Inspecting the bottom of feet
 

Yesterday I missed a dose of Lyrica. I didn't realize it until I started feeling pain in my foot on the bottom close to my toes. It hurt so badly that I started rubbing and then finally I noticed there was a lump on the bottom of my foot. So I had my husband look at the bottom of my foot. Seems there is a little hair buried in the foot. (little dog with coarse hair). We did the sterilize the needle thing and he opened it up about a 1/4 of an inch and was unable to get to the hair because it hurt so badly. I now have an appt with the podiatrist tomorrow and they are very anxious to get me in. Tried to today but couldn't.

I have said before that you need to have someone inspect your feet often. I can't see the bottom of my feet due to knee replacements. There is no way I know how long that hair was buried and I probably will have to have it surgically removed.:(:(:(:(:( Seems I need to take my own advice. I would not have noticed if I hadn't missed the medicine dose.

Billye

Thanks Bilye, this is an important concept. I bit myself big time in the lip and it hardly hurts (at least not right now.) My mouth is usually quite a good distance from my foot, but not always.:p I do try to check over my feet.

They do make mirrors that are on these long sticks so you can see the bottom of your foot....however, you can't really see between your toes I don't think. I have to have my 2.50 power lenses and my nose in something to see it these days. I have been cruising websites with adaptive devices in my spare time...OK, trying to use up time...Lord, there has to be some better way to occupy those extra minutes...no wait, hours.;)

My doc's office has a sign, 'If you are diabetic, please remove your socks and shoes'. They should change that sign to 'if you have PN'. Diabetes is so closely linked with PN, they forget that other people get PN. It is the PN not the diabetes that causes the numbness. No one offered to look at my 'dawgs'....I can still look at them myself.....my hubby would wrinkle up his nose, but he would look. Gee, I THINK he would. Eh, he can't see close up much better than I can (he can spot something a mile away)....but, he is more deaf too.

These are the golden years because...........(please feel free to finish this sentence-I am at a loss for words.) Don't say it is because you can join AARP.

I wonder if you may have a splinter in there and it is in deep and looks like a hair? I have in the past, pre PN, dug some things out of my feet that ended up being a lot bigger than they originally looked, or I would have booked a surgical suite if I had known their true size.

Get in to see a doc tomorrow, if not your own, an urgent care?

Thanks
 

They really wanted to get me in today once the nurse found out I have neuropathy and I'm NOT shy about telling them that I have neuropathy. It makes a big difference in how they treat your feet. I have an appt at 2:00 tomorrow. We took the bandaid off and reapplied ointment tonight and put another bandaid back on. That part of my foot has already had a morton's neuroma exploration there so I don't tolerate pain in that part of that foot anyway. It was left numb around the toe area but exquisitely painful back on the ball of the foot. Took forever to get the thing well.

Things always happen in bundles around here. Guess God thinks "Hmmm, she's got some slack time, can't have that." WHACK!!!! up side the head again with another sack full of trouble. Still battling that bladder thing, broken bones, hairy foot, and then we added a vascular surgeon to my group of specialist today. There is a vein on the side of one of my knees (think metal knees) that breaks and causes a large bruise. This happens at least once a week. So the ortho decided to send me to him. Personally I think that if the ortho had done his job properly I wouldn't have the problem in the first place. Oh welll......:cool:

And if that's not enough, my husband has been scheduled for eyelid surgery. Seems he didn't pass his vision test, he's been affected about 50%. He can't see anything that is in the upper quadrants of his vision due to the upper area of his eyelid sagging down over his eyes. So he has to have surgery in order to drive. He's a thin man so it's not fat, the doctor said it must have been hereditary.

And that back surgery didn't permanently fix the problem. Looks like he will wind up with the mess we all have. We've got an appt with the neurosurgeon next Monday. I get to learn to drive in Dallas again.

But back to the foot, it is very important for all of us to check these feet every few days. Right after a shower would be a good time.

Billye

I've gotten hairs imbedded in my feet before. My husband has such thick wiry hair that they become ingrown on his face. If one of his hairs is on the floor and I step on it, it pokes right into the bottom of my foot like a splinter, and boy, is it hard to get out!

I wear house shoes with rubber soles on them most of the time when I'm in the house to protect my feet. I have to check my feet periodically because of ingrown nails and deep cracks from dryness that sometimes cause problems, so I look for any cuts or other oddities while I'm at it.

Hope fixing your foot isn't too big an ordeal. Lord knows you're having more of your share of them right now. :eek:

fanfaire
:cool:

might be a plantar's wart...
 

They have a dark pinhead appearance, and hurt when you step on them.
When small they look just like a splinter or sliver.

It is always best to have any suspicious wound looked at by a doctor of some kind. I'd go to a podiatrist first.

Billye
 

Hope all goes well at the podiatrist today - it is hard sometimes to remember to check our feet (theres so much else it seems going on sometimes eh?) I know I had long sewing needle in my foot for I have no idea how long about a month ago - would never have known but the end bent over so it didnt go all the way in my foot - noticed it only cause it was catching on my bedsheets... did not hurt one bit - thank goodness it bent and then bled a lot when I pulled it out so didnt seem to be any infection.... but PN definately has dangers we dont think about! :eek:

Hi Billye:

Poor thing. Seems like every time I get on this board, something else has gone wrong with you... I hope you got the hair, wart or whatever is in your foot taken care of today...

kmeb: I can't imagine a needle being in your foot for a MONTH??? Ouch!

Cathie

Thanks all, no serious damage
 

Well the podiatrist poked and probed and finally decided she didn't think there was a hair there. I guess we will find out in a week or two. I'm bandaged up and it's supposed to heal before I can quit wearing the pad on the thing. I told her about the knot, just so happens the knot is on the bottom of my foot right over the scar on the top of my foot from the morton's neuroma surgery.

I had it years ago. Really stupid doctor. They couldn't get the deadener to work on my foot so he gave me a pain pill finally. Then they proceeded to spend 30 min. with me sobbing from the pain while he sliced my foot, probed a nerve looking for the neuroma. I sweated, broke a tooth, told him my foot wasn't numb and he sent a guy to the head of the operating table to "hold my hand". Worse experience I've ever had. That doctor is no longer operating in our hospital because of that experience. He made a 2 inch incision in my foot and poked around the nerve with no anesthesia working. And then when I wanted to see what it looked like, he told me he couldn't find it. Surgery was for nothing. Today the podiatrist said that it was odd that the knot on the bottom of my foot is right under that scar. She said it was possible that the nerve he cut on regrew new branches and they curled back in on each other and formed kind of a little bud. She said these are morton neuroma buds. Never heard of it.

She said they treat them with a treatment where they inject alcohol into the nerve root and it kills the little buds. She told me it should work after the second shot. She said some people sometimes have to have more than one injection but she's never done over 4 without getting the result she wanted. Anyone ever heard of this? I want to say she said scleropathy. Not sure tho. I told her I'd wait until my foot got well and see if the knot goes away. Or if the hair is obvious again. I have some cracking in the bottoms of my feet and it's possible my husband mistook one of the cracks for a hair. And I wanted to know if any of you have ever had this done.

Kmeb, are you putting your clipped off pieces of jewelry wire ..even the tiny ones..directly into a trashcan the minute you clip them? I keep one beside me just for that. I got a piece of wire in the ball of my foot. Another doctor's appt. Be careful with that stuff. Needle in there that long could have caused blood poisoning. You were lucky....that time...take care.

Thanks for all the good wishes.
Billye

Dear! Oh! Dear!
 

How I hate such tales!
I was fortunate w/a 'wart', maybe plantars', decades ago in that the podiatrist opted to chemically remove it... It took a very long time - over a year, to 'burn' it out using salycilic acid. [I was neck and neck tied w/a guy from the FBI for the 'duration' of treatments] Outside of the normal falls and breaks one encounters at an earlier age, that was my first experience with real nerve pain, especially nerve pains - as it was a chemical burning out of that wart and well, the nerves got zapped as well. But, I have to admit, that his philosophy of not having scar tissue afterwards was true. No reoccurance nor residual nerve pains from that experience.
The scars and injuries to nerves are soo indefinable and obtuse.
Billye, that the doc couldn't SEE anything there, doesn't mean there isn't something there still. Just be diligent in your follow up, please!
I've always been one to advocate that those of us w/PN treat it as IF we had diabetic neuropathies, for the protection reasons and to try and avoid the problems you have encountered... Even tho, we may not actually be able to SEE such 'invasions' we mite be able to detect the reaction/infection that follows. Foot mirrors seem to be wildly expensive - here is one I found 'on sale' that mite be useful for the future?
http://www.goldviolin.com/Diabetic_F...or_p/90406.htm
They seem to run on the average between $30-60. I've been making do on my own, tho paying close attention as best I can w/a plain old mirror, and what 'feel' I've left in my fingers to 'see' what might be right or wrong w/my feet...sometimes that mirror thing might be useful.
Billye, I truly hope that this clears up perfectly! Having a residual pain there on top of everything else is not what we want nor need!
:hug::hug:'s and healing and some relief in some quarter for you soon! - j