Oh, I know all about arthritis. I got degenerative joint disease when I was 40. I was also almost 300 lbs at the time. Didn't help my knees. You should have seen the emergency room guy when I limped in. I had not been able to walk anywhere for a week and I finally told Alan, "get me to the ER".

So we go there, a doctor comes over, examines me and says "what on earth do you think is the matter with you?? You are severely overweight, and all this damage is occurring to your knees, don't you know that??" I gave him a look. He said "You have arthritis, you are wearing out your knees"

Unfortunately, at the time I was not ready to go on any kind of diet.

Didn't do my body any good, believe this. But I got my act together, thank god for that.

I can run a marathon if it's over 100 degrees. I take my water bottles and fast walk for hours.

Everybody else is croaking but not me. That's the only time I have no pain.

Right now, my back is killing me. It was 60 degrees last night, it was over 80 today and it will drop down tonight. That kills me.

But at least I can walk. So no complaining over here.

Melody

Roxie,
When you find that island, I'm going too!!!!!!!!!!

I am either freezing or sweating. No in between. The Physical Therapy I'm doing right now is in the water. They told me that it would feel just like my bathtub. .......Obviously no one at the therapy place has any hot water at their house!! I don't like the cold but I don't like the heat either. I'm packing my bags for that island Roxie.

Melody, you are welcome. Just a guess, nothing more, it just made sense to me.

Billye

Mel:

I was wondering if you could use the little things they put in between toes in nail salons for Alan's toes... They look kind of like fingers and hold the toes separate, so if you are getting a pedicure, your toenail doesn't bump the wet one next door... Not that Alan is going to be wearing polish...

Well, I mean, he can if he wants to, but I didn't think he probably would...

Cathie

Cathie:

That's the first thing we tried before we got the toe flexors. I have these pedicure things in my pedicure kit. I have them, but do you think I ever used them?? Of course not!!!

So when I thought of separating Alan's toes, I went and got them. His toes are so compressed that when I tried putting these things on him, they kept popping off. Thats why I got the toe flexors (but they ultimately rubbed the inside of his toes), we went to spongees (did you see the photo of Alan's feet with the sponges?). But ultimatly he found the sponges irritating. I don't know why, they are soft sponges, not hard sponges. He said they spread his toes too much apart. So he finally went back to the cotton balls.

I think this continues to be a work in progress.

Oh, we went to his podiatrist yesterday. Alan had to get an update on his ulcer (ALL HEALED YAYYYYY, after 18 months). But the doctor gave him a stern warning. He cannot walk ANYWHERE without his new orthotics. ANYWHERE. As soon as his foot his the floor when he wakes up, he puts on his brand new pair of slippers that we bought him yesterday. They are a big size 13, the orthotics fit in them perfectly. So he's good to go on that department.

The doctor is not going to touch his tailor bunion. I said "how come?" and he goes. Because he has these new Propets and they are so wide, his tailor bunion is not giving him any problems, he has no pain". Alan said "he's right". The podiatrist said "With Alan's neuropathy problems, you don't go looking for trouble, so let's leave his feet alone right now".

Alan then asked him "can you give me trigger point injections?" The doctor said "exactly where?" and Alan explained that he still has some pain between certain toes.

The doctor explained that in his case, the trigger point injections would not work because Alan has systemic stuff and autoimmune stuff going on. It seems that if Alan was only numb around the toe areas, and he didn't have auto-immune stuff going on, then he might be a candidate for trigger point injections. Like what they do for Morton's Neuromas. But Alan does not have that problem.

He did advise Alan, if the PN gets worse, to consider Pain Management. That's when we told the doctor, we have done this already. Alan never wants to go that route again. Alan explained how working out at the gym helps his PN tremendously.

The doctor said "Oh, then, that's where you should go, only NO TREADMILLS.

So Alan will start back at the gym on Monday. He never felt so good as when he was doing his Rocky workout.

bye for now.

Melody

Sounds great... I saw the pictures.

Let's hear it for Alan... You are a good little nurse... What a lucky guy!

Cathie

I love these boards, for this reason. People can learn from each other's creativity and show improvements.

It makes me a bit frustrated to see all those years, and not one doctor suggested this to Alan to minimize stress on the toes? It is rather discouraging to think doctors are so narrow as to not see what is directly in front of them?

I do think there may be some adjustment, Melody, to the moving of the toes.
That is to be expected if it happens. Most adjustments are not pain free while taking place.

I agree with an earlier post that said the toes look normal. Even the little toe looks normal. Most people have that toe curved.

I have numb toes and they feel uncomfortable. I saw "Yoga Toes" in a health food store. That does the dsame thing as the sponges, except there is a gell in the separator.

Hi Herb,

(You're a neighbor, since I'm in Santa Fe)

Are you doing anything to combat the numbness in your toes?

I ask because the numbness turned out to have terrible consequences for me when I got a bit of broken darning needle in my toe, and didn't feel it.

If I hadn't been giving myself a B12 shot, and happened to see the bit of needle glinting in the sun... I don't know what would have happened.

As it was it was in my toe for days and I ended up with tetanus... so not being able to feel your toes is NOT a good thing.

During the time I had tetanus I had a LOT of B12 shots and for awhile about a year ago I could wiggle my toes like normal and feel them, but then the stress increased again and my health fell back, to include the health of my toes.

The numbness in my toes now is not as bad as it once was, which I attribute to the B12 shots, but neither is it gone... and when stress levels rise ... my toes are very hard to flex, feel wooden... and that reminds me of how I got tetanus.

.

Melody - good to hear that Alan has healed - Consider This is right - he needs to be really careful! Couple days ago I was in bed and couldnt figure out why my foot kept snagging on the sheets - pulled out a sewing needle from my foot that was almost all the way in and never felt it - I'm lucky, it doesnt look infected or anything - but those feet take extra special care!

Oh my gosh... it does take "pins and needles" to a whole different level.

If you haven't had a tetanus shot in the last ten years you should get one. I think they are free at county health facilities. I didn't know that in time.

My foot never swelled, and the amount of stiffness in my neck and jaw was easily explained, I thought, by the stress I was under.

Also, it never looked infected.

I remember trying to find on the internet if it would swell or I would have a fever. Mostly it sort of said there would be a fever. But that's not always true.

On my page about tetanus I have some inf on how a study in Bangladesh showed that vitamin C reduced the number of deaths.

It's a really horrible disease... so PLEASE go and get a shot if it's been near ten years since you had one.

(The "lock jaw" alternate name is a bit misleading. It stiffens all the muscles and drastically affects strength. It's felt in stomach muscles early on, and if it goes beyond that the seizures are EXTREMELY painful. I mean, really beyond anything I had ever experienced before -- certainly vastly worse than giving birth.)

(((((((((kmeb)))))))))))