If it aint' one thing...

Oh what a week it's been!! It's all been good, but just sometimes a little inconvenient! About a week ago I started having a lot of swelling and pain in my right ankle. The inside of my ankle had a mass about the size of a golf ball on it. I'm like, "Ok, do I really need another health issue to deal with?" So, I just brushed it off and tried to ignore it HOPING it would just go away on its own. But alas, I was not that lucky. After limping around for several days and having no relief from the pain I finally decided to see a foot surgeon yesterday. He told me that I most likely had a tear of some tendon down there and severe inflammation. He said things were just starting to wear out due to my long-term steroid use. He told me I needed to have an MRI done to evaluate all that was going on.

Normally I would have been the compliant patient that I always try to be, but Dale is gone this week and I have company staying with me. It just was not the most convenient time in the world to be dealing with health issues. Well, I guess he must have seen my hesitation about having the MRI done and finally said, "Or...you can wear a compression stocking on your foot and a surgical boot for seven days, keep your ankle immobilized, and come back in a week to see if the swelling has gone down and your pain is better."

So...I opted for the glamorous, ever-fashionable surgical boot! Ah, you should see me "strut" around like a cripppled chicken in it! Now, mind you, I've never broken a bone in my life, so I'm not real familiar with how to walk around gracefully in one of these things.

When I got back to mom's house to pick Gentry up I had mom help me put it on and tried to walk around in it. Well, needless to say, we had a big chuckle out of it. I'm telling you, people that wear those things must have to go to a class to learn how to walk in them before they're let out in public. I'm telling you, I was walking across the front lawn of mom's house and I truly looked like a double-jointed, crippled, chicken strutting around a barnyard.

And those of you who know my mom can picture this...she's standing in at the front door and is watching me try to walk in this monstronsity of a shoe and she gets tickled. You know how she does...she kind of bends over like she's got a kink in her lower back and then she crosses her legs and lets out a good laugh. If you're lucky she'll start yelling, "Stop it! Oh, shoot! Now I have to go to the bathroom!" And off she'll run down the hall laughing all the way.

But hey, if life hands you lemons...that gal has learned how to make lemonade! And so, even though I was frustrated to have to wear that dumb boot all week, she made it seem like fun.

I've tried to be a good girl and stay off of it, but so far I haven't been too successful. My sister-in-law and her kids (who are staying with me this week) and Gentry and I decided to go to the park to play today after lunch. So, who am I to let a little "ankle immobilization" get in the way of a perfectly beautiful fall day? So, off we trudged to Bellevue Park to enjoy the day. I could feel my heartbeat in my ankle by the time I got back home, but OH WHAT A GOOD TIME we had.

I'm propped up in bed now with my little guy sacked out next to me from playing so hard at the park with his cousins. A little pain meds & I'll be good to go. No, really I am going to try to take it easy...well, after our trip to St. Louis Mills tomorrow...(shhh!! Don't tell my mom...she'll kill me!)

For now, I'm going to make creamy tacos for dinner and get a good front row seat to the Vice-Presidential Debate this evening and wind down with Biden and Palin going at it for a couple of hours!

I'll post pictures later on of our day at the park. Glad you stopped by to check in. Thanks as always for coming! Enjoy this beautiful weather!

Blessings ~~ Mel