Photo of Alan's de-compressed toes.
 

Hi everybody. I hope it's okay to post these photos.

Alan wanted me to show you what his compressed toes looked like before the sponges and after the sponges. We found a system that really works. We’ve tried visco elastic foam thingees, and pads, but ultimately I just went to the ninety nine cents store, got a bag of sponges, cut them in strips.

Here’s what it looks like: when it’s cut up.

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...ALAN-123-1.jpg



Now here is a photo of Alan’s compressed toes, as they normally appear all squeezed together. And you can see the tailor bunion. If left like this, he has neuropathy between his toes.
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...lansbunion.jpg

But lo and behold, when we take the spongy strips, fold them in half and put them between the toes, it looks like this.
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...drightfoot.jpg

He wanted me to tell you “Oh my god, I am not in any pain at all, you must tell these people on the boards that if they have the PN between the toes, and their toes are compressed like mine, to give this a shot. It’s just a bag of sponges.

See how it stretches his toes apart?

So after we do the toe separator things, he puts a bandaid on his ulcer and we place a sponge inside his sock.

Here’s the sponge we use.

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...one_sponge.jpg

He has had no problems since he does this. Why we didn’t think of this system years ago, well, I can kick myself.

But he did ask me to show you step by step, how he de-compresses his toes.

We are going to his podiatrist on Wednesday and show him this whole thing. I cannot wait to see if he either laughs in our faces or says “now that is brilliant”.

Now I realize that this is not for those of you with body-wide PN going on, but for those of you with the toe problems, give this a go.

Alan's toe sponges
 

Hi Melody:

I for one sure think your sponge idea is brilliant! I hope others can do this if they are having that trouble and that it works for them. The doctor may soon be stealing your idea!

Shirley H.

Hi Mel, only one word " brilliant ".
well done

Brian :)

Mel
 

Once again brilliant,and so wonderfull ..Bob said i'm trying it,so off Daniel
just took all to see the Hot Air Baloons.. How brave he makes Bob,lol
Cian showed me Daniel foot,looks just like Bob's and Alan's so she will
tell his dr not ask politly although she is,just very firm. I'm so happy,for
Allan and my wee one... :hug::hug: Sue

Thanks Sue:

Wow, you get to see Hot Air Balloons. I think they are the most beautiful thing when they fly them up in the air and they have all those great ballloons in different shapes and sizes.

I love them.

bye for now.

Melody

This is a Great post!

How clever! and how nice of you to share.

I don't understand though what "compressed" toes are... The first picture looks like I thought all toes looked.

What am I not seeing?

I know that when I went to the podiatrist when I was falling so much when I was living in the hydrogen sulfide... back then I would spend hours while watching telly trying to move my toes, to wiggle them.... the podiatrist told me that my toes were curling because... darn it, I forget, but I think because of the nerve damage.

It was the podiatrist who told me that if I kept moving less and less because of how unsteady I was on my feet, that I'd lose more and more mobility, so that's when I ordered my Gazelle because I could see that I could hold on when I used it.

But recently I discovered that even though it's very sturdy and heavy, if I lose balance on it, because I'm so tall, I can tip it. So it's not perfect. But it has been excellent over all.

Coffee time. :)

Actually, I came up with the name "compressed toes", because Alan's toes are all squished together (especially the one with the tailor bunions).

Now in comparison, my toes look nothing like Alan's toes, my toes are not curved (like his pinky toes) and that's where he has the neuropathy.

And when we do the spongy thingees, well it gives him a lot of relief.

But.... and this is very telling, if he sits in the chair for a long period, lets' say over 3 hours, then he starts to get the burning between the toes. But it's much much better, and initially, when he puts the sponges in, he is just fine. And when he puts on his propets (the sponges are in his toes), well, he walks just fine, (he walks slowly because he doesn't want to get the ulcer back).

But the one thing I do not understand is what happened when he went to bed last night.

He got up off the living room chair, (sponges still on), he came to bed at 11:30 (I was sleeping). I get up at 2 a.m. to do my thing, and I notice the air condition is on in the bedroom. It was not on when I went to sleep.

This morning when we woke up, I said "when did you put the air conditioning on"? He said "I couldn't sleep when I laid down, my toes hurt, but once I put the air conditioning on, all the pain went away". He is fine today.

So can someone explain how spongy thingees between the toes work when he is going to sit for a spell, when he walks, but when he lies down, and it's hot in our room, he can't sleep because of the PN pain, but once the room gets cooler, he was just fine and drifted off.

This I just don't get (and probably you could explain sensory stuff to me, and the barometer and it will still go over my head).

This part of the PN (where you have to change the environment settings of the room, well, it's a mystery to me). It used to be that when we had a hard rain (I mean a big thunderstorm) and the ions changed in the weather, he would sigh and go, "oh, it must be raining, my feel feel great"

Someone explained the ion thing to me and I think I understood it but what's with having to turn on the air conditioning last night?

Thanks to anyone who has a clue.

Melody

Just guessing
 

Melody,
I'm guessing. But the airconditioner makes my skin shrink up. It takes all the moisture out of my skin. My fingertips actually wrinkle up. Maybe when the airconditioner runs, it draws moisture and perhaps swelling out of the skin and tissues that surround the nerves. And when it does this, it takes pressure off the nerve.

My best guess.
Billye

Oh thank you Billye:

See, this is why you guys are geniuses!!!!!

I never, in all my life, would have thought of that explanation!!!

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE YOU!!!

Melody

I think the heat makes my PN feel worse. I perfer having the a/c on.......not cold but cool. The cold a/c.....like in the grocery store, makes my Arthritis hurt like crazy. I can't seem to win! lol I need to find an island with 78 degree temps all the time! lol

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

I'm going
 

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

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. :hug:

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

very clever and enterprising...
 

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.

.

Pins
 

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)))))))))))

Brilliant! That is truly brilliant! And if the doc can't see that then *he's* the one that needs help! :wink:

I'm so glad that's helping Alan. And I do have symptoms between my toes at times. So if and when it gets bad again I'm going to give the sponges a try! Thanks for posting this and along with visual instructions as well.

Barbara

Barbara:

If the sponges irritate between the toes (sometimes that happens, and you have to figure out how little or how much to cut the sponges, it's like trial and error), then just use cotton balls or buy the lambswool (that stuff looks so soft)

Let me know if this works on your tootsies!!!

mel

Cosiderthis

I take everything that has been recommended by anyone: B-12, Alpha Lipoic Acid, L-Carnitine, B-1, And a slew of other supplements.

Although my toes are numb, I do feel some pressure when I step on something.

I can move my toes. On my last neuro visit, he trested to see if I knew which way, up or down, he moved my toes. I could tell, but barely.

Sorry I've been AWOL for a bit. The cotton balls seem like they would be a good way to get a 'measurement' so to speak to compare with when cutting the sponge. I haven't had a need for it yet! I'd say that's good news! :)

It's been a very long couple of weeks and to top it off, last night I stepped on a piece of glass. I was distracted and thought I'd just stepped on something hard, ya know? Well, it turned out to be a piece of glass and I think I might have a tiny piece stuck down in there. Not deep but it's there. Duct tape to the rescue. :D Have to put another piece on after I soak the foot a bit.

Oddly enough, (and I have no idea why), he hasn't needed the cotton balls since we did it for a couple of days.

I think he just forgets about it when he goes to bed, then he uses the Theraspa massage thingee on his calves, then the xanax kicks in, then he's fast asleep.

I can't monitor everything this man does. He has to know enough to take care of himself. And so far, he's doing okay.

He also stopped using the sponge attached to the orthotic. We think that's why he developed a callus where his ulcer used to be. But it's not bothering him, it isn't bleeding, swollen or oozing, so he will go to his next podiatrist appointment on October 3rd.

As for me, I have to start concentrating on Melody. Been a long time coming.

Mel