babli_ms

mood: crappy

Okay I've put this off for way too long! So here is a complete update on my stupid stress fracture. For a couple of months now my big toe on my right foot has been having muscle spasms. It kept leaning back. Because of that the middle of my foot started hurting. The area directly below my right toe. Not the sole of my foot. The area below my toe on my foot. I thought nothing of it and kept going. I kept complaining that it hurts to my parents but I refused to visit my doctor even though Dad insisted. 

Then during the June long weekend on Sunday it hurt so much that I could no longer walk. I soaked my foot in hot water but it didn't help. It was definitely time to visit the doctor. Unfortunately Monday was a long weekend which meant my GP wouldn't be working. At this time it was peak assignment time so I had to work on a  huge essay in tormenting pain. But it was my fault for leaving it to the last minute so I guess I deserved it. So I somehow passed Monday but I had a very bad night. I couldn't sleep because of the pain. 

The next day I got out of bed and brushed my teeth with great difficulty. I went to the doctor in my track suit, with my hair in a mess! I had to hold on to Dad's hand for every step. So I finally made it to the doctor's office. He saw that there was a huge swelling and the area of pain was had become very heated. It was a couple of degrees higher than other places. He gave me painkillers called mobik. I went away and took that for a couple of days and felt great. The pain went away. I even went to uni and handed in my essay with no problems. Then after that I missed taking the tablet for one day because I couldn't find it and everyone was asleep. Big mistake. The pain reached acute levels again. So we rushed back to the GP. He got worried that the pain increased so much just because I missed one pill. He started getting scared that it might be a virus or a bone infection. If it was a bone infection I'd have to be admitted to the hospital. He immediately ordered an X-Ray and an ultrasound. The report came back and said a virus had attacked my foot, which was causing the pain. He gave me some more pills. But they were not helping me. So we went back again a week later. I had to hand in another essay on this day and I couldn't even go to uni on my own. So my dad  had to take me. He had to hold my hand for every step. I handed in my essay and we were on our way to the doctor.

He got really worried and ordered an emergency bone scan for the next day. We spent the whole of that day worrying about what the bone scan might show. Because there was a swelling I got scared that it was a lump, which meant cancer. I had really awful thoughts in my mind. Anyway, the next day we went for my bone scan. That was a very long process. It started at 8:30am and finished at 1pm. We had to wait two hours in between before they did a second bone scan for confirmation. We had to wait another two hours before we could see our GP for the results. We were sweating with suspense!

At 3pm we went to our GP and he told us the results. He said I had a disease called avascular necrosis. The bones in our foot are very small and each bone has only one blood ventricle to supply blood to it. The blood supply to this particular bone had stopped and the bone had died! The other bones were trying to re-adjust to this new arrangement, hence causing the pain. It is a very rare disease and has no treatment. He gave me three painkillers and said the pain would go away over time. In any case he gave us a referral to an orthopedic surgeon to confirm it and to answer any specific questions. So on Monday we went to the specialist,. New problems started at this point. He was a very cold doctor and didn't give a shit about me. His diagnosis was completely different. He completely disagreed with avascular necrosis and said I had a stress fracture. He said I must have put pressure on a weak bone and this is how it occurred. He said I'd have to wear a boot to immobilise the foot.

I hated the idea of wearing a boot but I resigned to wearing it. But wearing a boot would be the least of my worries. The boot totally constrained movement on my right foot but it did not stop my muscle spasms, which I get due to cerebral palsy. Because I continually had spasms the pain increased day by day. I couldn't even put my foot down on the ground. I rang the orthopedic surgeon's office after four days. However, he was such a cold bastard that he refused to talk to me and his secretary spoke to me instead. She said I couldn't ask questions over the phone and said I had to make an appointment. I thought it was ridiculous that I had to make an appointment every time I had a question. The secretary asked the doctor my question and she called me back. She said it was quite normal for the pain to increase before it decreased. So I continued to wear it. This was on Friday.

On Friday night the pain gradually started increasing more and more. I couldn't sleep again Friday night. It was so bad by Saturday morning that I felt dizzy when I woke up. I tried sleeping, sitting, lying down, standing up. Nothing soothed the pain. I crawled everywhere around the house. My mum had to feed me food. I was hardly hungry. At 7pm I had a shower with great difficulty. I couldn't stand so I had to shower by sitting on a stool. My mum had to help me shower. I cried and moaned and screamed. It was a harrowing experience and my mum was positively traumatised by it. After my shower I sat down in my lounge room but I was still not comfortable. I kept rolling around everywhere. My mum fed me dinner. She was exhausted by this time and was about to settle down for the night. However by 8:30pm I was crying and asked my dad to call an ambulance. He didn't but parents rushed me to emergency at Westmead hospital. They gave me four painkillers in a matter of three hours. They kept me there for four hours for observation. I was calmer after the pills and we went home at 1:15am. I was exhausted and immediately went to sleep.

I took panadeine fort for the rest of the week. On Wednesday my parents went to a family friend's house and my GP was there. He was surprised that it was diagnosed as a stress fracture and asked me to come in for another X-Ray on Monday. My pain had increased again by this point. So I went for another X-Ray this Monday. My GP said he can't see the stress fracture so he called the orthopedic surgeon. He was not there. But he returned my GP's call the next day and they confirmed with each other that it is a stress fracture and they told me to continue with the boot. So I did. My pain immediately went up again. So all of us at home decided that I should not wear the boot and see if it helps. It has. I have improved, though I still have a long way to go. So that's my story. The doctor said it will take at least three-four months for full recovery. In the meantime I've applied for a two-month extension on my thesis and taken time off work. I'm just relieved that my coursework has at least finished so I can relax a bit.

Okay I'm sleepy so I'm off for a nap. Toodle doo!