September 22, 2009
Surgery.
I'm getting surgery tomorrow. Nothing serious. It's completely confined to my right toe. It's as far as possible from my head, where — it seems to me — I mainly reside. Surgery anywhere near the head is dire. Even a yanking out a tooth is a great intrusion. But a toe.... How concerned can you be about a toe? But a toe can hurt quite a lot. I know that. For the pain, I've had steroid shots right down into the joint, and now, instead of more of that, some grinding down of bone is planned. I won't be pirouetting for a while.
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59 comments:
I hope everything goes well for you.
Hoping the surgery goes well for you.
Smart to do it before snow and ice season. Here's to a speedy recovery (I'm holding up the glass of wine I'm drinking)
Good luck! I hope you heal quickly and that the surgery completely fixes the problem.
What everyone has said.
A toe can be very painful, so do take care.
As for the head: As someone who has had lots of dental work plus oral surgery to implant bone grafts, sinus surgery, two very successful cataract operations, and the usual kid tonsillectomy, all I can say is I'd rather have medical doctors and dentists messing with my head than some other people I can think of.
A: Ditch the high heels.
You've captured your victim (Meade) anyway, so what's the point.
B: Consult a good attorney. HALF! Think about it Ann. HALF!
C: You simply must describe to us who is paying your medical bill.
Yes. We want to see pictures of your pretty shoes and know that you are not in pain.
Will you be able to pirouette for Meade by Christmas?
wv caonalm -- something to calm toe pain
Oh good grief. Not "yes" to Florida. Yes to your surgery so you can wear pretty shoes without pain and pirouette.
wv = rednedf
Like Red John on The Menatalist, but her failed.
Good luck.
Report from darkest medicalcareland when you can.
Lucky you are doing this now.
I am (yuck) watching the Senate Finance Committee hold a hearing on the Baucus bill. It is clear that the senators have no idea what is going on. They question the staff. The staff give elaborate answers. The staff are obviously bright, but they get lost in detail. Nobody can give a good overview of the impact of major provisions.
Best wishes and . . .
Good luck! I hope the pain killers work well, and I hope you won't have to wear Birkenstocks during the recovery.
Good luck. Have Meade keep an eye on the Doc so they don't amputate your foot or whatever.
We feel your pain already. Take care of yourself until we see you again.
I've had the steroid shots and the bone grinding down, plus some other stuff, only it was my shoulder.
"This too will pass" got me through, among other things.
Hope you recover quickly.
It sets my heart a-reeling
From my toes up to my ears
(Be safe and well.)
Take good care of our sweetie, Meade. Good luck Althouse,I'll be thinking about you.
Best wishes, Ann, for a successful procedure and a rapid recovery. God bless you!
I wanna find me a woman that'll hold my big toe till I go
I wanna hold me a woman that'll find my big toe
Till I have to go
'n sow my last sweet potato.
--Captain Beefheart, "I Wanna Find A Woman That'll Hold My Big Toe Till I Have To Go"
I wish I could have found a song about a big toe from a woman's viewpoint, but as far as good songs on that topic are concerned, it's pretty tough sledding.
I'm sure your procedure will go well. All the best.
No surgery is without risk, but you have little control other than being careful about choosing those doing the cutting.
Listen to and heed the warnings you are given. Hospitals and clinics are good places to skip if you want to avoid the worst of the "bugs" today.
Good luck.
Just don't get any hospital-acquired infections. Because then it will be more than your toe.
Are you getting some narcotics? Enjoy!
Ouch! Good luck.
"Are you getting some narcotics? Enjoy!"
LOL. I agree that if you have to take drugs, you should also enjoy them. But I hate anything that makes me feel tired, and I usually just think of painkillers as reassurance that I have them in case I really need them and try not to take them.
"...I hope you won't have to wear Birkenstocks during the recovery."
LOL. I had to buy this velcro-y shoe. I don't know what to put on the other foot. At least I won't need to use crutches, and I have my sweetheart to help me around.
Best wishes to you, Althouse.
Soon enough, my darling, we will be dancing once again.
Small suggestion: have Meade take an indelible pen and mark "not these" just above the toes on the other foot, and on the other foot have him mark "this one" with an arrow pointing to the toe that is supposed to get operated on. It's standard procedure in my local hospital to have the surgeon come around and make a mark on the joint he's supposed to repair and initial it just before they knock you out, but I don't know if that's SOP everywhere.
Here's hoping for a quick recovery.
Agree on the narcotics. I usually take one post-op, don't like it, and the bottle languishes untouched in the cabinet until I find it years after the expiration date and go into a snit:
-- flush it and degenitalize the fish?
-- try to find some drug destruction bin at the local recycling center?
In her last illness my mother took fewer and fewer pills, even as her cast of non-communicating physicians prescribed more and more. So whole cabinets filled with amber bottle on bottle whose labels she couldn't read, whose anodynes she proudly refused, whose purveyors she disdained. Then her social worker caught her and decided she was a drug addict, because look at all those pills. I asked, "If somebody was a drug addict, wouldn't you expect them to use the pills? And wouldn't you expect them to collect stuff that's more exciting than diuretics and industrial strength pepto bismol?" This remark, at least initially, was not a success, but eventually it was persuasive enough that she was allowed to live out the last weeks she had, unprosecuted.
I formed a lot of stereotypes in college, as for instance that those studying accounting were dull, the psychology majors were daft, etc, etc, and one such stereotype was that the social-work majors were bottom-feeders. Mere prescience? You be the judge.
Take care, Ann. Be good to the nurses, they're the ones that will help you if there's a problem.
My wife, nurse of 40+ years, went in for a knee replacement and almost died from a fatty embolus, so report anything that feels out of the ordinary (woozy when you shouldn't be, etc.). Not trying to scare you, but it's good to keep in mind.
Hey, Althouse. Painkillers are very precisely named. I will not think you the wimp if you take them. I got a big education in painkillers when my wife was dying. Painkillers are a good thing, even if you are not dying.
If you take painkillers to kill actual pain, they are not addictive.
I agree - mark your toes. Better safe than sorry.
Then get some rest. You deserve it.
"But a toe.... How concerned can you be about a toe?"
Well son of a bitch!
hope you have a speedy recovery.
"I had to buy this velcro-y shoe." I wore one of those for six months after my foot surgery. The best remedy is to find an outlandishly elegant shoe for the other foot so that no one notices the medical device on the healing one.
I'm a veteran of several cortisone shots and two foot operations. I use inserts and spend more money on footwear than Imelda Marcos. Feet suck. And people consider sore feet vaguely comical, like hemorrhoids.....I can thus say with all my heart that my prayers are with you at this difficult moment. Be brave. These dark days will pass.
I forgot to mention: sweethearts really shine when they can help a wounded soulmate get around. Believe me, I know.
I mean no disrespect to the people who take painkillers, and I will surely take them if the pain is more annoying than the grogginess they cause.
When I had I wisdom tooth pulled a year or so ago, I took 2 of the pills that said to take 1 or 2 and I was incapacitated. After that, I took 0. Should have started with 1. (The drug was Oxycodone.)
@Irene I'm glad you have your sweetheart.
Will you open us up a cafe Wednesday while you are busy getting your tootsie ground down?
Thank you.
wv = calings
Half elled callings
Best wishes for happy feet when it's all done.
wv = averg. Hope your recovery is better than averg.
Althouse, I wish you a speedy recovery. The great part is that once you feel better, you'll feel better than you have for awhile.
VW: gralt. The sound of your surgery.
Irene is naive.
The only thing going through the husband's mind is how he married a lemon.
Love,
Maxine
2 Oxycodene?
Yeah, that will do it.
Good luck and may the problem be corrected for all time.
Best of luck!
As far as pain pills go, I'd start with a tylenol. (Does not promote bleeding.) If that does it, why escalate?
'It's as far as possible from my head, where — it seems to me — I mainly reside.'
heh! take care and hurry home.
Along with all of your other regular readers, Ann, I hope that your surgery goes well.
I'll also be praying for you.
Mark Daniels
This is completely elective surgery.
And, if it isn't---don't sign the release, and see if they're still willing to go forward.
Love,
Maxine
Better yet, sign the release, and then write "under duress".
Let us know what kind of response you get.
I hope Althouse will be okay. Good luck on her surgery.
I broke a toe once and it was no biggie. But my mom recently broke her foot in multiple places and it has turned into quite a big deal. She pretty much has been stuck in her bedroom for weeks now, and it will be at least 3 weeks more. So, foot problems can be a big pain in the ass, in some cases. I'm glad it doesn't sound like that for Althouse. :)
I can certainly relate to a reluctance to have doctors poking around the head. I chose to live with mild dizziness, tremors, a few cognitive defects and and occasional bad headache that really screws up my vision instead of having my skull sawed open to remove a benign brain tumor.
Benign ones still grow, so I had radiation which has hopefully killed the sucker dead.
But I don't think we should undermine the effects that a sore toe and constant pain can have on the brain. I've had my share of foot injuries over the years and they are NOT fun.
Ask for the low dose hydrocodone with acetaminophen instead of oxycodone. This is mild enough it's available OTC in Canada and the UK. It's tylenol with a boost.
Good luck!
wv - galimp: what Althouse may be do for a few days
You'll be in my thoughts tomorrow, Althouse. Just think, assuming a competent surgeon, you are only a few weeks away from walking pain free!
Best of luck with the surgery. :)
hi professsor
good luck with the operation
as a cockroach at least in this life
having a transmigrated human soul and all
i certainly understand you not
wanting to have any surgery on
your head yes i do that s because
i only have 960 brain cells and there s
not much room for error and donna b
i would probably do the same thing
if i had a necessarily tiny brain tumor
if they only had proton beams
for cockroaches
Good luck, Althouse.
Hopefully, after surgery, you'll have happy feet again.
WV: purgonc
Removal of an unwanted foot growth.
Good luck with your surgery.
It is a true fact that Blogger Toe is an affliction suffered by those who tap the tip of their great toe on the floor while composing their daily posts.
It's like the Turf Toe injury that sidelines the wide receivers on NFL teams.
Blogger Toe. Surely it is the sign of a successful blogger.
"Blogger Toe" LOL.
wv = kinfackt = an old kung fu movie?
I'm getting surgery tomorrow as well. Not on my toe, however. After four kids, we've decided that we've done our duty to God and country, so to speak, and I'm going in for the ol' spay and neuter thing.
The result, as I refer to it, is Free Range Scott, although my wife doesn't appreciate that joke.
WV - anedi "Doctor, anedi stronger pain killer for my junk"
"Better yet, sign the release, and then write 'under duress'.
Let us know what kind of response you get."
Wow, truly a red letter day: "Maxine" write something actually entertaining, instead of merely oafish.
Oh, and Scott: the urologist is flat-out lying to you if he says, "You might experience some discomfort for a few days". Lying by gross understatement, that is.
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