A Little Set Back

Onto every day a little rain must fall…or something like that.

No, this blog post isn’t about rain…or farming, it’s about my foot.  Yep.  Things didn’t go as planned.

Let me start at the beginning.  This is a picture of my foot from August 21st.  See that “hair” on my second toe.  (I know…ugly feet right??)  Well the “hair” bothered me and I pulled it.  Bad move.  It was not a hair.  It was a stitch.  I had no idea.  The pain from pulling the thread had me wincing.

I had no idea, none at all, that it was thread from the stitches..I would have never pulled it had I know.  It hurt way into my foot when I pulled it.

Fast forward to two weeks ago when I got my cast off.
I told the nurse and she laughed.  She said lots of people do that.  Um, all I could think of is- Why don’t you tell people that when they leave the hospital so they don’t pull them…whatever.

Fast forward again to Wednesday.  I don’t have the cast anymore but instead the boot.  Well I can take it on and off.  I have an ace bandage that I am suppose to wrap my foot in so that it keeps the swelling down.  The upper part of my foot into the toe area was swollen so I wrapped a little closer to my toes.

That night, I was in pain.  I didn’t know if the ace wrap rubbed that area or what was wrong, but something wasn’t quite right.  I showed Hubby and he was a little concerned thinking that Thursday I should go in and have it looked at.

Thursday morning rolls around…It looked better.  I went on with my day.  It was a busy morning of childcare and I even had Carver here for a couple hours.  Kalissa showed up at about 12:30 to get Carver.  She asked to see my toe.  (It is nice to have a nurse in the family)  She said- Mom..how long has it been oozing?  I looked at it and ugh.  She was right.  It was oozing.  I get so busy with the childcare kids that I forget to take care of myself.  UGH.  We looked more at the toe and in the EXACT spot where that stitch was, there was an open oozing sore.  UGH.  It was red and the red had now went to the base of my toe and was making it’s way to the third toe.  UGH.

She said I needed to get an appointment yet that day.  I called in.  Of course my doctor is off but I was able to get in to another podiatrist.  There was a scramble to get the childcare kids picked up but we managed.  The only appointment they had was at 2:45pm.  I hemmed and hawed about it but Kalissa told me I had to go…so I listened and did.

I won’t show you a picture of my oozing toe.  Just believe me, it’s oozing…not terrible but it was good I went in.  Here’s what I know.  He believes it is infected as the redness is at the base of my toe.  There is no was to know what’s infecting it so he put me on a broad based antibiotic.  He said that it is a complication from the stitch.  Likely a bacteria got into the site.  He did say there is another possibility of my body wanting to treat the “stitch” that was suppose to disappear as a foreign body and my body wanting to purge it.  Hmmm…doesn’t that sound fun??!!

They did take a culture of the infected area and will test to make sure I have the right antibiotic to fight the infection.

I go back to the doctor on Tuesday.  I already had the appointment to check my progress with my walking with my boot…now we’re going to check my toe too.  Hopefully it’s a simple antibiotic fix.  If not, they might have to probe and get the stitches out….Oh my.

The good news is I am walking.  Every day it gets better.  I still use the scooter some for childcare as even though I can walk, I am not walking quickly and those kiddos sometimes need me to move quick.  Walking no longer hurts…That’s wonderful as the first week it was torture.

That’s what I know for now.  The doctor didn’t make it sound too serious.  He said everything else looked good and that this was a bump in the road.