hear what i say,

...listen to what i mean
{dammit}
~~sigh~~




I went back to Jackson for my own follow~up with an ortho~dudette regarding my left foot. Last year, my GP and I determined that I most likely had some plantar fasciitis going on and so I did lots of stretching and ice and all that. It seemed to actually get worse so after six months, my GP sent me to a local ortho~dude and he sent me down to Jackson. She also said that it was plantar fasciitis and sent me over to PT for a night~boot for sleeping and some inserts for my shoes.



That was six weeks ago. So today, when I went down, I told her that I had two things I wanted to talk with her about. One, I cannot wear the boot for longer than 45 min to an hour before the strap across the top of my foot begins to cut off my circulation and the nerves along there tingle something fierce. If I loosen the strap enough for it not to do that, then my foot doesn't stay in position and there is no purpose to even wearing the boot at all. So would she allow me to try the sock? The main reason I had not taken the sock last time was cuz my ankle pops out, but! since I sleep on my side, my ankle will be supported and I think I will probably be able to use the soft sock to good effect. She agreed and authorized the sock. Yea! for me!!




The other thing was that my left heel feels like it's being driven thru the floor cuz I put all my weight on it regularly. When I attempt to shift my weight to my right leg, my right hip {lower right side of my back} screams immediately and I catch my breath and shift my weight back to my left. The reason for the pain in my right hip, I am fairly certain, is because my right leg is a tad longer than my left. And the reason for that is because I have scoliosis, which off~sets my hips, which meant that my legs grew to different lengths to compensate for that.

So ortho~dudette says that she wants to measure my legs. This means that she asks me to lay back on the table, and she evens my heels up. She tells me that they are the same. Really? I ask. How can you tell what's going on as far as up in the hip, where the leg ends on the other end if you don't actually measure from hip bone to ankle? Then I turn and hike my shirt up, and show her that my hips are indeed offset, and she says that I probably have scoliosis. Uhm, yeah, k. So I ask her as I'm putting my left shoe on, that even tho I know that the leg, hips, and back are not her specialty areas {she focuses on foot/ankle}, could she tell me what I might want to do. She scoffs, "well, no, I can't. You'd need to be assessed." So I ask if she can give me a referral for that specialist. And she gets kinda confused.

"Well what is it that you want?" she asks. I hop up, with my left shoe on but not on my right, and say, "what I want is not to have to decide if I want my left foot to hurt, or my right hip to." and then I continued, "see? I feel more comfortable standing here with my left shoe on, without one on my right." Pointing first at my feet, and then spinning around and hiking my shirt up to show her my lower back and hips. She runs her thumbs down my spine and says, "see that's straight!" The triumph in her voice was amazing, til she realized that she just proved my point.

"Oh. You're wearing one shoe." She sighs, rather long suffering, and indicates the table again. And this time she says, "uhm, yes, one is longer, which do you think?" I very clearly say, "my right leg is longer than my left." And she says, rather deplorably, "yes, yes, you're right {sigh}." And muttering, she leaves the room to return with a heel~lift for my left shoe.

Now, was that so hard?

I didn't say that, I just thought it.



So now, I have lateral wedges {to correct my walking on the inside of my feet}, three~quarter length inserts {to add a little since my feet have lost some padding for shock~absorbtion}, scaphoid pad inserts {for arch~support and that helps ease some of the strain on my plantar fasci ~~ the tendon that runs along the bottom of the foot} ~~~~these are in both shoes~~ and the lift in the heel of my left shoe, along with a velcro~strapped Mueller arch support that fits over my socked left foot.

My leather Georgia Boots are getting kinda snug! I ought to get longer laces so that I have enough to actually tie my boot~tongue into place, centered over the top of my foot. And enough to tie a pretty bow on top!