At the end of week two, I'm home on my own and feeling pretty good. But it definitely feels like time has moved slowly. Hopefully the coming weeks will go by a little faster, now that I'm set up for a routine and able to do more for myself. First Follow-up I had my first follow-up appointment last week, which I'd been looking forward to pretty much since the day after surgery. Possibly because I was anticipating it so much, it felt like it would never come. But it did, and it went very well. I got my bulky dressing and "upper foot" cast off, and I finally saw my new foot! Of course, it wasn't beautiful; it was still tinted orange from the betadine used in surgery prep, it was swollen and a little bruised, and my incision was still healing and had strips of medical tape running along it (I'll save a barefoot photo for a later post). But my bunion was gone and my toe was aligned! That was the goal, and it was achieved. The doctor said it only looked lik...

First things first: my surgery went very well. The doc told me so as I was coming out of my slumber, but he also spoke at length with my parents. There were no complications, no real surprises, and if the healing goes as it should, the doc said he doesn't see why I shouldn't be able to get back to running—very welcome news! My doctor, by the way, is  Matthew Werd , at Foot and Ankle Associates in Lakeland. I fretted a lot over which surgeon to choose; I'd had three consultations, and it came down to two. One was an orthopedist I'd seen for injuries, and she happened to have performed bunionectomies on two of my coworkers, who were happy with their results. But her recovery program seemed far too good to be true. Walking around within a few days, no boot, and the second foot done within 10 days of the first. Maybe it would have been perfectly fine, but in the end I decided I wanted the more cautious approach, albeit with a much longer recovery period. Nonetheless, I...

In the past week, I ran my last run, I swam my last swim, and I rode my last ride—at least for a while. I did four distinct loads of laundry (which I did not know was possible for me); I stocked up on necessities—toilet paper, hygiene things, dry goods, some frozen foods, medications/supplements; I pre-made a couple of foods I knew I'd want afterward; I typed up all the necessary (and some unnecessary) details of my surgery to send in emails to my family and my employer; I drank a large glass of water mixed with a disgusting packet of detoxing/alkalizing powder the past three nights, because the guy at Whole Foods told me I should and I was too afraid of what might haven if I didn't; I made readily available my yoga mat, ab roller, and dumbellls and pulled out my book of yoga anatomy that shows seated and supine poses—for when the motivation stikes me to exercise; I made sure everything I'd want was accessible—not too high or too low, as I won't be able to lift heavy th...

Seminole Heights is kind of the "it" place in Tampa these days, and here is just one more reason to love it. Although the clinic I visited has been around for many years prior to the community's popularity, I only recently discovered it and decided to try it out. I've tried acupuncture several different times over the past decade or so, first to treat allergies , then to help alleviate a new and undiagnosed pain that set in several years ago. It's always been difficult to tell whether the acupuncture helped; it's not an immediate, magical solution to a given problem (although I did feel nearly immediate relief from head pain in a recent visit). For persistent or chronic problems, it takes repeated sessions, patience, and an open mind. But it also costs money (naturally), and the rate I was paying at the previous practitioners' offices was not sustainable, so I never continued the treatments for very long. I'd found out about Seminole Heights Co...