Hospitals - who needs them

I do. All the time it seems.

It would be nice to be able to go through what remains of my life uninterrupted by constant visits to my local and Sydney hospitals. I just want to have an extended run of being well without having to return to hospital every few weeks.

Take February 2010 as a prime example:

Recovering nicely from the urethroplasty in January; had gone back to work and I was feeling useful again.

Three months or so prior to this while getting ready for work I put on a pair of shoes. The shoes are fairly new, well fitting, firm but not tight and they do not rub. While driving I thought the right shoe was tighter than normal. Arriving at work and walking from the car-park and the shoe was still tight and my second toe was starting to hurt but the walk was short and once seated at my desk the pain goes and I forget about it until around lunch time when I notice again that my foot was a bit sore. Take off my shoe and lo! Jammed into the top of the shoe is a pair of socks.. this explains why the shoe was a bit tight. I'd packed the shoes for a trip sometime earlier and had filled the shoes, as usual, with socks and jocks. I'd obviously missed these socks when I unpacked – what a berk! I removed the offending socks and put the shoe back on.
Later on at home I noticed that my second toe had developed a blood blister – oh well.

No big deal.

Weeks pass on the nail goes black and the blood blister becomes a callus. I have had no pain but following the chemotherapy in 2004 – 2005 neuropathy had developed in the feet so I don't have a lot of feeling left in the toes. The toes apart from the callus and funny nail is basically OK but an infection obviously develops and progresses quickly. It's possible the dog caused it as she occasionally stands on everyone's feet and occasionally we get scratched. I take me and my toe to the GP and it's dressed with instructions to change the dressing in a couple of days. When I change the dressing three days later things have progressed: when I remove the first dressing the nail comes off together with the whole of the callus tip of the toe... I'm unsure if this is good or bad but re-dress the toe and continue with the day. By evening the foot has swollen to an extent that the ankle is sore.
Damn!
I quickly agree with The Little Worker that I need to go to hospital. So at 10:30 at night we trek off to Canberra Hospital emergency. Fortunately for me it's reasonably quiet and I don't have to wait too long after initial triage before a bright doctor has me on an antibiotic drip and I'm admitted. Cutting the story shorter – a week on powerful antibiotics then a short operation to remove the toe and a couple of days longer in hospital recovering.

Now about a month following the last hospital admission things are going well: the follow-up visit to the vascular surgeon was short and sweet – he was happy with the result and I do not have to see him again. Have updated the GP and have had an initial visit to a podiatrist with a biomechanical assessment coming up next week.

All the medicos have been warning me to look after my feet... the chemotherapy has exacerbated and accelerated the effects of the diabetes on my feet. My right foot is more effected than the left foot with the remaining toes bending and becoming clawed. The podiatrist will hopefully assist in slowing this down. On their advice and because I needed to I've bought some new casual black shoes – specialist shoes for those with foot ailments so they cost a fortune. So far they've proved exceptionally comfortable.