Three weeks ago I got my cast off. It was a happy and scary day. I was nervous of what sorts of pains I would feel once had to walk on my foot again. The cast removal process was not as graceful as when they put it on... Nonetheless, it eventually got taken off. My foot and lower leg was pretty gross. Still had caked on blood from the surgery, and there was lots of dead skin. You would be amazed at home much dead skin cells people shed every day. When those skin cells aren't able to escape onto the couch, bed, desk, etc... they start to build up. I made sure when I got home to take a long shower. I think I washed my leg and foot over a dozen times. It was a great feeling. Anyway...since then I have been booted. The boot and I have a long lasting relationship, which goes back over a year. This is my fifth time being in a boot for over four weeks. In terms of bootage (unit of measure I use for the # of boots), I am on my fourth boot... if this blog doesn't work out, I may be able to start another blog reviewing the makes and models of the various boots I have utilized. I actually did have a in-depth discussion with a woman telling her the pros and cons of the boot I was wearing and how it compared to others... believe me, it was a riveting conversation. I think it would be an equally exciting conversation piece at parties in the future. For the first week in the boot, I had to use crutches and put little weight onto my booted foot. After a week, I found that I could walk OK in the boot without much pain (mainly just soreness). I have worked my way up to walking around the grocery store and even Walmart. Focusing on the later of these two places, I have received great joy being among the great people that grace Walmart with their mullets, bellies, and most of all American flag t-shirts. Walmart society is complex but intriguing, and I have gone to Walmart twice now just to bear witness to its almost mystical qualities (I get bored). Although I hobble more than walk, it is a great accomplishment for me. I can't describe how nice it is to be able to get around somewhat normally again. I will need to start doing some physical therapy soon. My left leg and calf has atrophied by about half its original mass.
I am past the halfway point. My cast will be sawed off two weeks from now. Of course I will have to wear a boot afterwards, but I would take a boot over a cast any day. I have been staying sane by going out every once and awhile to the store or to my office. However, I don't do a lot besides sit in my house and work. There is not really much else you can do with crutches. It is just too difficult and takes too much energy to orchestrate doing anything more. On a positive note, my immobility has allowed me to get a good bit of work done... so that's good. I also got pushed around the grocery store by my gf. A big thanks to her for putting up with me.
Made it over a third of the way now... at least in terms of splint and cast time. Unfortunately, my meager physical state and tight deadline for my thesis completion has kept me inside my dark cave of an apartment for the majority of the past few days. This has been a bummer since late October and Halloween is one of my favorite times of year. It's a weird thing to spend a whole day without ever breathing outside air or having sunlight hit you. I can't go outside now unless it's dark or I will start to fry. This may be my calling to become a vampire... True Blood on crutches coming Fall 2015. I at least got to carve a pumpkin with my gf (left in picture). I would consider my pumpkin a little more rustic than refined. The mouth turned out the way it did as an attempt to recover from some breakage.
The days of bed rest are over. The past few days I have returned to 'normalish' life. Of course, I still mostly stay at my home, but I do venture out every once in awhile to be part of society. I can mostly take care of myself now, except for doing major things like laundry and taking out the trash. My foot does not really hurt anymore unless I bump it against something. I went on Tuesday to get my splint off and get a cast on my foot. After they took off the splint, they left my lower leg and foot exposed for about 15 mins as the surgeon talked to me and the nurse prepped for the cast. My foot was still considerable swollen. Could have just been from the poor circulation with the splint. Either way it looked like they swapped out my foot for Frodo Baggins's during surgery. I wanted so bad to stretch and bend it, but I couldn't. If I tilted my foot the slightest deviation from ninety degrees, it didn't feel so hot.
Even better, I went and read in a park by a river this evening. I know it doesn't seem like a big deal, but going from laying in my dark room with only my computer or TV for company to the fresh air and sun is a big deal for me. It definitely puts me in a better mood and lets me appreciate the simpler things that I would sometimes let go unnoticed. There was one point when I was at the park that I stared at the moon for 10 mins. I was mesmerized. I couldn't get past the thought that I was staring at a big hunk of rock orbiting around the Earth... and people had stood on it! I have been reading 'The Martian', so planets and space travel have been on my mind. The book is about an astronaut that gets left behind on Mars after a botched mission. The thought that people can be sent up to the moon in a small metal vessel with on-board computing power equal to or less than my flip cell phone is amazing to me. Of course, some people think the Apollo Lunar missions were all a hoax....just a giant conspiracy to cause the Soviet Union to go bankrupt (from interstellar...even doped up I still remember a few things). I was ranting about all this to my gf in the car on the way to Chipotle. She wanted me to shut-up, but I think she really enjoyed it. Two more days to my cast.
