Thoughts on a Broken Paw, Part 1

 

I'm at a week and a half of my recovery and I must say without a doubt that this sucks. Nope, not going to sugar coat this...it sucks. I had a moment yesterday where I got out of the car with the intent to walk like a normal person when I realized I needed to get my crutches from the back seat. My mom and I had a laugh about that one.

Let's recap...I had surgery on October 2, 2013, to remove my bunion on my left paw. This is not my first foray in to the bunion removal world. I had my right paw bunion removed in 2009 (why I missed my first scheduled Chevron Marathon 5k in January of 2010). It was by far the most painful thing I have ever experienced and because  I waited too long to do the surgery, my paw was messed up beyond belief. It took me 3-4 months to get back to normal, but I wouldn't have started my journey without it. In hindsight, I should have listened to those people that warned me just to take care of both at the same time. Oh well.

I decided at that time not to do both for obvious reasons and I thought I would get away with not having to do this bunionectomy until I started running back in April and May. I began to feel pain in my left paw and realized that this is only going to get worse. I made the appointment and now here I am, couch bound for the next four weeks (at least). This also meant that I had to drop out of my scheduled marathon in October, which makes me super sad.

My mother doesn't miss an opportunity to photograph.

On a side note, I am looking at March-May to do my first marathon.

My doctor gave me hope that this will actually take the 6-8 weeks to recover like a normal person recovering from a bunionectomy. It already feels different even if I'm still on crutches. This time last surgery, I was not even putting weight on the hurt paw.

This is me on most days in the car.

So, back to my random thoughts:

• I prepped my ass off for easy access to food. The Lean Green Bean would be so proud. However, it doesn't help if your ghetto Kroger's has crappy produce and/or bread. Lots of things barely even lasted half a week. 

I froze stews, spagettis, and other meals ready to go.

• I'm so thankful to my parents for being here to take care of me. They are awesome. They make me food, get me whatever I need, and transport me to and fro. This sometimes means early mornings or in traffic. 

• I'm so thankful to my dog walker, Esmeralda. She is taking my precious little man and spoiling him rotten. Although, I worry I may never see him again, because he may not want to return. 

• I'm thankful to be able to switch cars with Dan even though it doesn't take much to convince him to drive my car.

• Even though the automatic bathroom door set me on my journey of the back injury, it is a GODSEND now. I love automatic doors and surprised my ortho doctor doesn't have them. 

• Giana sent me the best fruit basket thing ever. I so needed to eat more fruit. 

• Speaking of eating, I'm eating way too much and my sweet tooth is back in a big, bad way. I need to get this under control, while I scarf down the lemon bar I got yesterday. Hence, why I used the fat cat image at the top. 

• If your toes and other parts of your foot are hurting worse after the first week Dr. apt and new bandage than the actual surgery entry point, then your bandage is too tight. Get it fixed. I spent two days with what I call sausage toes. They swelled up so much, which made the bandage way too tight. I have since gone to the doctor and had my foot re-bandaged. HEAVEN!

Sausage Toes

Fixed bandage shows more toes now.

• During my drive to my parents (with my mother driving, of course), I captured this wonderful sunset.

• Tucker has been an Angel...probably because he doesn't have to deal with Remi.

• I have daily visions of myself running and getting healthy, maybe even in November. It's intoxicating. I can't wait. I've even talked with Suzanne on some ideas for strength training (look for a post on that later). Now, I just need to get my food intake under control. 

• No matter if you've been through this before and you have an idea of how painful this could be, you really forget how freaking painful this recovery is on the paw. OUCH!

• The friends that have checked on me repeatedly...love you guys! 

• And I can't forget that I would die of boredom if I didn't have Jim to talk to all the time on Skype. I love you! Even though, my mom makes fun of us for just sitting there doing our own thing. She doesn't get it. I can't help her.

• Good luck to everyone jumping on the Texas Women's State Record for Jump For the Rose. I was planning on participating until this happened. If you can donate, please go to the website and check it out. It's for a great causing raising money for this wonderful clinic called The Rose. 

• I'm so thankful that last week and this week have been the start of new and old shows on TV. Even though I spent months stacking my DVR with things to watch during recovery, it just wasn't enough. I've only got four programs left and those won't last long. At least it's football season. This brings me to my next point...LET'S GO TEXANS! Put that crap behind you and let's win a game. All those people being negative are just morons. Booing only makes it worse and you suck worse than this recovery if you do it during the game.

Until next time...be safe out there.

Hiking in the Muir Woods

A couple of weeks ago, I found myself in California for a wedding. Not only did I see a side of my family that I haven't seen in over 10 years, but I also got to show off Jim to the family and some remaining friends that haven't met him.

On a side note, Gianna is the only friend left to meet him.

In 2011, I went hiking with Ashley in which we hiked the Redwoods and up to the top of Mission Peak. Since we were staying with Ashley, I immediately got excited about hiking again. Jim likes to hike, which made the selling of this particular activity easy. I wanted to do something similar to what I did in 2011, because I wanted to show Jim the majestic redwoods. We decided upon Muir Woods National Monument, which was new to me and a location site for Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

Ashley, Matt, Jim, and I headed to Muir Woods on Sunday afternoon, with a quick stop to the Golden Gate Bridge Vista Point.

Jim and I at the Vista Point, photo courtesy of Matt. 

We got those stereotypical fog postcard pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge.

We got there a little late than expected and ended up parking miles away from the main area. Consequently, we looked like this until we decided to lay caution to the wind and go left.

But this doesn't match the map, but doesn't map what's on the GPS...Where are we? Where do we start? What do we do?

So, we went to the left. There's a reason why everyone headed to the right...to the main area. We knew the reason in about 15 steps. It was freaking so steep. I didn't stretch. I didn't prepare. I didn't expect for the steepness. I had a lot of stops. And if I had a dollar for every time Matt said that we are at the crest and weren't, I would be a millionaire.

We saw people always going the other way and some of them even running (showoffs). And when we got to the top, we didn't see the ocean, because of the fog. Oh well, maybe another time. 

Finally, we made it in to the redwoods part of the Muir Woods. They started out thin and gradually got bigger and bigger. The best part was that there was very little people, which made for great pictures. 

Jim and I barely make the base of this trunk. Photo courtesy of Matt.

Come on you two...we are trying to hike. 

Again, we were on the hunt for the elusive banana slugs.

Maybe this time of year, they are yellower instead of just blah yellow.

When we got the bottom, we were hit with the crowds and after all that bitching from me, I was glad we went the way we did. My new Merrell walking shoes gave me blisters and I'm hoping that it was the socks that I wore. Matt figured out that we did roughly 4-6 miles with 1,500 ft of elevation each way. Wow! No wonder I was sore for the next couple of days.

He's always got to point out the rebellion.

It was one hell of a workout and I was so glad that we did it. We even are in talks for all four of us to hike Yosemite next September.

Have you hiked the Muir Woods? This was my first time. 

Did you see in lost apes? Sadly, I didn't see any apes on this trip, but I think I heard some. 

Have you hiked Yosemite before? I'm hoping we make this happen.


These are my favorite pictures of the trip, which I'm only adding three so not to bore you even more.

Courtesy of Matt.

Courtesy of Matt.

She's at it again.

I'm almost to the end of my first week after surgery and I must say that it sucks. I'm only thankful that I have been through this before and have a routine. I'm better today and able to put more weight on the foot each day. Here's hoping this last six weeks! Any help, suggestions, or advice on some exercises is greatly appreciated.