Facing the Facts

It's been 22 years since my last foot surgery and I have persistently sworn that I would never allow anyone to cut on my feet again. At some point however, I began to realize that progressively, my feet were getting worse. Not only had the pain become more intense, it was more widespread and deeper in the tissue. Although I've become accustomed to the fact that every facet of my life is affected in a profound way, I finally had to realize I had reached the time of "enough is enough."

Once I hit the wall and examined my feet closely, I knew that the time had come for me to do something. At least I had to seek consultation regarding what caused the increasingly unbearable pain. I had to question why my lifelong love of writing had come to writing a blog about how awful my feet are and lamenting all the things I know that I'm missing.

After seeing a local orthopedic foot specialist (which we didn't have here when I had prior surgeries), I walked away crying. Although he was thoroughly impressed with the prior surgical work he could see on my x-rays, he offered no help for the cause of increased pain. "I'm sorry you're having so much pain, but there's nothing I can do for you." That was the hard truth I came away with. But my husband heard more. He could not believe that a prominent doctor would level so much praise on the work of another surgeon. "I don't know who this surgeon is, but I can tell from your x-rays that the work he's done shows some some of the most intricate surgical techniques I've ever seen." 

I left his office with a feeling of hopelessness. I'd waited three months for an appointment with a doctor who basically turned me away as a patient. "Sorry, there's nothing I can do for you." My husband, on the other hand, was convinced that the doctor had given me the information I needed to move forward. If this doctor was so completely impressed with the surgical techniques he saw on the x-ray, then my husband was convinced that I had to return to Houston to see Dr. Braly. If Dr. Braly said that nothing more could be done, then we would accept it and move on with our lives. But if anything could be done, we both trusted that Dr. Braly was the man to do it.

But would Dr. Braly still be in practice? Very soon I found that indeed he was still practicing with the same group in the Texas Medical Center in Houston. The abundant awards and accolades he had amassed twenty-two years ago had multiplied exponentially. Indeed, he is also still teaching orthopedic surgeons at Baylor University. I immediately made an appointment with him. Knowing that this was not just "an appointment," I planned it at a time when I would be ready for whatever this doctor recommended.

If only I would had the ability, at this point I would have been Walking on Cloud Nine. The appointment was two months away, but I was ready. I was so ready!

You often hear that when one door closes, God opens another door for us to enter. Before I could dry my tears, the new door had opened for me and I was ready to walk through it.