Thursday morning of last week I was walking through our entryway quickly and felt something sting the top of my big toe. It definitely seemed as though I had pricked it on a sharp object, so I went to the sofa, took off my sock, and investigated. I could see that there was a mark, a small spot that looked like a puncture at the tip of my big toe. I gave it a little squeeze because I didn't know what had done it, and I thought if it was a splinter maybe I could push out any little piece that may have been in there. The only thing that popped out was a small drop of blood. I ended up putting a band-aid on it with some Neosporin, put my sock back on, and before I went back about my business I looked on our carpet in front of the door for what I might have run into. I didn't want anyone else to step on it. I found a small piece of metal, like the post of an earring. I didn't have a clue what it actually was, but was fairly certain that it was the culprit. I threw it away and carried on.
My toe was quite tender all that day, and as evening neared I thought it was strange that it felt like a lump on the bottom of my toe, when the poke was nearer to the tip. It was a little swollen as well. I had a difficult time sleeping because no matter how I lay it hurt, like a throb but only the front end of the throb if that makes any sense...there was no real leveling off, only the "expansion" without the "contraction". The following morning I took an ibuprofen and called the doctor's office to see what measures I ought to take. The nurse called me back much later in the afternoon, asked some questions, told me to call back if it got worse, swelled up, or was very red. The ibuprofen seemed to help, so I was encouraged by that. I figured it was just sore from getting poked.
Saturday morning rolled around with no relief; Mike let me lay down after breakfast to rest and elevate my foot. For the next several hours after that I had the kids; I took them to the store, to Barnes & Noble, and brought them home so Eliana could nap. Then Mike took Christian to a birthday party (there was a petting zoo-I never would have made it!), and I took the girls to get Michaela some shoes for the summer. Once everyone was home we had dinner and then the kids went to bed. I didn't really have a chance to go to an Urgent Care-type clinic except the time when I was resting in the morning, so it would have to wait. My toe was still so sore Saturday evening that I asked Mike what I should do. I had these crazy thoughts, like what if it's infected and it spreads and I get really sick? Or what if I have to have my toe amputated? I was frustrated that I had not just gone to the doctor on Friday. We decided that I would go first thing in the morning.
Eliana woke up around 7:00 am, so I set her up with some cereal next to Michaela, had Mike get up with them, and headed to the clinic. I filled out all the necessary paperwork, and got in pretty quickly. The nurse came in, did all the routine stuff, and then the doctor came in and took a look at my toe. He couldn't feel anything, but I said I was worried something might be in there (a sock particle, or small piece of something). I was able to have an x-ray taken, and then I had to wait for a few minutes. It was very pleasant-Finding Neverland was playing! The technician came in and said there was definitely something in there. She held up the x-ray and showed me my toe...
(Can you tell what it is?!)
She went on..."It's a needle!" I cried out,"A needle?!" She told me,"Look, you can even see the eye." Sure enough, there it was in the picture-a sewing needle! And the eye is what went in my toe first, not the point, which must be what I threw away. I couldn't believe it. I sat there wanting to laugh, just dumbfounded. This was not what I had expected at all! The doctor came back in and went over my options. I could stay and see if he could get it out through a small incision, then by using a magnet to locate and pull out the needle (His words were,"It will be like looking for a needle in a haystack." Um, actually, it's like looking for a needle in a toe.) The other option was to go to a specialist the following day, who would likely do the same thing, but possibly be using some orthoscopic blah-blah-blah. I decided to stay and have him do the procedure (he said he was three-for-three so far on this kind of thing) and so I got all set up for my surgery. He numbed my toe, took care of someone else while that kicked in, and returned. I lay down on my belly and he asked if I could feel what he was doing. I could feel that he was touching my toe, but it didn't hurt at all, so he proceeded...cut a small incision and then dug around with the magnet trying to find the needle and then pull it out. And, man, he was digging. I looked over my shoulder once or twice and it looked like he was a toddler who had just discovered a box of ice cream on the floor and was trying to get all of it out before someone came around the corner. I couldn't feel a thing, but I wondered what in the world the inside of my toe must look like after all that. He said,"When I operated in the ER, the most difficult (or maybe he said the most impossible-little fuzzy) thing to remove was a bullet or other small piece of metal." Oh, like A NEEDLE? Very encouraging.
Nevertheless, pluck..."Here it is; look at that!" I saw the magnet and attached to it was the needle. I still couldn't believe it. He stitched up my toe and I had one more x-ray to make sure that it was all clear (which it was) and then he put on a bandage. I also had to have a shot, an initial antibiotic, in my bottom. The nurse, Rodrigo, was very nice, but I told him,"The right side of my body is not doing very well!" And I would just like to say that showing my bottom to another man is not my idea of a good time, nurse or not. By the time I left the clinic my wounded toe was hurting quite badly. I hurried home and Mike went to pick up my heavy-duty pain-killers while I lay down in the bed and tried my labor techniques to deal with the pain. I will admit some tears were shed. Rearranging your furniture can be a blast; rearranging the inside of a body part-not so much. It took a really long time for the medicine to kick in to it's fullest potential. I just lay there waiting, trying to sleep. Mike had the kids all day...I feel like I should offer him one of my pills. I am so grateful for him. He did everything with them all day, from 7:30 on. I joined everyone for dinner, and put Eliana to bed, but other than that he was on his own. I believe we're all glad the day is over, although I will say that when I came out from putting Eliana down I heard hysterical laughter coming from our computer room. The three of them were in here being extremely silly and having a lot of fun. For the most part the day ended on a good note. I got to keep the needle. They sent it home with me in a little container...
and for the sake of seeing the size, here it is compared with a pen...
I'm too sexy for my toe-wrap, too sexy for my toe-wrap, so sexy it hu-urts!
And I think that just about wraps it up.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 at 9:24PM 
This is my brain on drugs...
First there is the fact that even in all of its glorious clarity my reading level is the same as that of a three-year-old these days. Second there is the fact that things get a little fuzzy when I am taking pain-killers that manage to disguise the natural consequences of a doctor poking and digging a magnet around in my toe like any good cook mashing up some potatoes, which while once were intact are now a mixed-up mess. I believe that when I read one of the pages of Eliana's story it went something like this...
"Whatever, look! Corduroy, horse, in wagon, what?"
Eliana looked at me from her bed and hollered indignantly,"Read!" Because that just wasn't quite right.