Why would anyone want to be a podiatrist? Feet are gross!

Many of you know that I had surgery on my right Achilles Tendon last month. I had a bone spur growing and tearing into the tendon which was causing pain when I walked or wore shoes with a back. It has been bothering me most of the year but the pain was manageable.  I finally went to the doctor in June as it was becoming too much. My doctor told me flat out that surgery was the only way to 'fix' my pain but I wanted to try a conservative approach first. After several months of Cortizone shots, physical therapy, stretching socks, hot and cold soaks and numerous doctor visits I still couldn't wear shoes; the surgery was scheduled for October 6th.

In order to remove the bone spur my doctor detached the tendon at the heel, shaved down the spur, repaired the tendon and then reattached the tendon. The soonest the doctor could schedule the surgery was six weeks out, which is way too long for me to read and research making me so nervous that by the morning of the surgery I had worked myself into a huge ball of anxiety. Dave took me to the hospital, we checked in and walked me back to day surgery where the nurse told me it was time to get changed into the gown and start my iv where I promptly burst into tears. Seeing how scared I was the anesthesiologist gave me a nice cocktail of drugs and the rest is all a blur until I woke up in recovery asking for some water. Apparently I am quite chatty :)

I was on 'strict' non weight bearing for four weeks, followed by crutches for two and will be in my walking boot for another ten weeks. I rented a knee walker from a local medical supply company and got around pretty good. Claire really enjoyed riding on my scooter. She would sit of the first cushion and held on to the handlebars while I would place my knee on the back cushion and pushed her around the house and even the store. She's be grinning from ear to ear saying "weeee weeee"! The crutches on the other hand sucked. They made my arms sore, my under arm sore and even my wrists sore. Not mention I had a harder time getting around with the crutches then when I had the knee walker and my hands were tied up too. My walking boot makes my foot hurt even more. It is large, bulky, uncomfortable and the plastic presses on my wound. However, I totally get why I suppose to wear it at all times. I have fallen a few times (when I wasn't wearing my boot) and WOW-O- WOW did it hurt. Luckily I haven't done any damage and my foot is healing nicely.

My prognosis is two be 80% healed in two to four months and 100% at a year. I am slowly getting better and am looking forward to walking normal again. Thank you to Laurie,  Mom and Corky who took time out of they're busy schedules to come and help me with Claire. I couldn't have done it without you!

Before (notice the large bump on my right heel)

7 days post op

Black and blue cankels

Nasty and my legs are hairy since I couldn't get it wet. GROSSSS!

Two weeks post op

Still black and blue but I shaved. Just don't tell the doctor 

6 weeks post op

Weeeee!

Claire and mommy rockin the scooter!

I'll post some more after pictures once the swelling has gone done completely for a true before and after comparison. Oh yeah the doctor tells me apparently I have also have a bone spur on the left side and bunions on both feet. He was very generous and let me know he would gladly operate on those anytime I wanted. No thank you!

OMSI with Miss Jessica

Jessica took Claire to OMSI last week and they had a blast. Auntie Laurie, Ashley and Gracie tagged along too. They were nice enough to take pictures for us so Mommy and Daddy (and you all) could see all the fun. It has all of her favorites; blocks, books, balls, sand and water. I am thinking we need to look into getting a family membership. 

Ashley helping Claire

Gracie and Claire playing with the goo 

Books, books, books!

Gracie wasn't into sharing too much but Claire got one and is pretty happy about it

Of course, where else would she be putting the water

Miss Jessica and Claire

Around the house

HALLOWEEN!

I for one love Halloween and on the the other hand Dave hates it; being the awesome husband and dad that he is, Dave just went with the flow.

The Anderson's were nice enough to let us borrow one of their costumes that Abigail or Emma wore. Claire was a super cute Ladybug. We headed over to Gram's and Grumpy's since someone other else just had to see just how cute she was. It worked out nicely since we live way the heck out there and haven't had any trick-o-treaters in the three years we've lived here. Claire was able to hand out candy and see all the kids dressed up. Plus, the offered to babysit and we had an impromptu dinner date at Giuseppe's.

Pumpkin Patch with Grandma

Grandma Debbie came to visit last week to help out with Claire while I am recovering from surgery on my heel. The weather was nice and so we headed to the pumpkin patch in Boring. Unfortunately it was during the middle of the week so Dave was at work but if we waited till the weekend it would have been a soggy muddy mess. 

It was both a first for both me and Claire! The crutches made it a bit of a challenge but I managed just fine. We went on a hayride, picked out our huge pumpkin, got some freshly made carmel corn and had a really good time. They had a kiddy area where Claire played in a sandbox full of dried corn kernels, had a hay maze and a little play house (where she promptly got stuck in the folding chair). Grandma and I tried to to get Claire to look at the camera for some fun pictures but there were so many distractions it almost became comical trying to get her to look at us and not at all the people.

Got to weigh in

Corn kernels are almost as much fun as sand!

Ohhhhhh! Help Grandma!

Hayride

Playing peek-a-boo around R2D2
(We had to take this for Daddy)

So many to choose from

Confusing

It occurred to me a while back that the world can be a confusing place for a little person and us adults certainly don't make it any easier for them.

Here is what I mean, back in August Claire and I went to Dick's to look at the camping gear. We are walking through while Claire is pointing at different things asking 'what's that' and trying to say the word. She points to several rafts, kayaks and boats hanging on the wall and from the ceiling. It is a great way to display them without taking up floor space. My thought to make it easier is I just called them all boats. It was pretty cute to hear her sound out the word boat and practice over and over again. First as a whisper, almost like she doesn't want to say it too loud, just in case it isn't right or she is listening on how it sounds internally comparing it to what I said. Wouldn't be awesome to be in their heads!

A few days later we were walking through Target and Claire very excitedly points to the lights and signs and says BOATS! She was quite proud of herself. It makes perfect sense to her; why wouldn't those be boats, we are in a store and they are hanging from the ceiling. How confusing!

I felt sad that I was the one who created the confusion and how to explain that those are lights or signs, not boats. Anyway, two months later she now looks up, points and says LIGHTS!! Although, I am not sure still knows what a boat is.

Sweet Country Photography

We had Claire's 1 year photos taken a few weeks ago. Up next family pics, now we just have to get them scheduled :)