Boot or No Boot?

Some of you know that I fractured my right foot about 8 weeks ago and finally got to a point where I could actually walk around my neighborhood again.

I have no idea how it happened but I managed to fracture the side of my little toe on the same foot and just had it x-rayed yesterday as confirmation.

Well, my doctor thought it looked like a stress fracture from the change in my walk from the original problem so he decided I needed a "boot". OMG, this thing looks like what you might wear if you were going to go skiing or something. It has 5 different Velcro straps to keep it tight on your foot and half way up your leg. All this for a fractured toe?

On top of this lovely little fashion boot is the price you pay for it. Now, I am not sure if my insurance is going to pick up the tab of $160.00 or not. They weren't sure either so they charged me 25% just in case. I can think of several pairs of shoes I could buy for that.

They strapped me in this thing before I left the office so I had to hobble on it to get to my car where I had to take it off anyway as there is no way that can be safe to drive with.

I get home and put it back on and within half an hour I can feel my neck and right shoulder giving me fits with the uneven posture and gait you get wearing this thing.

So, my choice is this: Do I wear the boot and hope it helps to heal my toe more quickly and just spend the extra money at the chiropractor's office to keep realigning my shoulder or do I just wear my slippers around the house like I've been doing and save the boot for long distance journeys?

Honestly, when you have fibromyalgia absolutely anything and everything out of the ordinary can upset the balance and cause you pain but most doctors don't recognize this or take it into consideration when prescribing. My doctor asked me all kinds of questions about what vitamins I take, whether I still had periods or not, what types of surgeries I have had, etc. He even prescribed a Dexa scan to check on bone loss, but never once addressed my fibromyalgia and how this change in posture wearing this boot may increase pain and create other problems.

We are still in the dark ages when it comes to this chronic illness. Very few believe it exists let alone recognize how it affects a person when prescribing treatments for unrelated ailments.

Even my chiropractor gave me a whole list of exercises to start doing to keep my sciatic nerve from acting up while I am waiting for this fracture to heal. If I did all of those exercises at once and every day I would be in constant pain that even the Tramadol couldn't help.
I decided to take on a few at a time and increase as I go along and it seems to work out fine.

I have said it before and I will continue to say it "We must play an active role in our health because we know our bodies better than anyone." What works for some may not work for you, so ask questions, research what you can and pay close attention to what your body is telling you.

Until next time :)