Friday, June 29

Extra Sesamoids?????

So I go to my podiatrist's office today because I've been limping for a few weeks...okay so it's really been a month and a half. The nurse asks me to put on the dreaded lead "apron" (more like a brick coat) and to step onto the x-ray machine. Did you know that podiatrist have their own x-ray contraptions? Anyway, I digress. After I twist my foot this way and that for all the different angles they needed to diagnose my problem, I settle in my room and wait for the Doc. She comes in, intoduces herself and proceeds to squeeze the beejeezuz out my hand to give me one of the strongest handshakes I've ever had. Now I need to go see another doctor about the pain in my hand!

Doc presses and prods my foot then looks at my x-rays. She is blown away! Apparently I have a really rare condition...extra sesamoid bones on ALL of my little toes-ies, something she's only ever seen during her clinical work. Most people just have them on their big toe but, lucky me, I have two of them on all five toes, on each foot no less. She explains that although it is a rare condition it should not be a problematic condition. She then tries to fit me for inserts and adds pads that she fashions herself, cutting these cushiony soft supports to fit the ball of my foot.

Next it's onto a little bit of papier mache casting of the feet. I'm told to lie down on the examination table face down and the nurse massages (yes, I said massages) a cast-like substance onto each foot thereby creating cute little impressions of my long and slender feet. I'm not kidding, the nurse oohed and ahhed at how "slim" my size 9 feet were!!! Nothing but the genes kid, nothing but the genes (although I could have done without the butt I inherited on my backside. I call that HERITAGE now).

Long story short I now have to wear othopedic inserts in all my shoes---no more heels (not that I wore them much anyway), no more flip flops (which I just discovered how to wear only a few months ago with help from my teenaged daughter who laughed incredulously when she found out that bit of info) and no more slip-ons. What is a girl to do? Obey doctor's orders and wear those sneakers that's what, especially since we are headed "across the pond" to England to visit the in-laws for a few weeks. Notice here no in-law jokes what-so-ever...father-in-law (luv ya Ron) might be reading this sometime.

With all that said, I decided to take sick leave when I got back home. Haven't been in the studio today...I know, I know, how will I produce art if I don't even set hurting foot in the room? Tomorrow is another day...and I'm in there early in the a.m. as usual. With my aching foot I'll...

See ya next time "In the Hayloft",

2 comments:

Susan Brubaker Knapp said...

Oh, Grace, I'm soooo sorry! I hope the inserts help. You poor thing. I have my own foot problems (plantar fasciatis) and am probably headed that direction myself. You'll have to give me the name of your foot doc... and I'll try not to shake her hand.

John M. Setzler, Jr. said...

This may be a latecoming comment to this blog post, but I just did a google search for 'extra sesamoids' and your blog post came up at the top of the list. I'm a student radiographer in North Carolina, and I encountered my first set of extra sesamoids in an x-ray I made earlier today. One of my patients had three sesamoids on his big toe, and I had simply never seen it before. It may be contributing to his foot pain issues, but I'm not sure what the outcome of the full exam was...