Finding Direction: The Wind Vane Chronicles

Third time’s the charm, right?!

I sure hope so.  

Actually – now that I think about it – this is the 4th time I’ve been out of commission with this left foot of mine in the past three years.  Before that – back in the 80s and early 90s – it was my right foot that gave me all the problems and I had to have surgery on it four different times, with the resulting casts and recuperation periods.  That were always a pain.

My left foot was always the good one!  Never a bit of trouble with it until the deep ulcer that formed between two of my toes back in the winter of 2005.  That kept me off my foot and propped up for about four months.  Even then, I couldn’t walk much for a long while and went to the Miss. Pres Association convention that summer with a wheel chair everywhere.

Then, late that fall – in December 2005, just three months after Katrina – I broke a bone in my same left foot.  Remember that?  That’s when I got my scooter that I ran into everything with.  That confinement lasted a total of eight months, y’all!!  I went to the MPA convention the June of 2006 on my scooter and earned a disabled license plate on my car for that ordeal, which I still use.

The ol’ feet did pretty well, then, for a while.  I managed to keep them relatively healthy, although ugly (as feet go) by wearing sturdy shoes that are pretty ugly themselves.  Fashionable flip flops and painted toe nails  are way out of my league, let me tell you.  But, hey – I stayed out of the foot doctor’s office for about a year.

That’s when I stubbed my big left toe.  It was the last week of June, 2007.  I remember that well because that was the week we were moving out of our little apartment in town out to our new house here on the wooded hill.  

Dr. Watson, my good friend "Steve," as I took to calling him because I figured I earned the privilege, was out of pocket, so I saw his partner, who had to remove most of the nail and doctor me up because my toe was totally black and blue and infected.  I came home with antibiotics and pain killers and a terrible looking toe that had to be carefully bandaged and cared for a couple of times a day.  Just what I needed in the middle of the big move.

Well . . . it took until about two months ago for that blasted toe nail to kind of grow out again.  I mean – I was pretty upset because up until last summer, that toe had been by far the best looking one on both my feet!  It was really a lovely toe, and if the rest had been anywhere near close to it, I might have even broken down and bought some lovely open toed slippers to wear on special occasions, even though Dr. Watson definitely would not have approved.  

But, those were just dreams.

Reality really dawned on me about four days ago – on the trip – when my newly grown, ugly deformed toe nail began to hurt.  Down one side it looked black and blue beneath the nail.  The toe itself began to turn red.  I couldn’t imagine what the deal was, as I had not hurt it or done anything to harm it in any way.  

I watched it and carefully examined it a couple of nights.  It kept hurting, so Monday I called to see if I could get in to see Dr. Watson yesterday here in Picayune.  (He comes up here one day a week from Slidell.)  I could, and I did.

I told him that I just dropped by to see how he was doing since he hadn’t had the chance to see me in over a year and a half.  (His partner saw me last summer, remember.)   We had a good visit, with him telling me that two of his three sons and his only daughter all were married within the last few months.  He told me how expensive his daughter’s wedding was.  I told him, then you’ll be glad to see me because I’m good for business.

I started to tell him about how I’d stubbed my toe a year ago, but that it had grown back and been fine, except for being so ugly now and sticking way out on top, but he beat me to the punch.  He took one look at the swollen, black and blue toe that was throbbing and said, "Your toe nail has been traumatized and the cells in the root of the nail damaged (from when I stubbed it last year) and just wearing shoes aggravates it.  The toe nail is going to have to permanently come off.  I need to do it now."

I’d had to have that done on one of my toes on my right foot years ago and while it healed fine, it always looked funny afterward.  Now my very best toe was meeting the same fate.  I felt sad.

He shot my toe up with pain killers and went to work.  He removed the nail (which was already loose) and then had to chemically cauterize the nail bed so that it won’t grow back in any more.  He said that it will take about five to six weeks to heal up and that my toe will look really ugly and awful the entire time because of the chemicals and cauterization.  He wrapped it up good, gave me Rx’s for a strong antibiotic and pain pills and told me to go straight home and put my foot up, while I rested for the rest of the day.

He told me to stay off of it for several days and to wear a shoe with no top on it on that foot.  I don’t have any, I told him, because I just wear the good sturdy shoes you’ve insisted a wear.  He told me to cut off the top of an old shoe, then, for that foot.  So far, I’m just scuffing around with that foot in a slip on beach sandal that belongs to Tom’s grandson, who has much bigger feet than me.  I told Tom last night I guess I need to buy something to wear on that foot for the next few weeks because I don’t really even have any old shoes.  Here’s my chance to get open toed shoes (at least on one foot) and look at it!  Ugly, ugly, ugly!

When I got ready to leave, Dr. Watson said, "Now, that wasn’t so bad, was it?"

I responded, "Well, not so far, but last time you told me five or six weeks to heal, it took eight months!"

I don’t know.  I just can’t seem to win.  We’re just now paying off the last of last March’s five day hospital stay.  Oh well . . . maybe this won’t be so bad.  My toe is feeling much better today than it has been and if ugly feet is all I have to worry about, I guess that should be the least of my worries, you know?!

Besides, Dr. Watson told me that both he and his daughter had a great time at her wedding.  I guess my medical bills are going to some good use!

Cheers & Blessings to you all today!  Dee