Making Adjustments

It doesn't seem possible that Thanksgiving could be in just two days. Of course, the past month has been strange since I have mostly spent it sitting around healing. Tomorrow it will be one month since I broke my ankle, and Thanksgiving will be one month since my surgery. In that month I have had two casts and now have a removeable cast/boot. My incision is still partly taped (two tapes came off yesterday). The bone is healing well, I guess, but my foot still has a general lack of feeling that bothers me a little. It swells easily and I still get the burning sensation across the top of my foot at times. I know that a lot of that is nerve damage, which takes a long time to heal. It feels like the cast is tight sometimes but when I put my fingers down in to check it, it's not tight -- just my foot's imagination. In the first cast, my foot was turned up and inward at a 45 degree angle to allow the torn ligaments on the inside to heal. With the second cast the angle was lessened. With the boot, my foot is flat again (which hurt like crazy the first couple of days). I can't put any weight on it yet. The boot set back my driving for a day or so. I had gotten relatively proficient at driving with the cast, though my leg would get tired before long because my foot didn't reach the floor. The bottom of the boot is thicker, so it's easier to reach the floor when sitting at a table and such. But it is so huge that I thought it would be completely in the way and keep me from driving. I had Kym take me out the next day, and I found that with a seat adjustment or two it was actually easier to get comfortable to drive! Yay! There have been highs and lows along the way. One day last week I made my first solo trip to Target. I parked in the handicapped spot, crutched in, got one of their little electric carts, shopped, put everything in a backpack, and crutched back out. I was thrilled beyond reason that I had accomplished that -- and exhausted the next day. On Saturday I went to some friends' house to play dominoes. I got home at 10:30 or so, and I guess I was more tired than I thought. Somehow I just didn't quite make the last step into the house. I didn't fall, I just swung backward, hanging onto the grab bar. I whacked my back hard on the spigot next to the door, resulting in a big, painful bruise, and in trying not to fall I pulled something in my shoulder. I ended up having to crawl into the house because I didn't want to try the step again. Once I was back on my feet I put ice on my back and heat on my shoulder. I still have the bruise, but the shoulder is fine now. The best thing recently is my new ability to get my foot wet. I have now had two showers without the boot -- absolute heaven!! It felt SO good to run warm, warm water over my foot and get some relief from the contant pressure of the boot. It worries me a little that I get tired so easily, but maybe that's to be expected. I'm trying to do more for myself around the house. I'm still not sleeping upstairs. I've become somewhat nocturnal, going to bed at about midnight, but I sleep pretty solidly for 8-9 hours and then I'm up all day. I keep intending to get upstairs during the day for a nap, but I can't seem to find a good time. I'd kind of like to do it when someone is here in case I have trouble getting out of the bed (waterbed). I really should try to do that tomorrow because the next couple of days will be tiring. We'll have dinner at Pub II on Wednesday, and I have cranberry salad to start. And, of course, Thursday is Thanksgiving -- a very long day.