Toe-tally Awesome!

 November 17, 2023

Back in May, a lump suddenly appeared on the fourth toe of my right foot. By suddenly, I mean one day was normal, the next, a lump. A visit to a podiatrist, and I learned it was a ganglion cyst, benign, but could be troublesome. He lanced it, squeezed a jelly-like substance out, and told me he wouldn’t be surprised if it came back. They usually do. It did.

My best guess is that this is a very delayed consequence of a teenage mishap. A bunch of us guys were playing a pickup soccer game in the parking lot of our church. Pickup means it wasn’t a planned game like today’s youthful soccer games, and being unplanned, I had come wearing moccasins. As in flimsy moccasins. You can see where this is going, can’t you? 

The ball came to me and I loaded up for a mighty kick. Apparently, my foot-eye coordination was a bit lacking that afternoon, as instead of the ball, I landed a solid blow to the steel-toed boot of the defender. I never went to the doctor, but the bent toe told me all I needed to know. It was broken, and it’s that very toe that is my present offender.

So, before our trip to Cuba I did a round of pre-op doctors visits. It would have been much simpler had I whacked it with an axe while splitting wood. A single trip to the ER, and bada-boom, this would have been over months ago. As it is, this morning found Linda and me in the surgical wing of our local hospital, but not before the requisite Bailey injury jokes. Linda told the kids that instead of an ambulance, she was thinking of calling a toe truck to take me in. I told her that since it had appeared in the early summer, it must have been all the toe-matoes I had been eating. We’re funny people that way.

All is well. I have to walk like a penguin for the next week, heel first, but I can do that. All I need is a tuxedo. Showering will be a bit challenging, but I’m sure I can manage. If I can’t, Linda will have me sleeping in the garage. In the meantime, I got to pray for my nurse, and am grateful for the staff, the technology, the surgeon’s skill, and the medicines that make this a relatively minor matter. Having just returned from Cuba, I know that none of these should be taken for granted. I, and we, are blessed beyond measure!