Australian Cruise

Australian Cruise
Our first full day in Australia, 2012, on a Freemantle beach.

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Walking down the stairs in the dark....

Way back in February 2015, I ran down the back steps, in the dark.  I thought about turning on the light, but peaked down the stairs, and I could see them from the porch, so thought I would be fine.  Once I was on the stairs, though, they were now in my own shadow.  As I hurried down them, I got to what I thought was the last step, took a big step to land on the carport, ......... and went down 8 more inches than expected.  I literally heard a crack, and felt immediate intense pain.  Not a good thing.

It was late, and I was pretty sure out doctor's office was closed, and I said I wanted to wait until morning to go.  I was hungry!  I wanted to eat!  John had an early commitment the next morning, and we went after that.  Finally we went, and sure enough, the x-ray showed that  I had indeed broken my foot.  My 5th metatarsal, to be exact.
The arrow points to the crack.  That's not a joint!

This shows the bruising and swelling of my right foot.

My new accessories.  Pretty uncomfortable. And ugly.



I did not want surgery.  I only went to my regular doctor at first, and he didn't think I would need surgery.  He even shared the x-rays with a podiatrist, who concurred with my doctor that I didn't need to see a specialist.

Between the 1st appointment and the 2nd, the x-rays showed a little healing. Between the end of Month 2 and the end of Month 3, x-rays showed no improvement.  That's when I finally went to a podiatrist.  The podiatrist looked at my x-rays and told me that if I had had surgery in the beginning, I would be healed already.  Bones only heal if the broken pieces are touching.  My broken pieces were not touching!  Close, but not touching!  The podiatrist said, "That's like saying you're just a little pregnant."  You're either pregnant or not.  Not almost pregnant.  Sigh.

If they did surgery at this point, it would be going backwards- they'd have to clean out the new bone growth, push the crack together, put a pin in, then start the healing process all over.  Instead of that, they gave me a bone-growth stimulator.  I had to wear this medical device 3 hours a day, every day.  I did it while sleeping, most of the time.  After a week, I thought, "You know, I sleep longer than 3 hours.  I may as well turn that thing on for another 3 hours."  I always wake up in the middle of the night anyway!  So for 3 weeks between Month 3 and Month 4, I was wearing it for almost an average of 6 hours a day.  I could feel that my foot was healing, the swelling was going down and it ached less.  That was a really great feeling!
This is my bone growth stimulator.  I would turn it on, and it would send electrical impulses at my broken bone for 3 hours.



Time came for the Month 4 x-ray.  My bone was almost completely healed!  Since I was moving, the doctor just gave me "the plan", which was to stay on crutches for a little longer, until mid June, starting to put more weight on my foot, with a boot.  Then wear my boot until August 1st.  I took the crutches on vacation, but didn't use them much.  I mostly just wore the boot.

Sometimes you just have to customize! Foam, polka dotted duct tape and a strap to hold a bag blinged up my crutches.
I flew into the Honolulu airport on July 24th.  I couldn't wait to take off my boot, so I actually wore it for the last time on Thursday, July 30, getting rid of it one day early!  I'm sure my doctor would have been okay with that!

Walking with a boot was quite easy.  WAY easier than the knee scooter or crutches!  No pain, just the weight of the boot.  Nice and supportive and very protective.  Walking without the boot was a different story.  My ligaments had barely moved in 6 months and were tight.  I had to move slow, and not go very far.  Each week I'd try to walk farther, and eventually my foot stopped aching so much.  I massaged my foot often, and took a lot of Ibuprofen.

It's been 6 months since I got rid of the boot. Now my foot is pretty much healed, probably 95%.  I can walk 5 miles a day!  Back in August I had a hard time walking 2 blocks to church!  My foot still swells, and I wonder if I will ever be able to wear my favorite shoes again!  Just to see if it was real or my imagination, I measured my feet a few days ago.  Around the middle, my right foot is one centimeter larger than my left.  I'm betting that sometimes it's more than that, depending on time of day and what I've been doing.  It was not my imagination!

In 2 weeks, on February 19th, it will be my one year anniversary of breaking my foot.  Even though it is not 100% back to normal, I am extremely grateful for the healing that has happened.  If this is as far as I go, well, I can certainly live with it!  I cannot complain, not when I can walk 5 miles!  I may have to buy more shoes, though.
My favorite sandals.  They are too tight across the front of the foot, and I still can't wear them.


What hasn't healed yet as much is the finger I broke while we were on vacation.  We were at a beach, and I wanted to go snorkeling.  John helped me in and out of the water.  After we got out, I let go of his hand, slipped and fell.  I hyper-extended the fingers on my right hand, and broke a piece of bone on my middle finger joint.  I still can't close it all the way or straighten it all the way and have to do stretching exercises every day.  I feel like the injury has spurred on some arthritis, as now all 10 fingers are stiff every morning.

So, the lessons are these:
1) Don't go down the stairs in the dark!!!
2) Don't let go of your support when you are in a vulnerable situation!
3) Celebrate the milestones, and do as much as you can to make your situation easier.  Figure out what you can do by yourself (without hurting yourself!), as it will lift your spirits do not have to rely so much on others.  The first day I could take a shower all by myself was a spectacular day!
4) Don't complain about your problems, because there are many who would trade you yours for theirs.


Our bodies are a blessing, and they are meant to be temporary.  As my brother, a computer programmer, put it once, "Body, version 1."   Be glad that you have one, and take care of it the best you can, and put it to good use!


Tuesday, January 26, 2016

BIG changes! Hawaii!

I was actually surprised to see that I had posted last February.  I didn't realize it had been so recent. :-) So many things to talk about. Most of those things will wait for a later post.

LOTS of things have happened since last February!  We have a new grandson; that was a BIG deal!! I love him so much!  It's amazing how much love you can have for grand children.  The HUGE think that happened this year was Hubby was assigned a new position and we moved... to Laie, Hawaii! Never in our wildest dreams did we ever think that we would live in Hawaii.

Main entrance to BYU-H.
Family Photo Wall
Many would think that this was a dream come true, but it isn't easy. It is true that I love living here, (I'll talk about the challenges later), but I miss Provo, too.  I miss my family- in-laws, kids, and especially grand kids-, friends and neighbors. After living in the same house for 25 years, the roots are deep.  One of the first things I did here was to hang family photos. Didn't feel right until the pictures were up.  I also started using Facebook a LOT!  I didn't feel so far away when I could see what my friends and family were doing.  Some people moving here have a hard time adjusting, mainly because they are so far from family.

There are many challenges here that I've had to learn how to deal with:

1) Humidity. When you drop a piece of ice, it melts, then stays a small puddle of water.  Unless it is in the sun, it seems to stay forever.  90 degree weather feels about the same as 100+ degrees in Utah.  Thankfully, we usually only get to 90 during "summer": July, August, September, and maybe into October if it's a hot year.

Humidity is also a good thing.  My skin and hair are so soft, even though curls don't stay more than 5 minutes after you step outside!

2) Mildew.  Related to humidity, obviously, but you have to always be on the look-out.  I've had to clean mildew off of 2 pairs of shoes, a skirt and a jacket that I hadn't worn for a while.  Plus a wallet I wasn't using.  Threw out my almost all green "boot" (worn after I broke my foot last February.) Gross.

3) Rust.  Also related to humidity, but also to the fact that we are close to the ocean, and the ocean breeze blows in salt air.  Plastic is way nice to have here, especially for patio furniture and fan covers.  Motors don't last long on small appliances or lawn mowers.  Someone said the average life of a lawn mower was 2-3 years!  I put my sewing machine under its cover with a silica gel bag inside the cover.  Hopefully, it will survive.  Also, metal door handles and door stops corrode like crazy. Everyone's bike that's not brand new this year looks like it is 20 years old. We wash our car every time we come back from the beach, and it still has rust spots on it. Rust just happens. You have to constantly attack it.


4) Bugs. Never, ever leave any food scraps out.  Ever.  You need to make sure you clean up after meals and not procrastinate or leave until morning.  You will be sorry.  Sometimes the ants come without even food to invite them.  Terminex is my friend.  They come every 3 months and in-between if there is a problem.

The things that I've really enjoyed:

1) The sea breeze.  Our house is 2 blocks from the ocean, and we get the East Tradewinds blowing right through our windows.  I absolutely love it when the wind is blowing!

2) The green mountains.  I love mountains.  I love white, snow-capped mountains, short mountains, tall mountains.  Oahu's mountains are green, some are very steep and some are more shallow and round.  I love seeing the different mountains around the island, and love showing them off to visitors.





3) The ocean.  Okay, that may be obvious, but there are a lot of people here that just aren't ocean goers!  Hubby and I love to snorkel and scuba dive, and have done so many times since our move here.  Many of the beaches are fun to go to to look for shells, too, which we have done for some of our Saturday outings.

4) The community.  Laie is a very close-knit community.  Almost everyone is associated with either BYU-Hawaii or the Polynesian Cultural Center, and everyone knows everyone.  I don't know everyone yet, though!  The faculty and staff at the school are definitely an "ohana," or family.  Although I'm quite new here, everyone has really tried to make me feel welcome.

5) The fruits, palm trees and flowers.  I really love pineapple, mango, bananas, passion fruit!  Palm trees are just so cool and make me feel relaxed.  And the flowers are gorgeous!

6) My house. We are renting, but I really like our new house, which is technically a duplex.  I have a master bathroom, a walk-in closet, a garage, a huge laundry room and a huge dining room-living room combined area.  Small yard.  LOVE it.

7) Being with hubby more.  John's responsibilities at work and church here do not take up as much time as they did back in Provo.  Even the fact that he can walk to work in 3 minutes makes a big difference in how much time he spends at home.  Back in Provo, he would walk to work and back- almost 1 1/2 hours.  Now we take a long walk together each weekday morning.  Even though we still have yard work, it takes much less time, so I get him for more hours on Saturdays.  We probably spend 10-15 hours more together each week than we used to. That's a huge difference.

So even though I miss Provo, my home is here now.  The truth is, my home is where John is.  When he goes away on a business trip, I miss him, and start feeling a bit homesick for Provo.  But when I'm gone visiting, and he is here, I miss him and love it when I'm back!

Pretty bad picture of John and I after a Saturday outing.