As part of my week of medical wackiness, I went in to TriCore yesterday to get blood work done to see if we could get any insight into my blotchy foot.

Last week, before my back decided to give up on me, I came home from work and took off my socks one night, and I was surprised to see a bunch of bright reddish blotches on the top and around the ankle of my right foot. My foot didn’t itch as if the discolorations were a rash. And my foot didn’t hurt as if I twisted it or banged it on something. But perhaps most peculiar was that the splotchiness was on one foot. On closer observation, it looked like a bunch of shallow bruises under the skin.

I had seen the blotches before, nearly a month ago, after hiking in Moab and doffing my shoes that evening. At the time I just dismissed the phenomena as a allergic reaction to something I came across on the trail. The blotchiness never fully faded after Moab, but it was fading, so it slipped from my mind.

But the blotches were red last week after work.

When my back finally healed enough to let me get up, I got in to the doctor this week about my foot. “Hmmm. Let’s do some blood tests,” she said.

So yesterday was test day.

And mostly I passed. Red and white blood cells, sugar levels, iron, Vitamin B, thyroid- all in a normal range. Where I did go a little off the road? My Vitamin D was low, and my lipids were high.

I’m not sure how those contribute to a blushing foot.

For whatever reason, the doc had also suggested I put antifungal cream on my foot, just in case.

We’ll see.

For now, I will just wader around with blotchy foot.