Ouch

Back in early May, I attended a conference for work in Washington, D.C. I spent most of the 5-6 days I was there on my feet, either selling books or walking around the enormous convention center. And it was around that time that I started noticing a very slight numbness in my big right toe. It was very slight, to the point that I was unsure if I wasn’t just imagining it, but it was a little disconcerting. I resolved to stay off my feet as much as possible when I got home and to buy some new, more comfortable shoes.

The numbness, though, never went away. It’s intermittent, and I can move and put pressure on the toe without any discomfort. I’ve never lost feeling in the toe completely, and I have no trouble walking on my foot. The toe has just just felt slightly different since D.C. — enough that I thought maybe I’d pinched a nerve, or suffered a hairline fracture, or something.

A few weeks later — I’m not sure exactly when at this point, but I know it was after I returned from the conference — I started experiencing pain in my left side, in the upper rear thigh and thereabouts. It felt a lot like what people have been telling me a pulled hamstring feels like: sharp, painful twinges in the muscle when I sit down, stand up, bend over, or stretch out the leg while sitting down. I’ve been trying to keep off of it, applying ice and heat and Aleve, but it’s been tough. Sometimes it seems like it’s (very slowly) getting better; other times, not so much.

It was actually what I was most concerned about when I went to see an orthopedist yesterday afternoon. The toe is…well, weird and unnerving. But it’s the leg that actually hurts. And I don’t remember doing anything that would have pulled the muscle in the first place.

They took a bunch of x-rays, took a look at the legs and tested my reflexes (which are apparently a little off on my left side), and then the doctor said he wanted me to see a neurologist about the toe and get an MRI of my lower back to see about the leg. Then I’ll see one of his colleagues in the same practice, the back specialist, and go from there.

Which isn’t exactly what I wanted to hear. It’s still probably nothing — at worst, a pinched or damaged nerve in my foot and a pulled muscle in my thigh. But obviously what I wanted to hear was, “oh yes, that’s what it is, absolutely nothing to worry about.” Or, failing that: “definitely worry about it, but here’s what you need to do to make it better.” Instead I’m going for an MRI on Monday and worrying over the possibility, however small, that it’s not a pulled hamstring but something worse. I have an appointment with the neurologist in mid-July — the first appointment I could get at a mutually convenient hour — but again, it’s the leg that’s the biggest concern.

Which is just another reason why sitting hunched over a computer screen, trying to figure out why my cable modem and my wireless router won’t talk to one another like they used to, is low on the list of things I want to be doing.