Tender Tarsus Treatment

Yesterday was my first visit to the chiropractor since the COVID shutdown began. He worked his magic on all the achy spots that had accumulated in the past ten weeks. I also had him look at my sore toe. Even though it's much better, it still hurts to wear enclosed shoes. When I do I tend to favor my right foot, which causes me to walk funny. (Which would eventually cause my spine to get out of alignment. After many years of chiropractic care, I know everything always comes back to the spine.)

The doctor had me take my shoe off so he could examine the area. He wiggled the toe back, forth, up, down, and around in circles and asked me if any of the movements hurt. He asked about the bruise-when it started, when it was at its worst, and when it went away. Then he went into educational mode, which is one of the things I love about him.

I learned that a bruise is just a pool of blood under the skin from a ruptured vessel, and that even though my bruise wasn't visible anymore his rule of thumb is that it takes 6 days per decade of life for things to be completely back to normal.(If you're doing the math, that would be 42 days for me!)

He pointed out that even though the main bruise was gone my toe was still red and swollen, a sign that there was still blood pooled in that area. If I wanted to accelerate the healing he recommended Epsom salt soaks and massaging the area to increase the circulation. I got a demonstration of the proper technique, which involved stroking the foot area towards my heart and gently pulling and sliding my toe for several minutes each day.

It could just be my wishful thinking, but after the attention yesterday my toe seemed to be less swollen this morning. I tried putting on my walking shoes, which still hurt. I'll try again tomorrow. I'm not looking for complete healing, but it would be nice to wear something other than sandals.