toe status

Below is the photo that made my local doc think I should see the neighborhood orthopede:

11/17, T+2 days after the walk's end: The wet, pink wound in the middle looks kind of bad. It's not.

All the doc saw were my photos of my toe; he didn't ask me to take my sock off so he could examine it for himself. He's a very hands-off kind of guy. As a result of his armchair doctoring, I'm pretty sure he assumed gangrene when there was none. Biggest clues that there was no gangrene: no funk of rot and no spreading beyond that localized area. There are different types of gangrene that spread at different rates, but nothing on my toe has spread at all. This is just good, old abuse from all the pounding—tens of thousands of steps per day for fourteen days during a three-week period.

11/18: the wet part of the wound has dried a bit thanks to rest

As you also see above, I used tweezers to peel away some of the flaked, callused skin. This takes time and focus. I next went after the blood-dark, callused skin, and in taking most of that away, I saw that the toe looked a lot better:

11/20: But we're back to having more flakes to peel off.

Here's how things looked after another session with the tweezers and another day of drying:

11/21: T+6 days after the walk's end

The doc did prescribe a week's worth of antibiotics, and from where I stand, that was enough to allow healing to occur. So I never visited the orthopede: there was just no need. I've also been soaking my feet daily in an Epsom-salt solution. Feels good.

11/23, five days ago

Since the above photos were taken, I've been largely off my feet. I'm fasting today; early tomorrow morning, I'm planning to take a 9K walk out to the Tan Creek/Han River confluence and back. There's been no bleeding or leakage or weeping or seepage out of my toe—not for days. The original diabetic ulcer looks to be better healed than ever before. The toe still looks rough overall, but the roughness is at the surface level, where the calluses are. 9K is a short enough distance that I can just walk like a normal person with only my socks and shoes—no need to tape my feet up or wear bandages. So: walking modest distances is a go. By the end of the year, I ought to be almost totally healed.

I had also planned to restart my resistance training this week, but Monday's Five Guys dinner with Charles plus my Thanksgiving indulgence plus leftovers tomorrow are all conspiring together to make this week a wash (to be clear, I'm not blaming Charles; these indulgences, and what to do about them, were my choice). So—Monday morning, fresh start. Fast today, meet a friend tomorrow (Saturday) and enjoy an early-ish dinner, eat a salad on Sunday, then get back to the normal program (fast four days—MTRF—eat three). There's lots of work to be done. As the 1989 Korean book title went: 세계는 넓고 할 일은 많다, i.e., The World is Wide, and There's Much to Do.