ProfessorTomoe

I had two cups of coffee this morning, and my pain medication still managed to knock me out for several hours. Makes me wonder why I bother to drink the stuff at times.

My son and I conspired behind his mother's back to commission another webcomic artist (Kittyhawk, http://montrose.is/sketching ) to draw his mother as one of the sailor senshi from Sailor Moon. I've always associated her with Sailor Jupiter because of her kindness and her strength, so we had Kittyhawk try and adapt a 56-year-old woman to a sailor senshi. The results were remarkable. So, I give you my wife's mother's day present: Sailor Brenda, a.k.a. Sailor Scorpio! She's not really that skinny and her legs aren't that long, but hey - artistic license, okay? Anyway, my wife loves it. She's gonna get it printed on slate to match the Kittyhawk drawings of our two cats I had commissioned last year.

I need to invest in a good set of steel toes.

That is what's called a "Ram's Horn." It's caused by trauma to the nail and the nail bed, according to my doctor. You see, way back when my son was a 3-or-4 year old, he managed to swing his sneaker-shod foot backward so that the sole caught my bare big toe. He tore off the entire toenail in one fell swoop. My toe has never recovered, and I still remember the pain to this day.

I'm just waiting for my foot to stop hurting. Take a look at my foot post-op here: https://dleejackson.lbjackson.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/MiddleToe01a.jpg See the single stitch on my foot proper? That's where the doctor cut into my foot and took a bone biopsy. It still hurts there, sometimes more than in my toe.

However, once fired, the result would be painful, but quite stylish. It would definitely be a case of haute foot.

I wonder what I could do with two bionic toes. Pick up pencils?

Well, here's what happened. I had surgery last Friday. He removed two bones of the middle toe of my left foot and did a bone biopsy of the middle metatarsal. Fortunately, the bone biopsy came back negative, so no more surgery (yay!). I'm dealing with a case of hives, though, which popped up on my left shin about a week before my surgery. It was hell when I had to wear a surgical boot on my left foot, but that came off after my follow-up yesterday. I'm on prescription cortisone cream and Valium (to stop the urge to scratch) for the hives, and my foot is just wrapped until my next follow-up, next week.

The news keeps getting worse. I had a face-to-face appointment with my foot doctor yesterday. Not only do I have osteomyelitis in the middle toe of my left foot, I've got signs of it in the metatarsal (the long bone) that leads to the middle toe. So, when he does the partial amputation of my toe, he's going to do a bone biopsy of my metatarsal. I'm kinda scared of the possibility of losing part of my foot proper due to a bone infection. How will it affect how I walk?

I just got some bad news from my podiatrist's office. I had a bone scan run on the infected middle toe of my left foot on Wednesday. Just got the results a few minutes ago - it's osteomyelitis, a bone infection. The same thing that cost me the second toe of that same foot back in December of 2018. We're not screwing with the IV antibiotics this go-round. They did no good last time, and they'll do no good this time. We're going straight to partial amputation. It's scheduled for some time in the morning of Friday, April 26th.

The infection has failed to respond to antibiotics and topical iodine treatments. The subcutaneous fat layer of the tip of my toe is now exposed. The doctor now says my toe looks just like toe #2 did last year. He is scheduling a radioisotope bone scan to determine if I have a bone infection (osteomyelitis), which is what I had in toe #2. If I have osteomyelitis, we're going to skip the six weeks' worth of IV antibiotics that we tried last time (which also didn't work) and proceed directly with a partial amputation. My depression gene is kicking me in the ass over this.

Currently drinking Spiced Purple Maize drink from Aldi. It's a variant on the Peruvian national drink known as Chicha Morada, which is made from boiled purple corn, pineapple, quince, and spices. It takes a glass or two to get used to the unusual taste (along with the fact that you're basically drinking corn), but once you're past the weirdness of it all, you're hooked. The only problem with it is that it's 70 calories per 8 oz. glass - there's no artificial sweetener in it. It's sugar all the way. I've adapted my enjoyment by mixing it with my Crystal Light Lemon Tea, at about half a bottle per gallon of tea. That cuts it down to around 140 calories a day, and it makes it taste even better. Next time you're at Aldi, grab yourself a bottle. Put it in the chill chest for a few hours first. Let it get good and frosty - iced down doesn't cut it. Pour yourself a small glass and take a small sip. Be ready to taste something you've never experienced before. If you can make it through the whole glass, you'll probably be addicted, which will be a good thing for your body according to medical studies. Enjoy.

Last year, I had part of the second toe of my left foot amputated due to a bone infection gone out of control. Today, I found out I have an infection of the middle toe of my left foot. The foot doctor says we caught it just in time. He saw no bone problems on the X-rays. However, I am wearing a special walking boot on that foot and will have to take precautions when I shower so that I don't get it wet (I'll have to clean it separately outside of the shower). My foot is a pain in the arse.

Thank you. In perspective, it should save me a lot of grief. The pain that the surgery is designed to relieve can be crippling at its worst. It felt like I had a large, jagged rock between my ankle and the flat of my foot.

Surgery No. 2 (Endovenous Ablation, left leg) was done today. It looked at first like it was going to be easier than the right leg was, since they only had to do one lidocaine injection to insert the sheath and the catheter. However, the problems started once they started doing injections farther up the leg. They did about a half dozen injections prior to the radio wave ablation, each one more painful than the last. Things got even worse when they turned on the radio wave machine - I felt an intense pain from inside my leg. They either missed a spot with the lidocaine, or they didn't wait long enough for it to kick in. They gave me more lidocaine and restarted the ablation. A couple more burning spots popped up along the leg during the ablation, requiring even more lidocaine. In total, I think they hit me with about 10-12 injections when all was said and done. About seven hours later, I am very sore. Walking hurts. Sitting hurts. I'm worn out.

Eww. My bandages are off, and my leg looks a mess. Bruises all up and down my inner upper leg, and a huge bruise covered by Steri-Strips at the incision site. My leg felt like it weighed a ton after I finally un-bandaged it (I had to fight my cat, who insisted on being lovey-dovey during the process). It was bad enough that I had to walk it out for a while afterward. Still hurts.

Three hours until these damned bandages come off, and it's three hours too long. The things don't want to stay in position on my leg: they've slid down every chance they've got, mainly due to a lipoma that I have on the back of my upper leg. I'm not supposed to be able to see any of the bruising from the anesthetic shots, but of course that's already been violated. And don't forget the pain - the vein that was treated still hurts. It'll probably hurt worse after the bandages come off. Follow-up appointment is this coming Friday. We'll see what the doctor says.

Well, the doctor was right - it was not comfortable. I got stabbed with needles full of numbing medicine at least a dozen times, had a sheath shoved into a vein, then had a catheter shoved through the sheath up into said vein and heated with radio frequencies (yep, another radio ablation procedure) so that it collapsed the vein. I'm now wrapped up from my groin to my ankle with orders not to remove the wrap for 48 hours and not to lift anything more than 10 pounds. I'm just waiting right now for the time that I can take my next pain killer, because this crap hurts. Lather, rinse, repeat nest Monday.

Chowing down on a thick-cut bacon and Velveeta slice sandwich. Totally bad for you, but oh-so-good. Nom.

It's Monday, and still no headache, which is good because I have to go in for another surgery today. I'm having a catheter shoved up one of my right leg peripheral veins to cauterize it and stop venous reflux that's been causing painful swelling (edema) in my right foot and ankle. I'll be awake while they do the operation - not looking forward to that - so they've given me a couple of Xanax to take 30 minutes before the operation to calm me down. I've been warned that it's not going to be comfortable (gee, thanks), so I'm going to be laid out afterward. Much fun. I get to repeat the process on my left leg a week from today.

I seem to have woke up headache-free this morning. Let's see how long it lasts.

Oww. Two days in a row with steady headaches. They just won't go away. I'm taking rizatriptan for the pain, but it doesn't knock it out completely. Oww.

Give us a week: we'll take off Kuwait. ...and get off my lawn, too...

I am recovering from yet another radio ablation procedure, this time on my right lumbar spine. This was way more painful. I was living on oxycodone Thursday, to no avail - my pain level shot up to between an 8 1/2 and a 9 and stayed there for five hours. I can handle short sprints at that level, but not marathon runs. This called for a call to my doctor ... who did not call me back until Friday morning, by which time my pain had receded to a 6 1/2. How'd I make it through the night? By violating doctor's orders. I put an ice pack on my back--well-wrapped in fabric--and kept it there for well over an hour. I did not experience any cold burns, thanks to the wrap. I've had worse experiences, but this ranks up there on my list of "things I don't want to repeat." Not without significant doctor guidance first. You see, there was one difference between this operation and the last: the anesthesiologist did not give me Versed. It is very hard for me to shake off after surgery, to the point of giving me uncontrollable shivers and a headache. In retrospect, I probably should have suffered through it instead of suffering through the pain afterward. As I write this, I'm still hurting, at about a 6 or a 7. It's at a peak at the moment. Earlier on, it has backed off (pun intended). Now, all I can do is wait for the relief to kick in.