Foot Pain Anxiety

During my move in January, I was on my feet a lot more than usual. Packing, loading cars, unloading cars, transporting our belongings to storage than back out into our new home and unpacking.

My feet hurt. They usually hurt when I am on them for a long period of time. After a rest I am fine. But this was different.

A few weeks later my weight bearing was off. Yes, my weight bearing is already off because of my cerebral palsy but this was different.  But I was still in denial.

I get up and instead of just taking a step like 'normal' I have to make a conscious effort to step and move. After a few steps I am fine. Also behind my left ankle started hurting. Just a dull pain, yet aggravating. Once I got off it, I was fine.

I continued to think it was just taking time to heal. The way I walk I tend to favor my right side with the weight bearing.

It is irritating and frustrating. Several months later, I visited my doctor for something else. I mentioned my problem. He said it might have been a strain and because of my CP (Cerebral Palsy) my ankles may be weakening. He told me to do some stretch exercises. He also gave me a fluid pill as my feet were swelling.

I did the exercises diligently. However, it made the problem worse.

My weight bearing still sucks royally. The pain is in back of my left ankle mostly. It is a burning sharp pain. The pain continues when I am off it so there is something not right.

I have piddled paddle around with this issue. I just didn't want to deal with it so I ignored it as much as I could.

I am finally coming to my senses and not to mention I am afraid I do more damage, if there is any damage. I need this taken care of.

I was not sure if I should go to a podiatrist or orthopedic.

I decided to start with a Podiatrist. When I think orthopedic I think surgery. I know probably unfounded but it is my thought process.

And I can always blame my crazy thought processes on my Cerebral Palsy. (HA! Hey it's my excuse!)

I called this well-known Podiatrist.  I'll call him Dr. B. He is on my Medicare insurance.

The lady asked me the regular questions, NAZ, age and insurance. She notified me that they do not take Medicare patients under 65. I thought that was weird. If I had another insurance they would.

I thought this was so wrong. I had friends on Facebook say it has to be illegal. I thought it was too. Discrimination at best.  But after calling Medicare, I learned unless they are accepting other new patients with only Medicare they can deny service.  There is no way to prove it either way.

I called another Podiatrist, the second best rated Podiatrist in this area by ratemds.com.  They gave me an appointment for tomorrow. That was pretty darn good considering they would have taken me the next day of my call but I had other things to do.

So I've been thinking about my appointment.

I'm nervous.

I am scared.

I keep thinking there is rarely anything simple with me medically.

My thoughts are:

How am I going to walk with a brace?  I know they are better made and won't be as bad as the big steel  stiff ones I had as a child.

What if he tells me to stay off it? Mind you I spend most of my time at home so it is not like I go all over the place. However, the fear of losing my independence sets in.

What if he wants me to go through physical therapy? Flashbacks of learning to walk after surgery with  rails dad made me and my mom moving my legs as I lay on that chest freezer as a child run through my mind.

I know I am thinking too much and hopefully imagining the worse. But arghh!

Having to deal with my few limitations of CP plus getting old just totally sucks!

But as my mom used to say,  it is what it is and I have to just deal with it.