Funny moments and some improvements

On Friday, when my ankles felt full of sand, razor knives and rubbing alcohol (or so it felt), my wife and I needed some things from Costco and since it was right next to the hospital we stopped in. It was quite a sight! My wife can’t lift anything heavy or turn her nick since she is still recovering from her surgery, and although I can lift things I can’t walk. I hobbled into one of those old people carts, you know the battery powered ones and she got an empty cart and off we went. At one point her cart got too heavy for her to push but I couldn’t get up to help her and my “cart” wasn’t large enough. So she walked behind the cart holding on to the rail, helping me steer, while I reached backed and pulled her cart from my little battery powered cart. I think it ended up looking like some silly little train. The little train that could, but perhaps really shouldn’t.

I think the worst part for me was when an old lady, and I mean really old, came strolling by me with her cart of stuff and look at me with that “Oh, you poor man” look in her eyes! Arg! She was actually having to maneuver around me because I was slow and in the way! Ha Ha! Oh well, makes for a good laugh.

The amazing thing was how I just watched everyone walking around, talking on their cell phones or chatting with each other and they were all so totally oblivious to their walking! They didn’t even think about the fact that they could walk, and that it didn’t hurt. They weren’t even aware that they had ankles! I never thought that I would think like this, but I wonder how many other people do.

Today the prednisone really has been kicking in. The swelling and redness have really gone down and I can walk normally, especially this evening! The Ibuprofen really helps too! I am almost blissfully unaware of my ankles again! =)

I even went to church today, although I got a lot of funny looks when I kicked off my shoes and put my “normal” looking feet up for no apparent reason. I must have looked really funny, like I was in my front room watching a game.

I am considering going to work tomorrow instead of working from home. I am a bit worried though because if I am almost better and then walk on my feet all day it may cause it to flair back up and then make me miss more work. I think it might be the most prudent thing to take another day and make sure I don’t make it worse again. I am also hoping to get more information from a specialist tomorrow about the prednisone. I am on a short dosage and will be running out in three days. I want to make sure that I don’t run out and the pain and swelling comes back again. I’ll have to see.

For anyone who might be going through this as well, I have been on the following dosage:

60 mg for 3 days
40 mg for 2 days
20 mg for 3 days

I star my 20 mg bit tomorrow.

The one strange thing that I have noticed is that it makes my chest feel really funny. My heart rate seems to have gone up too. Or rather my heart seems to beat harder. Have to look into that. Perhaps it is a side effect of the medicine, or perhaps it is just my wife. =)

Here is a picture of us:



Well let’s see what tomorrow bring.

Michael