[MelodyL]

Hi.

We just came back from the podiatrist. Dr. Baird is such a hoot. And such a nice guy. Alan sits down and Dr Baird begins. He said "Alan, We discuss your case all the time and last night we came to the conclusion that we can't operate on the bone that is causing your ulcer. It's actually two bones and if we reposition them or shave them down, your gait would be off big time"

So I look at Dr. Baird and said (I kid you not), "Why can't you just take out the bones and put an implant in or something like that, that won't impinge on the ulcer and he won't get the ulcer anymore". (It's not a stupid question and I'll explain why).

So I continued "I have a friend who had Hallux Rigidus" (It's called Big Stiff Toe) and she was told that if all the treatments don't work, she might be a candidate for the operation. I looked up the operation on the internet and they can actually put an implant in the big toe."

He laughed his head off and said "well, someone would have to invent this and we'd name it after Alan". I said "You could name it after you"

We laughed over this. He's very very nice. So this is what they have decided to do. Alan is to get some kind of shoe (I believe it's called an Oft Loading Shoe (he showed me in the catalogue but with my memory for names, forget it)

It's a post op shoe that people use with Plantars. Or something like that.

The inside of the shoe can come out in little pieces so you arrange the shoe so the ulcer is not pressing on anything. I said "sounds good to me".

We will most likely have to pay for the whole thing but really, it's been 11 months with this re-occurring foot ulcer so at least he'll have a good chance for it to heal. The only other option is a wound treatment center where Alan would have to live for some time until the ulcer heals.

So we are going with the shoe thing first. So Alan ordered it and it will come to the doctor's office next week. We hope!!!

So there you go!!

Thanks everybody. Now let's just hope they send a pump for his IVIG next week.

Melody