Second Day of Work

Well, I'm back to work. I've found the handicap parking slots, and for now I'm definitely parking there. Couldn't find 'em yesterday (turns out they're in the Employee Parking Lot, not the Contractor Lot) so I parked in the Contractor Lot. Today my walk was about HALF what it was yesterday, and a good thing, too.

Not doing too badly, actually. Ankle's a little cranky this morning; we'll see how it goes.

How many dogs?

How many dogs does it take to change a lightbulb?

Golden Retriever: The sun is shining. The day is young. We've got our whole lives ahead of us. And you're inside worrying about a stupid, burned-out light bulb?

Border Collie: Just one. Not only that, but I'll replace any wiring that's not up to code.

Dachshund: I can't reach that stupid lamp!

Jack Russell Terrier: I'll just pop a new bulb in when I'm bouncing off the walls.

Toy Poodle: Are you kidding? If I change a lightbulb, I'll ruin my manicure. I'll just blow in the Border collie's ear and he'll do it. By the time he finishes rewiring the house, my nails will be dry.

Rottweiler: Go Ahead! Make me!

Shi-tzu: Puh-leeze, dah-ling. What are servants for?

Lab: Oh, me, me!!! Pleeeeeeze let me change the light bulb! Can I? Can I? Huh? Huh? Can I?

Malamute: Pfft. Let the Border collie do it. You can feed me while he's busy.

Doberman Pinscher: While it's dark, I'm going to sleep on the couch.

Mastiff: Mastiffs are NOT afraid of the dark.

Hound Dog: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Chihuahua: Yo quiero Taco Bulb.

Pointer: I see it, there it is, right there...

Greyhound: It isn't moving. Who cares?

Australian Shepherd: First I'll put all the light bulbs in a little circle...

Old English Sheep Dog: Light bulb? Light bulb? That thing I just ate was a light bulb?

Meaning in Life

Strawberry's latest post asks how to "find the meaningful" in life. It's a good question, really. How do you find things that are meaningful, and how do you get motivated to DO them?

Sometimes "The Meaningful" just whacks you between the eyes. Sometimes it's incredibly obvious, and you can't help but do whatever it may be, because you're almost compelled to do so. For me, that's things like playing the organ for church. I have to play - at least on occasion. Heck, just going to service on Sundays is The Meaningful. And I do really miss it if I don't go in a particular week. And I'm sure that, if you asked her, Strawberry would tell you that teaching Sunday School is part of The Obvious Meaningful to her.

But sometimes The Meaningful doesn't present itself with a 2x4. Sometimes, making yourself go out and doing something becomes meaningful in retrospect. I don't mean just things that are "hafta do" things, like laundry and cleaning - I mean things like "go for a walk in the park" or "sit outside with a coffee (or tea) and just listen to the birds" becomes meaningful. Those are ways that Captain Spaulding and I use to "center" ourselves, and take a couple minutes out to remind ourselves that life isn't just about doing the things we MUST do every day. Life isn't just sleep-eat-work-sleep; it's the little stuff.

Likewise, Meaningful isn't always the Big Important Feelings and motivations. Many times I've had to force myself out of my chair, out of the house, to go do something that I really don't feel like doing. I don't feel motivated, I don't feel ambitious, and I sure as heck don't want to do anything except go back to bed. But I get up and do it, because either I've promised someone else I'll be there, or go do "it" (whatever it is), or because I'm just tired of being in my rut of sleep-eat-work-sleep. I certainly don't feel like whatever I'm going to do is meaningful. But later on, maybe while I'm doing whatever it is, or afterward, I look and see that yes, it was meaningful, and I feel better about myself for having done it. Even if it's just walking the dog around the block, or hiking in the woods, or...hey, even hanging laundry to dry.

The Meaningful is all around us. Sometimes it's obvious. Sometimes it's very, very hard to see. When it becomes nigh unto impossible to find, it's up to each of us to MAKE The Meaningful happen, rather than wait for it to find us. And, like many other things, the more Meaningful we "do", the easier it is to find it next time.

More PT News

The Therapist was VERY pleased with my progress today. I've increased weights on all sides of my foot on the "foot-weighty-thingy" mentioned before. (Hey, I dunno what they call it. He calls it "The Machine".) He gave me more flexing exercises to do there, AND had me doing some stairs exercises without using my arms too much, and then a couple more strength exercises for at home.
The newest one involved standing at the kitchen counter or somewhere I can use for support, then going up on my tiptoes, then back down, then up on tiptoes again, and so on. Once that becomes easier, I can move to balancing on my right foot, and just going up on tiptoe on the RIGHT FOOT ONLY. Whoof. Considering my balance ain't the greatest at the best of times, this is gonna be tough to do. Which, I suppose, is rather the point.

Anyway, he was happy with the progress. Looks like I'll definitely be on track to going back to work on the 28th.
We did ask him about going to things like the local fairs, and he said sure, just don't overdo. Good thing, since I already went to the Noble County Fair, and he said that was a good one to go to and he said we were handling it properly - exercise and push as much as possible without overstressing it and injuring it more.

So...yay! More positive progress!

Simon's Cat - TV Dinner

Yay! Another Installment of Simon's Cat!

More updates

Another update on, guess what, yeah, my ankle. Oh come on, you can't pretend you're surprised. That's pretty much what's occupying my time lately, innit?

Anyway. ANOTHER significant piece of progress today - I climbed the stairs to the balcony at church! All 17 of them! Yes, of course I counted. Did you really expect anything different? Anyway, I made it up with the help of the handrail and the cane. I practiced on the organ, and I figure I should be OK to play and back up to speed by the time August rolls around. AND I got to play my flute for service today! Yay!

The sermon today, by the way, was excellent. Pastor talked about the Parable of the Sower (it was the Gospel lesson.) He pointed out that there's always time for us to not only be the fertile soil, but to fall back into being the rocky, weed and thorn-choked soil. But Christ saves us from that! We have to be careful not to compare our "thorns" to someone else's, though. What seems easy to us (their thorns) is very difficult for them - and our very-difficult-to-deal-with-thorns are probably no big deal for someone else. I always appreciate his sermons; they get us to look just a little bit differently at the readings, and get us out of the "well, of course this is what that means because it's always meant just that."

Immerse yourself in the Word, and by the grace of God you will be fertile soil. Thanks be to God!

MUCH more progress!

I spent FAR more time in the pool yesterday than I have so far - and way more than I'd planned on. BUT, we had People Over (Hi Wade! Hi Rosemary! Hi Luke! Hi Naomi!) and so we had fun in the pool. I was very careful, and I still did my laps and stuff, though. Last night Kev started The Great Cane Search. He found one that we'd bought as sort of an "emergency just in case" cane that folds up, and set it up for me for "whenever".
Well, me being me, I had to try it out right away. It was rather hard going, and I had to hang on to him as well as the cane at first, but I found out I was Doing It Wrong. I had the cane on my right side - apparently the thing is supposed to be on the opposite side of the injured leg. Okay, whatever, seems counterintuitive but bygolly it works. I tried it out this morning the "right" way and OHMYGOSH it is sooooooooo much easier than using the walker!!!

Now I have to concentrate on "gait" and make sure my foot actually flexes and bends at the ball, pushing off the right way, instead of sorta sliding sideways and pushing off with the inside of my foot.
I'm so happy - if I can do the cane all day today without pain or problem, then I'll try it again tomorrow. And if I can use a CANE tomorrow, I can get up into the balcony (cane and handrail) where I belong, dangit. Of course, that's going to make going down to Communion problematic. One thing at a time. :D

PT, Round 2

I went to my second Physical Therapy session today. Today's started with an ankle strengthening machine. This thing is REALLY cool. First I put my foot in a metal thing that is rather reminiscent, actually, of the foot-measury things that are at the shoe store. You know, the one where you stick your foot on the metal thing, back your heel up to the heel-cup, and slide the metal levers around until you find out that you wear a size 6 or whatever? Like that, only without the metal levers and the foot measury number things. And it had straps that went around my shoe. And spots for weights at the front, back, and both sides.

So the first thing he did was to put a 5-lb weight on the front and see if I can flex and lift up the weight. Yep, no problem...20 reps. Same with each side. The one exercising the OUTSIDE muscle of my leg was the worst. He said that's normal - even on a "good" leg it's the weakest muscle of the ankle. Well...good, I guess.

Then he put it on the back. 5 lbs. was easy...and so was 10, so he put 15 lbs. on that one. No surprise, he said, because the calf muscle is so much larger and stronger than the other ones. Then on to a gait-exercise between two parallel bars. Walk between them, using them for support, frontways and backways. He said I'm not doing bad, but I do need some work yet. Then a stepping exercise, stepping up on the bad leg, and back down (again with the parallel bars for assistance if needed).
Then....a bike ride? Yep, 5 minutes on the stationary bike! Yay! I can go bike riding again! (Only, given the fact that MY bike has much greater resistance than that one does, I think I'll wait a bit longer before trying it.)

Then stopping for some additional flexy exercises that he did on my ankle, trying to increase the range-of-motion. Not bad, he was rather pleased with the ROM I had so far.

Kev mentioned "hey, you'll be able to drive in no time if you keep that up," and the Therapist said I could try it NOW, actually, if I felt comfortable with it! So we tried it in a relatively empty parking lot, and I tried all the usual things: accelerating, braking, and I even had Kev do a couple "emergency stop" sessions, where I'd be driving along and he'd say, randomly, "NOW" and I was supposed to slam on the brakes. Everything went well, so I got to drive home. Actually, I took over all the driving from Sam's Club (had to do some shopping) to the library, then to the grocery store, then home! Ankle's all swelly and stuff, but it doesn't HURT.

I got to drive! I'm still not up to doing any marathon driving sessions - it did start to ache after about 15 minutes or so driving, and I had to take a break (fortunately, stopping at the library and the grocery allowed for that) and now I have a freezy pack on my ankle to try to get the swelling down a bit, but I got to drive. I'm so happy!

More Improvement

Well, today was my second day in the pool. I did a few laps around the pool in both stances, and concentrated on "good gait", taking it very slow and making sure I was walking properly with BOTH feet, bending at the ball of the foot and so on. LOTS of stretchy work, and lots of good exercise.

The outside-the-pool payoff today was that I got to take two full steps without any support from the walker whatsoever. Yes, they were quick little limpy steps, but they were full-weight-on-the-right-leg steps!

No sharp pains, but I'm aching a bit now, I can tell ya....
Still improving, little by little.

I've moved up to the "red" TheraBand from the "yellow" one, too. I have to work my way through green, blue and black too, but I'll take what improvement I can get.

First day of Pool! first day of Pool!

I felt like Nemo, bouncing on his dad. "First day of school! First day of school!" Only mine was "first day of pool! First day of pool!" I got approval from my Physical Therapist to go in the pool - in fact, he encouraged it, saying I'd be able to develop the proper gait in the pool before On Land, because obviously the water takes some of my weight off. :D Not mass, more's the pity. *snert*

However, I did, in fact, use the pool today. 2 or 3 full laps around the pool with no support whatsoever. Plus, I've discovered a new stretchy thingy I can do - scrunch down in the pool so my shoulders are just out of the water. Fold my legs under me, sort of half-kneeling, and it stretches the plantar and calf muscles beautifully. Which, of course, I need to do anyway! So I was very pleased with First Day Of Pool. I hope to go in the pool again each day this week, actually. It's a lot of work, but in the long run it'll help. Short run, too - I walked all the way back to the house without pain - and putting MORE weight on my right leg than I have been.
Being in the pool and walking on it is getting me to TRUST my right leg and ankle again, so it's having some immediate benefits too.

I expect I'll be hearing it later tonight when my ankle lodges its Official Protests, but for now I'm just REALLY happy that it worked so well.

Wedding Pictures! Round 2!

More wedding pictures!!!



Hugs after the ceremony.



Bridal party in the church



The whole party inside the church




Awwwwwwww...aren't they adorable?


WildStrawberry and her new husband. Ain't they sweet?

Wedding Pictures!

Got lots of pictures from WildStrawberry of her wedding!


The Bridal Party



The Groomal Party



The Blushing Bride. Ain't she pretty?



Bride & Matron of Honor



Groom and Best Man Proxy

First Day of Therapy

w00t! I had my first therapy session. Now I'm all therapized and stuff. :D

He did some range-of-motion and flexibility and strength tests on me. Apparently I did very well, because he was quite pleased with what I could do. I am starting to walk with the walker, and not just hop around. It's tough going, but I'm getting used to it, and I'm so happy he specified what kind of pain was "acceptable". (A bit of an ache is OK while I'm exercising, but a SHARP pain is not.) He explained what would hurt, and why, and how and where I'd feel the exercises.

He gave me exercises for at home, and definitely approved of me using the pool to exercise in! Yay, I can go in the pool again!

I tried actually walking with the walker, too. It's slow going, but it's overall easier than hopping with it, so I'll be doing THAT as much as possible.

Yay! I'm starting to use my right leg again! Hooray!

Looky! A real shoe!

My first Physical Therapy appointment is tomorrow, so we decided to make sure that my SHOES will actually fit, given the amount of edema still present in my foot and ankle.

Looky! We got it on my foot the first try, with NO pain, and NO problem! We decided I should wear it for a few hours to make sure that I won't have a problem with the shoe tomorrow. So far....2.75 hours and counting - and NO problems. No pain...and, in fact, it feels pretty dang good.

Happy Independence Day!

From The Muppets.

George Lucas in Love

AAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA....
We were at Pastor and Lora's last night for dinner and fireworks. We had a GREAT time (and the food was fabulous.) Somewhere along the line, they suggested we check out a video called "George Lucas In Love".

So I did.
It's almost 9 minutes long, but it's funny.

The Latest Report

Well, I got back from my latest Orthopedic appointment. The doc says I can lose The Boot and start walking as of Monday! Well...start trying to walk. I also start 3 weeks of Physical Therapy on Monday to get used to walking again.
He kept saying "gait training" and for some bizarre reason I thought he was saying GATE training and I couldn't figure out why they'd use a GATE. Anyway, at the end of it I should be OK to drive, and therefore OK to go back to work. Yay!