Surgically Speaking . . .

Well, Tuesday, February 15th came and went without a hitch!  I was first up on the OR schedule at 8am, which meant a very early arrival at the hospital, but also a limited window of hunger pains! After checking in with the nurses, redeeming my frequent visitor rewards with the QA consultant, and getting a warm "welcome back" from the anesthesiologist (we've practically become BFFs after the number of times I've visited her operating room over the last year), 'the mad scientist' finally arrived to greet me at 7:58am.  I had joked with the rest of the OR staff that he wouldn't arrive until 7:59am, so you can imagine our surprise when he showed up so early!  Of course, when I saw him approaching my bed still wearing his white coat and carrying a pile of about 10 patient files, I exclaimed, "You're not even in your scrubs yet?!  Are you going to be the one to make us late today?"

Luckily he managed to make up time, shaving about 45 minutes off his normal procedure time.  I woke up in Recovery just in time to nosh on a tuna salad sandwich for lunch and to take a short nap--fortunately, I had just local anesthesiology, so I avoided all the awful nausea and exhaustion of last year's surgery!

By dinner time, they moved me to my room on the Orthopaedics floor.  And, with all the gym time I put in over the Summer and Fall, I was able to successfully lift and transfer my body to my bed all by myself!  The nurses continued to be amazed at my adept "bedpan" skills during the remainder of my stay.  But, despite my need for independence, they continued to check on me every few hours, making sure my pain was under control and my belly was well-filled during my stay.  I couldn't have asked for a more attentive nursing staff; they were amazing!

After a rest-filled night, Dr. Weinfeld surprised me with a quick visit to my room Wednesday morning before he left for the airport.  "Did you really think I wouldn't come and see you today?" he said as he entered the room.  He ordered me to return a week later to have my cast set; and, feeling virtually pain-free and full of energy, I was glad to be released home a few hours later.

New Beginnings

The new year has brought with it a renewed focus on CMT and my overall health.   I was fortunate enough to finally find a neurologist who specializes in neuro-muscular diseases in December and he's been making it his priority to identify all my symptoms of CMT, to properly diagnose me, and to also find ways to hopefully identify and suspend the degeneration rate.

We've done tests, then we did some more tests, and in the coming weeks, we're going to do some more tests!  13 vials of blood, 3 MRIs, an EEG, and a reflex test have finally and positively confirmed that my neuropathy is directly related to CMT and that my overall health is quite good.  My muscles are strong, my degeneration rate seems to be slow, and the surgery has improved my overall flexibility and ease of movement!  I could not have asked for a more positive report just one year after receiving the shattering and alarming news of my diagnosis!

So, this new beginning continues with plans for a genetic test to identify my unique strain of CMT and reconstructive surgery for the right foot!  Frightened that I would get too comfortable with the luxury of self propulsion and postpone the surgery indefinitely, I hurried to schedule it before I even had the chance to second-guess my decision.

So, come February 15, 'the mad scientist' will finally have the chance to begin the final phase of his "Perfect Podiatric Pair" Project and to help me get one step closer to finding that perfect pair of pretty shoes. . .

Can You Tell They're Fake?

Although the footsies have been feeling generally good the last few weeks, a new obstruction along the pursuit of pretty shoes has presented itself recently.  The padding on the balls of my feet seem to have broken down, making it painful to wear any type of hard-soled shoes and leaving me with the dread of walking long distances without my cushy sneakers?!

The 'mad scientist' did say with a bit of concern, "well, I am definitely feeling bone where I shouldn't be", but we couldn't arrive at a decision as to how to resolve the issue.  So, I visited my podiatrist while I was in So-Cal for the holidays and he suggested a few solutions like silicon implants, collagen injections, or padding inserts.  I guess years from now when all the surgeries are done and I can finally show off my pretty shoes, I can make two jokes:


"Well, I had my cankles surgically added." and "Can you tell they're fake?"

But It Still Hurts!

The swelling finally went down last week, but I was still having a bit of pain while walking.  I couldn't take much more of it, so I went to see my good friend Dr. W last week to get his opinion on the subject.  Luckily, after that whole stress fracture debacle in September and not believing me when I said I was in pain, he now listens to me every time I shout "Ouch!".

After touching several points on the top of the foot, the ankle, and finally the outside, I screamed and jumped off the exam table. . .

"OK, I know what this is," Dr. W calmly said.

"Well, that's good.  What do we do now?" I responded.

Apparently, scar tissue has built up and is pinching the nerve on the outside of my ankle.  He suggested two alternatives--try to numb the nerve with a cortisone shot or perform "another surgery . . ." to remove it altogether.  Yeah, I thought we should try the shot first.  It took a full week to make a difference, but I am finally feeling like myself again!

Anniversaries, Anniversaries, Anniversaries

I returned to the doctor today to follow up on my stress fracture, even though I had already taken it upon myself to stop wearing the boot a week earlier (I had decided that we were truly forming a co-dependent relationship and the stress of having to make it feel constantly useful had finally drained my energies enough that I had to call it quits for good . . .)

The x-ray showed the bones have healed, but we haven't reached the end of the road yet . . . Dr. W told me it will take another month for the swelling to completely go down.  So, with that in mind, he suggested we re-schedule surgery for mid-November.  Yeah, I looked at him like he was completely crazy--having surgery now would mean that I would be in a cast for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, without the ability to travel at all.  Luckily, I talked him out of doing anything until the new year.

I was about to leave when I realized that it's been a full year since we began this whole process with my first appointment . . . I absolutely adore Dr. W and feel so fortunate to have found him.  And what came next is a perfect example of why:

I said, "Do you realize that we've been together for a whole year now?"

The mad scientist immediately shot back, "Oh, I didn't get you anything."

"It's OK, I didn't get you anything either.  In fact, all I really want to do is divorce you already, but we still have this asset division that we have to figure out."

"Well, if you'll just stay with me for another 6 months, I promise it will be worth it."