Tuesday
Jun012010
Fat feet
Tuesday, June 1, 2010 at 05:51AM
The whole time I was training for the 5K, ten weeks in all, I felt pretty good. I had a few strained muscles, but nothing that prevented me entirely from running. While I was running the actual 5K, I felt great. But the next day, it all went to shit. It started in my knees - pain and swelling - then moved to my ankles and feet.
I was convinced all I needed to do was stay off my feet, elevate and ice them as much as possible, and take ibuprofen for the inflammation and pain. Surely it would heal itself in time. Unfortunately my life isn't very conducive to putting my feet up, so they got worse instead of better. By the end of the night of my bachelorette party, for instance, they looked like this:
My feet are normally quite normal looking, I think. This is just gross. And wow did they hurt. Actually, if I don't take 800 mg of ibuprofen a few times a day, I can barely walk on them. I get up in the morning and often can't put any weight on my feet or ankles. I sort of drag myself to wherever the drugs are, pop a few, then sit as much as possible until they kick in.
Then this weekend we had to move. I did as little as possible, but we didn't have much help, so I made far too many trips back and forth, and up and down stairs (which is the worst, by the way), carrying heavy things. The Giraffe kept insisting that I stop, but it's impossible for me to watch others move MY stuff if I'm not helping.
So on Sunday, I was convinced to go to Urgent Care. The x-rays showed nothing, so the doctor thinks it's some sort of joint inflammation that could be caused by a number of things - arthritis, gout (yum), or other fancy names I can't remember. In order to determine which, he had to "run labs" which is code for DRAW BLOOD!!!
I have small, hard to find veins, so the phlebotomist spent about 15 minutes searching. Going back and forth between my arms, tying them up with those painful rubber straps, slapping my inner arms to irritate the veins, poking and prodding to find something to stick a needle into. Eventually he gave it a whirl on my left arm, and after a few failed pokes, he gave up. By that time, I was feeling light headed and had to lay down. He retrieved the RN on duty, who also had a really hard time locating a useable vein. Finally I heard her say, "I think I have something here, it's pretty deep." And WHAM! Needle jabbed deep into my arm. I think I may have cried out. Or broken the Giraffe's hand. It hurt!
Now I just wait until the results are in. Hopefully this is something treatable. I'd really like to be able to walk, not limp, down the aisle at my wedding. And it would be kind of nice not to hobble throughout my honeymoon. Which, by the way, is all less than two weeks away!
I was convinced all I needed to do was stay off my feet, elevate and ice them as much as possible, and take ibuprofen for the inflammation and pain. Surely it would heal itself in time. Unfortunately my life isn't very conducive to putting my feet up, so they got worse instead of better. By the end of the night of my bachelorette party, for instance, they looked like this:
My feet are normally quite normal looking, I think. This is just gross. And wow did they hurt. Actually, if I don't take 800 mg of ibuprofen a few times a day, I can barely walk on them. I get up in the morning and often can't put any weight on my feet or ankles. I sort of drag myself to wherever the drugs are, pop a few, then sit as much as possible until they kick in.
Then this weekend we had to move. I did as little as possible, but we didn't have much help, so I made far too many trips back and forth, and up and down stairs (which is the worst, by the way), carrying heavy things. The Giraffe kept insisting that I stop, but it's impossible for me to watch others move MY stuff if I'm not helping.
So on Sunday, I was convinced to go to Urgent Care. The x-rays showed nothing, so the doctor thinks it's some sort of joint inflammation that could be caused by a number of things - arthritis, gout (yum), or other fancy names I can't remember. In order to determine which, he had to "run labs" which is code for DRAW BLOOD!!!
I have small, hard to find veins, so the phlebotomist spent about 15 minutes searching. Going back and forth between my arms, tying them up with those painful rubber straps, slapping my inner arms to irritate the veins, poking and prodding to find something to stick a needle into. Eventually he gave it a whirl on my left arm, and after a few failed pokes, he gave up. By that time, I was feeling light headed and had to lay down. He retrieved the RN on duty, who also had a really hard time locating a useable vein. Finally I heard her say, "I think I have something here, it's pretty deep." And WHAM! Needle jabbed deep into my arm. I think I may have cried out. Or broken the Giraffe's hand. It hurt!
(Let's pretend I look bedraggled because of my traumatic experience, not because this is how I often look on the weekends when I make zero effort.)
Now I just wait until the results are in. Hopefully this is something treatable. I'd really like to be able to walk, not limp, down the aisle at my wedding. And it would be kind of nice not to hobble throughout my honeymoon. Which, by the way, is all less than two weeks away!
Reader Comments (11)
I hope they find out why you have fat feet soon. My sister has trouble with blood draws too. *Doctors* have to use a butterfly needle, and she looks like you only with giant bruises inside both elbows. So it could be worse?
They first guy did use a butterfly needle, and I do have a bit of a bruise on the other arm. But still...could be worse.
I am so glad that you finally went to the doc/urgent care. This has gone on a really long time and not gotten any better. I hope they can figure it out and fix it soon.
And oh-my-bajeebers. Way too many pokes. I thought mine were bad. Ouch!
I have trouble with blood draws as well. I've gotten stuck way too many times with a needle without results.
WOW! That sucks Shan! I think it's really weird that they would swell up/hurt so much for so long without some sort of obvious "oh I ran 5k yesterday" kind of reason.
Also feet? Very important for going about the business of life!
Holy hell!! I hate hate hate having my blood drawn (needles just gross me out).
I hope its nothing serious...
Yikes! I hope they get you some answers soon!
I totally understand the vein issue -- I've had the same problem since I was a kid (so did my mom). They've mostly given up trying to draw blood from my arms & have moved on to my hands & wrists (ugh!).
Holy ass crackers! Them's some swollen feet there, pretty. I hope it turns out to be nothing serious!
And if they haven't gone down before the wedding, I suggest you enlist and cute and muscley guy friend to carry you on his back. Unless you can get one of those bed-on-sticks things. That would be awesome.
I hope your feet feel better!!
Best wishes to you both! I'm getting married June 18th. Good thing I didn't procrastinate on a lot of things... oh wait. :\ Haha. Take care, and congratulations!!!!
[...] normal, you should see a doctor” about a billion times over the course of three weeks with my fat feet and ankles, I finally gave in. That was Sunday, May 30. Today is Monday, June 7 and I JUST got the [...]
Good luck with the results coming in.