Dirk and Nancy are home from Australia for the holidays. They have a really fun blog - check it out at: http://no-worries-dirk.blogspot.com/. Very cool animals and sights from Australia and surrounding areas.
Because D & N were home for the holidays, many of us got together at the house for a celebration. It was fun seeing everyone and sharing slides that everyone brought from the year.
A special thanks to Bob and Mary Jo for my new hot pink lounge pants. I put them on at the party. Dave had to wrestle them from me only yesterday. :)
Who knew pants could be so goooood?
Because I was so immobile, it turns out there are photos of people I didn't even see that night! Yikes! Next party I'll get to visit more.
Enjoy the photos. Hopefully we can all get together again in the near future. Who knows, maybe soon we'll be having the "welcome home for good" party for Dirk and Nancy?!?!?
Christmas morning arrived. We were up, ate, and ready to open gifts. A cool gift showed up in the form of walking without crutches - even on all the stairs here! I was gimping around a bit yesterday , but I carried my crutches with me as, well, crutches!
So, while it's not pretty walking, it's walking! Another cool foot related treat today is that I get to take my first shower since surgery! Yay. And tomorrow, it's to the pool. Hopefully I'll get a blog entry of the gimp in the pool. Cool.
Lots of goodies showed up from Santa. Not much to say, other than thanks to the senders. The gifts are awesome. :)
I'll let the photos do the talking...
Merry Christmas!
Christmas morning arrived. We were up, ate, and ready to open gifts. A cool gift showed up in the form of walking without crutches - even on all the stairs here! Okay, it's not pretty walking, but it's walking! Cool.
Lots of goodies showed up from Santa. Not much to say, other than thanks to the senders. The gifts are awesome. :)
Several people have asked exactly what work I had done on my feet. And they've asked to see photos. I deal with both of these in this post. Most photos are at the bottom of this post for a reason - they are a bit gross. If you are easily grossed-out, you may want to skip this post.
Many thought that my bunion surgery consisted of just removing the bump on the foot and that it is done for aesthetic purposes. For some, that may be the case - there is a wide range of surgeries that are done depending on feet. Dr. Shonka says bunions are like snowflakes - no two are alike.
My surgery was a bit more involved and it was done because of serious pain. I'd gotten to where I could walk slowly. No more. No biking. No hiking. Almost no climbing (I could climb on the outside of my feet only. Difficult to find climbs that lend themselves to that). Aesthetics were not my concern (though I feel bad for scaring the people I did with my bare feet). The second and third photo in the post show the 'before' x-rays.
I had four things done to my foot. First, a neuroma was removed from the foot. This is a scarred and inflamed nerve - the nerve that runs to toes three and four. This is the cause of the cut you see more in the middle of my foot.
Second, I had the foot bone (the one that goes to the big toe) cut in half, and shifted back toward the rest of my foot. You can see the degree of shifting done in the 'after' x-ray.
Third, I had the big bump - what people refer to as the bunion - sawed (yes, sawed) off.
And fourth, a wedge was cut out of the big toe bone. The remaining bone was pushed together and screwed into place. This allows the toe to be realigned in a straight fashion instead of trying to hide under toe two.
All of this work required a lot of soft tissue manipulation as well. Soft tissue was tightened up and loosened up as needed. The seismoid bones (two little roundish bone that go beneath the base of the big toe (you can see them on the x-rays)) needed to be pulled via soft tissue back to place under my foot. In bunions, they tend to rotate around and get out of place.
Photos of the unveiling of the new foot are below.
The surgery was great. The recovery has been great. The x-rays taken today look great. I have three new titanium screws in my foot which increases my net value. :)
I am looking forward to having the second foot done as soon as possible. I am however, afraid of PT that starts on Monday. While all feels good, I fear a therapist railing on my big toe. Ew. We'll see if I sing the same tune about doing foot 2 asap after Monday.
What to do after foot surgery? We kept busy here. The first couple of days, we binged on movies...good movies...bad movies...silly movies...kid's movies...endless movies.
After that, mom and I moved on to bigger and more interesting projects. First WE recovered all the barstools in the house with a nice ultra-suede like fabric. You can see that I was of great help documenting the activities and napping for the two of us.
After a day of that fun, we got out the sewing machine. The first project was to make several stuff sacks for climbing to Dave's specifications. They turned out great. We made four which we think will last us a lifetime. Very cool.
Henri came out to keep us company during some of this time.
Next we made some pants for me. And some cruiser-riding clothes for Dave. The cat was especially "helpful" during our sewing. She loved red material (or hated it?) and found sitting on the pattern pieces and directions especially helpful.
For an early Christmas gift, mom got me a new sewing box (MUCH needed) and the old one was given to Pente. I think Pente has thought it was hers all along given the scratching post she'd turned it into. With it emptied out though, it offered much greater adventures than just sharpening her claws on it.
Rachel and Jim sent a get-well plant to me. During the few days it's been here it has exploded with flowers. The flowers almost look fake. I'm hoping I don't kill the poor plant. So far so good!
Mom left this morning. In less than a month she'll get her knee replaced using image guidance. Here's hoping her recovery is as smooth as mine has been so far!
Dirk and Nancy are home from Australia for the holidays. They have a really fun blog - check it out at: http://no-worries-dirk.blogspot.com/. Very cool animals and sights from Australia and surrounding areas.
Because D & N were home for the holidays, many of us got together at the house for a celebration. It was fun seeing everyone and sharing slides that everyone brought from the year.
A special thanks to Bob and Mary Jo for my new hot pink lounge pants. I put them on at the party. Dave had to wrestle them from me only yesterday. :)
Who knew pants could be so goooood?
Because I was so immobile, it turns out there are photos of people I didn't even see that night! Yikes! Next party I'll get to visit more.
