Put Your Best Foot Forward

Back to the doctor today for my foot. He's finally decided that I have a Morton's Neuroma, which is a metatarsal tumor involving the nerve that runs through the metatarsal joint. It's painful to walk. Sometimes, I feel as if my foot is breaking. I can feel a painful snap when I walk. Sometimes my three middle toes go numb, sometimes they sting and sometimes they burn.

He held my foot with his two thumbs on the sole and then he pressed, hard. It was almost like sticking my toe into an electrical socket. Then he ground his two thumbs into the sole and moved them in a circular motion. "Ah ha!" he said. "I can feel that 'snap' you've been talking about."

"Yeah, well, you can stop now!" I thought to myself as I gripped the arms of the chair. That hurt worse than walking. Then he said those dreaded words "This calls for another injection."

I don't know what it is about nerves. I know they transfer signals to the brain to indicate pain. I just don't know why they have to indicate so much pain. A little pain with the injection would be considered normal and just about everyone, including me, could get through it with no problems. When he injected the steroid, it felt like he had a large railroad spike, well maybe not a large railroad spike, but an electric probe. I didn't mind the needle going in, it was when the needle went deeper and connected with the tumor on the nerve. It felt like there was a large railroad spike - oh, there I go again, exaggerating again. Suffice it to say, it HURT!

When I said "Aaauuuggghhh!", he said, "Good! I placed the needle exactly where it needed to go!" I thought of another place that needle could go, but that would have been rude, so I didn't say anything. After disconnecting the steroid thingy from the needle, he attached a thingy that had Novacaine in it. The Novacaine has to be last, because if my foot were numb, he'd not know (from my reaction) if he'd hit the right spot. Okaaay.

I'm hoping this will stop the pain. This was my third shot. The first was between the first and second toes, the next one and this one were between my second and third toes. For a day or so after getting the shot, it feels like my sock is balled up under my foot. After the steroid gets absorbed, that feeling will go away. Right now, it feels like my toes are hot and kinda 'buzzy'.

Wearing shoes still hurts, not wearing shoes still hurts. I was walking comfortably this afternoon, but then the Novacaine wore off.