Julian drove me to an orthotics center today so they could push my feet into foam.
In order to make a cast of my feet, of course. This is one of the many wonderful things my case worker Galina has put into motion for me, and should eventually result in my getting new shoes with offloading orthotics inside them.
The idea is to take the pressure off the wounds on my feet so that they can heal.
One surprising bit of info : going around in my socks all the time might be the very reason the wounds on my feet haven’t healed.
It makes sense when you think about it : when you go around barefoot or in just socks, the flexing of the muscles tears the wound open with every step.
Harsh, I know. But accurate.
That’s especially true with wounds like the one on my left foot, The wound is smack dab in the middle of the muscle right above the heel, and wounds like that do not heal well even in the best of circumstances because pretty much anything you do with that foot will flex that muscle.
I am pretty dang curious as to how orthotics will get around that.
Well, I will know in 2 to 6 weeks. I fully expected that. The wheels of government turn mighty slow and I most definitely did not think I would be leaving the orthotics place with new shoes today.
As always, I do what’s asked of me then forget about it till I need to do something else.
The orthotics place is in Vancouver, so it was a bit of a road trip to get there. Plus it’s located in this big rehabilitation center which is itself located in a cozy, tree lined Vancouver residential neighborhood, so it’s a tad off the beaten path.
Something occurred to me while we were in that neighborhood : everyone knows that people love those tree lined neighborhoods.
What struck me is that this basically means we like living in the forest. We want to be surrounded by trees. And then every lawn is like a little meadow of our own.
We’re still forest animals at heart. And I say this as a person who grew up on a tree lined street, and so that kind of thing is especially powerful for me.
I find it comforting to think that we complicated humans are basically forest animals who seek our natural climate.
Makes me think of those adorable British children’s books about anthro animals living in forest neighborhoods, like The Wind In The Willows.
The orthotics specialist was a very nice British lady who did the pressing my feet into the foam thing. The foam was firm but yielded when the lady pressed down on my feet with her hands, and voila, two remarkably high resolution impressions of my tootsies.
It was a very interesting sensation. Like stepping into crusty snow, only much warmer and drier. To be honest, it made me want to have a bunch of that foam to play around with and make impressions of various things.
Now the whole thing has to make a stop at my GP Doctor Chao’s office so that he can add the shoes to my prescription, then it’s off to the government to await their holy benison so the orthotics people can make my frigging shoes.
One thing that concerned me was that she was clearly implying that I should have the new shoes on all the time, and that would be a major adjustment for me.
But then I realized that there would be no reason for me to wear them when I was sitting at the computer or lying in bed, and that’s 80 percent of my waking hours, so I guess I would only have to slip them on when I stood up.
And I can live with that, I guess.
Further bulletins as events warrant.
More after the break.
The long haul
I feel so damned tired sometimes.
Especially after a day like today, with an unusual amount of moving around. Right now my legs are aching. More worryingly, so are my arms.
I am terrified that my undiagnosed and hence untreated muscular degeneration is going to take my arms next. Having legs that don’t work right is one thing. It sucks but most of the time I am sitting or lying down anyhow, so it’s not that bad.
But if my arms become as stiff and weak as my legs, that could fuck things up big time.
If that happens, I am going to demand answers and a treatment, because that could make my life intolerable.
Just leave me the ability to type and use the mouse.
Anyhow, so I feel sore all over and that is not ideal because I still have wound care tomorrow where I will need to make another subjectively long trip via my walker.
I feel my destiny in a wheelchair looming larger and closer than ever before.
I get the feeling I might not make it to wound care tomorrow. Depends on how I feel when I get up.
I really don’t want to miss tomorrow’s appointment, though, because the orthotics lady had to remove the bandages on my feet in order to do that neato foam thing and then stick them back on again.
They’re not a wound clinic. They don’t do that kind of work. I have the feeling that she’s more of a medical technician, like a physio, then an actual part of the medical system.
And I was not super happy with that, but as long as I make it to wound care, they can change the bandages to ones that are put on there properly and all will be good.
But will I make it? I dunno. Right now it doesn’t seem likely but maybe if I lay in bed willing my legs to recover from their ordeal faster, I can make it.
I frigging hate my life sometimes.
It’s just so god damned stupid.
I will talk to you nice people again tomorrow.