A week ago today I went to my trusty foot doctor. He was the one who stuck a shot in between the 3rd and 4th toe joints of my right foot last summer and fixed a painful problem.
So this year, when suddenly I could hardly walk on my left foot, I returned to him to work his magic. First off he assessed the problem, told me to stand on my tip toes which I could with my right foot but not with my left. He named some tendon besides the Achilles that he suspected as the problem and ordered an MRI. I got an appointment that very day, after work.
The nurse placed this brace thing around my foot which helped me walk and relieved the pain some. But the trick was--they showed me twice how to put it on. I would have to take it off in a hurry at the MRI place with no time to carefully study how to do it so that I could ever hope to get it on again.
I came up with a brilliant plan--when I went back to work from the doctor's office, I went into the library workroom, took it apart, step by step while taking pictures and I would use the pictures to help me figure out how to put it back on.
So, I photographed different angles.
It looked so neat and orderly.
Then I began to take it apart. There is a lot of very strong Velcro holding everything together. The "bioskin" label part that holds it all together has to come off first.
Then the long black strap pieces come off. I call them criss cross applesauce because they cross on top of my foot.
But pulling the Velcro loose on a hurting foot wasn't easy.
One criss cross done.
Even though the ankle straps should come off last, I found I had to loosen them because it felt as though my foot were in the grips of a boa constrictor.
Now to figure out the second criss cross
Aha!
Black cross straps loose.
Now how to loosen the white strap?
And once again, sitting and crying in pain for a few minutes gave me the strength and courage to continue.
Sweet freedom! The white strap wraps around tight.
And that was where I stopped. I left the rest on until I went for the MRI.
But later when I tried to put it all back together it looked like this-- (That was after I did everything I could remember.)
Then I found a YouTube video showing neatly how to do the whole thing. So, I didn't need all these carefully taken pictures and they didn't help me anyway. The best laid plans.... Still since I took all those photos I thought I should share them. People love my tutorials and pictures of feet? (Maybe not so much.) I am pretty much of an expert with the thing after a week.
But, the foot brace has helped a lot. (Except that my foot feels like it has been squeezed by a boa constrictor when I wear it too long.) And today, this morning, I am back at the foot doctor to find out the results of the MRI.
(St. Peter, patron of foot problems, pray for me!)