Update
& Thought:
On Tuesday when I slipped my shoes off for the
night, I noticed a red area near my ankle on my right foot. On closer inspection I saw that I had a sore
that had developed just below the ankle on the outside of my foot. The red area was a little larger than a
quarter and the open sore was about the size of a pencil eraser. Warning bells sounded in my head!!!
My podiatrist is always pounding in my head to do
daily foot inspections because a foot sore could lead to an infection. That’s what ended up taking my left left—an infection
that went into the bone, so there is history to back up this concern. I doctored up my foot Tuesday night and on
Wednesday morning I called the doctor. I
figure that you can tell how serious something is by how fast they give you an
appointment. My doctor was actually out
of the office on Wednesday; but I got an appointment for 1 p.m. Wednesday
afternoon (five hours after the call).
Since I am doing foot inspections regularly, I
caught it early. I was given antibiotic
and supplies to carefully bandage the area, and a Prevalon boot to wear at
night when I sleep. Think of a soft,
fluffy pillow that you strap onto your foot.
It isn’t clear what caused the sore. My shoes were suspect that they might be
rubbing my ankle bone. I was given a
silicone sleeve to wear on my foot the week before. It is supposed to keep the same thing from
happening on a bone spur I have on the back of my heel. It was bunched up a bit when I took my sock
off on Tuesday. Or it might have been my
work boots that I wore the day before—maybe I just didn’t see that area clearly
when I did my foot inspection on Monday night.
Not certain what happened; just that something did and the area needs to
heal.
I was sent over to the prosthetist’s office for
them to evaluate the shoe (it’s a prescription shoe with an orthotic arch
support built in). They checked me over
and declared the shoe as not the culprit.
They suspect either the silicone sleeve OR I got a burr in my sock when
I was out in the woods in my boots on Monday.
I was afraid that I would be given a bunch of
restrictions or that I would be put back in my wheelchair and have my shoe off
until it healed; but none of that happened!
Thank you! I can wear my regular
shoe during the day and go about my business as normal.
So I spent time on Wednesday with all my medical
friends, got some antibiotic cream and a booty and told to come back in two
weeks unless it gets worse (then come immediately) or unless it heals
completely (then cancel the appointment).
Do you realize how difficult it is to clearly see
the underneath side of the outside ankle bone?
It is especially difficult for me with my reduced vision in my right
eye. My body doesn’t bend the right way
to get a good angle on seeing that.
The booty makes sleeping a hoot! On the bright side, that foot does not get
cold at night in the booty! It’s like having a 30-below sleeping bag tied
around your foot. The blankets like to stick
to it and get wrapped around it as I rearrange at night. It makes it difficult to sleep on your side
because of the pressure it puts on your knee, throwing everything off balance,
etc.
I haven’t been wearing the silicone sleeve while
that spot heals which means the rubbing has increased on the bone spur on my
heel. Sort of a Catch-22.
So on the grand scale of things—just the tiniest
blip. It’s a hassle and something else
to watch and deal with—I didn’t really want one more thing; but there you
go! I wasn’t asked; It was just given to
me. It could have been much worse but since
I caught it so early it isn’t too bad.
And it appears to be healing nicely.
This afternoon, I go in for an injection in my
right eye. I’ll get all sorts of scans
and photos taken of both retinas before the injection so I’ll be at the doctors
for several hours today. After that I
come home and go directly to bed until the worst of the eye pain is over. So no reading, no computer, no TV tonight.
Probably just listen to music.
You aren’t supposed to touch the eye for the first day so that you don’t
rub it and damage it while it is still numb.
So I always go to bed wearing wrap-around style sunglasses so I don’t
absent-mindedly reach up and rub the eye.
It always feels gritty after this procedure so the urge to rub is very
intense. By Saturday at noon I should be
okay (can read or do screen time for short periods of time) and by Sunday
morning my vision will be back to normal.
Hey! I am a
mess! But I am enjoying life and
thankful for every breath that I take, every sunset that I watch, and every
step that I take. My life isn’t perfect
but I am so thankful that my final chapter hasn’t been written yet. Every day is proving to be an adventure. An adventure of discovering new things I can
do; new ways of doing things that I used to be able to do; and just taking the
next step.
Nothing is as simple as it used to be. I just made reservations at a hotel for a
conference I am attending in two weeks—it took much longer to book a handicap
accessible room with a zero entrance shower.
“Will a tub with a stool work?” “Nope!
Hard to roll the wheelchair over the tub wall…
Let me explain what I need again…”
They had to go look at the room because they could not remember what the
shower looked like in their handicap rooms.
The last hotel room I stayed in
had a wonderful bathroom set up for wheelchair use. It was wonderful! The rest of the room was so stuffed with
furniture that I couldn’t get the wheelchair to most of the room because it
wouldn’t fit. I ended up having to get
on the bed and roll across it to get to the other parts of the room. Very frustrating! But how would they know unless they rode in a
wheelchair.
So whatever you face today—do it with grace. The people and problems you will deal with
may tend to frustrate you or make you mad.
Take a deep cleansing breath and let it all go! Look at it as an opportunity for personal
growth (learning patience and forbearance) and an opportunity to gently and
kindly teach someone else about how to treat and care for other people’s
needs. We all need our eyes opened to
other people’s perspective from time to time.
Whatever comes your way—find whatever joy you can in it and shake the
rest off. Be thankful for what you do
have and don’t focus too much upon what you think you are missing. Learn to be content.
1 Timothy 6:6 “But godliness with contentment is great
gain.”
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