Foot update

Last I checked in, Dr. Butler had me back in the boot again and I was awaiting a CT to check my bone density. Well, I'm still in the boot and the prognosis has not been great. Insurance wouldn't cover a CT (drama!) but did approve an MRI, so I had that test done and went back to Dr. Butler to discuss the results. He told me that the MRI confirmed what he was afraid of...avascular necrosis of the seasmoid, which means that the seasmoid bone was actually dying inside my foot. That over-stress and continued usage while it was injured did not allow the bone to heal properly and caused the blood supply to not be able to circulate properly through my foot. Without proper blood flow, the bone begins to deteriorate and die. Ahhh!

He then told me that it was not the worst case he has seen and that only part of the bone was decaying, He recommended trying a bone growth stimulator to try to stimulate the growth of the healthy part of the bone that would compensate for the dying part. The machine is a personal-use machine that is quite expensive out of pocket, even after insurance. And the worst part is that is realistically only has a 20-30% chance of helping my case. And the only other option is surgery.

It was at this point that I decided to get a 2nd opinion. I saw a foot surgeon at Campbell Clinic and he confirmed the prognosis of avascular necrosis. I didn't really love him though because he had a "surgeon attitude" and acted like this was a minor injury. But ultimately, he couldn't give me anything to do for it but surgery and since I didn't appreciate his bedside manner, I went back to Dr. Butler to proceed with next steps.

We discussed the bone stimulator, how expensive it was and the low chance that it would help and I asked if there were other treatment options. He said there were no other options and that no amount of stabilizing, staying off of it or new inserts was going to fix this problem...it would take new bone growth or surgery to remove the bone and that was it. I had pretty much decided to go straight to surgery because I didn't want to drop $1K+ on a machine that was likely not going to work, when Dr. Butler told me to wait for just a minute while he checked on something. He came back 5 minutes later and said he got me a free simulator!  He told his contact that he sends lots of business his way and he needed a machine comped for me. What doctor does that?! If there was ever any doubt in my choice of going with him, it was lifted instantly!

So I got set up with the stimulator this week. I use it every day for 30 minutes, mostly in the morning before everyone wakes up while I blog. It doesn't hurt and is easy to use. I will go back in a few weeks to monitor progress and see if it is helping. It can take 10-12 weeks to see any progress, so if I have surgery, it will be in 2016 and likely after Super Bowl. But here's hoping I won't!