Massage

I had a massage Tuesday from my yoga guru (who teaches touch/energy healing) and I was wiped out for the rest of the day. Guess I didn't drink enough water. Twas quite pleasant, out on her patio on her massage table, just the sounds of nature, and the colors she conjured up on different parts of my body.... (With my eyes closed I saw colors. Really. Not Tuesday.) While she was massaging my right arm and shoulder I got bright oranges - saffron, gold, yellow. While on my left it was more cool colors like greens, teal and light blue. Then over my brow I saw deep rosy pink. Quite fun actually as I most often only see the royal purple of the God-head. She says the oranges were for my creative side. I didn't ask about the others as I was just enjoying the show.
Today I got the pin taken out of my toe. It felt rather like removing a pierced earring that had sort of got grown in. Then I should only have two more weeks in this cast (depending on how well I have healed). I really am getting achy scooting everywhere. You would be surprised how much energy it takes. You can't just turn around, you have to back and turn, like turning a truck. Oh, well. First Sister says I'll be very happy with the results once everything has healed.

Friday

Every day gets better. Three more weeks in this cast.
DH has passed his kidney stone and is regaining his strength.
I am driving (DH does not like to drive and I do not like to not be in control of the car.) This morning we went to the grocery store (first time in three weeks - we really needed to do this) and I got to ride around in the little electric cart. I can see the problems of wheelchair bound in a grocery store. Everything was out of my reach. (Well, not everything but you get the idea). DH dutifully fetched when I pointed. He even got out and pumped gas - something that I am usually assigned since I do all the driving.
I have finished two UFO's (baby quilts for church event) and have another one on the way. Can only sit at the machine for short periods every day then have to get the foot elevated. Like I said above, only three more weeks.

Promotion ceremonies

On Thursday, Casey's school held their 6th grade promotion ceremony. There were 52 students promoted to Junior Hi. Each student was presented with a certificate of promotion and some other goodies. When they processed out they took a rose from a vase and went into the audience to present it to a person who they wanted to honor (insert mother or father here).

Carrie and Dave brought her a lovely bouquet of roses. That evening we went to the Olive Garden for dinner.












Friday was the ceremony for the students at Stevens school. Malita and Fiston are my special friends from that school (Malita is in yellow). Their ceremony was much more low key. Kids were not all decked out. No special awards for academic prowess. These two refugees looked lost most of the time.
Needless to say, my foot did not like being dragged out for such long expanses of time. I spent all of Saturday on the couch, feeling like my foot was about to explode inside the cast (well actually only the toes, which are really not in the cast at all.)

cast change

This is a picture of my left foot before the surgery. Quite a bunnion bump and a hammer toe.
This is what it looked like when the soft cast came off. Blue pin still in for another two weeks. The stitches came out and xrays showed good alignment. I got a new purple (of course) fiberglass cast. I'll be in it for another four weeks. No walking, climbing stairs etc. BORING


It was so good to get outside. The sun was actually shining for a while. Now it is back to cloudy and cold. Did you see that we had snow in June in the Paloose? And an all time cold of 36 the other night. 36 in June? Now it is only up to 59 in the middle of the day. I suppose when summer gets here we will be sweltering and bitching about how hot it is.

Stamina

Seems I am getting better. I can at least have my foot down for longer periods of time without it swelling up. Took the ace bandage off last night (just to have a look). My this cast really is soft. Only hard part is on the sole of my foot and up the leg. The whole top of the foot is just covered with cotton. My, my. Put the bandage back on a bit more snugly than it was before and had to readjust this morning, much to Jerry's dismay.
Get the soft cast off on Wednesday and the fiberglass one put on. Sure hope it has a walking foot (or the promise of one in the near future). I'm getting sick of laying about on the couch.
On a brighter note, my yoga guru came over yesterday and gave me a "touch for healing" seated massage. It felt sooooo good. She is the greatest.
Aaron, I don't have one.

catching on

Looking back at previous posts, I found I had no one commenting. Bummer. Then I looked at the Moderate Comments tab and found lots of people had commented. Yipee. Looked around in settings and turned that switch off that made me look somewhere else for comments before they could be seen on my blog. If a bad one comes up, I'll just delete it. I think that is more effective. And I'll get to see who pays attention to me easier.

Booring

Day 8. I do not make a very good invalid. I see things around here that need to be done (dusting, bed made, plants to be watered etc.) and can't do them. I get up off the couch to go pee and them scoot back to the couch, exhausted. There is NOTHING on TV. If I try to listen to my ipod for very long it puts me to sleep.
The foot doesn't hurt, I just have no stamina but if I leave it lower than my heart, it starts to swell up - then it hurts. I would love to scoot into my sewing room, but fear I would have no energy to do much in there. Besides, where do I put my foot?
On a brighter note, I just finished listening to "Walk in My Shoes" by Alwin Evans. What a great read. It is about a refugee family from Afghanistan and their trials relocating in Australia. It should be on your short list of books to read this summer. I kept seeing our Burundi family in it. We have so much here and all these people want is a safe place to live and get on with their lives.

I'm getting better

Here you are. A picture of my toe with a metal rod sticking out of the end. It only hurts if I bump it or if I leave it lower than my heart for any length of time. The great toe is now on straight and is not overlapping the second toe like it was last week. I can hardly wait until July when I can see the fruits of Dr's labors