Creepy feet

[cjsmith]

In these two photos taken during surgery, you can see how wide my toes are spread. It's clear that it's not just the toes, either -- the metatarsal bones, the long bones of the foot, are also spread apart.

That's not the gross part. Or, well, yeah, but it's nothing new.

There's a ligament that holds the heads of the metatarsals together, and for this surgery mine got cut. (Just between those two. The rest of my metatarsals are still stuck together.) That's why they could move like that. (They needed to move like that, too; the nerve bundle the surgeon had to reach lies at the bottom of the foot.)

That's not the gross part.

That ligament did not get stitched back together and it is not expected to heal. That change is permanent. So now I have feet whose inner bones can spread out more than normal. After I heal up maybe I will be able to take my foot in my hands and move it so it looks like that.

That's just plain creepy. But you can bet I'm going to be fascinated by this capability the instant it doesn't hurt to try.

Comments

[platypus]

Admittedly, I only gimpsed one thumbnail of your surgery photos (squeamish, sorry), but I do recall seeing a rather... spread apart... foot. If you're saying you'll be able to do that all the time... wouldn't the skin resist? I'm just trying to imagine it...

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

It would, a bit, but skin stretches/grows as needed. :)

[platypus]

Okay, I peeked through my fingers, and it's not as spread apart as I recall thinking from thumbnails. Eh, that just looks cool :)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

If I can learn to do it just by pushing my foot down on the floor the right way, I can have several different shoe sizes depending on my mood!

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

Okay, I *love* this.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

It beats going shoe shopping at the right (wrong?) time of the month!

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to say that I haven't been able to bring myself to look at any of the photos since your surgery.

I'm a wuss.

But I hope that it accomplishes what it was supposed to accomplish, and if it were *my* feet, I'd look at them without compunction. And, by the way, you *rock*.

:)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

It is perfectly okay to be a wuss. I myself am a wuss. Today, for the first time, the fascination and newness and all has worn off and those pictures look disgusting. I wince when I look at them.

*blush* thank you!

[perfect-autumn.livejournal.com]

Those are awesome pics. Who took them for you during surgery?

Also, that's awesome you can do that, just becareful not to over stretch any of the more anterior tendons too much, but I say go for it.

How cool.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

The OR nurse took them. I brought in my camera. I'm impressed that they seem to have *posed* all the instruments and such for the pictures -- that's more effort than I expected!

Yeah, "careful" would be a really good word there. :)

[butterfly-smile.livejournal.com]

Oh darling.
WOW, but it looks like you are on the mends.
If there is anything you need just yell.
(do it sitting down of course).

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Yeah, I'm very much on the mend. It hurts extra today, but it's really not that bad, and the surgeon seemed happy with my progress yesterday.

"Foot surgery patients do it sitting down" ;-)

[cathepsut.livejournal.com]

Yikes! But imagine, what a great party feature that will be going forward - "Oh, hey, look what I can do!"

CJ the Tree Sloth

[eichin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, if you ever want to go as a tree sloth for halloween, you're all set :-)

Re: CJ the Tree Sloth

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

BWAHAHAHAAA that's good.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I admit the ability to cross one eye is getting old and overused. Time to have a new trick!

[rampling.livejournal.com]

Wow, yeah, creepy and fascinating! Two coolnesses in one! ;)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Heh heh. For extra party-trick coolness, I should practice a faint deep slurpy sound effect, so I can make that noise exactly at the same time as I pull on my foot.

[rampling.livejournal.com]

Penn & Teller would prolly suggest also holding a pre-pierced packet of mayonnaise, ready to squeeze at the appropriate moment. They are such classic geeks!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Squeeze that as I let the foot shrink back up? YECCCCH. Excellent.

All this is sheer speculation, of course. Maybe the tissues around there won't have much give to them.

[rampling.livejournal.com]

I hope it doesn't end up feeling annoyingly weird or floppy or some such irritating type of oddness. Reasonable functionality with optional party-trick features would be best. ;)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

The doctor said there were no contraindications for stuff like running after this type of surgery. Evidently the instability created by severing that one tendon is not significant.

[kennita.livejournal.com]

I don't find the pics disgusting at all. What I don't get is why there isn't blood all over. Were there tourniquets on your legs?

Those neuromas look pretty big -- I hope getting rid of them helps as much as it seems like it would.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Tourniquets are as good an explanation as any I've come up with. I have no idea why there wasn't blood everywhere!

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

Oh, what wonderful photos! You have inspired me, CJ! I don't need any surgery at this time -- thank goodness! -- but next time I do, my camera is coming with me!

What did the nurse and doctor say when you handed them the camera and asked them to take the pictures? Just so I'm prepared for the reaction....

On another subject altogether ... I [heart] your shower! It's gorgeous! I had a nice shower in my last house (the only house I ever really loved), but even that was nothing like yours! And now I have just a regular old bathtub and I hate climbing into and out of it to take my showers. Sometimes when one of my knees is stiff it doesn't bend as much as I'm expecting it to, and I end up whacking my toes on the edge of the shower door track. (Which brings up the question, Why are the doors on a bathtub called shower doors?! I know, for the same reason we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway. =sigh= )

And how on earth do you keep those glass doors so sparkling clean?!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I do so love photos! I asked my surgeon ahead of time and she said "Bring in a camera and give it to someone." So at the surgery center I kept trying to give it to everyone. "Hi, my doctor said I can give this to someone to take pictures during surgery; are you the right person?" One person said "I don't think we'll be able to do that." But I kept asking, and the OR nurse was the one who replied "Oh, that would be me."

We almost never use that shower. It's in the upstairs bedroom, which has light in it, so Rob won't go near it. It makes a lovely guest place though. I chose that room for my recuperation because that shower doen't have a tall side like the downstairs shower (bathtub) I normally use! :-)

Maybe they're "shower" doors (just like shower curtains) because we wouldn't need them for a bath?