from Larisa

Gen, thank you for posting this for me.

I'm off the Percocet, so I can actually "remember" how to get to the newsgr oup again. Things have been really strange....guess we found a medicine I can't take for pain (cold sweats, dizziness, shaking...NOT fun).

I'm doing ok mobility-wise - now that I'm wearing a shoe on the "good foot" . Provides more balance and I'm not so wobbly. Ken got me his walking sti ck and I've been using that for leverage when getting up off the sofa or ou t of the chair.

This was NOT a planned surgery. I went in for the doc to see what the issu e was and walked out with an appointment for the surgery...hmmm....he reall y wanted to do a joint replacement,, but said he doesn't like doing them on people under 50 (so that means I have a few more years). Worst part for m e is that I'm used to constantly doing stuff and now I'm restricted to what I can do from a sitting position with one foot elevated....turns out, it's not really that much. I *am* working on some knitting, so at least I'm be ing productive. Before the surgery, I drafted out the first potential quil t layout for my state and county fair ribbons...very simple design, but I t hink it will work....thought about doing them by color, and I may play with that layout as well, but right now I'm looking at having them arranged by year they were earned - 3 years of NY state fair and 3 years of Augusta Cou nty fair....for a total of 65 ribbons...lol...ah well. Might even aim for next year's VA state fair because it's coming up soon so I know I can't do this year's fair.

Anyway, with all this chaos, I forgot to mention that Thomas is doing onlin e school this year. He's taking 5 classes right now (one is an elective an d will be over soon, then he'll switch to another elective) and has 3 As an d 2Bs...teachers have been told about my surgery and that there will be a d elay in him turning in work since I'm unable to help him right now (more he lp with research and prompting for more details than anything else). He al so managed to skip a year of math and is taking 8th grade math in 7th grade !!

He says he's really enjoying it - more than going to public school and bein g bullied by students and belittled by teachers...guess we made the right c hoice....but he's also said that he doesn't want to go back to public scho ol, so this will be going on for a few more years. Hope is that, once he g ets to be old enough, he'll be able to have a part time job, but we are cur rently looking at volunteering at the local library. He is also in the adu lt karate class now and is really enjoying himself, even though most of the students are MUCH bigger than he is.

So that's where we are...now that I'm not in a percocet fog, I need to try and find things to stay busy for the next 6 days (follow up on the 30th)

Larisa

In my practiced Momma Voice (not yelling):

Know what? There is NOTHING WRONG with 'just sitting and doing NOTHING'.

Absolutely positively nothing.

Just let the body REST.

I challenge you to do it for a few minutes each hour. Look at it as complete healing time. If you must, tell yourself that your BODY is working so let your brain go idle.

After the few minutes, write out a 'list' of what needs to be done and then itemize it for importance. You may surprise yourself that there are things that CAN WAIT and those that need doing today........ let the kidlets try their hand at it.....give them a bit more freedom to 'help out'. They may surprise you at how well they can do it. May not be done the way you would but they do have to learn: don't 'boss' just let them spread their wings. Praise their efforts, don't gush, just a simple "thank you or I'm proud of you" is sufficent. (you know what they are/n't capable of)

As for you, young lady do NOT rush the healing....you don't want a re-do because you were in a hurry to start doing again. The 2nd time around takes longer to heal.

Take care and most importantly: BE GOOD TO YOURSELF

Butterfly

I'm working on this....just spent over 30 minutes chilling out, enjoying th= e 60s music that the public television channel had on...doing nothing else = but listening and singing along...lol. But is *so* hard! However, learned= my lesson today as I went to the store with DD (used the scooter because I= couldn't see me getting to the back of the store gathering groceries, and = making it back to the cashier using crutches)...toes are a bit swollen now = and I'm so done....not going to try to do that again.

Try THIRD time around!! We've come to the conclusion that: 1-I *never* sho= uld have been forced into wearing narrow shoes my entire life (that was wha= t Mother insisted I wore and that's what she only bought for me....in my 20= s I discovered just how comfortable medium width shoes were...I'm now a 9 1= /2M, and sometimes W depending on the style of shoe), and 2-the Army surgeo= ns that attempted the first surgery seriously messed it up when the "broke = a little bit off and wired it back together"

Hoping this will be the final corrective surgery I need for a long time.

=20

For some reason, the post you sent won't show up with my answer AND I did try emailing privately but compie won't send emails this AM

Soooooooooo, this is for Larisa, and the rest of you may go back to your quilting, please :)

I do have a coupla questions:

1: Didn't the Dr tell you to keep the foot elevated for the first week and make like a REAL couch potato with ice above the cast (assume you are wearing one) every other hour for 15 min--no longer-- for the first week to help keep the swelling down......

2: didn't he tell you -not- to run any errands or even think of shopping until he saw you again after that week.....

3: didn't he tell you to only have your foot down (using the scooter...not on the floor) only when you went from the bed to couch to the neccesary and no where else? (I even got a sheet of instructions with the above after every foot surgery here at Mayo)

I may be way off base, but those were the instructions for when I had the first surgery 30+ yrs ago(MI, 2nd in CA and now in AZ) and every one since including the 'removal of the pins/minor surgery/no cast jsut soft top shoes' and again with the major ones. Normal 'rules' to try to keep from having complications.

4: Finally, with your 'history' hasn't the Dr sent you for 'orthodics' in ''leather tops tennis shoes" (New Balance brand until this last pair that were specially made with steel inserts)....to try to avoid another surgery. And only _allowed to wear regular shoes with NO heels_ for Special Occasins and no longer than 4 hours maximum. (Your Ins may/not cover the shoes--had one that did and now this one won't cause I don't have diabetes!)

Sure hope this is the last surgery you have to have on your feetz. Keep me posted, please.

Butterfly

Ok, no cast. I had what is called a "McBride's Bunionectomy" to try and st= raighten my big toe from where it overlapping my 2nd toe. I had previously= had 2 "traditional" bunionectomies on that toe/foot (and fortunately only =

1 bilateral on the right foot).

I was told to have an ice pack one for an hour and off for an hour - or unt= il it was no longer cold and elevate.

Was told that for first few days, to only get up for the bathroom, wear the= stupid shoe, and sit being bored out of my mind. However, the doc also sa= id to start increasing my walking time to build tolerance.

No scooter except for the ones that are available for customer use at the f= ront of some stores - he didn't even want me to use crutches, but wanted me= to walk as tolerable on the angled shoe (throws my balance off because wei= ght is on my heel).

I have custom insoles for my shoes, but they don't help with bone/joint mis= alignment, which is what they are dealing with. We have come to the conclu= sion that it is the result of a combination of being forced into the narrow= shoes, running barefoot, Army breaking a bone then wiring it back together= , and so on...basically it's been progressively getting worse every year, a= nd the reason it got attention this year is because of all the walking I've= been doing as part of my exercise routine.....better now than later, I sup= pose.

I bought a book while scootering around Food Lion so that will keep me dist= racted for a while