Winter Arrives

We are in the midst of our first actual winter storm tonight. We previously had an ice storm, and some freezing rain, but this is snow -- big, fat flakes -- and it's piling up. Tonight was an annual Christmas program at the State Farm corporate headquarters, for which we had tickets. Braden was singing a solo. I rode with Mom and Dad, and we parked in a great handicapped spot. They let the "cripple crew" in early so we could sit down. Because of the ice and snow, and the possibility of problems using crutches on wet tile in the atrium, I left my crutches in the car and walked in, holding Chad's arm. And I actually did fine! In fact, I haven't used them all evening now. It's creeping Kym out a little to see me walk around without them. She asked how long I was "going to do that". :) Actually, I have had several milestones in the past few days. Yesterday I went to Target by myself. I crutched in, but decided that I didn't need an electric cart. I just got a basket, put my crutches in it, and clomped along, all the way to the bandaids. OK, it wasn't far, really, but it was enough. On the way back I had to stop several times because my calf was cramping up. This morning when I got up, I got out of bed on the far side so that I could make the bed, then walked without crutches or brace around the bed to the door. And tonight I walked up the stairs (I've been crawling up) to get my dress clothes for the Christmas program. I will probably pay heavily for it tomorrow or the next day, but I AM making progress! With this snow, getting back on both feet is absolutely essential to be able to get around. There is just no traction on wet tile with those crutches. I was thinking about getting a cane, but maybe I'm not going to need one. I'll wait and see how I feel in the next couple of days before I make that decision, though. Chad finally got the Christmas things up from the basement, and Kym and I will set it up tomorrow. While he was here, he also took more of his stuff (yay!) and he shoveled the drive and walk! The road was getting so slick on my way back from taking him home that I was getting a little worried about being able to stop at red lights. I can't say I really hate the snow, especially if I don't have any need to go out. A nice snowy day is good for setting up Christmas stuff. Maybe it will put me more in the mood for the holiday (my Christmas spirit is sadly lacking so far). I'm finally somewhat interested in getting some Christmas shopping done, which is good, but I'm pretty broke, which is bad. It will get done one way or the other, of course.

Warning: Icky-ness Ahead

Dad had knee replacement a week ago last Thursday. He was supposed to be in the hospital only for a couple of days, but it stretched into a full seven days. He was flaky and nauseous from the morphine at first, so they wanted to keep him an extra day. During that Saturday night Mom got up to help him (she was spending the night) and nearly passed out. After several hours in the ER, she was admitted and monitored, but they didn't really find anything. On Sunday, Dad needed some blood so they decided to keep him another day. Mom went home that night. During the night, thinking he was dreaming, Dad got up and walked to the door of his room where he fell, breaking open his entire incision. He then proceeded to crawl down the hall on his open knee. I can't even think about that part. Finally someone saw him. Fortunately, he doesn't remember much of it, or he remembers it as part of the dream. Long story short, he had to have more surgery to repair and clean and clean and clean it. Then he needed more blood and another surgery to insert a port in his chest so that he could have at-home antibiotics for the next six weeks. He went home on Wednesday. We have a regular Saturday night dinner at Steak n' Shake, and he wanted to go tonight. He can put full weight on his leg (better than me), so we tried it. I got there first, crutched in, and got seated at a table. Then they arrived, with Dad moving right along with his walker. So we had our own little handicapped section. We were supposed to get freezing rain this afternoon, but it held off (might even miss us all together) so that was good. No telling what kind of acrobatics might have ensued if we had had ice. Last week I skipped Steak n' Shake all together because we had ice then, too.

Almost There

Things change with my ankle almost every day. I spent two weeks in the first cast (the Duke blue one), then nine days in the purple one. At that point I got a removeable cast -- a boot. For the first time I could shower with both legs in the tub! The first time or two I was terrified that I was going to reinjure it, bump it, or something. It didn't have good feeling, so I had to be careful not to get the water too hot or anything. On one memorable occasion I knocked the bottle of body wash off the side of the tub with the hose of the handheld shower and it hit my foot. I made more noise then than I did when I broke the ankle in the first place. Kym was sure that I had really hurt myself, but I had to admit that I was mostly just scared. No damage done. Getting the boot required me to readjust my car seat to accomodate its larger size. It kept me from driving for a couple of days until Kym could take me up to the parking lot to try it out again. Did I mention how fun it was to have Kym take me driving? She clutched the armrests with a death grip while I tooled around the empty parking lot, terrified that the car was going to rocket out of control or something. I told her it was payback for when I had to go driving with her when she was learning to drive. Once the seat was adjusted driving turned out to be easier, since the boot could reach the floor (my foot was flat, not in the twisted position that it started in). Armed with the knowledge that I could now shower and drive (not at the same time, of course), I thought it was time that I tried sleeping upstairs in my own bed. Big mistake. I still had to sleep in the boot, and the rubber bottom and velcro straps got all caught up in the jersey knit sheets and I got my foot into a really uncomfortable position, waking me. I lasted about two hours up there, then came down and finished the night on the couch. A few days ago I had Kym change my bed to regular cotton sheets so that I could try it again. A week ago yesterday I went back to the doctor. I was going to ask for a smaller boot since the one I had was not the correct size according to the chart in the instructions. But because the bone had healed so well he decided to give me an air cast instead. An air cast is like two splints lined with cushy air-filled pads. I could once again wear regular athletic shoes on BOTH feet -- and I didn't have to wear it to sleep in!!! I was also told I could start putting weight on the leg. I started rehab last Tuesday. I go three days a week. The first day was an evaluation to see where I was to start with. The therapist told me that I was ahead of the game in terms of muscle tone and flexibility, which is what I was hoping he'd say. I still have a long way to go, though. They started me with exercises bending the foot up and down, in toward the center, circles in both directions, and writing the alphabet with my foot. Day #2 was, on the whole, pretty brutal. In addition to the exercises, the therapist spent a long time stretching my foot in directions that it would rather not go, thank you very much. We also did some resistance exercises and other things. Each time they end with ice and electric stimulation for the swelling. Day #3 was mostly exercises, stretching, and massaging the swelling out. I have exercises to do at home that seem to have helped a lot. I haven't really been wearing the air cast around the house much because I try to do the exercises as much as I can (can't do circles with the air cast on). Sometimes I get really discouraged by what I view as my lack of progress. I am so close to walking now that I think I should be farther along. I have to stop and remind myself that I was told in the beginning that I would be completely off of it for 6-8 weeks. Tomorrow will be seven weeks since I broke it, and I'm practically walking, so I'm NOT behind. I have to measure my progress in little things, like driving. A week ago when I first got the air cast, I could not push hard enough on the accelerator to be able to drive with that foot. Within a couple of days, I could do it, but I still used my left foot for the brake because I didn't think I could move my right foot over fast enough if I needed to. Today I got in the car and completely without thinking about it, I drove the regular way -- right foot for both tasks. I continue to try to put weight on the foot. Sometimes it's comfortable and other times it sends shocks shooting through my foot. I just never know. I think that's what discourages me the most. I can have a good day and really feel like I'm getting somewhere, and the next day it's shocking me so much I can hardly put it down. Part of the reason that I'm anxious about my progress is that money is becoming a really big problem. I hate even thinking about Christmas, but I'm going to have to get something done about that. I'm going to have to have Kym go shopping with me once she finishes her semester on Wednesday. How I'm going to pay for it is another issue, particularly since I'm buried in bills, but I'll come up with something. I think I'm done with the walker. I had gotten down to just using it when I went to shower, but I have been managing fine with crutches instead lately. Oh yeah, and I'm sleeping in my own bed now! I still have to crawl up the stairs and scoot down, but I get up there. So I just have to accept my "baby steps" and try to recognize new ones as they come along.

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.

Adventures in Crutchland

It's kind of amazing how quickly your life can just change course. Last Sunday I was coming down the stairs from my bedroom, thinking about taking down a couple of pictures to have the glass replaced with nonglare, when I slipped -- I guess. I was about three stairs from the bottom and somehow I just missed the last one or two. I fell, throwing my cellphone against the door and dropping my half can of pop on the new ceramic tile. As I fell, I heard/felt my right ankle snap. It actually didn't hurt. It felt, as best I can explain, like how it feels if you hold a piece of chalk in both hands and break it in two. I rolled over to my back as Kym came running, asking if I was OK, and my foot didn't exactly come with me. I told her I thought I broke my ankle, but I actually thought I was overreacting at the time. I was oddly calm, and I took a quick look down. I saw the inside bone jutting against the skin in a way that I knew was NOT right. She came into the room, took one look, and dialed 911. While we waited for the EMTs I held my leg off the ground because I couldn't find a way to lay it that didn't make things move around inside. It was completely creeping me out, but still it didn't hurt that bad. I had Kym clean up the pop and rinse the throw rug before the EMTs arrived. Hey, she needed something to do, and the tile and carpet are NEW! The ambulance arrived without lights or sirens, thank God. The guys were cute and very nice. I was joking with them and I think they thought I was lying when I said it wasn't that painful. They had a cool new hydraulic gurney that they were obviously enjoying trying out. When they got me into a room in the ER, the nurse said they like to jack people up 8 feet in the air so they can play with the buttons. I believe her -- I was just under the ceiling-mounted TV when they rolled me in. :) In a few minutes the nurse said "the family" was coming back. Oh.My.God. In trooped Kym, Mom and Dad, Lynda, David, Caleigh, Braden, and Caleigh's boyfriend Tyler! They finally had to shoo some of them out because the room was too small. They gave me a tiny bit of morphine and took me for x-rays. THAT hurt, but still not unbearably. The verdict was one broken bone on the outside, and torn ligaments on the inside bone. On Monday I had surgery to repair everything at the Surgicenter. I was religious about taking the pain meds exactly on time and it wasn't bad. On Wednesday I went back to get a hard cast. I got my first look at the incision (17 staples), then they casted it and took me for more x-rays to make sure it was in the right position. They showed us the x-rays (I never saw the broken bone ones). I have one screw holding the two parts of the bone together, then a plate with six screws. They fixed the ligaments internally so there is just the one incision. After two weeks I will get this cast off and have the staples removed, then it will be recasted for another 4-6 weeks. It's been a week now since it happened and I'm still getting used to getting around on crutches and all. Dad loaned me a walker that I use in the house. It's harder to use but more stable when I get up at night to go to the bathroom. It also has a basket on front that I can use to carry things from one room to the other. My world is my recliner, with a TV table on either side. Dad also loaned me his laptop. I finally slept on the couch for the first time last night, which was heaven because I could get onto my side. We now have a handheld shower, a bath stool (another loan from Dad), and a grab bar outside the door to the garage. My front porch steps need jacking up again and there is nothing to hold onto there, so they attached the step in the garage that's been loose forever and added the grab bar. I guess it's OK that it looks like a convalescent home, since it is one. I hate being dependent on everyone. I'm asking a lot of Kym. Chad seems to mostly avoid me, or he gets all kinds of nasty if I ask him to do something. I honestly just think it's because I'M not supposed to have anything wrong with me, you know? I try to ask as little as possible in the way of favors if I can do something myself. But before they leave I make sure I have a drink, or clean underwear brought down from upstairs, or whatever I'll need while they are gone. I have managed a couple of real baths, but haven't used the new showerhead yet. Everything takes forever to accomplish. A couple of days ago Mom and Dad took me to Walmart where I drove around on one of their little carts. I've always wanted to do that. :) Today I went with them out to the farm to see new lighting that Lynda and David have put in their kitchen. When we came back, Dad parked across the street, forgetting that I needed to be closer. But I hopped across OK, then hung out inside while Dad and David worked on the step. We went to Steak n Shake tonight (instead of last night, since we did Lynda's birthday then) and we had to park around the corner of the building -- another long hike on crutches. Tonight I am completely exhausted. I don't think I could manage to get up or down those stairs one more time today, and my foot is tingly and swollen-feeling. Hopefully, being able to come and go through the garage will be easier and safer than the front steps. I'll be off work until near Christmas, living on short term disability payments. I found out today that they are only 60% of my usual pay, though, which is really going to hurt. Really, I'm not sure how I'll manage money-wise. I'll get my first check next week, and until I see that I won't really know just how bad it will be. The good thing is, the disability people said there was nothing wrong with me working at my tax job even if I am still on disability at my factory job. I'll make sure and double check that before the time comes, just to be sure. But I'm not sure how I'm going to manage to stay out of real money trouble in the meantime. Hmmm, maybe I ought to send someone out for lottery tickets... on second thought, my luck hasn't been that good lately and I might need those dollars later. :)

DAVY!!!!!

Things are smoothing out here. Kym's stuff is put away, and school and work have started for her. She's looking for a different job, though, because she'd rather have something not food-related (she went back to a former employer here). We have accomplished internet connection in her room, but are still working on cable TV. I'm looking at a different company for my carpet (we've had another measuring) because I got a sale flyer in the mail the day before I went to order the other carpet. It might be a much better deal, so we'll see. I'll get the estimate Wednesday. Installation is free, though, so how could it be worse than the first estimate? This Friday is an event I've been waiting for for, like, well, lots of years. I'm going with a friend to see DAVY JONES in concert. Yep, the Monkee. MY Monkee. I would have died for this chance all those years ago, and I'm not missing it now. The sad thing is that he's playing at a skeevy little local club where I once took country-western dance lessons back in the Urban Cowboy days. Still, it should be fun. The whole audience will no doubt be women in roughly my age category. I have no idea whether it will be empty or packed -- but it's general admission, so what does that tell you?

Moving On

Well, the carpet has been measured for, I'm back under Skeeter's rule, and the move has been accomplished (though I still have a living room full of Kym's stuff). We (Kym, Chad, and I) had the truck loaded by 10:30 on Saturday and were back in town by 2:00 or so, only to find that the power was out. It had been about 100 degrees in Troy, and we were all exhausted by the time we got back -- and then we had to unload into a hot house. The whole neighborhood's power was out, and it didn't get fixed until 4:15. The UPS on my computer said the power had been lost at 11:46 AM, so it was off about 4.5 hours. Luckily, it cooled quickly after it came back on.

I've settled on a color for the living room -- I think. The estimate for the carpet was higher than I expected, but I can live with it. I want to look it over again, though, before committing to it. Once I have paid for it the carpet will be ordered, then it will be two weeks or so before it's in. Then I have to schedule the installation. So if I get busy, that gives me three weeks or so to get everything else done. Hey! I could have new carpet before I go to Florida!

Everyone but Jenny and I have been in Florida this week, so we have been going out every night to put the chickens to bed. Two of the girls, Blackie and Goldie, fly out of the pen every day, and you have to retrieve them from the pine trees to put them in for the night. Goldie is always on the same branch, which must be reached by a short ladder. Blackie has been switching branches all week, but always chooses one that I can reach from the ground. Sometimes they flap their wings, but otherwise they don't fight you or try to get away once you have caught them. Still....I'm glad my career as a chicken whisperer is over for now.

Now I have to be a ferret wrangler. Kym is going back down to her former town for a couple of nights before her school starts on Thursday, and I will be taking care of my little grandferrets, Freddie and Ashley. I don't have much planned for this week, so maybe I can get some things done to get ready for paint and carpet.