Thursday, June 19, 2008

Valerie, You have a foreign body in your foot!




Well, the continuing drama of my left foot! I was told to call the doctor back yesterday to discuss my x-rays. I went to the Internet to my friendly neighborhood att.com/relay and called my doctor.
Val: I'm calling to check my x-rays!
Nurse: You have a foreign body in your foot!
Val: WTF, what do you mean?
Nurse: It is about 2 inches long and you need to go to the ER and have it removed.
Val: Is this like a wood? How did this happen?
Nurse: It is metal and about 2 inches, it is showing it could have been there a long time. Did you ever hurt yourself?
Val: I'm sure I have, but wouldn't I know if I had a piece of metal in my foot?
Nurse: Just go to the ER and have it removed, go today.
Val: How is my foot???
Nurse: Oh, you might have a hairline break, but ER can tell you!
Oh my goodness, I freak out and text Alex to get off work and come home. Alex can be strange. This is what I get from him.
Alex: Did you ask if it is an alien probe?
Val: What???
Alex: You know like X-Files.
Val: This is not X-Files it is my foot, and for I know you most likely put it in there.
Alex: No the aliens did!
So I heard all about aliens the whole trip to the ER.
So between the driving and visit, I am on the phone texting Abbie, Jennifer, Billie, and Vanessa. Each try to get my focus back on task. The foreign body in the foot. Of course I am upset.
One thing I did find out is when stressed, I don't hear well. My hearing is gone....not there...forgotten. So after waiting for an hour with screaming babies, Jenna telling me the aliens did not take her mom, and Alex driving me bananas; I get called back!
So alone in the room, peace and quiet- wrong. Little beeps, loud beeps, running, screaming, yelling, crying, and of course the bring the chart noise. So I focused at the task at hand, I called mom....
Val: Mom, did you put a foreign body in my foot?
Mom: No, but who knows with you. Did you see the x-rays?
Val: Alex said it is an alien probe. What do you think?
Mom: Val, you need to focus, first I told you a long time ago Alex is an alien. But wait for the doctor. Call me later.
Val: (hung up) Wait, I'm alone in the room...
Finally the doctor comes in. He explains there is metal in my foot and most likely a needle. It is not in the place I thought it was. It is on the side of the foot. He states unless it causes pain, he suggest leaving it in. WTF, I want this metal out, OUT of my foot. He thinks it could have been in there for up to 20 years and no it is not an alien probe. And oh yes, you have a hairline break in the top of your foot so a soft boot for 2 weeks. He asked if I was in pain from a scale of 1 to 10. I said a about a 3. Are you sure? I looked at him and said, I had bilateral cochlear implant surgery, I know what a ten is. So after a tetanus shot. Got up and walked out boot and all.
So as I leave the noisy ER and wonder, how am I going to get this foreign body out of my foot?

17 comments:

Karen Mayes said...

Oh my goodness, I'd want to get that needle out of my foot! ;o)

What if I hit my foot accidently, and the needle could move, hitting nerves or/and bone, causing pain, infection, etc...

Nah, I'd ask for the removal of the needle...

I enjoyed reading about your son's thinking that the alien put it into your foot... better leave it. Cuz, in the X-files series, if removing the metal probe, they'd develop cancer and die. ;o)

Sam said...

How peculiar!! Do you remember treading on a needle?!?

Valerie said...

I have no clue. They said it could have been in there for up to 20 years.... let me see 20years ago I was 19.

I did find an interesting blog about needles in feet.http://thefootblog.org/2006/11/10/foreign-bodies-of-the-foot/

Anonymous said...

Ewwww!

I think you were busy for drinking too much so that way you would not feel the pain. You already drunk! :-o

;-) Me silly girl.

White Ghost

Anonymous said...

I figure you would have been 20 years old when you got that in your foot, were you very active at that age??

I guess the A1 accident was for a good cause, if that didn't happen...you would still have it in ur foot for another 20 years.

I wonder how you could pass all metal screeners at airports.

I would rather have it removed if it was me.

Anonymous said...

I was thinking what WG was thinking but didn't want to say it.

Karen Putz said...

Well, when I was 19, I attended a few parties where I didn't remember a thing. For all I know, I could have a few corkscrews or beer tabs in my body too. :)

Candy said...

You must have been on something or drunk when that needle accidentally got in your foot. Gosh, I've stepped on a needle before, it HURTS!

I've had a toothpick in my feet once too and that HURTS!

:)

I don't think it had anything to do with aliens, but, you never know.

Valerie said...

My long island teas did me in!!!

WG you are so silly :)

Lane, I had some fun in the early years. I guess now I know too much fun.

Called doctor and now I have to see the pediatrist and most likely surgery. Yuck! the teas did me in.

Laurie said...

Wow, all I can say is maybe the A.1. bottle dropping on your foot could be a blessing in disguise. Otherwise you would not have known about the needle in your foot! I'd get it out! Like Karen says, what if you hit it and it moves in the wrong place or something???

K.L. said...

It could be worse. When my son was 8, he was horsing around and ended up stepping on the end of a small paint brush. The entire tip ended up getting jammed up in to his heel. It took two weeks for the metal tip (1" long) to work its way back out. The doctor then numbed his foot and pulled the tip out. It still had bristles on the end of it. I think I would rather have had it been a needle.

David said...

Were you hanging out in any haystacks?
This could be just the tip of an iceberg.
Quite a post!

Cyborg Queen said...

That' s just bizarre. I wonder if you put your CI on it and it will dangle...wouldn't that be REALLY weird act? :-)

Imagine if you had it for 20 years or more!

Have it taken out, have your hubby and kids take care of you. :-)

Besides - how does the doctor know it has been in there for 20 years? what if it was there for 25 years or only 5 years? :-)

Abbie said...

*chuckle*

Foreign body in your foot... I don't mean laugh but this is peculiar. I mean of all things that the A1 Steak Sauce bottle falls on, it falls on a host of a foreign body LOL!!!

Anonymous said...

OMG, can't imagine a needle in my foot for some, what is it? 20 years?! You never felt any pricking or stabbing from that thing in all this time? *scratching my head*

Oh, yah, kinda know what you mean about the scale of 1 to 10 pain scale. Had eye surgery one time, and the doc's had to tie me down when I saw the damn needle they used to anesthetize my eye. It was, eh, about 5 inches long, AAARRRGGH!

I breezed thru "permanent cosmetics" on my eyelids after that. :)

Ann_C

Jennifer said...

Valerie, that is absolutely bizarro! And I think your mom is right...your husband sounds like an alien to me too ;). Only you!
I would want it out too...once I knew it was in there I'd never relax!!

VBnBama said...

Valerie, maybe you should stay away from xray machines...no telling what other foreign objects you have hidden away...are you possibly Inspector Gadget?
P.S. Karen you're killin' me, haha