This past week has been great. I’ve gotten as use to wearing the boot as I’m probably going to get. The “running” comeback (pun intended) has been (when people comment on it) for me to say, “What, you’re not wearing a boot? It’s all the rage right now. It's the fashion statement of the year!” I’ve gotten the, “You know you’re wearing two different shoes, right?” Or the, “Oh, no, what did you do?” Surprisingly (to me), I'm getting around in it better than I thought I would. I've noticed that my foot and toes feel better if I'm standing or walking. They start aching when I sit. I know, that's backwards. I'm weird. ;)
Life has returned to “normal” – if there is such a thing - haha! I’ve gone back to work, to my house, to church. There’s something about routine that I love.
Speaking of routine, new ones are being made. For the time being, instead of waking up early to work-out, now I wake up early to have time to take the boot off and put the boot on. The Velcro on this boot is out-of-this-world strong. While at my parents, I tried getting the Velcro undone with no success. My mom tried with no success. My dad tried with no success. We resorted to using pliers to ply the Velcro off! I’m not even joking! We used them to get leverage and it actually worked! When at Dr. Gardner’s office, his nurse has to use scissors to get leverage. It’s gotten a little easier to take off, since I’m now taking the boot off at least once or twice a day, but the pliers are still used occasionally.
I’ve been icing my foot every night for at least 30 minutes. Let me just say – I have no idea how in the world athletes and others of you take ice baths. Seriously, how in the world do you do it? My leg was literally shaking just from trying to put my foot in ice. I can’t imagine my whole body. I’ve graduated from trying to dunk it in a bucket of ice to just filling a Ziploc bag full of ice and laying it on top of my foot. Some nights are fine, others, I fight to keep it on because it hurts. Last night was one of those nights. It hurt, but I stuck it out. Supposedly the ice is to help the swelling go down, but I haven’t seen any real improvement in that area yet. I know, I know - patience. ;)
After icing my foot the first night, it ached all night. It wasn’t hurting before I iced it, but it did after. The next night, it did the same thing, but not for as long and I was smarter and iced it earlier in the evening, so the aching was done by the time I went to bed. Since then, it’s gotten a little better.
I’m also wrapping two of my toes together. This is supposedly to help the swelling go down in those two toes, but again, no results yet (at least in my opinion). I had to go buy more tape to wrap them in as the tape Dr. Gardner gave me ran out. They had glitter tape. I thought about buying it and then quickly ruled it out. I mean, I don’t want glitter everywhere. That left me the choice between hot pink and black. Somehow, I ended up with the black. I say "somehow" because I really thought I had gotten the hot pink. I had both of them in my hand. But when I got home, it wasn't hot pink that I pulled out. It really doesn't matter because you can't see my toes anyway.
Twice this past week, I’ve been awoken around 2am to my foot and toes aching. I yank the wrap off of the two toes, take the Ace bandage off and open the boot to just let my foot breathe. I purposefully keep myself awake while I have all the bandages off so that I don’t do anything to those toes to undo the work Dr. Gardner did. Once I can stand it again, I bundle them all up, put my foot back in the boot and go back to sleep. One night this past week, I awoke to my foot itching like crazy. I seriously must of have itched it for an hour. I know itching signals healing, but I would have much rather itched at 2pm then 2am.
I think most of my pain (really just aching) comes from the tendon lengtheners. I’m just guessing on this, but that’s the general area where it aches. I’ve noticed that my toes want to curl, but they can’t now – yay! That’s a great thing. I haven't adjusted the settings in my deep brain stimulation device since before the foot/toe surgery. I think I'll wait until I'm fully mobile again to attempt that. Maybe by that time, I won't have to - maybe this setting is "the one". We'll see. Again - patience!
I see the toe doctor (Dr. Gardner) again on May 18. Until then, I'll ice and wrap and unwrap and ice again and wear the boot and try to be patient. I'm not promising anything, but I'll TRY to be patient.
I may be impatient, but God's plan is always on time and always perfect. I must always remember, God's Got This!
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