I learned something new today:

Last week this time I had the kind of super fitness required to participate in the Freedom Swim.  Less than a week later I found myself hobbling from the parking lot to my orthopedic surgeon’s office, reaching my max heart rate before I even got to the lift, sweating like a piiiiiiiiiiiig and bright red in the face.

“Are you OK?” the receptionist asked when I stumbled through the door, while Da Husband performed fancy footwork to make sure I didn’t fall over.

“Fuck NO!”, I heaved as I fell into the first chair I saw.

I have a serious lack of crutch fitness.  And I lack a certain, er, sense of glamour when I hang onto my crutches in the middle of the road, muttering a choice range of obscenities.

This isn’t me. This is Halle Berry. Looking AWESOME on crutches. Why was I not born with style? WHYYYYYYY?

Da Husband can’t understand why I insist that he should park in the disabled parking zone.  And he claims it’s good exercise.  We’ll need to have a little chat about that.

What happened today?

Big day today… my surgical splint came off.  I was really excited about it, as my foot had some wiggle room inside which was quite painful at times.

On the upside, I woke up this morning without wanting to reach for pain killers, which is a big win in my eyes.  I hope that I can stop using cataflam by the end of the weekend and go 100% drug-fee from Monday.

Anyhoo, I had a 2pm appointment with Dr Narramore, orthopedic-surgeon-slash-foot-and-ankle-rock-god.  He had this look of pity on his face when he saw me looking like such a total tool on crutches.

He removed surgical splint I got on Monday, had a look at my cut, seemed happy with my progress and proceeded to put on my brand new hard cast that I’ll be wearing for the next five weeks.  I must say I was really surprised by how little blood their was on the cut.  All in all a pretty clean wound.

When I asked Dr Narramore how I should deal with any itching, he just chuckled.  He’s so cruel. A cruel, cruel foot and ankle rock god.

Out with the old…

The damage…

Dr Narramore channels Dexter Morgan in a cute plastic apron while he puts on my new cast.

All white and brand new… perfect for awesome cast doodles 🙂

I’ve been  instructed to stay off my foot and keep it elevated for another week (’til neeeext Sunday), and got given a weird-looking protective boot that I can wear over my cast once I start to put a little bit of weight on it.   So my next big goal is to be able to stand on both feet when I brush my teeth.  No walking yet.  That will come later.

This will be my first weekend at home where the house will be full of people with me chilling on the couch.  I’m interested to see how the kids will handle it and am already thinking of creating some kind of craft zone where we can bond while my foot is in the air.

I’m also looking forward to getting some visitors tomorrow.  Today was already awesome with a visit from my friend Sofie (and her iPad with reading matter – THANKS Sof) before she leaves to participate in the National Duathlon Champs tomorrow.  My BFF Tania arrived in town on business yesterday and I look forward to bonding with her on Sunday.  And tomorrow afternoon Meg and Gav will make a turn.

AND, I got a lovely surprise from the office.  A bouquet of chocolate!!  They know me so well 🙂  Thanks guys!

Things are getting better, and that makes me happy 🙂