Another Installment of Barb's Not-So-Excellent Foot Adventure

I met with my podiatrist (Dr. Martin) at the surgical center today, to schedule my upcoming foot surgery and do all the initial pre-op stuff.

I drove out to the surgical center, which is much nicer than Dr. Martin’s office in Queens, and did all the paperwork, etc. Then I was called back and he came in. He had reviewed my file again, and the CT scan of my foot, and had a new idea about where the pain was coming from. During my surgery in March 2007, I had three screws put in my foot to fuse the bones in the middle part of my foot. One of the fusions didn’t work. That joint is a big one and could be the reason I’m feeling pain on the other side of my foot...I know that sounds strange. It’s complicated.

But anyway, then he shot my foot full of lidocaine in the sinus tarsi cavity which runs from just below/in front of the ankle bone all the way across to the heel. A very odd thing happened during the shot though, even though I've had a zillion shots in my foot now and even though I have such a high pain tolerance and even though it didn't even hurt that much, I still almost fainted. I think that was just plain old anxiety. Dr. Martin brought me some grapefruit juice.

But then something amazing happened.

The pain went away.

Completely.

It was very odd—I could walk without pain. Even my gait was different.

This is an extraordinarily good sign that if we clear out that scar tissue, I will be pain free.

Dudes.

So then I went for x-rays and had to wait forever (I turned the heel and knitted down the foot of a sock) and eavesdropped shamelessly on the conversation of these two women sitting near me (late 40's or early 50's), one of whom has a crush on a guy. It was the same conversation I had about six million times —IN EIGHTH GRADE. Mercy. Or UNCLE or something.

Anyway, I was sort of hoping for surgery on my birthday, the 19th, but there were no openings. In fact, the only reason I got an appointment on the 26th was that one of the surgeries scheduled had to be canceled because the patient is getting a divorce. Apparently, if you are getting a divorce, you cancel your foot surgery. (Mercy. Or UNCLE or something.)

So, then I drove home, still pain-free and picked up my kids and all of a sudden I realized that the lidocaine had worn off and my foot hurt. It really HURT.

Um.

Hurts.

Dudes. It's going to be so good to have this surgery --please, please, PLEASE may it work and work long.

To prove that this is ME we're talking about, however, in a novel sort of twist on my day, today is the birthday of my daughter's best friend, Nina. Ana (10) and I had shopped for a present for Nina the day before and I had it in my car so that I could take it up to the school when I picked Ana up. The only thing is that it's this life-sized stuffed penguin and I had it sitting in the passenger seat on top of a mound o'stuff.

I kind of forgot it was there, except for the odd looks I would get every so often.

Which made me laugh.

When I told Nina's mom, Anna, about the looks, she said, "I bet most people were thinking, 'Why isn't she in the HOV lane?'"