For once I'm ahead of schedule

Today I went to the Physical Therapy. My therapist, told me that I'm ahead of schedule for recovery. He told me that I'm doing really well and he wants me to continue to work in the pool (2 times a week now) and the rest of my exercises and to come back in two weeks. There isn't anything else he can give me to do until I get a bit stronger - and the best place for me to do the exercises that will get me stronger is in the pool.

So, I now have to do the following:

exercises for my hips
walk forward and back
walk side to side
step up, step down
pick up marbles with my toes
move my foot like a clock
push my foot out and in using a resistance band

Then there are the exercises in the pool.

So, my walking without my brace is going really well. My therapist was really, really impressed with my gait.

Now to catch up with the rest of my life.

General update on us part 2

It's been almost 7 weeks since my surgery. I'm starting to walk a bit better and this morning I could almost see the bottom of my foot.

I started physical therapy this week. I will be going twice a week and once a week I will do exercises in the pool. I also have daily exercises to do at home for my ankle and my hips.

So, here is my ankle two weeks ago:

And my ankle today:

Tuesday I moved from the walking boot to a brace with TWO SHOES!! I'm so excited about this. I am starting to get some mobility, although my left to right range of motion is very small. Yesterday I went to a party and I accidentally left my crutch at home. I was a bit sore this morning as I'm not used to walking long without support, but I did it! I'm taking it easy today though.

I can't believe how far I've come in just six and a half weeks. I still have 4-6 mos of recovery time, but something about wearing two shoes has made it so much easier to handle.

Learning to walk again

I've periodically attempted to take a step or two without the crutches. I'm probably pushing things, but I so want to be back in two shoes again.

The few times I've found myself with my crutches just a few steps too far, I've had to try to get to them. The few steps I've taken have felt like my children must have been trying to take those few steps - robot style.

It's very awkward to walk.

Today, I did manage two steps that felt a bit more natural!

My foot is still a bit swollen. It has no curves!

I saw my doctor today, and she said it looked pretty good. Now we will see what I can manage with physical therapy in two weeks.

Week Four!

On Saturday, I decided that I had enough of the cast and we took it off - so, my ankle went from looking like this:

To looking liks this:

It's still a bit swollen and very bruised. It doesn't like being walked on. Tomorrow I go to the doctor to have the stitches dealt with. In two weeks I start physical therapy. I hope I can bend my foot a little by then.

This is NOT fun.

On a positive note, I had someone come in and clean the house some. It's not organized, but at least it's cleaner.

If it's not one thing, it's another!!

So, I'm in the last week of my cast and get to change to the walking boot Sunday.

Yesterday, Sarah came home from camp not walking on her foot. She fell off the monkey bars. Looking at her foot, there is a good chance she fractured her foot. So, I'm taking her to the Dr. this morning.

I hope its something clear cut as I'm not sure I trust our lot to find something more difficult. It doesn't seem feet are their specialty.

I'm seriously considering asking my Ortho in Minneapolis to read her x-ray as a distance second opinion. He knows the clinic I go to (they refer enough patients) so he probably would be willing.

I really hope it's just sore (Soccer starts at the end of the month, I'm almost well enough to start doing things, etc)!!


In an "awww" moment, DH told me last night that he's really been sad this week because he took the girls to the beach by our house and biking and I couldn't be there to see what a wonderful job Sydney was doing (she has finally become comfy riding a two wheeler) are doing and how excited they were at the beach because I was hurt. It was very sweet.

Three down, two to go!

For some reason, I can't type a title, but it's two days early, but I'm just about three weeks down and have one to go before I lose this lovely cast! One week from tomorrow, the girls tear it off!! and I change to the walking boot.

Once I'm in the walking boot, I get to remove it for showers. Walking on crutches won't be so bad because I will be able to put my foot down. I just need to find a shoe for my right foot that will give me the right lift so I don't walk awkwardly. I only wear the boot for two weeks, then start to wean off the boot for the second two weeks. So, between six and eight weeks post surgery, I'll be in a brace and wearing TWO shoes.

I'm only taking pain meds when I'm feeling sore - and I've abandoned my spreadsheet that told me when I can take things.

This week I had to order more parts for my laptop. Back in April, my power cord broke and I needed a new one. HP had them on backorder, but I needed one before I went on travel so I bought an off brand one. Well, it failed this week - and it stopped charging my battery. I decided that would just buy a regular one and we assumed that my battery had lost it's ability to recharge so I bought a new battery. Well, the very nice kid who was taking my order at the "help" line couldn't figure out how to merge this into one order, so each of the three parts was ordered separately - and shipping paid separately. I calculated it the other day and I paid $40 more than if I'd ordered it online myself. So, HP is suppose to call me back to fix it. I debated about canceling the battery as the new power cord fixed the recharging issue (I thought it was strange that it worked one day and not the next), but my battery life is down to 4 hours and most of those on standby, so I could use a new one.

I saw the cutest thing in Better Homes and Gardens. You take bubble wrap and paint it a color and paint a number on it and use it for noisy hopscotch. Kelly, if Jenelle doesn't mind loud noise, she might find it fun.

I'm going to sign off and drink my coffee. I filled out a survey and received a free Senso machine. I need to play with it more because right now the coffee is too strong for me. I may try making an 8 oz coffee w/ one pod instead of two. Or, it may be that I make the 4 oz single cup and add 2 oz of hot water to make a slightly weaker 6 oz cup. If I can make a cup of coffee with one pod rather than two, it would be much cheaper. I may bring the new machine to work for coffee there.

Have a great day. We may try to go to the Strawberry Festival today. With my little handicap parking pass, they may even let us park inside (small town festival here!)

A 4th of July update

"Sunday Six!" is a game where Kelly asks us to have six questions answered. Remember, the idea is to post answers to the following six question, but the trick is to get your kids to answer them! If you don't have kids, use your imagination... Your pet, your neighbor, your elderly family member, your roommate, etc. Did you play? Let me and Kelly know so we can visit you. Today I was able to ask Sarah (SB - age 7) and Sydney (SK - age 4) the questions.

1. What does it mean to be patriotic?

SK: I don't know.

SB: I have no clue.

2. Who made the American Flag?

SK: I don't know.

SB: I have no clue

3. How many stars are on the American Flag?

SK: (gets her american flag and counts stars) 33

SB: I need an American Flag (Sydney hands over hers, Sarah counts) 44

4. What makes a firework go boom?

SK: I don't know.

SB: When it reaches the tip of the sky.

5. How will you celebrate the 4th of July?

SK: I don't know.

SB: Probably go see the fireworks (next year)

6. What do you like about living in America?

SK: We live on a hill.

SB: I don't know.

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First, Happy Canada Day!

It seems that 2 weeks really is the magic number in my ankle's recovery. Friday I did a little bit more than I had been doing and Sat not only was I not knocked out, but I took fewer meds. I still stuck with all my advil, but I only took one dose of tylenol rather than 4.

I go back to work on Monday - but I think I'll limit hours some - maybe 5 hours on Monday and Thurs, Wed I get 4 hours of vacation. So, I'd only have to take a few hours of leave (I don't care so much about the leave, I have plenty!! I just want to not hurt too much since my foot will be up sort of.

And, a friend of mine called on Sat (they just got back from vacation on Friday) and she wanted to check how I was doing and see if I still wanted dinner one night. So, she is bringing dinner over on Monday.

I also think I'll try to find someone to help come clean the house. I can do some, but why should I?

Waiting is boring

So, I'm waiting for my surgery. I'm in the lounge - staring at a pot of coffee I can't have, wishing I had some water and something for the dehydration headache as I wait for my turn to wander back and put on a hospital gown.

DH has finished his newspaper and has gone on to find something to eat. I love that hospitals have wireless to entertain their patients.

I was talking with DH's Aunt the other night. I really like her, and she was one of the first family members I met. She looked at me and asked how I was doing about the surgery. The way it was spoken, it was obvious that she meant because of the last time. My last surgery was almost fatal. Not that I anticipate problems, but you don't expect problems when you have a child either. Routine isn't anymore and I was so amazed that this woman who I've seen a half a dozen times in the past 12 years understood. I just loved it.

The girls are now at their grandmas and I really want to call and see how they are doing after their first night. I'm sure they are fine, but I almost missed my little ones hugging me this morning - except that it was nice to wake up in a king sized bed and just roll over and read until it was time to wake up.

I really want coffee.

But, I just can't wait until I can have some coffee!

Ankle update

You may remember that I sprained my ankle a year an a half ago. A few months ago I saw a podiatrist who finally diagnosed that I had stretched ligaments. Before letting him operate, we wanted a second opinion and I found a Orthopaedic surgeon who specialized in ankles in Minneapolis who operated on the friend of a friend's ankle.

So, this week we drove 7 hours for me to see an orthopaedic surgeon here. I'm glad we came. I like the doc, he does this operation a few times a week - it's his specialty.

I'm glad I didn't see him first as my mother would not have trusted his instinct (he goes more by feel and takes xrays/MRIs to protect himself.) But, I know he's right and I came to him for confirmation.

So, my ligaments are too stretched on both ankles. Only one is giving me problems, so we only fix one - although the other is at the fixable point. I may get it fixed someday if it starts giving me problems. He showed me the comparison of how much both ankles moved compared to my wrists (which have a similar structure).

He also pointed out the point on my MRI where it shows the torn tendon. The radiologist that read the image missed it, as did the ortho at home and the podiatrist. I liked that he read the image I brought with me (thank goodness I did) rather than just looking at the radiology report and glancing at the image. I guess one thing in my favor is that he's caught a couple of misses that our radiologist have reported as our sports med doc sends a lot of his ankle patients to him. So, he doesn't trust them completely.

So, the tendon will get fixed too as it's unlikely that it was fixed on its own over the past year since the MRI was done. I probably would have had this fixed a year ago - if it hadn't been missed. Then again, the ortho at home (he's specialty is shoulders and knees) probably would not have fixed the ligaments so my problems would have been continued to some extent.

I will be in a split cast for 4 weeks - on crutches and bearing no weight. For the first 10 days, I need to keep my ankle elevated. Thankfully, I will only have a few weeks of walking up the stairs to my house to get to the car. It will be horrible when I have to get up the stairs the day of surgery after driving 7 hours home.

He suggested driving home from the surgery while my leg has the nerve blocker rather than the next day or so. Makes sense.

I really don't want anyone to come stay with me as I would like to be by myself during the day instead of feeling like I have to have someone who is restless because they are not in their house and being under foot.

Then, I get to have the girls help me take the cast off and cut my stitches (disolvable ones) and change to the walking boot for 2 weeks before starting PT.

So, we need to figure out which Aunt to stay with in Minneapolis, see what to do with the girls while I"m having the surgery, get a handicap pass for the car before I have the surgery (in the package of info they gave me an application for MN, but I need the MI one), and stock up on food/movies, and see if I can arrange for my friends to bring meals and maybe find a house cleaner to come by once or twice.

Thankfully - he said that if I do my PT, my ankle will be great in 4-6 mos and I can do all my PT and any followups at my hometown.

So, movie recs would be appreciated!

So, about 15 mos ago I sprained my ankle. It was pretty bad and I couldn't stand on the balls of my foot between Nov and March.

So, the other day I opened my treadmill. I really want to become more active. After 10 minutes I had to stop. My ankle just hurt too much. It's not stopped.

I ran into my doctor tonight and broke my cardnial rule - I asked her medical opinion outside of her office. I asked her what I should do now. She was a bit surprised that its still hurting.

She thought I should try PT for a few weeks or so and then, if need be, go see her favorite orthopeadic surgeon who does feet/ankles. Of course, he lives 10 hours away.

I will probably make an appointment to meet with our radiologist to see if there is something else we can check from here - some view we've not look at.

I know from talking to his wife that he had a foot injury that he had to live with for years until a Dr. finally looked at one further slice of the radiology records. So, I know that he will take my request seriously.

All I know is that I'm so very tired of my life being adversly impacted by a simple ankle sprain.