Medical update, second attempt

[unixronin]

I note as an aside that LiveJournal's poll-creation interface needs to be bludgeoned over the head with, say, a large flanged mace until it whimpers and cries for its mommy.  But that's neither here nor there.

Today's appointment with the podiatrist went more or less as expected, once we got past the 10 to 15 minutes of driving around in circles in downtown Nashua trying to figure out how to get into the building's parking lot.  (I still believe a way of doing this exists, though I didn't find it.  Fortunately, I found another parking lot I could use.)  The podiatrist, a Dr. Kaufman, looked at my foot then sent me across the waiting area to X-ray, where they shot my foot three times ... er ... well ... let me rephrase that:  They shot three views of my foot from different angles, then sent me back to Dr. Kaufman bearing X-ray films, whereupon he examined the films and my foot again.

The situation with my little toe isn't quite what I thought.  It's not the distal end of the third phalange that's trying to break out through the side of my toe, it's a large spur on the proximal end of the second phalange.  (The first and second phalanges are fused, which is not unusual in the little toe, and the second phalange is unusually large.)  While there are things that could possibly be done to try to repair the toe, due to the nature of what's going on with my foot he doesn't feel it's likely they would be successful.  As a result, he concurs with Dr. Ciccinelli in NC that at this point, the best remaining course of action is to amputate that toe just in front of the third joint, leaving the joint itself intact.  He wants me to see a vascular specialist first for a vascular study on my foot and lower leg, something I have no problem with whatsoever; both cymrullewes and I have been saying that this would be a Good Thing.

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While I'm at it, I've been thinking for a week or so of adding a new usericon to use for medical posts.  I have four candidates, which you can see below.

[Poll #558462]

I solicit your input, but make no promise to be bound by it.  I'll freely admit I'm leaning fairly strongly toward the fourth icon.  So, have at it!  Register your opinion!  Make your voice heard!  Throw rotten fruit!  (Well ... actually, how about we just skip the throwing-rotten-fruit part?)

Comments

[elegantelbow.livejournal.com]

I beg you to not choose the blue one. I have a friend with a blue one for an icon, already, and I sometimes get confused by similar icons for different people.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Should I interpret that as figurative rotten fruit? :)

[beckyzoole.livejournal.com]

I like the gold one, mostly because it's unusual, techy-looking, and vaguely resembles a stylized pirate's skull-n-crossbones. For broad values of "vague".

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Arrr, after due consideration, methinks I sees that, me hearty!

[suzilem.livejournal.com]

I just had a vascular study done a couple of days ago on both feet/legs. Five different blood-pressure-cuffs (big toe, foot, bottom calf, top calf, thigh) plus full leg arterial ultrasound and a couple other pokey-proddey things. Not too annoying, although when the tech inflated the top calf cuff, it felt exactly like a charley horse. But the cramp only lasted a matter of a few seconds.

I hope they can figure out something to get rid of the pain for you so you can get back to whatever are your usual and customary "activities of daily living".

I think option number four on the icon is the most unique.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

As noted, I've been leaning that way myself.

The vascular study will be a welcome thing; I particularly want the sonogram/angiogram to see how wel my upper calf has re-vascularized after having the major blood vessels destroyed on Splat Day.