Well, I THOUGHT that was all. I was wrong.

This morning we went and saw my Orthopaedic Surgeon.

First, the general situation.

The left foot is lookin pretty good. Not as good as he had hoped, but good enough.

The right foot ain't so good, but it looks like it's about as good as it's ever gonna be.

So what do we do about it?

Well, the left foot gets it's tune-up on November 11. It will be outpatient surgery to remove all the metal from it and that should give me relief from the burning feeling I get under my ankle from the plate that's in there. It will also stop all the friggin metal detectors from wiggin out every time I get near one. ;)

After the surgery I am to stay off the foot for 5 days (use crutches and/or walker) to protect the sutures. After that I can start wearing the klingon mukluk boots, shoes, or whatever I want and start putting weight on it again and the stitches will come out probably the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. After that, it should be good to go. No word on follow-up physical therapy.

The right foot is a bit more problematic. The thought is it will not get any better and very well could get worse with age (growths, arthritis, etc.). Surgery to make it better is no longer an option. There just is not enough good stuff in the right places to do what he thought of doing except for 1 radical procedure that I outright refused. It involves cutting off my heel bone and repositioning it. No thanks!

So what's the answer? Live with it until I can't take it any more or something gets much worse. At that point we, to quote the Doc, "Trade it in for a new one." Yes, we are talking amputation.

I know it sounds terrible and drastic, but in the long view it could be far better than what I am dealing with now. It could offer the possibility of more normal and flexible mobility than I will likely ever have with the foot being the way it is now.

But that is a lingering consideration for another day. No big plans to take action on that. I am thinking about it, of course, but serious consideration will be put off until we see how the 11/11 surgery, at least, goes.

J and I have seen pretty much this exact scenario as a possibility for quite some time, so we are doing pretty OK with it...at least for now.

Here we go again...