If It's Not My Finger, It's My Toe

Awhile back I had some problems with a cyst in the end of my finger. I felt so silly going in complaining about the end of my finger hurting. It's not like my hand was broken, but it hurt for a really long time and I eventually got sick of it. I'm glad I had it checked out and it finally healed on it's own. Now, it's not my finger, but my toe. It's been hurting on and off for over a year and after I wore heels at my brother's wedding in October my toe went completely numb. Two weeks later it was still numb and I realized that I really needed to go in.

The first appointment they took x-rays and checked to make sure that it wasn't a problem in the joint or with the bone. When nothing showed up the doctor decided that it was capsulitis and treated it with a cortisone shot right into the joint. Can you say OUCH? I could feel the pain all the way up my leg. A few weeks later I went back and since I was still in pain he thought that there was a nerve that was involved. He poked around on my ankle, which was strange, but it actually caused pain in my toe. He gave me another shot in my leg to try to calm down the nerve and set another appointment to check up on my progress.

Yesterday I went back and, based on the fact that the pain is now constant, he has decided it is definitely the ligament and not the nerve. If it had been a nerve problem he would have referred me to a back specialist to make sure that I didn't have arthritis or some other problem that was causing nerve damage. (That was a scary thought!) He gave me yet another shot into my joint, which hurt soooo badly, and if this doesn't work then the next step is surgery.

Surgery! I am not looking forward to the idea of that. He would have to go in and reattach the ligament correctly. I cannot imagine how long it would take to recover from that, especially having to run after two kids all day long. I'd rather have 10 more ridiculously painful shots than have surgery.

I guess I should ask Santa for an easy fix for my foot. Anyone have a direct line to the big man?