Sunday, April 23, 2006

If you can't beat it post it!

Where do I begin? Okay a rusted bed spring punctured my right ankle. I wrote about it before. What I never said about it was that after awhile I noticed that it felt like there was something inside of my foot, that didn't belong there.

About three years ago my right foot (the bad one) swelled up so bad that it emulated the symptoms of having a sprained ankle. I couldn't walk home and it hurt like crazy. My mother drove me to emergency at Strong hospital the next day, and they did a blood test. They told me that I had an "unusually high blood count" and I needed to see a doctor as soon as possible. I had to wait until four months later to see a doctor, because I was a new patient, and the clinic was booked. All of this and a sore too. I woke up one morning with a sore on my bad foot, right over my ankle. When I finally got to see a doctor, they didn't have answers (as usual). Somehow I ended up finding out I had high cholesterol and seeing a nutritionist, instead of getting answers as to what happened to my foot. The doctor did prescribe some medication to stop swelling on my foot, however one of the side-effects from taking this medication was swelling. I noticed this on the bottle one morning after I woke up and my gums in mouth were bleeding. I haven't been back to the doctors (of any kind) since.


Fast forward back to three weeks ago when I started soaking my feet. My feet started hurting pretty badly, and for some reason it didn't click as to why until I took my shoes off one night to soak my feet in some hot water. I walked my sneakers to death. I wore them out so bad that it felt like I was standing one cement even when I was on a soft mat. Eventually I got new sneakers, but not before the sore appeared again, in the same spot. This time it became very infected, and the infection had spread about a half inch in radius, away from the sore. It occurred to me that it may not be your average sore, that it may be something worse.


I remember when I had the first sore, my dad told me and my step-mom that it looked like an ulcer. Here is a link to a AOL journal entry from last year, if you want to see my foot out of curiosity used to think that ulcers only occurred in one's stomach, then I got a wake-up call. He told me that people with diabetes can get them and they have to be careful or they can lose there feet. Recently I learned that you can get ulcers without being a diabetic. This made me feel a little better. It meant that I don't have to worry about diabetes just yet. I'm just worried about my foot right now. One of my fears is that I will lose my foot one day, and that I won't ever be able to walk again. I mean some of the pictures I seen on line of ulcers were gross and they made me worrisome.

recently I got some tips on healing my ankle from a co-worker who has diabetes and had an ulcer on her leg. She told me to by Gauze, sterile pads, waterproof tape, liquid antiseptic, and a ace bandage for support. All of my weight from standing keeps causing my sore to keep opening.


I stayed up all night last Sunday thinking about how this happened to me. The conclusion I came up with, is the trauma to my foot as a child. It always seem to come back to this. So then I realized that my heart and mind wasn't in blogging. So I decided not to write for a week and see if I would feel better afterwards (body and soul). My foot doesn't hurt as much as before, but I still don't feel ready to blog right now. I will just play it by ear and post when I am ready. It can be tomorrow, it could be another week from now, it can be a month from now. I just wanted to post this and let everyone know why I hadn't written in awhile.
I'm sorry that I didn't post a reason for my break from blogging.

Charles

6 comments:

DesLily said...

I'm sorry you aren't feeling well Charles.. It sounds like you need some tests to be done..I know, I am the worst at taking care of myself so who am i to talk? But, you are a young man..and if you take care of things now it's better then letting it go.. trust an old lady.. it will only get worse!!..
I will miss your journal if you stop blogging but, I don't think you should be talked into something that you don't want to do either. so whatever you decide..as long as it's right for you.

please take care..(see a doctor!)

Ari said...

Oh hon, I hope you get better. I'll keep my fingers crossed so that mean ole sore will go away. I'll miss you while you're gone.

Big hugs,

Ari

BlogOmar said...

Bro, I hope you feel better, but it's time to go to the freakin' doctor. Stop being stubborn.

Charles said...

DesLily, Omar

I got a second opinion and the doctor told me that there was nothing that could be done. Thats about when I had enough of doctors. He told me to wear an ace bandage and keep my foot elevated. The ace bandage would always hurt when I put it on so I stopped wearing it, and the swelling on my foot never seem to go down when I elevated it so I quit doing that. However now I started doing all of this and my foot is starting to feel better. The swelling has gone down, but not completely, and the sore on my foot is healing. I don't actually know how much, because my co-worker told me to leave it on for 3 days. I intend on leaving it on for 7 days just to be safe.

madameplushbottom said...

Charles - glad to see that you are here. I've been thinking about you and I hope that you are able to take care of yourself and get that foot of yours to heal.

Hopefully you can rest and take some time to read or write in a personal journal and stay on track of taking care of numero uno - that's be you!!!

Take gentle care Charles.

Chris said...

Charles, I am so sorry to hear about your injury. Was your second opinion from a family practice doctor? You might want to consider consulting a wound healing center/specialist.


Chris
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