Skip to main content

Surgery Chronicles: Home Stretch

I'm now into my sixth week since surgery. I'm on track, making good progress, but I'm so close to time frame for recovery—six to eight weeks. My five-week follow-up last week went well, but I left feeling overwhelmed. The doctor said he didn't need to see me for another four weeks, which is just in time for my pre-op appointment for my second foot (!).

To-Do List

Since the appointment, I've no longer been using crutches (yay!), and I've been working to help my incision heal completely (I'll spare details), at which point I'll need to start treating it with a special scar gel to keep the tissue from hardening. Also during this interim, I'll need to be a bit more aggressive with my toe exercises to increase flexibility (i.e., make it hurt). And, when I feel comfortable enough, I can try gradually transitioning from the boot to an athletic shoe. Once I feel good in athletic shoes, I can resume driving. That feels like a lot of stuff to manage on my own over four weeks without any more doctor appointments (thankfully I had my sister with me to take copious notes!).

A last, very worthwhile outing with the crutches.

'Beach' Vacation

My family had a min-beach vacation planned over the past few days, and I hesitated over whether I should go. I still can't submerge my foot—especially not in sea or pool water, because my incision isn't fully "sealed"—and I can't walk in the sand with my boot, at least not safely. So I thought it might be more depressing than fun or relaxing to go on a vacation where I couldn't really participate in all the activities. But my family talked me into it and provided lots of accommodations to make sure I'd be comfortable. In fact, they even got me onto the beach one day, where I could at least enjoy the atmosphere and feel like I wasn't missing out completely. A lot of the time was spent in the condo preparing and eating meals, doing some crafts, painting toe nails (I did 40 nails total, counting my own), and visiting with even more family I don't often get to see. So in the end I didn't feel like I missed out on much. Maybe some salt water up my nose, a sun burn, and a sand mermaid tail, but there will be plenty of other times.

Gluten-free Mediterranean pizza w/ hummus base. Delish!

Painting rocks! (It's a thing.)

It took a few tries, but I eventually found my groove.

This little piggy...

Salivating over my nieces' ice cream, which isn't on my current diet.

Things I'm Enjoying

Despite feeling overwhelmed and a bit anxious about managing my recovery as perfectly as possible, there are also good things to report on: 
  • I'm rockin' the exercise ball, despite my limitations with it
  • I've been going back to acupuncture as often as I can 
  • I've been digging my anti-inflammatory diet, which can be limiting at times—especially in public places—but it's made me be more creative with food 
  • Some things I've watched recently that I'd recommend: Queen Sugar, GLOW (heck yes!), The Son. Got any other recommendations?
  • I started a free trial for Audible based on an ad to try this book (can't imagine how they targeted me for it): Declutter Your Mind: How to Stop Worrying, Relieve Anxiety, and Eliminate Negative Thinking. I have so-so feelings about self-help books. I'm always looking to improve myself and appreciate resources and advice from experts, but it seems everyone is an expert these days, and they can dish out a lot of contradictory, over-simplified, or obvious advice for "fixing" people. That said, there were some sections on mindfulness and goal-setting that were useful to me. But I'd like to explore other things on Audible before my free trial ends on July 17—go!

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

People Liked to Read...

Play of Summer

Even though it is still technically spring time, the summer college semester begins in one week, the weather is consistently sunny and mid-80s, and baseball season is in full bloom. I embrace this time of year as a time to extend my outside activities beyond my nightly walks, to bike rides, benefit runs, beach days, and a newfound interest in softball. Yesterday Joe and I began the day with a 7:25am 5K run to benefit the Child Abuse Council . One of Tampa's largest and most regular 5Ks, the Gunn Allen Financial May Classic brought out over 1,500 of Tampa's athletes and do-gooders. Since it was a last-minute decision for us to register, we did not have a a chance to train, but we had both been keeping a somewhat regular exercise schedule in the weeks leading up to the run. Our goal was to finish, preferably to finish running. And we did. 36 minutes of concrete pounding, rhythmic breathing, and humanistic awareness, and we had completed our first 5K together, having run th...
7 comments
Read more

A Three-Race Finale

So, after the Nike Women's Half Marathon I ran in DC, I told myself I'd take a rest afterward. But then someone kept tempting me to sign up for races. And because I was on a PR roll, I thought, hey, why not--let's end the spring race season with a bang. So I ran three races on the three weekends following Nike: the Police Appreciation 10K, Miles for Moffitt 5-Mile, and the Secret Service 5K. I PR'd two out of three, and finally got my 5K (official) PR I'd been hoping for. Interestingly, I placed eighth in my age group for all three races. Police Appreciation 10K - 5/5/13 Official Time: 0:49:46 Official Avg Pace: 8:00 mins/mile Age Group Place: 8/45 The unseasonably cool and breezy weather that morning made for a great race through scenic downtown St. Pete. Even though we learned later that we were led backward through the course as it was designed, which explains why we only saw the back sides of mile markers, we still ran the correct distance.  ...
4 comments
Read more

My Ulele Feast with the Tampa Bay Bloggers; Or, That Time I Ate Alligator

Monday night, I had the delightful opportunity to be among the  Tampa Bay Bloggers  on a tasting event* at  Ulele  (pronounced yoo-LAY-lee), a newish restaurant along Tampa's River Walk, which is in a revitalization phase. The restaurant, which opened this past fall, has already received several significant commendations:  One of the Top 100 Restaurants in the U.S. (by Open Table),  One of the Best New Restaurants in Florida (by  Florida Trend ); Best Overall Restaurant (by Yelp Tampa Bay); and, its most recent achievement,  the  #7 spot for Top 50 Restaurants in Tampa Bay , as scored by Laura Reiley of the  Tampa Bay Times .  So I felt honored to eat there, and I'd been wanting to go since it opened, but reservations were always difficult to get. When I saw the call for bloggers to attend this event, I jumped at the opportunity! Fortunately, I was chosen--among may others: That's a lot of hungry bloggers! A...
4 comments
Read more