40 is the new 80

I turned 40 in March.  Yeah, I know...FORTY!!!  UGH!  It kills me to even admit to that.  I remember at 19 thinking that 27 was about the oldest I'd ever want to be.  But here I am.  Forty. 

It wouldn't be so bad if my health, which has always been fantastic, hadn't gone downhill pretty dramatically starting in May.  I went to bed one night feeling just fine, but woke up a few times feeling a weird cramp in my right foot.  By the time I got up in the morning, my middle toe was completely swollen and I couldn't apply any pressure to the bottom of my foot at all.  What the heck could it be???  I hadn't hit it against anything so maybe it was a bug bite?  I limped around, waiting for it to get better.

It didn't.  After about 4 days of no improvement, I went to my stand-by medical plan ("Google") and had no problems finding out what it was:  Morton's neuroma.  It's an irritated, swollen nerve between the bones in the toes.  It's most commonly between the 3rd and 4th toes, but mine felt like it was between the 2nd and 3rd toes.  Most people on the internet talked of invasive treatments, such as cortisone and/or alcohol injections or even surgery to have the nerve removed.  I did find a couple bloggers who discussed cold laser treatments done at a chiropractor's office.  I decided to take the route.

By the time I got the appt with the chiropractor and the first treatment, I had been limping for about 10 days.  The treatment did start to loosen up the toes a bit, but by then I had an even bigger problem...literally!  My left knee, which had been bearing the brunt of all my limping, was swollen to about 3 times its normal size.  YIKES!  Now I was unable to bear weight on EITHER leg!  I was so miserable,  I can't even begin to tell you.  I ended up on crutches for about a week, trying to get the knee back into working order.  We had to have Chris take a bit of time off work and hire a sitter for the other days to help take care of the boys.  I could hardly get to the bathroom, take a shower, etc.  Everything - and I mean EVERYTHING - took a Herculean effort to get through.  I was depressed because I felt so incredibly useless.

Chris joked with me that "40 is the new 80" but I wasn't laughing about anything. 

Stay tuned for part two....