Thanksgiving, and boy am I ever thankful! I walked all over the house all day, amazed. AMAZED at how little strength I have in both legs. I guess the muscles I used while in the boot, due to the unequal camber between legs, took certain muscles normally used, out of the picture.
Now I am walking – shuffling really, with a limp, but not walker or cane, and although it’s all inside the house, am trying to get back into shape.
NOVEMBER 27
…and I paid for it – not in sore muscles but sore foot. I was warned, but the transition was easier than I expected, so I was surprised at the amount of pain which came after I removed the shoe and tried to sleep. Should have taken a pain pill, but just persevered until this AM when I finally took an Aleve. It didn’t help.
Tomorrow we go out in public after a drive of about an hour and a half one way, to a winery for a lunch.
Tomorrow we go out in public after a drive of about an hour and a half one way, to a winery for a lunch.
NOVEMBER 28
The drive was okay – no pain – in fact, no pain all day. But boy is the foot ever SWOLLEN! My big toe looks like a sausage! The issue is now weakness. BOTH legs are weak and I feel it pretty quickly. I think I wrote above somewhere that standing is hardest.
NOVEMBER 29
I expected more obvious muscle progress more quickly. Surprise! Terri says I should take it easy today but I feel I have to walk around to try to get into better shape as quickly as possible, especially for San Antonio – we leave this coming Thursday. I don’t want to be the anchor.
NOVEMBER 30
I just spoke to the doc about the swelling, redness, purpleness. Ibuprofen to the rescue.
DECEMBER 1
Shopping today, which meant more walking than around the house. Either the shoe is now stretched or my swelling has gone down – not that you can tell by looking at it –even my ankle looks larger than its companion.
DECEMBER 3
Today we go to San Antonio... and although this area has only had 6 snows in ten years, tomorrow is supposed to be one more! Yesterday I tried to fit my foot into a more serious shoe – a trail boot. While I could get the foot int there, it was obvious after walking 100 feet that the rubbing and constriction would quickly become unbearable.
I am hoping we can walk some of the beautiful Riverwalk down there. Taking Ibuprofen now, but the toes still look purple or raw. They look worse than they feel.
POSTSCRIPT: December 17
Updates:
My right knee still bothers me a lot!
After the two week course of Ibuprofen, I was surprised at how much the knee and other joints hurt as they were no longer under the effect of the big I. (The label says if you take too much of it, your liver falls out or something really bad happens, so I stopped, but if I hadn't read the warning I'd be gobbling them like jellybeans at Easter.) Just today I managed to get back into my hiking boots, though I won't be hiking soon.
Doc tomorrow.
I am hoping we can walk some of the beautiful Riverwalk down there. Taking Ibuprofen now, but the toes still look purple or raw. They look worse than they feel.
POSTSCRIPT: December 17
Updates:
My right knee still bothers me a lot!
After the two week course of Ibuprofen, I was surprised at how much the knee and other joints hurt as they were no longer under the effect of the big I. (The label says if you take too much of it, your liver falls out or something really bad happens, so I stopped, but if I hadn't read the warning I'd be gobbling them like jellybeans at Easter.) Just today I managed to get back into my hiking boots, though I won't be hiking soon.
Doc tomorrow.
DECEMBER 4, 5
San Antonio was cold! We walked a little Friday and more Saturday – maybe more than we should have since, just when getting to bed that night, my knee on my ‘good’ leg went out and remains that way.
I have become almost casual in taking showers – can stand the whole time (two weeks ago I was on a chair and even streams of water hurt a little, when they hit the toe.
My goal for the upcoming week (knee pending) is to walk a lot and get back into walking shape, and also to begin exercising my other muscles which have gone away while I was unable to conintue my normal exercise regime. Due to the nature of what I HAD been doing, I will have to find other exercises to replace the pushups, etc., which put lots of pressure on my toes.
I have become almost casual in taking showers – can stand the whole time (two weeks ago I was on a chair and even streams of water hurt a little, when they hit the toe.
My goal for the upcoming week (knee pending) is to walk a lot and get back into walking shape, and also to begin exercising my other muscles which have gone away while I was unable to conintue my normal exercise regime. Due to the nature of what I HAD been doing, I will have to find other exercises to replace the pushups, etc., which put lots of pressure on my toes.
DECEMBER 8
As you can tell from the dates, I don’t have much to report. I CAN write that for whatever reason, it feels like my 3 smaller toes are flapping/bending more than before. Perhaps this is to make up for the other two damaged ones, or I have just begun walking funny to try to favor the non-affected areas, If my right knee hadn’t popped the other day, I think I would be much farther along. The job now (as soon as the knee returning to normal) is to exercise and strengthen.
Unless there’s news, I will stop here.
If you read down to here, you witnessed my transition from despair to hope. At the time of my accident I thought I was never going to make it to being able to have my freedom/mobility back. As illogical as that was – fueled by the trauma, that’s exactly how I felt – like looking up at a cliff I couldn’t cllmb. I knew or suspected better, but emotion trumped logic.
Unless there’s news, I will stop here.
If you read down to here, you witnessed my transition from despair to hope. At the time of my accident I thought I was never going to make it to being able to have my freedom/mobility back. As illogical as that was – fueled by the trauma, that’s exactly how I felt – like looking up at a cliff I couldn’t cllmb. I knew or suspected better, but emotion trumped logic.
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