day 90

Tuesday is my 12 week appointment where, I assume, I will find out if I can walk without the boot. I think I'm ready. I've been able to stand on the foot when I get out of the shower and change position using the bare foot. I am not totally standing in the shower right now because it scares me since the tub bottom is not totally flat and it gets slippery. I've been keeping it squeaky clean to make it less slippery, but it still is a bit nerve racking. The other night when my husband was out of town, the house alarm system went off. I don't sleep in the boot. I leapt out of bed and scrambled, barefoot, to see what the heck was going on. Once I got to the control panel and figured out it was just a malfunction, I realized I had actually walked without the boot! I'm sure it wasn't graceful, but I still did it. That was pretty cool. Walking back to bed was much slower and probably even less graceful. I've been walking the dog (boot on) about 1/3 of a mile - maybe a bit more and yesterday, with the help of Naproxen, was able to stay up and very active all day. Unfortunately, I can't take NSAIDS too often because they don't agree with me, so I try to be really careful.

Swelling has improved massively. It still swells, but doesn't seem to go past a certain point, but of course, I'm not out doing stupid things. One thing that hurts it pretty badly and will cause more swelling is if I abruptly step hard on it - kinda just plopping it on the ground. Going down stairs is a challenge because I have to set it down carefully or I get these sharp pains that last for a few seconds followed by increased pain and swelling for the day.

I have not been going to the gym and that drives me crazy. I've squished out so badly. The main reason I'm not going is that my back has been really cranky. It's an issue I've had off and on for quite some time, but walking on the cast with one leg higher than the other has just made it much more constant. Every time I go to the gym, I just make it way worse. Maybe I just need to take it easier in my workouts and break myself in carefully, but I get there and just go into automatic and forget I need to basically just start all over.

I still feel confident about how the foot will perform once all is said and done. I certainly hope my confidence is not misguided.

Pain 0 to 3, swelling 1 to 3