The fun never stops for me!
I developed a pressure ulcer (also known as wound) on the outside of my right foot in early March. It practically happened overnight. The culprit was a pair of new Ankle Foot Orthotics (AFO’s) I was breaking in. See picture #1.
Lovely.
I broke them in, all right. More like they broke my skin.
First step of treatment wasI a wound care appointment on 5/27 at Corewell Health (formally Spectrum) in Grand Rapids.
I was evaluated for a “suspicion” of a bone infection in my right foot. It certainly looks horrible when you look at the picture. Please see picture above.
It is considered a stage four injury, which is the most severe. This means the wound is open and down to the muscle and bone. I have skinny feet. There is very little skin or muscle tissue between the skin surface and the bone of my foot.
The wound was originally 3 millimeters deep in the first picture. The doctor debrided some of the dead skin away and cleaned with special ointment. She covered it with a poleax patch and wrapped the foot with gauze.
She discussed some sobering treatment options. The most drastic being an “amputation”.
That grabbed my attention!
I envisioned my whole foot getting hacked off. My dream of trying out for Dancing with the Stars was crushed. No freaking way!
She asked if I had any more questions.
“Yeah, I want to get back to this amputation. What exactly does that mean?”
She explained a portion of the foot maybe filed down or possibly cut off at the pinky toe.
Better than my whole foot getting sawed off, I thought. Still not very appealing.
She explained this would be a last resort and an unlikely scenario. She patted my shoulder while leaving me the exam room probably thinking, Poor bastard.
My follow up appointment was on 4/8. The wound is now healing as you can see in the second photo. It is now only 1 mL deep. The PA did a blood flow study by attaching air pressure cuffs and tubes to each of my limbs (third photo). Study confirmed that my blood was flying down my legs. This would help my foot in healing.
I had an MRI with intravenous contrast on Sunday, April 14 7:30 AM. This will confirm whether I have a bone infection on the outside of my right foot. The results may not be reviewed by the radiologist for a couple weeks due to a backlog.
In the meantime, keep your fingers and toes (no pun intended)crossed. I like my feet whole even though I don’t use them as much. I’m trying to keep my anxiety in check with varying degrees of success. March Madness helped with distracting me for a few weeks.
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