Two days after that I saw a vascular doctor. It was not the one I'd seen prior to the surgery. You've got to have your vascular system checked and mine had been great. That doctor was out of the town. I have run into people since who love and swear by the vascular doctor I saw on April 30. Fran had dropped me off and was parking her car. He came out to the waiting room and said he didn't really think there was a point to looking at the foot because if the toes had spasmed, it was a waiting game; it would have to take the time to do what it was going to do. 

You know how you have to be your own advocate in medical treatment? You have to speak for yourself? If you can't speak, have someone to speak for you? We have to form a team with a doctor and his or her staff.

I insisted he look at the foot. He decided to do it in the waiting room. No one else was there but the receptionist. As Fran walked in, he said: Oh, that toe is gone.

I looked at her.  She looked at me. He said it was not the worst thing, that we need toes 1, 4 and 5 to walk.  I would be able to walk again. He said nothing could be done vascularly (which was the reason my doctor had referred me).  We left. I was devastated.

Photo: Fran at Carter Barron Theater jazz concert. 6/2011.