Saturday Saunter~ After a Rough Week

Whew! It's finally Saturday! Not that Saturdays in my house are any different than any other day, but there are no doctor offices, therapy centers, or some place open that runs a M-F business.

I've always been a 365/7/24 person who rarely takes holidays off. What do holidays mean to me? More work of a different sort...family. This week will stand out in my mind as the busiest since my stroke with two doctor appointments, two visits to my orthodic place, three days of therapy outside the home, one extensive call from my lawyer, grocery shopping, and one very scary call from my daughter. I'm past spent and in total exhaustion mode today.

Today, I'm happy to kick back into nothingness. I know I should be writing another story to meet my monthly goal, but that will have to wait until the exhaustion passes. Maybe a task for this afternoon or evening. I'm glad to be sauntering into Saturday.

This week I've gone twice to my brace maker at Hanger to first talk about a continuing problem I've had with my AFO and then to fix it. Both visits took about three hours. My foot and leg have been fighting my AFO. After a previous visit to Hanger when I talked about the problem and got a dismissive answer, I refused to go back. A condescending attitude just leaves me cold especially when I'm trying hard with my aphasia to explain the problem.

That is until, I developed two pressure sores and my PT forced me to make another appointment. With my medical history of diabetes and diabetic neuropathy, it isn't a good thing. Combined with the ongoing problem of my therapist having difficulty in getting my foot to evert and get the dorsiflex at the same time. The specialist, different from the previous one, listened and then examined my foot. The problem wasn't with the Extensor muscle but my Achilles tendon in my calf. The end result was my AFO being cut at the ankle to allow stretching of my Achilles and a one inch block added to the heel of my AFO. In the next couple months it will be gradually shaved to stretch out my Achilles tendon. It's just going to take some adjustment and new balancing skills to walk.

Amazingly enough while the ankle is a little wobbly, the wobble will help strengthen the muscles of the ankle. The pain I had with each step is gone. The inversion which added extra pressure on my toes inside my shoe is gone and the foot seems straighter. Only time will tell if this is the fix I've needed to walk independently again.

The doctor appointments were routine, but it still ate up the hours. My husband is scheduled for another nerve burning procedure in two weeks. They can only do four at a time. So this will be an ongoing thing for the next couple months. He is also showing signs that he is going into congestive heart failure, but I'm not borrowing trouble at this point.

The call from my youngest daughter was routine. At least it started out that way. In the middle of our chat about house buying, hunting, and gardening she got another call. She put me on hold which I was promptly hung up on. Nothing new about that because it happens all the time. She called me back within minutes. He husband, a hazardous chemical trucker driver, had an accident while loading chemicals into his tanker truck and was being transported to the hospital. Several hours of worrying and praying ensued. The end result was a badly burned leg, but the other guy who pushed my son-in-law away was in worse shape (he'll be needing skin grafts).

The reason for three therapy visits instead of two was because of a new piece of equipment the out patient therapy is considering buying. I'm all for new things that may help recovery. This interactive device used e-stim with a cycle. I got more purposeful movement out of my right side than I've gotten from months of physical therapy! It was terrific, but the down side was sheer muscle exhaustion for twelve hours. But I do hope they get this machine.

So this Saturday, I'm sauntering into relaxation. I may soak in a hot tub with lots of bubbles or read a new ebook I got during the Smashwords promotion. I went wild and downloaded ten books. Whatever I do, I'm going to take it easy today because next week is just as busy.

All work and no play makes Jo a royal pain!