WAKE UP ! YOUR TOE IS RINGING !!!!

I have been "awake" since six this morning.  Well, sort of awake.  I got up to pee at six and never really got back to sleep. Instead I drifted in and out of sleep while my brain composed different blogs that I could write today.  Some titles included, "Power Points of Prayer" (That one may have put you all to sleep),  

"I have a Zit", (I have no idea where that one was going but since I DO have a zit at 75 years old I thought it might be a good start for a blog.) 

"Drugs, Sex and Rock and Roll", (a blast from the 60's) 

And this most recent event, "I Think I swallowed My Battery"

I can't remember the other forty ideas that played through my head during my two and a half hours of sloppy sleep early this morning and I would probably still be flopping around trying to get comfortable except my big toe started ringing.

Yes,  I said my big toe was RINGING !   Well, actually it did not make any noise but it felt exactly like my phone does when I have it on vibrate when someone calls. In my half stupor of "sleep" this morning I first thought I had fallen asleep last night with my phone next to me and it had gotten down to the bottom of the bed where it was resting on my toe.  But that was not the case at all.  The ringing, (vibrating) or to be exact the tingling was coming from my big toe. 

I will take a moment to back up a bit and return to the blog I posted two or three weeks ago talking about the pain in my leg.  I haven't written any more on that topic because although I did not die I have, at several times, wished I was dead . . . just so the pain would stop.  Not really, I NEVER wish I was dead even in the worst of pain but I DO pray like crazy for relief and thankfully God ALWAYS answer my prayers one way or another.  (Did you know you can offer up your pain to God for the poor souls in Purgatory?  You can and I always do but that goes into the "Power Points of Prayer" blog that I will hopefully write one day soon. I'll warn you ahead of time so you can bring your pillow.)

Back to the leg pain . . .   I went to the walk in medical, I had an x-ray of my knee, I took steroids for five days, I returned to the walk in and got different pills and I went to the chiropractor.  All that held the pain at bay long enough, (and here I give total credit to the Lord), for us to go camping last week for four days and three nights at the beautiful Lake Goegebic about three hours from here. During that time my leg was fine and even with sleeping in the RV on fold out beds I slept fantastic and felt wonderful.  BUT . . . when we got back my leg kicked back into hyper drive. The pain comes and goes and is usually manageable and once I find that comfortable spot in the bed I can sleep all night.  So I guess that wasn't enough for Satan or who ever is playing with me because I then started to loose all ability to bend my right foot at the ankle, toes to nose. That charming addition would also come and go, usually proceeded by the pain shooting down my leg and across my foot.  I am told this is called, "Drop Foot" and I DO NOT L IKE IT !!!   I stumbled around here walking like Quasimodo dragging my leg/foot behind me.  It was not pretty or fun and I almost killed myself several times tripping on my dragging foot.  The best was when it happened while I was driving.  Ever try to move a dead foot from the gas to the brake ?   I don't suggest it !

SO . . . with this pleasant little "complication" and one evening of pain so severe I was begging God to make it stop, which he did after about ten minutes. (Sometimes you just have to get his attention and let him know you are serious and then be patient.) I called my friend Theresa who is the smartest person I know when it comes to muscles and nerves.  She walked my brain through different possibilities and although we did not come up with a total diagnosis we did come up with a couple of possibilities, all of which involved further doctor visits.  But she put my mind at ease and really really helped me to get a handle on all this.  

One of the possibilities, which I am leaning toward only because it is the "simple" explanation, is that my sciatic nerve is acting up. It fits all the profiles and because I had a short bout of sciatic pain last winter while in Florida I am thinking this is the problem.

Yesterday I went to the Michigan Chiropractor, Kevin and we went over all the symptoms which he also thought were pointing toward sciatica. I felt really good when I left there and my foot didn't drop once until last night just before I went to bed.  

Then at 8:15 this morning my toe started ringing !   It must have been the chiropractor calling to tell me to come back in tomorrow morning for another adjustment.