By and copyright of Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
Cover by Conaire McMullan
The zombie rollercoaster continues as the undead continue to give us their view of being a rotting corpse under the control of Mother Nature.
This time round we meet Comic Book zombie and the zombie who thinks the ending of Toy Story 3 is sacrilege. What happens when a zombie’s faith in God is rocked to its very foundation and why is the spirit of Elvis Presley still going strong in the vast
roaming herds?
A zombie tells why the covid pandemic was much preferable to being undead and why having a club foot makes you feel normal as a zombie. Plus more zombie characters than you can shake a stick at.
Available on Amazon now!
Club Foot Zombie
Ok, I should say that I let happened to me. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and this was all my fault. I battled through each bout and came out the other end until the next relapse. All it took was pressure or the wrong way of walking and suddenly there was another ulcer. They would come no matter what I did and at one point I had them on both feet. I learned more words like air cast boot and ended up wearing two of them for a time. I remember an elderly lady sitting in the waiting room looking so frail wearing her boot. Those things are heavy bastards. They lock you leg in place with no muscle movement and I had one for literally a full year. At the end of it I saw one leg was thinner than the other because the muscle has wasted with none use. I was bloody fuming that podiatry had not made me aware of this and that they had allowed me to wear the boot for far longer than was recommended medically. Then again as I found out later certain podiatrists are shit at their jobs and cowardly hide behind the phrase ‘patient care’ for everything. If you’re somehow reading this story you Bonnie and Clyde of the medical industry, I hope you’re being slowly chewed on by a zombie horde you embarrassments.
Anyway a strange mound suddenly began to appear on the top of my foot like a large red boil. I went to podiatry as usual which at this point was almost my second home. The podiatrist took one look and went to get a consultant. I literally had surgery the following day as there was an infection building up a swell of pus around the bones eroding them. The bone was removed and I healed but sleeked silent diabetes was still ticking away. The problem sadly is even when you do wise up and control the disease rather than it controlling you; the damage is done and cannot be reversed. Little did I know the infection had gotten into the bone. Now it’s not all bad news because bone infection can be treated by good blood sugar control along with a course of intravenous antibiotics. However, sometimes the infection sadly can’t be halted. That means drastic measures have to be taken and for the patient that means amputation or partial amputation of limbs.
I lost all the toes on my left foot. I suppose the easiest way to explain it to you is if you make a fist as if to punch someone then that is what the top of my foot looks like now. At some point they may take the rest of the elg because you cannot ever guarantee that the surgery has caught all the bone infection with shows up under an MRI scan.
The way they described it to me was that all the tendons and other bits and pieces were crammed back into the foot and in these early days of healing one wrong move would make the fragile scar open like slamming your fist down on a strawberry jam sandwich.
So I had a partial foot which meant insole blocks with solid ends to replace the lost toes. It fitted into my shoe or trainer and it looked to me very much like a granny’s slipper. I got on with it and the wife always noticed I had a slight limp. Strangely no one else did until it was pointed out to them. I could no longer run and had to be careful how I walked. I was forever checking my feet at night before I got into bed for any signs of anew ulcers. It was a relief when I found none so I went to sleep knowing that I had another day like a normal person.
However, losing all your toes is damaging as it changes the entire pressure structure of your foot. Parts of your sole suddenly find themselves dealing with pressure they had never felt before. Before long you get a neither kick in the balls as new ulcers form and you start you weekly process all over again. I was so conscious of my stump in the showers at the gym and especially in the steam rooms where other gym users could stare and ask questions. I stopped feeling conscious about the stump because I took it as a positive chance to educate others on the dangers of diabetes. It was great because other men opened up about their scars and wounds which made m realise I wasn’t alone in facing stuff like this. I could not run on the treadmill but walk at a faster pace; enough to work up a sweat to help with rehab. I no longer went into the gym sheepishly thinking everyone could see the limp I had. Now I went in with a confidence that the other guys were fighting health issues too and we had all ended up here to keep ourselves alive for a while longer. Of course the fear was always there that when I went to get a shower I would find an ulcer. That discovery would stop my health routine in its tracks just as I had been really enjoying being normal again. I had gotten over all the oppressive surgeries and now was grabbing life again with both hands. I had a slight limp but nothing that was discernable except to those that knew my story.
That what it was for me; I was not the guy with the stump who walked as he did always fearful that when he took his socks off he would find that awful telltale ring of blood which signalled more hospital visits or maybe worse.
I was normal visiting the gym and having the craic in the steam room.
I knew it wouldn’t last and it came for me on one New Year’s Day. I woke up and went to the toilet. Looking down I noticed a splatter of blood. Maybe I caught a nail on my other foot I hoped but upon further inspection, there was that perfect ring of skin peeling off. I knew what to do straight away
The Time Warriors and Beyond 