October 25, 2006
Today’s big adventure was to the podiatrist, whose manner we really liked – very personable. He started by asking Gary some general questions, and one was, “How old are you, if you don’t mind my asking.” That struck me funny, so I said, “What if he does mind you asking?” The doctor smiled and said he’d ask anyway. He gave Gary some antibiotics to take for the toe infection and recommended that he have a procedure done where the doctor removes a vertical strip of nail on the edge of the toe to prevent future infections. The doctor said he did three or four of those a week, and maybe three or four came back in a year with infections in the same area. He said he commonly did it with people who have paralysis. I asked a couple things: whether Gary had gotten this infection because I hadn’t cut his nails properly, and what made the doctor think the infection would recur, given that Gary didn’t have a history of them. The doctor said that if he knew the answer as to why Gary had gotten the infection, he would say it had nothing to do with how I’d cut the toenails – they looked fine to him, and the infection was in the middle of the nail, not at the top edge. He thought the reason Gary got the infection was a result of the fact that his feet swell as a consequence of the SCI. The toes also swell, and this makes the nails press into the sides of the toes, a condition ripe for an infection. Because Gary’s feet will continue to swell, he is at greater risk for infection. The doctor seemed to indicate that there was a greater risk of the infection occurring at a place where Gary had already had one, which is why the doctor recommended removal of part of the nail of that toe. But he was not going to take a pre-emptive strike by removing the edges of nails of the other toes.
So, Gary got a prescription for an antibiotic and some betadine for soaking his feet (twice a day for twenty minutes using two capfuls of betadine). He is to take the antibiotic twice a day, and supposedly should see marked improvement in three days. We also set up an appointment for him to have part of the nail removed on Monday.
But we got to talking about it at home. I’m still a little leery of the “cut it off” approach, thinking maybe Gary should wait and see if this actually is a recurring problem. I suggested he call Shepherd and ask their opinion, and he said he is going to do that. He also said if his toe looks much better by Monday, he’ll ask the doctor again about it again.
One weird thing – Gary has had a problem with fungus on three of his toenails for the past fifteen years, and now, suddenly, it looks like the fungus problem is clearing up – the new nails growing at the bottom of the toes look fine right now. We’re not sure how that could be a result of his SCI, but we can’t think of another explanation (though we doubt that, in any case, getting an SCI would ever be a recommended treatment for the problem ;-)).
Let’s see, what else. Gary had to go back down in weights on a couple of exercises he’d recently gone up in weights on – the lower back on his new chair led to some problems in being able to balance while using those greater weights. He’ll no doubt go back up in weight when he gets use to the chair. He also finds balancing in a wheelie to be different in this chair – so far it takes more concentration and effort.
One strange thing about the new chair is the tip bars don’t adjust very high – Gary even drags the bars when he is doing a little wheelie to get into the house, and he certainly didn’t do that in his old chair. The supplier said that the only way to get this tip bars up higher would be to saw about an inch off them, and then drill a new hole in them so they will click in place. I hope this doesn’t become a problem, as right now we are not inclined to do any sawing – but if he is out somewhere where there is a small curb, he might have to have someone bump him up or down it, as neither of us is comfortable at this point with him flipping his tip bars out of the way and taking the curb without them.
Oh, and speaking of curbs, the podiatrist’s office had accessibility issues. Gary couldn’t have gotten in the door himself – there was a curb at the threshold of the door (which seems an odd construction), and Gary would have had to do a wheelie while holding the door open.
Another ADA-related note. Gary said he read that some blind people are suing Target because their website is not accessible to blind people (I don’t understand the facts behind this – Gary knew a little about it, saying there is some software that makes webpages accessible to blind people, something like it translates the links into words). Target is claiming the ADA only applies to physical space, not cyberspace.
Tomorrow Gary goes to the dentist, our next adventure.
Today’s big adventure was to the podiatrist, whose manner we really liked – very personable. He started by asking Gary some general questions, and one was, “How old are you, if you don’t mind my asking.” That struck me funny, so I said, “What if he does mind you asking?” The doctor smiled and said he’d ask anyway. He gave Gary some antibiotics to take for the toe infection and recommended that he have a procedure done where the doctor removes a vertical strip of nail on the edge of the toe to prevent future infections. The doctor said he did three or four of those a week, and maybe three or four came back in a year with infections in the same area. He said he commonly did it with people who have paralysis. I asked a couple things: whether Gary had gotten this infection because I hadn’t cut his nails properly, and what made the doctor think the infection would recur, given that Gary didn’t have a history of them. The doctor said that if he knew the answer as to why Gary had gotten the infection, he would say it had nothing to do with how I’d cut the toenails – they looked fine to him, and the infection was in the middle of the nail, not at the top edge. He thought the reason Gary got the infection was a result of the fact that his feet swell as a consequence of the SCI. The toes also swell, and this makes the nails press into the sides of the toes, a condition ripe for an infection. Because Gary’s feet will continue to swell, he is at greater risk for infection. The doctor seemed to indicate that there was a greater risk of the infection occurring at a place where Gary had already had one, which is why the doctor recommended removal of part of the nail of that toe. But he was not going to take a pre-emptive strike by removing the edges of nails of the other toes.
So, Gary got a prescription for an antibiotic and some betadine for soaking his feet (twice a day for twenty minutes using two capfuls of betadine). He is to take the antibiotic twice a day, and supposedly should see marked improvement in three days. We also set up an appointment for him to have part of the nail removed on Monday.
But we got to talking about it at home. I’m still a little leery of the “cut it off” approach, thinking maybe Gary should wait and see if this actually is a recurring problem. I suggested he call Shepherd and ask their opinion, and he said he is going to do that. He also said if his toe looks much better by Monday, he’ll ask the doctor again about it again.
One weird thing – Gary has had a problem with fungus on three of his toenails for the past fifteen years, and now, suddenly, it looks like the fungus problem is clearing up – the new nails growing at the bottom of the toes look fine right now. We’re not sure how that could be a result of his SCI, but we can’t think of another explanation (though we doubt that, in any case, getting an SCI would ever be a recommended treatment for the problem ;-)).
Let’s see, what else. Gary had to go back down in weights on a couple of exercises he’d recently gone up in weights on – the lower back on his new chair led to some problems in being able to balance while using those greater weights. He’ll no doubt go back up in weight when he gets use to the chair. He also finds balancing in a wheelie to be different in this chair – so far it takes more concentration and effort.
One strange thing about the new chair is the tip bars don’t adjust very high – Gary even drags the bars when he is doing a little wheelie to get into the house, and he certainly didn’t do that in his old chair. The supplier said that the only way to get this tip bars up higher would be to saw about an inch off them, and then drill a new hole in them so they will click in place. I hope this doesn’t become a problem, as right now we are not inclined to do any sawing – but if he is out somewhere where there is a small curb, he might have to have someone bump him up or down it, as neither of us is comfortable at this point with him flipping his tip bars out of the way and taking the curb without them.
Oh, and speaking of curbs, the podiatrist’s office had accessibility issues. Gary couldn’t have gotten in the door himself – there was a curb at the threshold of the door (which seems an odd construction), and Gary would have had to do a wheelie while holding the door open.
Another ADA-related note. Gary said he read that some blind people are suing Target because their website is not accessible to blind people (I don’t understand the facts behind this – Gary knew a little about it, saying there is some software that makes webpages accessible to blind people, something like it translates the links into words). Target is claiming the ADA only applies to physical space, not cyberspace.
Tomorrow Gary goes to the dentist, our next adventure.
posted by Peg Daniels at 8:33 PM
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