have i mentioned my surgery lately??

i'm out on the deck.  heather and i got comfortable here on the weekend.  we solved some critical issues.  one was carrying pillows back and forth.  so we used the couch cushions and some pillows out here.  the other major issue is izzy.  any time i'm out here, she meows a million times to be let in and then out and then in and then out.  heather solved this by tying a string around the screen door handle.  if you shut it gently it doesn't latch.  we then attached the end to the window fastner above my head in the cot and i just pull the string to let her in and out.  i've lost track already how many times she's been in and out this morning.  i think i've only been out here for an hour.  right now she is watching the crow on our roof, and making cat "i see a bird" noises.  the last issue was the ease with which i can get in and out of the bed here.  but i found the center bar makes it just that much higher so i can now  easily transfer.  no big deal. nbd.

the morning is so quiet. there are little breezes rustling through the trees, sending red geranium petals flying out on the wings of the passing air.  

i've been awake since 4:50 and i feel like it's time for a mid morning nap.  but work starts in fifteen minutes.  

last thursday i got vaccinated.  it was a big ordeal.  evelyn took me.  my appointment was 6:45 but she arrived at 5:30.  i think she was anxious about how it will all go and she wanted lots of time to figure it out.  but then jane arrived shortly thereafter to give me dinner.  i hadn't told her about evelyn because i figured we would have lots of time.  so that was a bit of a mix up with helpers.

the trip down the stairs went pretty well.  ev drove in so i had to go around her car in the grass on the scooter, but that wasn't bad.  ev and jane bonked heads both trying to help get the scooter down the stairs. haha.  

i got my vax at kpu (kwantlen).  they have a LOT of stairs in front.  no problem.  they also have a ramp.  that ramp was a beast.  kinda steep and with 2 hair pin curves then going straight across one of the stair levels and up the other side with some more hairpin turns. sometime along here we realized that ev put the handlebars of the scooter back on backwards.  the brake was hitting my stomach. haha.  it was a hot day and we all know that i sweat profusely from my wrists and forearms.  also i get very little exertion these days.  ie. by the time i got to the top i was drrrrrenched! (roll the r's like mrs. harris).  i got to skip all the lines.  i told my nurse "sorry my arms are sweaty." "yes they are.." she replied "are you ok? what's going on?"  ev and i explained the treck up the ramp.  that's when she was like "oh. you should have taken the elevator." and that's when ev and i looked at each other, like really?  so i got my prick and a sticker waited in the wait area and ev went and moved the car.  the elevator ride down was nice.

i didn't get dinner because of the mix up and ev said she would take me somewhere.  she asked me what i had been craving. "shaved ice." i said.  we went to mango yummy but they were closed.  somehow we decided on the white spot.  we got a table and it was set up so i could sit and have my leg up. then home and up the stairs.  i didn't get back to my bed until 10ish.  exhausted.

next day was my post op appointment back at footbridge down on keefer place. ev was my driver this day too.  she had something to do just before picking me up and was worried about time, so i got myself all ready and sat out on the deck with my foot on the scooter waiting for her.  half way through our zoom unit meeting she drove up. stairs and all that were uneventful. we got to footbridge about half an hour early.  ev was very trepidatious about parking on the road. it says no parking but everyone parks there and i have for long periods of time without a ticket.  i told her this but i knew it would not totally assuage her nerves about it.  the elevator was working.  we got there right on time and found out dr andi was 45 minutes behind.  so we sat and waited and did things and then i was brought to the back. first to a bed and then to the 'cast room'.  the same guy who made my cast last time was there to take it off.  he used what looked like a rotating blade to cut through my cast but he showed me on his arm that it can't cut you, so i was not afraid.  he cut the front off and pulled off the cast to reveal my foot.

he said all the incisions looked good but that dr. andi wanted to see the heel to arch ones, but he thought they looked good and would probably come out.  he and tia took out the rest of the stitches.  i asked how many stitches i had and was disappointed to find out that they counted 1 stitch for each incision.  that makes no sense.  so i have 7 or 8 by that lame way of counting.  he introduced tia as being on the wound care team. "is that why you are wearing matching scrubs?" i queried with a pointed look at their black scrubs.  they denied.  but i knew. at one point tia had to hold up my foot and ankle with her puny arms. this was to get the stitches underneath in my heel which the other guy said always heal the fastest and then grow over. but they got them out.

sure enough dr. andi said we should wait another week for the stitches in question.  in her words, "i don't want them to burst like a sausage." she also said "we made a BIG move with your heel. a BIG MOVE." so i'm going back next week. yay.

after that ev wanted to eat somewhere again.  i had to pick so i picked bao down.  i didn't feel like getting in and out anymore so ev got take out and we ate it in queen elizabeth park.  well parked in queen elizabeth park.  then home and back up the stairs...my good leg was getting uber tired by the time i got to the top of the stairs.  ev watered my flowers and fed izzy and i went to my bed and lay like a lump.

oh but i missed something.  waiting for me on the balcony was a bag FULL of candy.  fuuuull.  and also i got a package from lindsay which also had candy in it amongst other things.  so that was a nice surprise.

oh yeah i forgot to say that dr. andi prescribed compression stockings to help the swelling go down in my foot and that tia put my boot on me but didn't seem to know much about boots. i had to fix it once i got home.

the upside to the boot is that i can take it off 3 to 4 times every day and do my foot exercises which is basically flexing my foot up and down. also it's not itchy like a cast. and i can adjust it.  but it's heavier than a cast and i don't love it.

when heather came over on saturday we watched some youtube videos on how to put on a compression sock and then said a prayer because we felt nervous and then we did it.  heather did toe to ankle and i did ankle to calf top. the funny thing was that they were way to long for me.  the toe had to be all loose material.

while now it's the end of the day and i'm hot and this laptop on my tummy isn't helping.  i spent 3 hours in the morning outside and 3 in the afternoon, before it got too hot and i came inside.  jane brought me watermelon and chinese food for dinner and then another laid, josaidy, dropped off some popsicles, chickent strips and a lemonade.  so. i'm set.  bye.