Day 19 -

So yesterday I decided to take back my life as much as one can in this situation.  I decided I needed my bedroom to get back to being just my bedroom.  I moved all my work stuff back downstairs and was able to work in the basement a good 5 hours throughout the day.  I'd force myself to go back up stairs and elevate my foot with ice.  I continue to ice my foot even though the doctor told me I didn't have to do it so much.  Not sure why I keep doing this as I'm not sure it matters at this point.  Maybe I do it 4 times a day if that.  I usually always do it right when I wake up and right before bed and then some where during the day I do it once or twice.   So I was happy to find that I can sit down for small periods of time and not have my foot throb.  I try to have my foot up under my desk.  The only problem I have is I have too long of legs to keep them extended and still sit comfortably at my desk.  This week I plan to have all my teleconferences from my office too, so we will see how that goes.  I have one this afternoon and then a couple meetings on Wednesday and Thursday.  I continue to ease my way back to work which has been nice.  So my first step was getting my work stuff out of the bedroom!!  Done!!  And hopefully it stays that way too!!  The only problem with this is I do have more trips up and down the stairs.  I just have to remember to go VERY SLOWLY on the stairs.   There is times I can tell I'm trying to rush walking by going quicker, etc... and I just keep thinking... slow is good Julie.  There is no reason to rush around.

My next step was to recreate a new resting place in the house for ME!  And as you can see Allie thought I was creating her a new soft spot to rest!  Again the story of my life with this dog of mine.

Yes, my foot is under her head!  So regardless what I do I have a cuddlier 24/7.  You can sort of see my black and blue big toe sticking out above her head!  I will admit this is one of my favorite times at the end of the day.  Once the house gets quiet.  I love to go put on a movie and just relax and Allie will just come and rest right next to me.

Last night I had to laugh because Steve put candy in the kids stockings for St. Nick and of course Mr. Riley had to make his way downstairs right after Steve finished and he came running and said "MOM, come LOOK.  ST NICK has already been here!  I wonder how he did this with you on the couch and dad in the bedroom!  Steve was still awake so of course we had to go celebrate with Riley.  Then Riley adds in "you know I don't sleep much and one of these times I'm going to catch him".  And then he said "but the elf hasn't moved yet, so I'll have to keep an eye out of him tonight and see if I can catch him moving around".    He was still surprised in the a.m. to find stuff in his shoes.  Now this was news to me and first I should admit the kids came home yesterday and said "Mom, ST NICK comes tonight" and I said "Really, one second".  And I quickly went and called Steve and said "I guess St Nick comes tonight so can you stop and pick up candy".   Anyway then the kid went on about how ST Nick puts things in kids shoes.  And I said "I think he just put stuff in your stockings" and they were pretty sure he put stuff in their shoes too, so we couldn't disappoint and we also stuffed their shoes.

Steve said he will order the kids toys online.  This weekend we put some items together on amazon.com and frankly I can't even look at how much it was or it will just make me sick.  Steve's better at spending money than I am and will just order the stuff.  Me, I'd sit there and think "Do they REALLY need this?' And then I'd get all pissy when it's time to check out because I'd think... this is too much $$ to be spending on TOYS!

Last night I bared all!!  Yup, I slept totally barefoot!  And it was fine, but I was conscious of every time I turned or twisted throughout the night and the scar part is still a little sensitive/tight.  I will probably continue to do it.  When the shoe is on at night I just turn that foot which ever way I want and don't think about it. I also then did not sleep with the toe spacer in thinking it would just fall out anyway.  AND I was able to walk barefoot back to the kitchen when I realized I forgot to move the elf.  I went VERY slow, but I did it.  Again, I put most of my weight on my good foot!  Yesterday I think I was good with getting my toe exercises in.  I didn't keep track on how many times I did it, but I tried to do it throughout the day.  The toe and area that was cut still has some tightness too it, but I think that's all normal.  When I'm pulling and pushing on the toe I think I'm getting good range of motion.

One thing I really do find interesting as it relates to everyone's stories is the different amount of pain we each experience.  In general it seems like either people do not experience much pain at all and only need to be on some sort of pain pill 2 -3 days.  Where other people are in SO much pain that it's unbearable.  Obviously we are all having different things done, yet at the end of the day we are each breaking our foot in order to have this procedure done. I wonder what makes it so painful for some and not for others. I read some one's story and she described her pain as worse than having a child.  And I will admit when I had my first child that was the worst pain I had ever felt.  I had no drugs (not that I didn't want them, but it was too late in the game) and let me tell you I truly did think the whole pushing process was awful or maybe I just wasn't prepared for it!  And you ladies will hate me when I say I had my babies fast!  With Riley I think I got to the hospital at 3:00 p.m and by 7:00 p.m. he was out.  With ANTON we got to the hospital parking lot at 4:00 a.m. and he was out by 4:45 a.m. I did a water birth with him and honestly nothing hurt on that one.  Or maybe it's because he was born in Germany and I didn't know what the hell the nurse was saying to me : )   Okay, my point being is I truly do feel bad for those of you who experience a lot of pain with this bunion procedure.  It does seem though the worst of the pain in within the first few days to a week and then things get better, right!  

To me there is such a myth out there on this procedure.   From my experience anyone who I told I was having this surgery their eyes lite up and they said "OH I heard that's PAINFUL or I'd hear "I'd NEVER have that done".  I just think people think this is worse than what it is.   I do find it painful to sit around all day and not do any activities!  But again for anyone new reading this don't let others opinions scare you and know yes you might feel lots of pain in the beginning or you may be pleasantly surprised and find you barely have pain.  It's just odd to me how different each story is!  My one bit of advice would be to get in really good shape.  Eat healthy!  Exercise prior and get to a good weight, so when you can move around it's comfy, and just take care of yourself.  Also, be conscious of what you eat while you are resting since you won't be burning a lot of calories for 4-8 weeks!

Boy did I just go on and on about that, hey!   My next goal about trying to get my life back is just each day start to do something whether it's cleaning a room, getting out of the house to grocery shop, or something.   Yet resting, resting, and resting!  I can just feel I am getting a little stir crazy.  My head is still in a good place, but I need to get back to something besides working and resting : )

I also was thinking I do like that I had this done in November.  I think with the holidays it has really made the time go by quickly and I'm hoping winter seems shorter too.  Figure I haven't left my house much in the last "almost 3 weeks", so I haven't felt much cold.  I'm assuming (or hoping) come Jan. 1st I will be able to be back to more of my normal schedule and then I will also only have to deal with 2 1/2 months of WINTER!  Don't get me wrong I like Winter.  I just don't like 4-5 months of it.  I'm also curious if I will be able to down hill ski come Jan/Feb.  Thoughts on that one?  Figure mid-January I'd be at 8 weeks.  Getting into real ski boots is never fun so that might be painful if my foot isn't moving with it's full range of motion by then.  Time will tell!

Enjoy your day!  Two more days and I'm at 3 weeks!!!  Whoo Woo!!!  Sorry folks, but updates on the foot are becoming less and less since not much is changing.  I feel like I'm at a good spot regarding being able to walk, not experiencing pain, trying to do the toe exercises.  I'd like to say my black and blue color is going down slightly.  The little white strips are making their way off the scar.  One fell off and three look like they will be coming off soon and two look like they are on normal.  I'm still feeling good and I'm actually WANTING to walk and put my weight on the foot, but I'm trying to stick to the book.  All is going good - knock on wood!!

Be kind!
Julie