totally out of touch. Once I got home, I still had to face the matter of a broken computer. So, now armed with a new hard drive and even a new keyboard, I am ready to get back writing because there is lots to talk about! 

When I finally do get back to my blog page, you'll get to hear about a week of walking a huge golf course in Kentucky and going dancing in Nashville. You guessed it - on broken glass all the way. Also, I have a new foot doctor who agrees, "why yes, you've got awful pain with THOSE feet!" 

But we had a wonderful vacation and I can't wait to get back to my blog. So much to tell; so little time.