Day 143

Things are definitely looking up. I still have pain - mainly on the outside side of my foot where I broke my 5th metatarsal a few years ago. It was a Jones fracture, for those of you who know what that is. I think the screw is causing some of the pain but am not sure if it can be removed. I'll ask at my next appointment which is not until Dec. 20th. The whole foot reconstruction stuff bothers me less. My toes are still a bit numb and this morning the ball of my foot on the right side was numb - that was new. Occasionally the heel hurts a bit, but not much. I recently had a lot more swelling than I had been having and there was swelling in the entire foot, not just the top and front like it has been in the past. It lasted about 2 weeks. That seems to have gone away. Maybe because I was sick and slept a lot so I was off the foot more. Who knows. I also tried one day to go without the lovely compression sock and that was a mistake. The socks are ugly, but they sure do make a difference.

As far as walking goes, there are days and moments when the foot feels strong and I can walk well, but that is maybe 1/4 to 1/3 of the time. Today I was walking on grass at a school and my foot was actually handling the barely uneven terrain really well. I was so happy. I had hiking boots on, though. It may have been a different story if I'd had regular tennis shoes on. My dog made me walk clear across the football field to clean up after him and, for the first time in a long time, I didn't think, "That's too far to walk." It was a wonderful feeling. The leg muscles are still weak. Physical therapy has helped so much and I continue to go and push him for new exercises to do to make me strong and stable. My therapist and the people in his office are upbeat and more than willing to work hard with me to keep tweaking things. I am so thankful I found this place. I am walking anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 mile with the dogs. I was pushing it about two weeks ago and going a mile, but I started getting a lot of pain and had to back off. The therapist says by Halloween I should be able to do a mile. I have my fingers crossed!

I'm still kind of scared that I won't ever be able to walk long distances or hike again. I'm not asking to walk 20 miles or to do really steep hikes. I'd just like to do the moderate trails again. Time will tell and you can bet I'll do every exercise I can do to try to get back there (:

Pain 0 to 2, swelling 1 to 3