OUCH!

That is on so many levels.

I finally caved in and called the doctor about my ingrown nail. On Thursday, she removed the edge of the nail and cleaned out the infection. There was about a quarter inch of nail buried in the flesh. No wonder it hurt! She was amazed at how much there was and yet I hadn't come in sooner. In fact, she pulled out the edge of the nail and started cleaning the infection and found another piece. Then another. And another. There was a LOT of nail buried in my toe. It should feel much better now.

I'm doing Epsom salt soaks twice a day and bandaging it. It feels better to walk on, but is still oozing blood onto my sock after I have had it in the shoe and walking on it. Guess that is to be expected.

But then yesterday after I came home from my Girls' Lunch date, it was aching to the point that I wasn't wanting to put weight on it. It didn't feel any better after I soaked it. And when I got up in the middle of the night, it was pretty ouchy and had oozed more onto my sock. This morning it is still sore and tender. Hm.

I have added a 20 minute half mile walk to my exercises. I am hoping to up it to twice a day but right now my ankle and tendon start screaming at me about an hour or so after I walk. If it subsided by the time I wanted to walk again, I'd do it, but it hasn't so I don't.

Funny how it doesn't hurt while I'm doing the exercise, only afterwards. It makes it hard to determine if I'm doing too much while exercising. This is the same problem I had with the previous two rehabilitations.

I am on a new pain pill that is marketed for arthritis and is a 12 hour dosing. The doctor is so worried about me taking a pill or two as I need it. I prefer the ibuprofen as I take only when needed and can reassess whether I need to take another one. Usually it's just the one or two a day. But this 12 hour dose doesn't give me that option (or at least not as rapidly). She wants me to take two a day for a month, and then the next month one a day, and then go off it. That's fine I guess but I'm not getting the pain relief that I get from the ibuprofen. I'll give it until I see her again, but if I'm not happy with it, I'll get a refill on my ibuprofen (or take massive doses of the OTC form). I just prefer the "as needed" flexibility of the shorter dosage.

The reason I'm adding the walks is that I find my knees, legs, and ankles are still fairly weak. Guess the "use 'em or lose 'em" axiom is correct. So I am using them. I have a dog show in less than three weeks that I want to show my dog in and I have to be able to do at least a slow jog around the ring probably twice, if not more. Plus I agreed to handle a friend's dogs, so that is several jogging requirements. I can do about four steps right now. So I am building up my legs back to where they were before the surgery.

It'll help to get rid of this extra weight I put on durning my down time this summer, too.

So my main issue I think is that the tendon still screams when I use it over the usual about-the-house walking I do. It tightens up, but rest and stretching exercises cures that. Rest cures the screaming, too, but I can't see living my life gimping about for several hours after I use it for just 20 minutes.

I'll discuss this with the PT people tomorrow and with the doctor when I see her again.