As I stepped out of the truck and began walking towards the door, I noticed an uncomfortable feeling in my left foot. That uncomfortable feeling quickly turned to full-on pain, leaving me limping the rest of the day. By the end of the day my foot was incredibly swollen. It was a Sunday. It was not just any Sunday, but the Sunday before Labor Day. So I hobbled along in pain with a swollen foot for two days before being able to call a doctor and schedule an appointment. My husband called on Tuesday and was able to get me an appointment at 1:30 on that Wednesday. So, for another day and a half I limped around in pain.
Wednesday, I arrived about 15 minutes early with my printed and filled out paperwork in hand. After I signed in, provided all my paperwork, paid my co-pay, and sat down, a man walks in, who appears to be a salesman, looking to speak to the doctor. The lady behind the desk lets him know that she'll tell the doctor that he's there as soon as she arrives.
Next, I was taken into the first room and did the usual Q&A dance. Then I was taken all the way to the back of the office to do some X-rays on my foot, each of which required me to put all my weight on my injured foot. Then I was back in the room in the chair with my grossly swollen foot on display by 1:30, my original appointment time.
At about 1:35 I hear the doctor and the salesman in the hallway chatting about samples and such. This conversation carries on for about 25 minutes. Meanwhile, her patient (me), who actually had an appointment, and who is in pain, has been sitting in the office for the past 30 minutes waiting for some answers and relief.
At 2:00 she finally graces me with her presence. She goes on to tell me that there doesn't appear to be anything in the X-Rays that correlates to the pain that I'm feeling. She then starts the exam wherein she proceeds to dig her thumb along the top of my foot and up my shin to determine which tendons/ligaments were injured. Yes, this hurt like hell! Still, she was very friendly and she showed me on the chart which ligaments and tendons had been strained and provided some theories as to what could have been the cause. She prescribed an anti-inflammatory and a (very expensive) boot, with a follow-up appointment in 3 weeks. I waddled out in the boot, picked up the meds and headed home.
I followed the prescribed boot and medicine regimen the rest of Wednesday and all of Thursday. However, in order for my foot to not move around inside the boot meant that it had to be somewhat snug. And being snug meant that it was pushing down on the strained tendon and ligaments. This caused me just as much, if not more pain than what I had initially been feeling before I went to the doctor. So, around 10:00 on Friday, I called the doctor's office and informed them of the issue. I then asked if there was something they could prescribe for the pain until it started to heal. The lady who answered the phone said she would ask the doctor when she got in and call me back. When she called back around 2:30, she told me that the doctor suggested that I crisscross the straps to help alleviate some of the pressure, but that she could not prescribe me anything for the pain. I did as the doctor suggested.
Tuesday (nearly one week from my doctor's appointment, 10 days since it started) - I am still in an incredible amount of pain and the swelling has not subsided in the least. My husband called the doctor's office again and they still refused to prescribe anything else or give any other ideas as to how to minimize the pain except for to come back into the office. The doctor wouldn't even provide an explanation as to why she wasn't willing to prescribe anything for the pain.
Thursday, I went to another podiatrist who's staff walked paperwork out to me to reduce my walking, who had an x-ray machine that moved around my foot while I was sitting, who determined that I also had a stress fracture, who prescribed me some medicine for the pain and a more aggressive anti-inflammatory, as well a provided lots of tips/tricks to help the swelling go down quicker. And in a matter of one day following this new doctor's regimen, the swelling had already started to go down.
Needless to say, I will not be going back to see Dr. Tate for my follow-up. read more
