chrishansenhome: (Default)
I may have mentioned a few weeks ago that I was measured for orthopedic shoes at the diabetic foot clinic. As I had to attend there today to have my walking boot repaired (the lining had come off and ruined a suit and nearly ruined my leg) I was happy to learn that the shoes had arrived. The lovely man who fits shoes put them on me and I walked around a bit. For the first time in years I am wearing a pair of shoes that do not rub or chafe and which do not cause me any pain. I was so happy I nearly cried.

They look a bit boxy, but I don't care. They are dress shoes (wing tips) and can be worn instead of my boot, as the insole has been designed so that it takes pressure off the ulcer on the sole of my left foot.

Once these shoes are judged a success they will make me a set of walking shoes to the same measurements. They will also give me extra room in them so that when I travel and my feet swell from being on the plane, I can remove one insole and have more room for a few days while my feet return to their proper size.

All of this is designed to keep my shoes from injuring my feet, thus keeping me away from the foot clinic. And, for those who are wondering, these shoes are free on the National Health Service. I am so grateful to my adopted country for having the humanity to allow me, and others in the same situation, to receive the medical help we need to keep ourselves in good shape and alive and ambulatory longer. As someone who is currently unemployed, in the United States and other places where health care is not provided to those who need it but cannot afford it, I would have to continue to wear shoes that chafe my feet and create calluses, blisters, and ultimately infections. These can lead to amputation or worse.

Thank you, NHS!

Foot update

Jan. 9th, 2010 07:59 pm
chrishansenhome: (Default)
I dressed my foot this morning. When I took the old dressing off, I was very pleased to find that the wound, which had previously looked like a tadpole (an oval "head" with a long "tail"), had lost its tail and turned into a rather small oval. The healing continues, and I think that if everything goes well, the wound will be healed by the time the study ends for me in three weeks.Will I be relieved not to have to wear this freaking boot!
chrishansenhome: (Default)
I've been remiss in not blogging lately, so will contribute a short entry just to bring myself up to date when I write my memoirs in a few years' time…

My foot continues to heal pretty well. I still have my PICC line in, and every morning a district nurse comes by and shoves another bag of antibiotics in me. I'm also taking metronidazole, which will ruin Christmas as you may not drink alcohol when taking it. But, it seems to be doing the trick and my foot is much more robust now. It's been a real struggle.

On Thursday Alex Au arrived from Texas to stay with us until Tuesday. Alex (if you read his Wikipedia entry linked at the beginning of this paragraph you'll find much more information) is the premier gay activist in Singapore. I've known him for more than ten years, and he and my brother-in-law work together on the Signel Singapore lesbian-and-gay emailing list. It's always delightful to see him, and we have had long discussions about Singapore politics and events. I seem to know a lot more about the subject that HWMBO does—he never reads the Singapore press or websites.

We went to Belgo on Kingsway for dinner tonight—the first time I've been north of the river in a month.

This morning I went to church for the first time in a month but had to leave just after communion as the district nurse usually shows up after 11 am and it was getting late. Indeed, she showed up at around 11:05 am so I was lucky I slipped out.

I go to the Foot Clinic next Friday and we will see what transpires there. I am hoping for orthopedic shoes, but probably won't get them for a few weeks or months yet.
chrishansenhome: (Default)
Don't get me wrong; I love the NHS. However, the fact that its various bits and pieces are not joined-up in any meaningful way makes me very angry indeed.

First, I am getting IV antibiotics at home. This entails sitting in a chair, having a bag of antibiotics hanging off a nail I pounded into the door hooked up to my PICC line (which has now become a friend, a very intimate one at that) by something called an infusion kit, which consists of tubes and a little pot into which the bag drips drops of antibiotic that are then taken into my vein by the tube.

Now when I got the prescription for the antibiotics from the hospital, they sent along the antibiotic and the bags of saline and the hepsal ampulles for flushing out the PICC line after the IV is finished. They did NOT include any infusion kits, and when I enquired, the pharmacist said that the doctor hadn't ordered any on the prescription. I was going to say, "Well, what are the nurses to do, attach the bag directly to my PICC line and squeeze the contents into me?" but I nobly refrained.

My life since then has been a daily struggle to get infusion kits. The visiting nurses don't have any (or many: I just got word that they scrounged four), my GP doesn't have any, no one can find any anywhere. I called the Diabetic Foot Clinic at Kings, and they had some left over from a study that hadn't expired. However, they are tinted because the fluids they were delivering were light-sensitive. No matter, I could use them. However, I had to get down there to pick them up.

Well.

Second, I needed to renew my prescriptions and get a new one for Novorapid insulin cartridges, which had been prescribed by the foot doctor at Kings, to replace gliclazide, which doesn't seem to be working. So, when I dropped my prescription off last Friday, that was one of the items I requested. The sign on the wall said I could pick up the prescription on Monday, but when I hobbled there yesterday (and I took a bus ONE STOP to get there because my foot ached so much) the receptionist said that it was 48 business hours before prescriptions were ready. So I was crestfallen, hobbled back home, and didn't want to hobble to Kings.

Today I hobbled out at 1:30 pm and went to Kings College Hospital to pick up the infusion kits and my foot diary (I'm in a study that required me to keep diary entries) which I had left there last Friday. The waiting room was chock-a-block because much of the staff was off sick, and the receptionist there didn't know what I was asking for. One of the reasons was that I'd forgotten the name of the study nurse and asked for the package Arlene had left me, instead of the package that Audrey had left me. She finally got someone to get me that package. One task down.

I took a bus back to the Elephant and went to the GP's surgery. I got my prescription after waiting on line for 10 minutes while an elderly lady asked many questions about her prescription of an obviously-bored receptionist who didn't know the answers. However, the Novorapid cartridges and needles weren't included. She said that they might have had to be authorised and I should return tomorrow morning. However, I asked her to ask my GP to call me so I can get some answers to all this. No call yet.

So, NHS 1, Chris 1 (as I got the infusion sets). I am almost out of Novorapid and I am desperate to replenish that. To be continued tomorrow, with a happy ending (I hope).
chrishansenhome: (Default)
I forgot to mention that when I went downstairs to the Diabetic Foot Clinic for my regular biweekly appointment, they weighed me at the end and the investigator was so startled that he ordered me back on the scales for a second time. In the last two weeks I have lost 8 kilograms (17.6 lbs., one stone 3.6 lbs).

The infection may have had something to do with it, but the quality of the food here is, well, debatable.
chrishansenhome: (Default)
Courtesy of HWMBO, I now have my netbook and can blog from my hospital bed. What a horrible week it's been. To recap:

The day after my birthday, November 9, I woke up with vague pains in my joints, especially those of my right foot. As the foot clinic had seen me the previous Friday, I thought that the pain might be a sympton of swine flu, but checked that on line and probably didn't have that. I suffered for four days, getting progressively worse, until on Friday the 13th I decided I'd better go in to the foot clinic. Lo and behold, when I got there with HWMBO the clinic found that my right foot was massively infected and the infection had spread into the bone. I was admitted to Kings College Hospital that afternoon and have been there for more than a week.

The first night on the ward was surreal. The elderly man next to me was a retired actor who had perhaps been drinking more than he should for many years. His friend (male) came every day, but he spent a restless night every night, calling out for the nurse constantly. This kind of prevented sleep.

They inserted a cannula into my right hand—this is a passageway into the vein to allow for intravenous medicines to be dripped into you. I am taking three intravenous antibiotics three times daily, and they seem to be working. The doctor says that they will install a PICC line and I can then probably go home and have intravenous antibiotics administered by a district nurse three times a day for four weeks.

They have also started me on rapid onset insulin before meals. This, in conjunction with the metformin and insulatard at night, has brought my blood sugar rapidly down to close to normal.

There is a routine on the ward. During the week the nurses go around washing patients starting at 4 am. Luckily I'm independent so I don't have to undergo that. I get up around 5:30 and wash and shave and all that, then go back to my bed and wait for the first antibiotic bout. Once that's over, I wait for the nurse to unhook me—they have lots of other duties and sometimes they forget. I try to be a good patient (comes from the Latin patiens, meaning suffering) and haven't used my call bell at all so far.

Then it's meds, insulin, and breakfast. Then the doctors descend. The big cheese foot doctor only came up once, the first day. Otherwise, his minion has been here to chart my progress.

More insulin, meds, and lunch around noon. More antiibiotics at 2. Then the wait for visitors.

If there is one thing that a hospitalised person can benefit from, it's visitors. Life here is dull, HWMBO has come every evening except Tuesday, but other than that visitors are sparse. On Sunday the duty cover chaplain came up to administer Holy Communion, and she said she would tell the chaplaincy staff I was here, but haven't seen hide nor hair of them since. The Area Dean came to see me, and Gill and John (the vicar of St. John's) came later in the week and administered Communion. Ethel and Jennie from St. Matthew's came. Otherwise, I've been here pretty lonely. Believe me, when someone I know is in hospital in the future, if they say they welcome visitors I will be the first one there if I can be. It is so vital to help people keep in touch with the outside world.

My ward-mates are an odd lot. The elderly actor in the next bed was supposed to go home on Monday but home help couldn't be secured so he went home on Tuesday. He cried all Monday night. There are two drug addicts here. One is very quiet and mostly sleeps all day. The other one, Michael, is really demanding and treats the nurses like his personal wait staff. They are saints to put up with it. There is an alcoholic in the corner who is falling out of bed or weeing on the floor all the time. They keep administering dementia tests to him and he keeps failing. However, he is too young for an urgent place in a nursing home. So he is warehoused here at great expense until they find a place.

So here I sit. Don't forget: visit your friends in hospital! Please! It's a lifeline.
chrishansenhome: (Default)
I went into Kings College Hospital Diabetic Foot Clinic this morning for my first study foot treatment. More pictures were taken of the wound and they said it seemed to be healing. This is good, but I don't get out of the treatment yet.

It's an ultrasound treatment that is applied to the wound. The kicker is that, depending on which envelope I picked out of a box, it could be a dummy treatment or the real thing. Only the nurse applying the treatment knows which one was used.

The machine looks like a printer and sounds a bit like a very lethargic popcorn machine. There were two nurses there, a very cute Filipino male nurse and a black female nurse. I was quite disappointed when the male nurse told me he was recovering from surgery to fix a blockage in his vas deferens so he could father children. Darn!

I will be getting a payment at the end of this that will be useful, I think. Even if I got the dummy treatment, they are paying more attention to my foot and that's all to the good. I got a huge shopping bag of goodies to dress the foot with and instructions on how to do it. They also gave me a boot, shown in two beautiful pictures below, that's designed to take pressure off the ulcer and allow it to heal. The problem is that it's very difficult to walk in it and I need a cane to keep from falling over. It feels like there is a great big rubber ball under the arch of my foot. The pictures are here:





I go back on Monday for the second treatment. Hurray. Monday afternoon I go to the Diabetic Clinic at St. Thomas's to gently tell them that I gave up the lizard spit because of the side effects and demand to go on insulin. Oh joy...
chrishansenhome: (Default)
...so I'll do it now and bring everyone up to date.

Monday evening I was passed to the degree of a Fellow of the Craft in the Operatives. This is what is referred to as an "appendant body" of Freemasonry, in that a man must be a Freemason to join, but it is not in and of itself part of the Grand Lodge of England or any other grand lodge worldwide. The ceremony was quite interesting (of course, I have already been passed in Craft Freemasonry to the degree of a Fellowcraft, but the Operatives take the symbolism a bit further.

There are in all seven degrees—in order to advance to the top degrees I will have to have been Master of my Craft Lodge (Goliath #5595 UGLE) and also Master of a Mark Masons' Lodge. This will take a while.

One of the Brethren had died since our last meeting. I was told that he had belonged to 77 Masonic Lodges/Chapters/Assemblies/et al. I'm surprised that his wife had ever seen him. He was the man who had gotten me into this particular assemblage (Bentley Priory) so even though I'd only known him for a short time I'll miss him and I'm sure the other 76 Lodges/etc. will miss him also.

A couple of days ago one of the Brethren sent me an application for the Order of the Allied Masonic Degrees, which sounds interesting but is yet again another set of meetings to which to go and, however, wonderful it is, might be the order that tips HWMBO into revolt. So I think I'm going to pass that one up, at least for now. I suppose I should write George to thank him for sending the application along.

Tuesday was a joint meeting of the Southwark Diocesan Board of Finance and the Bishop's Council to discuss financial matters. As it turned out, the prospective budget of the Diocese would not balance unless some lay staff members were made redundant and some clerical posts were not filled once vacated. It was a pretty fraught meeting and the Bishop, yet again, stressed that he has not announced his retirement date yet after several remarks from the floor. The fact of the matter is that he must retire by the beginning of March 2010, when he turns 70 years of age. I expect that he will serve until his 70th birthday, as he likes being in the House of Lords and is unsure whether he'll be appointed a life peer or not. With the General Election only a few months away and the likelihood that the House of Lords will become a wholly-elected body and the 26 bishops and archbishops of the Church by law Established will be booted out, I suspect that he wants to serve as long as he can. The problem is that the Diocese is working through the financial problems brought on by the recession and also through the upheavals that the Church of England and the Anglican Communion are facing—and it is doing so while headed by a very lame duck Bishop who refuses to lie down and be lame. We passed the resolutions paving the way for staff to be made redundant (it should happen by the end of November 2009). But, again, as I mentioned in Diocesan Synod, there is an unwillingness in the Church to think about better ways of stewardship and take a leaf out of the books of other provinces that seem to do it better. Money is vulgar in the extreme to Englishpeople, and the less discussion of it the better.

Wednesday I went back to the Kings Diabetic Foot Clinic for them to take a look at the wound caused by their cutting out a blood blister on the ball of my left foot. The original reason I went in (the blister under my left big toenail) resolved itself within a few days, but this wound is just going on and on.

The podiatrist, Tim, sliced off a little more and asked whether I'd like to enroll in a trial of an ultrasound treatment to help wounds to heal. I said I would (I'm willing to do almost anything at this point) and will be going back a week from Friday to see the Big Cheese once he's back from his holiday.

Thursday I went to St. Thomas's Eye Clinic to have my retinas examined for signs of diabetic retinopathy. This has been a yearly visit for me for many years, and I thought it would be unevenful. However, of course, as hospitals are wont to do, they've moved the clinic yet again (this is its third home since I began going in 1994). The signs directing one to the new clinic are on a door that is to the left of the corridor leading to the old clinic. Of course, making the turn into the corridor means you don't see the sign. So I went to the old receptionist, and was directed to the new one down the hall.

I was pleasantly surprised to have my eyesight checked and pupils dilated within 5 minutes of checking in with the proper receptionist and sitting down. This is not usual practice, but I gather that the former clinic has been split into two (or perhaps three) sections upon the retirement of the former chief eye surgeon, Mr. Shilling. (Note to USans: Mr. Shilling is a doctor, of course, but surgeons here in Britain pride themselves in being called "Mr" or "Mrs" or "Miss" rather than "Dr", which is reserved for pedestrian general practitioners, endocrinologists, cardiologists, and others of That Ilk.) The clinic I sent to is now headed by Mrs. Mann, but she is too lofty to actually look at patients' retinas so I didn't see her. I saw a delightful woman doctor who was with Mr. Shilling and whom I have seen off-and-on around 4 times in the past 15 years. The short story is that there is no change in my retinas and I should be coming back next July.

Friday was the last Community Centre Drop-In lunch for the summer, and I heard sad news about one of the regulars, who is now out of the hospital after a mastectomy but has moved far enough away that we probably won't see her again. Sad, as even though she was infuriating she was a nice person in her way and she'll be missed.

Friday evening we went to the British Museum to their "India Night"—a tie-in with their exhibition Garden and Cosmos—The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur. We were to meet my former boss, Ed Ross, former coworkers Louise, Diane, Pete, Heather, Roger, and Raz and her husband to enjoy the exhibitions and go to dinner at Taz down the street. We attended a lecture (well, part of it) on the paintings, then I just chatted with Roger and Pete while we were waiting for our reservation at Taz. It was a lovely evening and it's always nice to catch up with people.

Saturday evening we went out to Rasa Sayang on Macclesfield St. in Chinatown with Ard and Leslie, who tied the knot a few months ago and whose friends [livejournal.com profile] luv_ktv and Marie we put up for the week. As usual, the food was delicious and of course it was really nice to see Ard and Leslie again. Ard has now been recognised as a "European Person" by the UK government (he's Dutch) and once Leslie is certified as Ard's civil partner, he will be able to return with Ard to Holland and gain the right to live there without going through Dutch lessons and tests.

Sunday I preached—I'll post the sermon separately as this is getting too long. That evening HWMBO made green chicken curry, my favourite. It was delicious.

Today I started the arduous task of scrubbing the kitchen floor. It's well soiled and very difficult to wash with a mop, so I got down on my knees and scrubbed with a brush and some Cillit Bang in water. I got the first layer off half the floor. More tomorrow, I fear. Then I went to Boots to buy some toiletries and some gauze for the foot dressing. After that I went to Starbucks and put some money on my Starbucks card so I can use it and fill it up online. Cooked stuffed peppers and they came out not bad.

I guess the real reason I blog about my week is mostly to ensure that in a few years I'll know what I did this week. I hope I haven't bored you.

DC and NYC

Jun. 3rd, 2009 10:35 pm
chrishansenhome: (Default)
Last week I flew from Boston to Washington DC. I hadn't been in DC for more than 20 years, so it was a real treat. I stayed with our former flatmate Brett, who is a superb chef and the kind of person you just like, automatically. He lives on M Street NW, and when I landed at Dulles I had no idea how far away everything is there. We had to take a strange bus to another building, then walk for miles (it seemed) to get luggage. I found Super Shuttle, boarded that, and then sat back for a 3/4 hour drive into DC proper. I was flabbergasted. I understand that the Metro will be extended out there in the middle future. It will be much easier to get into the city when it is.

Brett is, as you would expect, the superb host and we chatted and ate most of the time he was there. He had to duck out for a food gig in New York over a long weekend but otherwise we enjoy each other's company and have much to talk about.On Thursday night we had dinner at a lovely Mexican restaurant across from the Verizon Center.

During the week I had a lovely visit to the National Portrait Gallery with [livejournal.com profile] legalmoose, which was just wonderful and very educational for me. The pictures of Richard Nixon were quite amusing. That evening I had dinner with [livejournal.com profile] tim1965 at Annie's Restaurant near Dupont Circle, where I had a lovely burger. Afterwards we walked around a bit, saw the White House at night, and took pictures.

I nearly forgot! When I was checking in for the flight, the clerk told me that my suitcase was 5 lbs. overweight, so I shifted some stuff into my carryon. When I got to Washington, I discovered that my camera's LCD screen was cracked. I presume that pressure from stuffing that material into my carryon is what did it. It took me a few days to find the Best Buy, but I bought a new camera, 12.5 megapixels, and it seems to work well. I hate airlines.

On Saturday I spent the day in Virginia with [livejournal.com profile] mouseworks, who is a friend from soc.motss. She was kind enough to drive me far into the horse country in Virginia, where we lunched on (in my case) a burger (surprise!) We then went on to Chrysalis Winery and had a tasting, with some pretty good wines and a couple real stinkers. We were herded out in advance of a wedding party. We ended our day at a Chinese restaurant where I got attention because of my man bag (bought in Shanghai with "To serve the people" written on it in Chinese). Had Ma Po tofu which was a bit too white-peppered for me. Spent the evening at home.

Sunday I did laundry, then met my friend Randy, who owns Integrity Lightspeed, an email list for LBGT Anglicans and their friends, for lunch at a Thai restaurant at Dupont Circle--I thought it was called "Thaifoon" but can't find a clear URL for it, so maybe not. Green chicken curry (natch) was very good, as was the conversation with Randy, whom I haven''t seen for many years. Lovely to see him again and hang out in the park watching the world go by.

That evening I had dinner with Brett's and my friend Bev at the Sofitel hotel at McPherson Square, near the White House. The dinner and conversation were superb, and Bev being the head pastry chef there knew everything on the menu. The waiter was hot, too.

Monday I took a ride on the Red Line to its end in Maryland and back. Somewhat scenic. Then Brett returned from his (very successful) New York gig, and we had dinner at a Belgian brasserie close to downtown. Then I had to pack for travel on Tuesday.

A very sad goodbye to Brett, then a taxi to Union Station. I took the 1 pm Acela Express first class to New York. It was a lovely trip--the food (beef tenderloin) was excellent, much better than anything I've ever gotten on a plane. Taxi up to East Harlem where [livejournal.com profile] mc4bbs and KK live and where I am now staying. Their friend Susan gave me the keys and explained the key system, then left me alone to enjoy my stay here, as [livejournal.com profile] mc4bbs and KK are elsewhere at the moment.

Today I discovered that my left big toenail has separated from the bed yet again and a bit of fluid and blood squirted from underneath when I wiggled it. I cleaned it out with alcohol and put a plaster on it while I debated what to do. In walking to the subway I discovered that there is a foot doctor around the corner. I will call them tomorrow morning and perhaps get seen. I don't think it's infected. I bought some gauze, Bactine, and adhesive tape this afternoon and have disinfected and taped it up. I will keep tabs on it. However, I will need to go to the foot clinic at Kings next week and demand that they refer me urgently for orthopedic shoes, as they have promised three times. I need to protect my feet when I travel, as that seems to be the situation where things happen to my feet.

I went down to South Ferry to see the new subway station there. It was quite interesting how they have shoehorned it into the small spaces available down there. Now there is no reason to sit in the first 5 cars when going down there. I got a sandwich and Diet Coke for lunch and ate it in Battery Park.

Then I decided to get to 14th Street to buy an additional bag to travel back to London next week, and then get to 1st Avenue to take the bus up to 106th Street. So I got on the W train. Who should then walk into the same car and sit down but Nick Dowen, my good friend from Integrity/New York who lives on Staten Island! Such coincidences happen in New York! We will probably have lunch next Tuesday before I go.

This evening I went to dinner on 118th and First at Patsy's Restaurant. Had 1/2 a pizza and a Caesar salad with my friend The Rev'd John Halborg, who lived on the floor below me in the Bronx and is now a retired New York priest. We discussed sad events such as the death of a good friend and laughed over memories of days past.

Tomorrow the reunion begins with a cocktail party in the evening. I hope that my foot cooperates.
chrishansenhome: (Default)
My foot seems to be healing up fine. I changed the dressing this morning and while it still looks a bit weird, the skin seems to be unbroken and things are progressing. I had my last antibiotic injection this afternoon and hopefully my innards will return to normal within a few days.

We had a lovely dinner with our friends Daniel and Pei on Friday evening. We arrived around 7:45 pm and left at 12:15 am Saturday. The menu included melon with prosciutto, spaghetti with pesto and pine nuts, and a Thai curry with rice. I couldn't drink any wine, but Daniel thought that the wine we brought was very good. The talk went thick and fast, and we really enjoyed it--thanks, guys. Next month we are going to try to go to Kiasu, a restaurant at Queensway which is Singaporean/Malaysian and supposed to be extremely good.

Yesterday I did almost nothing except relax and finish writing my sermon for today. It is often good to do little or nothing in a day.

Today I preached the sermon, then relaxed all afternoon.

It would seem quite boring to many people, but it's my weekend and I enjoyed it.

Tomorrow, I will start a four-day course leading (I hope) to an ISEB Intermediate Certificate in Software Testing.
chrishansenhome: (Default)
When you come in with an infection of the sort I had, the hospital takes a swab of the area to see what kind of bacteria you're harbouring.

I got a call this afternoon from the Diabetic Foot Clinic. The woman asked me, "Are you still taking the antibiotics and having the injection we prescribed?" I replied, "Of course I am. Why do you ask?"

She said, "Oh, the swab turned up a pretty nasty bug and we wanted to make sure you were still on the antibiotics." I enquired, "Which bug was that?" She told me: "Group A strep."

When I hung up, I Googled "group A strep" and came up with some pretty sobering results. This particular bug is a prime cause of necrotising fasciitis, and is also known as "the flesh-eating bug".

So I guess I've had a narrow escape. When I changed the dressing this morning, the toe looked good, wasn't wet or macerated, and had stopped oozing.

Now I don't normally speak lolcat, but I thought this picture might be appropriate.

chrishansenhome: (Default)
I discovered an ulcer on my left little toe yesterday. I went to the emergency foot clinic this afternoon, and while they scraped away the bad bits they referred me to Kings College Hospital, where the last infection was treated. They told me just to go and they would call to confirm that I was on my way, but when I got there no call had been received. I cooled my heels for an hour and was finally seen. They scraped away more of the junk and, yet again, started me on four antibiotics, one of which is a daily injection. I didn't think the foot was half as bad as it was last time this happened, but they wouldn't be swayed.

I believe that I will have to have shoes specially made in order to assist in keeping further infections away (once this one is dealt with). Normally this is a very slow process on the NHS but I think I will speed it up through going private for the footwear. They think that I should wear some sort of "Scotch boot" device for a while after the infection has been treated, in order to take the pressure off the sole of my foot, perhaps while the shoes are being made.

All this is ick, ick, ick, and prayers that it will speedily recover and that I can get the footwear that I need to try to avoid all this in the future would be most welcome. No commercially-available shoes seem to be wide enough to give my feet a comfortable toe box.

I'm glad that I didn't go ahead and buy air tickets for Boston for today, or I'd have been right royally scr*wed.

In other news, our former flatmate Brett left on the next leg of his around the world tour this morning...we miss him already. This is his blog in case you want to see the lovely dinner we had last night, which he blogged about much more coherently than I could, not knowing anything about food or wine on that level.
chrishansenhome: (Default)
Those who have been following my blog for a while know that just after my heart attack in February came a pretty bad infection in the third toe of my right food. That was cured with antibiotics and some aggressive scalpel work.

Over the weekend I noticed that my left big toenail was loose. When I wiggled it, some fluid oozed out from under it. It wasn't infected, but more like what fills a blister. After the last time, when my foot was neglected in favour of my heart, I was not taking any chances, so called the foot clinic yesterday and had an appointment today. I was preceded by a very nice but garrulous (she was originally from Dublin, natch) woman who told me almost everything about herself, from her daughter's two failed marriages to her knee replacement which was still giving her trouble. She rolled up her trouser leg to show me how swollen it was.

When I went in, the podiatric nurse looked at it and said, "Well, we'll have to clip off some of the nail: it's loose anyway so it'll come off if I don't cut it off." and got something that looked like garden shears and went to it. After looking at it, she said, "It's not infected, but you're very prudent to come in. We'll dress it, you should continue to dress it, and then come in next week." So she dressed it, and if you think I wouldn't show a pic, you're wrong.

So there it is. I shall have to keep it dry and dress it myself for a couple of weeks, as the earliest they could squeeze me in was the 22nd. No gym until then. But hopefully it will heal up soon. The nurse advised me to take a toenail file to them every few days to try to prevent this from happening again. As it is I now never go barefoot, choose my shoes carefully (Crocs have a diabetic version and HWMBO may be able to get me a pair in Singapore...), and rub moisturising cream into them every morning, evening, and after a shower at the gym. Now I have to take an industrial file to 'em as well.

I think I need to have a threeway marriage and find a foot fetishist who's into keeping my feet healthy.

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