Enough about I Am Alpha (for now, anyway), this is about my foot, and I know you can’t read enough about my stupid foot. I spent Wednesday and Thursday walking around in normal shoes and doing OK. I even wore long pants on Thursday for the first time in seven months! There were some pangs and general discomfort, but no outright pain. This morning, though, my foot was a rock: stiff, kinda purple, painful and pretty much not hearing any requests for shoe wearing other than driving to and from physical therapy. So, I’m back in the boot today, snug in its warm fleece embrace and remembering why I hate it so much.\
Tomorrow? I’m going back to shoes, and we’ll see how it goes.
Category: Kevin
This just in!
Lawver family breaking news: Kevin wore pants yesterday for the first time in 8 months.\
Why is this exciting news? It means Kevin is out of the boot. YAY! Sadly, he is still sore and gimpy and can’t help out around the house or go on walks yet.
Progressive Progress
A couple updates from the weekend (and the end of last week) before I get back to work:\
I am now a member of the Loudoun County Democratic Committee. I joined officially last week. I’m still not sure what all that means other than attending committee meetings and brushing up on Robert’s Rules Of Order, but it feels good to be more involved in the process.\
In ankle news, I wore a “regular” shoe all morning after physical therapy. I broke down around 1 and put the Velcro Nightmare back on, but I was walking around in a matching pair of hiking boots for a good three or four hours there. Progress, baby, progress.\
Yes, now, back to writing javascript and longing for CSS.\
update: Wearing a regular shoe for the first half of the day was a really bad idea.
Little Steps On A Little Leg
I went to see Dr. Ankle yesterday, and he says to me after playing with my foot, “Yep, everything’s still intact, that’s good.” Yeah, I made a face.\
I’m allowed to wear normal shoes for a grand total of 15-30 minutes a day and have four more weeks of physical therapy. I see Dr. Ankle in six weeks and he says by then, I should be walking full-time in regular shoes, but should keep the Velcro Terror around “just in case”.\
I had to walk out of there and try to find the silver lining. I’d built yesterday up to be the day I went back to being “normal”. Yes, it was unrealistic because my right calf is still about the size of my forearm, but it was there. I thought that was the end of having to wear shorts even though it’s 30 degrees outside (jeans and other long pants rip the velcro straps right off), the end of wearing it all day every day no matter what I’m doing or where I’m walking.
Some Days
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Some days, it feels like I’m going through life under water.\
But in other news, I go to the doctor bright and early Monday morning and find out if I can finally wear a normal shoe on my right foot. It will have been over six months since I started wearing either the Velcro Nightmare, a cast, a post-op splint/wrap/ace combo, an ace bandage or the Strappy Terror.\
My physical therapist did my “report card” that I have to take to Dr. Wilson on Monday, and my range of motion is greatly improved, and I took my first real steps on Friday morning outside of the boot. Not much pain, just a little tightness, and some swelling.\
Oh, and I am now the proud owner of the home version of the electrocution machine they hook me up to after every visit. I think I’m going to see if I can make Max smile…
Gender differences
Look at what Kevin posted about <——– and then look at what I posted about below.
Physical Therapy Works
Yes, physical therapy works, but boy does it suck! Three days a week, I go in to get beat up by tiny friendly women with the souls of medieval torturers. It takes about two hours each time as I go from heat and prodding to never-ending exercises to freezing and electrocution. But, I can see progress. I now have a hint of a calf muscle, and I got rid of the crutch on Saturday!!\
Believe it, I am now crutch free. I can drive. I am almost back to where I was in September with the boot and walking. Unfortunately, I have a pronounced limp and by the end of the day, my ankle throbs and my knee is on fire.\
This all has a purpose. In January, Jen and I are going to Austin, and then comes a trip to Northern California, NYC, the big W3C shindig in France, and then back to Austin for SxSW. I need to be walking without the boot for those, and able to walk without a lot of pain. In order to be out of the boot by January, I figure I need to be able to walk in the boot without crutches about now, even though it’s pretty uncomfortable.\
It’s good to have goals, and it’s good to be able to see an end to all of this, even if it’s still a little ways off.
Me
Yesterday morning, I scraped off all of the ice from Kevin’s car and warmed it up for him, without being asked.\
Just now I shoveled over an inch of snow/ice/slush mixture while it was precipitating on my head, so that broken-footed Kev wouldn’t slip when he comes home later. And I have fresh, warm chocolate chip cookies waiting for him.\
I am so the wife of the year!
One short ride for man…
Kevin drove today. Hallelujah!
SxSW 2006 and Ankle Update
It’s still four months away, but I started trying to get all the AOL folks going to 2006’s interactive festival organized. I started a wiki page with our travel details, where we’re staying, things to do that I believe are happening next year (like Break Bread With Brad, Kick!, 20×2, etc) and other tips for attending the conference.\
I did the same thing for February’s W3C meeting in France.\
I think I’m tired of being stuck on the couch.\
And speaking of, I started physical therapy this week. Starting Monday, I have three appointments a week of electric stimulation (shock the monkey where I’m the monkey!), strengthening, stretching and pain. I would be upset, but I think I’ve found the perfect place for me. They’re funny, and not into torture. The folks I went to for my knee five years ago had no empathy at all. These guys were showing me their scars and we were comparing “war stories” of our various injuries. It felt like a fraternity of the wounded, which is really what physical therapy should be. It’s a bunch of broken people trying to put their weak, busted bodies back together. Empathy should be there every step of the way, and at this place, it obviously is.\
I can also finally see the big bone on the inside of my ankle! The swelling’s finally gone down enough to show the end of the tibia, which is progress! There’s still a lot of swelling farther down and on the bottom of my foot (which is fun!), but seeing that bone is cool.