Troubleshooting my Body

The shotgun approach I am taking with my body to rescue it from all I've done to it in the last couple years is almost overwhelming me. Is it possible I've stressed myself out even further with this self care thing? Perhaps.

What I've done is started seeing a Podiatrist for the plantar fasciitis who subsequently prescribed physical therapy. That's twice a week. I'm seeing a nutritionist to get me on track in the food and diet department. I'm working out twice a week and doing some of the wellness challenges we have at work including 50 situps every day. And I'm seeing a psychologist to help me deal with the stress and mental strain. Between all of these things I'm busy 5 nights a week. Frankly, it's ridiculous. When is a person supposed to relax? I fall into bed every night sometimes as early as 9:30, then wake up in the morning and do it all over again.

I'm totally pissed off at the podiatrist now. They made my orthodics wrong, which required two more visits to fix. I'm reviewing the EOB (explanation of benefits) provided by my insurance company and I am appalled at the over charging that they are doing to me and the insurance people. $50 for this, $50 for that, if the doctor touches my feet it's another $50, if I walk down the hallway with him watching it's another $75 per foot for "gait training". What a load of crap that is. One visit was $617. I mean seriously!?

What I do feel is helping the most is the physical therapy. With the stretches, pool therapy and other treatment they give me the pain is definitely getting better. Everyone says that plantar fasciitis takes a very long time to heal (or heel hahaha) and I can see why. I'm trying to be patient but that is not one of my strongest virtues. I'm also trying to be vigilant and keep up with my stretches and ice but it's exhausting.

Thank goodness I have good health insurance. What do people do without health insurance? I suppose they would have to be good to themselves and stay healthy or go bankrupt.

Long Absence

Let me apologize to all my faithful readers for my long absence. I've been very busy with work, sleeping and trying to practice "self care". I've worked pretty much every weekend for most of the summer and I have to say, burn out is imminent. Thank goodness a vacation is near. It is amazing how important it is to have something big like that to look forward to. I cannot wait.


You might have wondered what this "self care" thing is all about. Perhaps its all come about because I'm working so much, very stressed out about money or a combination of all that has happened in life over the past year or so. I feel that my body has reached its limit and has been whining for years about my lack of attention to it. Over the past 18 months that whining has gotten increasingly louder and moved into a scream over the past few months. That's a scream for attention. Well, it has worked. The back pain, the plantar fasciitis and pain associated with that, the eye strain headaches, the migraines, it just cannot go on.


I troubleshoot things for a living. Yes, those things are electronic, both hardware and software in nature, but let's face it, troubleshooting is a skill that can be applied to every problem in life. There are two approaches to troubleshooting; one being a methodical and linear step by step approach, eliminating each piece as you go until the problem is isolated; the second is the "shotgun" approach. This is the method I am taking to troubleshoot my body.

Tomorrow I'll discuss the details I've been taking.

My Poor Aching Footsies

I have been having a devil of a time with my feet. I've kind of always had foot issues especially when I worked at K-Mart in my late teens. All that standing on concrete was so painful. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore. Each morning I'd slide out of bed and I could hardly stand let alone walk the pain in my heels was so bad, more so on my right. So limping I would go to the bathroom.

I broke down and went to a Podiatrist to see what the matter was. First however, I had to search the internet to self-diagnose. This is the way of our modern society now and I'm a firm believer in knowledge = power. I had diagnosed myself with plantar fasciitis and my podiatrist concurred on his own, no lead in by me whatsoever. Plantar fasciitis is quite common and is also known as heel spurs. It's common symptom is severe heel pain upon rising, lessening as the day progresses then coming back as a dull ache and often recurring louder as you relax on your couch at night.

My treatment? 5 days of Celebrex, taped up feet for 2 or 3 days, and about 500 cortisone shots in my poor heels. Using his sonogram machine he sprayed my heel with something so cold that it burned. This was apparently to numb my heel although I was and still am suspect of the point of that. At this point he had leaned me way back in the chair so I couldn't see and like any good, compassionate doctor nattered away to me about mindless topics keeping me engaged and asking me questions. A little prick at first (the needle, not the doctor) and then the pain. The searing, propelling me off the table pain as he jabbed the needle into me repeatedly. At least it felt like it, I'm not really too sure. I guess the lidocaine goes in (which burns severely) and that is supposed to numb you so you don't feel the cortisone although I don't really get the logic there.

After he was finished the right heel I had to muster all my guts and glory to let him do the left. He told me sometimes 3 treatments are required although I doubt I'll ever allow that to happen again. I walked out of the doctors office blissfully numb in my heels and hoped for the best. That was short lived because by about 9pm I laid in bed trying not to cry myself to sleep. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.