Give Her the Boot!

Sometimes life gives us lessons in a roundabout way.  Last Tuesday, I got that message loud & clear.  Slow down!!!  As I was rushing out the door to pick up Carter from school, I missed the bottom two stairs into the garage and badly sprained my ankle.  I honestly thought it was broken & so did my doctor at first.  Three x-rays and two consults later, turns out a bad sprain can be worse than a break in some ways.  Unfortunately for me, it's on my right foot--so no driving!

It is very difficult to go from an independent person to being SO dependent on others, several times a day.  The first two days I was in the boot and on crutches, so I couldn't even get myself a glass of water because there was no free hand to carry it.  Very humbling.  And frustrating.  And a lot of other things.  Thankfully, Sean has been a trooper and taken off work to take care of me and help with the boys since I was pretty useless at first.  It has been a true test of patience (for both of us) to have an engineer play the role of a nurse. I am glad he loves me enough to try!

After two days I was able to hobble along in my boot, but still not able to use my foot well enough to drive and can barely walk without the use of my boot, my new best friend.  Today, a week later, the doctor says I need to continue using the boot 90% of the time and stay off work at least another two weeks.  I need to be able to drive and stay on my feet for 12 hours straight without restrictions before I return.  Thank goodness I have great short-term disability benefits!

 Day 1--lots of swelling and pain

 Day 3--the swelling has gone down

 Beautiful bruise.

Gotta love wearing a boot on 80+ degree days.  It's not pretty, people.