The Big Needle

So, my foot still bothers me from my sports injury this summer. (See the blog from July 2 on Plantar Facia Rupture for more info). Anyway, it's still bugging me so I went to see my real doc this time (not the coverage doctor) just to see if there was anything more that we could do. It hurts especially first thing in the morning and as the day where's on, it seems to get worse. It's just tender all of the time.

So I'm sitting with doctor and he's looking at it and presses on a spot that really tender. He gets up, sticks his head out the door to the hall and calls for Barbara (the nurse) to get a 1 on 1 for Mr. Keller. He then comes back in and tells me he's going to give me a cortisone shot but that he's going to go in from the side of my foot, not straight in from underneath because it's too tender. I'm thinking...what?!

So she brings in this huge tube of gel looking stuff with a huge needle. He immediately tells me, don't look at the needle and asks me to look away while he;s doing this and not to watch. I'm sitting here thinking, "What ever happened to a patient's choice?" But you must understand that Snyder and I go way back...he taught my Sunday School class when I was in high school. Great class too!

Anyway, he goes in from the side right away and I'm like, "Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, that hurts, etc!" He keeps telling me to hold still and don't look and that he's almost done. As the injection is taking place, I'm trying not to look and to hold still and everything. But he has to keep repositioning the needle because he's try to shoot this stuff all over the injured area...that now feels even more injured. Pulls the needle back, pushes it in, shoots it up, then down, and then side to side. It was pretty painful. Afterwards he tells me to get my shoe and sock back on and asks me to step on it and asked me how it felt. I could actually feel all of the gel stuff in there. Weird (and I little painful, I must admit.

Anyway, it was painful and I've felt like I had a deep bone bruise the last couple of days, until this morning. When I got up today there was a noticeable difference in my pain and I walked around a long time today with little or no pain. That's pretty good considering I was on my feet for more than 7 hours today between preaching, Sunday School, walking the building talking to people, and our class 101 right after the service this morning. But overall, it felt much better.

He said that my injury will take 6-12 months to fully reheal itself. I can do whatever I can stand in that time and he gave me some stretching stuff that I need to be doing everyday, etc. That's a bummer, but I'm not going to complain because it could be worse, right? I just want my old normal foot back.