Tidbits

[cjsmith]

indyansel, I don't believe this! They're awesome! They arrived in styrofoam with an ice pack. And you knew I liked dark! How'd you know/remember that??

apparentparadox, that pillow thing is a GODSEND. I used it all day yesterday and I'm using it now.

The long-acting local is definitely all gone now. It's interesting learning how to get around without letting either forefoot touch ANYTHING. I am realizing how much easier things would be with one good leg, particularly in the bathroom. But I'm still glad I don't have to go through surgery twice!

I suspect, as ouchy as this is, that I have it easy in the post-surgical pain department. After all, at the bottom of the incision just coincidentally happens to be a spot where I don't have a nerve any more.

Since the local's worn off I can feel my toes... most of them. On each foot there is a spot I will never feel again, and let me just say right now that is the weirdest sensation I have experienced in thirty-seven years on this earth. It's not half so freaky when I know it's an anaesthetic. This is ME; this is how my body is, forever. A local is also, somehow, not quite as complete a loss of sensation. I touch these toes with my fingers and it's like they're not there at all. Someone substituted plastic toes. Except that the other side of each toe is there. At that point my brain segfaults. It simply cannot make sense of the input it is getting.

For some reason I am still thinking of all this as a grand adventure.

Comments

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

Well, I guess I'll add my numbness story too, especially since it has a happy ending.

It's somewhat similar to what happened to hnybny. When I had my hysterectomy, a minor nerve was cut and part of my left thigh was numb. It did feel extremely bizarre, especially when I touched that area. I could feel in my hand that I was touching something, and see with my eyes that I was touching my thigh, but I had no sensation of being touched. It was disturbing at first, but I eventually got used to it. In fact, after awhile it was kind of fun to play with -- I would touch it with a soft fingertip, a sharp fingernail, press gently, press hard, etc. It was really interesting when I started being able to feel a poke with something sharp at the edge!

Over time the size of the area got smaller and smaller, and within a year or two it had gone away completely. Even though it had been an interesting curiosity, it was a relief to have normal feeling back. That won't happen in your case, since eliminating feeling from that area was the whole point. But I know how weird it feels to you.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Wow - maybe other nerves took over the job? I have no idea how this all works!

Your description of the numb area is exactly what I'm going through. My fingertips feel that I'm touching something, and I can see that my fintertips are touching my toes, but unless I push hard enough to move the toes (and thus trigger surgical-incision-pain) my foot has NO sensation that it is being touched in that spot.

I wouldn't be surprised if my numb area gets a bit smaller over time, too. I've already had it happen (though it took well over a decade) in one damaged spot on my hand. Current medical thinking seems to be that peripheral nerves can indeed regenerate to some extent. Obviously I won't regenerate a full third interdigital nerve bundle, but I might get a few new tendrils over the course of the rest of my life. Who knows? :-)