First, the good news: The infection I got in my left foot two weeks ago seems to be gone. It's still a little reddened, and I'll probably have some residual cellulitis for a couple of weeks.
Also in the good news category: My knee surgery is tomorrow afternoon. This will be arthroscopic surgery to release one of the ligaments in my left knee, with the intention of allowing my rather smashed-up kneecap to float a little further from the knee joint with less pressure. (Looking at a diagram of the knee, I'm not sure I quite understand which ligament is to be released.) The hope is that this will reduce the level of pain in my left knee, and reduce the rate at which the cartilage is breaking down. If it works, we'll do the right knee separately later.
Under the bad news heading, the ball of my left foot is still breaking open, and while the orthotics and prosthetics place has evaluated me and thinks they can make me an orthotic which should reduce or possibly eliminate the problem, our medical insurance won't cover it because it's just a foot orthotic and I'm not diabetic. (If I were diabetic, or if I needed a foot-and-ankle orthotic, it would be covered.)
Further bad news: my podiatrist believes that the tender, inflamed lump which appeared on the top of my left foot at about the same time the infection showed up is the joint between my medial cuneiform bone and my first metatarsal trying to come out through the top of my foot. Yes, that's right, my left foot has apparently come up with a new way to tear itself apart: the same contractures that are pulling the distal end of the first metatarsal down are levering the proximal end up.
I have a nasty feeling this is going to end with me having to have surgery to more or less take my foot apart and put it back together approximately straight.
