Flibbertigibbet

It's Just Nerves

So, I have been worried since my surgery about that fact that I cannot feel my big toe. At first, I wrote it off to the swelling from the surgery because it really just felt like the bandages were too tight. Well, it's been almost two weeks (yes, I'm impatient and think that I should heal like Wolverine.) and this weekend I was really worrying about my toe again.

My other toes had recovered, but my big toe is still distinctly numb. I could trace the affected area with my finger both on the top and bottom of my foot. Because of how the area does not any longer correspond to any restriction by the bandage, I concluded that something was up with the nerves in my foot.

I don't know much about nerves, so this kind of freaked me out and so I beeped my doctor at a football game. Amid the noise of the crowd and his horrible cellphone reception, he told me that during the surgery, they had to fold back the nerve fibers to work and that I was probably still numb due to some bruising, but I should recover fine.

Ok. I don't know what nerves look like in real life because I've only seen them in textbook illustrations, but I've always thought that they're very tiny and if you do see them, they must look like spiderwebs. It is incredible to me that my doctor not only knows what they look like, but he can just flip them back, do some work and then put them back where they came from.

Anyway, much relieved, I went back to my sofa and massaged my toe. Now, for the past two days, my toe has started waking back up. I'm able to control its movement a little better and I'm experiencing some sudden, sharp pains and jerks in my toe. (Doc said this is normal.)

It's kind of weird, but also kind of thrilling as my toe wakes back up. It feels neat as my awareness of the blood moving around in there increases. It feels hot and cold at the same time and at points it's like someone is pricking my toe lightly with a needle.

So, it's just nerves and it looks like things are getting back to normal. Hopefully, I'll be able to walk again in another week or two.