tick tock says the crocodile

[alonewiththemoon]

I seem to be officially old now--I saw the podiatrist this morning to figure out what's going on the ball of my foot and it is highly likely that my second toe has arthritis.  Sigh.  I also learned that the reason it feels like the heads of my second and third metatarsals are rubbing against each other and popping when I dance up on the ball of my foot is that in fact they are, something to the left of the third metatarsal is swollen and pushing it over so that it rubs against its neighbor.  The two things are probably unrelated, just coincidentally near each other.  I'll go in for xrays sometime in the next week or so and then meet with the doctor again to go over them. 

So all in all, not awesome news, but not terrible news either.  The doctor felt that things won't deteriorate if I keep dancing on it, so it's just a matter of how much pain I feel on any given day.  And he also felt that a pretty conservative treatment plan would be effective and that we wouldn't need to think about surgery or anything like that.  Cortisone shots are likely in my future, oh joy.  I talked to the doctor about how extraordinarily painful my last cortisone shot was, and he said that I had a rare reaction called a cortisone flare (in fact, I think he said I was only his third patient ever to have had one--he was the doctor who gave me that shot a couple of years ago).  Apparently they happen without any rhyme or reason, you might have one the first time you get a shot and never again, you might not get one on the first shot but get one on a subsequent shot.  Hopefully my odds are now better for not having one, having had one once.  I really don't care to relive that experience.

On the positive side, I'm mostly not sick now, though I'm still definitely low energy.  I'm glad to be recovered in time for Thanksgiving.  I had much more in me than I thought I would for dance class last night; I think after a couple of weeks of working on one piece exclusively it was nice to have somebody throw random music at me and say here, just dance!  Even when it's not exactly my style of music, there's a joy in hearing and deciphering new patterns and melodies.  At the end of class we danced to a rather bizarre Pangea routine that started with a song that was almost Celtic fusion--I think the instrument in question was really a synthesizer, but it sounded like a cross between a hurdy-gurdy and bagpipes.  Possibly it was supposed to sound like a mizmar, but it just didn't.  It was so kooky it was fun to just let go and flow with it.  I even hopped a little here and there.  I also had the realization that I do really like zilling.  I hadn't touched my zills for a month and I enjoyed playing them again, even if I was a bit rusty.  I left class relaxed and happy.  Hopefully I can repeat that feat tonight!

Comments

[nepenthedreams]

I'm relieved that you don't particularly like Spectacular Rhythms either. I really want to like it but...
It puts into question my ability to hear & understand music.

Pangia - That's not a song I would dance to again necessarily but I was so glad just to hear some other kind of music that wasn't using all my brain cells to process.

I think I'm totally PMS right now. Looking back over the weeks & months, it appears I have a crappy time in dance class about every 4 weeks. I just realized I scheduled my next date at the Middle East for PMS time too. Oh well - those guysi n the back better not piss me off. :-)

[alonewiththemoon]

Yeah, it's too squirrelly for me. To me, it's Arabic lite, with a whole lot of Western influence--that upright bass, for instance. Classical Arabic music really doesn't have bass, the lower drums take care of filling that niche. So there's stuff in there that you wouldn't expect to hear and it gets confusing. For me also it's very reminiscent of Nagwa Fouad type busy dancing from the 70s and 80s and that's just not my cup of tea. And finally, I feel like there's no real song in there, just alternating busy, taqsim, busy, taqsim, repeat ad nauseum, short drum solo, busy end.

Be sure to bring a sword for the guys in the back ;-) Come to think of it, that's the situation I'll be in this Sunday when I dance, maybe I should reprise Voodoo Dolly!

[silentq.livejournal.com]

I was really surprised to see you stomping so hard during your performance on Sunday, I kept wincing in sympathy! :)
I'm pretty sure that I got cortisone flare from one injection, it *hurt* for a day or so afterward. :/
I'm really glad that they think they can avoid surgery, and I hope they get you fixed up and in less pain ASAP.

[alonewiththemoon]

Most of the heavy stomp was in my good foot--the bad foot just had to lift and propel :)

I wonder if these cortisone flares are more common than the doctors think, because people don't report them. When I had that shot, I just figured that getting a shot in the foot was way more painful than a shot in the arm and didn't think to call the doctor about it. The flares generally last for just 24 hours, and I know it takes me more than 24 hours of pain to actually do something about it.