Day of the Doc (or just shoot me now)

I called in sick yesterday to go see my regular Dr. because my lower back has been bothering me (again). I have some very common degeneration of the lower vertebrae....which most people over 40 have to some extent. It flares up every now and then, but generally a few days of rest and a course of prescription anti-inflammatory meds will beat it back into submission. I've gotten used to the drill....at least twice a year or so. Whatever. I can deal with it.

So, I got there at 8am and sat in the waiting room for 2 hours. Ugh. Then I sat back in the exam room for another looonnnggg time. I didn't check the time because it was making me too antsy. My doc comes in, and somehow over the course of asking me questions like "does it hurt more to sit or to stand, yadda yadda...." I made mention of the fact that I was having some problem with my ankle too. Actually I have been having a problem for months. I have sharp pain in the bottom of my heel all around the back of my ankle and part way up my calf. It comes and it goes. Ibuprofen seemed to take care of it and although my family has heard me complain (a LOT), I didn't think it was anything much. My back hurt far worse than my ankle, so I almost didn't even mention it.

The doc fixated on my ankle. She keep palpatating it, and making a concerned face and finally decided that she felt a cyst of some kind. She told me to wait a minute because she wanted to get me an appointment with a podiatrist "Today!". And she did.
So I left with my usual prescripts for my back and feeling a little scared. I overheard the phone conversation and I heard my doc say, "No I want her seen TODAY".

Anyway, I had a late afternoon appointment with the podiatrist. I was nervous and had no idea what to expect. After the way my doc sounded I was worried about amputation or something. Not really but I was uneasy. They took a million xrays of both of my feet. The appointment took forever, which made me unusually antsy because Erica was driving home. She came home to an empty house (inexcusable) because Bruce went with me. Mainly because my doctor said that they might do some kind of needle/draining thing if it was just a normal cyst. I didn't like the sound of that. But anyway....it took an eternity. I have some pretty bad inflammation of the achilles tendon in my right ankle causing a big mass of swelling, (but no cyst...yay). Apparently you need to address this quickly because it can cause a rupture. That tendon takes the most abuse of all the ones in your body. Its important if you want to walk. I wasn't doing myself any favors by letting it go on for so long. I also have the same thing in my left ankle only not as severe yet. Also? I have arthritis in the big toe on my right foot. LOL.....didn't need or want to know that.

They put me on the most dreaded of all medications: steriods. Hate them passionately! I get jittery, can't sleep and can NOT stop eating for the entire course of the meds. But its necessary. They also put me into this temporary cast/boot-like thing for ten days. It is both HUGE and UGLY. It looks like a ski boot, sort of. It velcros up and then you have a valve that you pump the insides up to conform tightly to your foot and ankle. I hate it. I also have a lighter one that is no-less obtrusive and ugly that I have to sleep in. What the heck? I just wanted a break from this back pain!!!

Anyway, Erica made it home safely. She and Bruce have mocked my ugly boot plenty.
And if anything good comes from this I have to take 10 days off of work....so....between that, the muscle relaxants AND the steriods, I should be healed and pain-free before I go back to work. And that will be a very good thing.