Studmuffin or bust

So it’s two weeks since round two of the cryo and the pain kicked in after about day six. Thankfully gabapentin came to my aid, riding in on its 300mg yellow casing. It might be a while before I can, but I can’t wait to slip on these babies.

From the shoe stable of Mr Mr Kurt Geiger these are comedically called ‘Studmuffin’. Yep, seriously that’s the name on the box of these shoes. I bought these when I refused to be torn away from heels but knew that I had to make a change from the pointy-toed monsters that had led me down the painful garden path in my pre-neuroma days. Like an addict I told myself I could just have a heel without the pointy toe and get by, I could just get a small fix and that I would be ok, I could manage it, I could control my urges and desires, I would be ok having a small heel and a roomy toe. And pretty much, I was right.

These were the shoes I wanted, nay needed for a friend’s wedding in 2010. I wasn’t sure if I could make it through the day and night in the Studmuffins so I bought a relatively flat wedge back up pair of shoes from Dune that accompanied me to Stoke on Trent for the wedding and reception. The wedges gave me height without pain and also, two pairs of shoes for the same event with an excuse of wanting to ensure a pain free day, sneaky huh?

I ended up wearing the wedges in the day-time, they had the incredibly unimaginative name of “Madrid”, but then I slipped on the Muffins in the evening when we got back to the hotel. It was a good day and a good night and my foot didn’t hurt very much at all but to be honest that might have been the alcohol. Just saying….

Subsequently I have found that these shoes have become my greatest ally in the need for height coupled with the need for a pain free life. Whenever I have slipped on a dress over the summer they have been my gently caressing non-threatening friends whilst in the office, at a funeral, at a birthday party and at numerous other non-events where a dress called for heels to avoid the appearance of being the small, tubby lass with fat calves and ankles (cankles). I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get reacquainted with the muffins by the end of September when I’m off to a wedding. Quite frankly, if I have to wear casual slip-ons I might as well just tip up in a pink shell suit, yeah but, no but...

It’s the Muffins or bust.

Comfortably Numb.

At the start of April 2011, I returned to see my podiatrist and he scanned my foot again. The good news was that the neuroma had shrunk by 80% but the bad news was that the bones in my foot were rubbing the 20% of what was left. This was the cause of the continued discomfort and pain.

Robin, my podiatrist, (www.thebarnclinic.co.uk) was still keen to give the foot more time to heal as he advised that inflammation from the procedure could be the cause of the pain. Being the eternal optimist that I am, I went with that suggestion and agreed to try new orthotics to spread the weight across the front of my biomechanically deformed and useless tarsal area.

So the orthotics (http://bit.ly/mhkQnm) have been in my shoes now for just over a month and though my foot does feel eased when I’m wearing them, as soon as I go back to barefoot the pain revs up a notch, so I think I’m going to go again for another round of the cryo-injection therapy. Robin seems to think if we give it a really good blast this time around then there's a 50% chance the nerve might die back never to return again, which is a good and bad thing. It does mean I’ll have a patch on my foot which will always be numb; no nerve = no feeling; but it does mean that the neuroma can’t come back. Ever.

Goodbye, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodnight.