The good news is that my foot is healing well. The first few day was OK, the second and third days were quite painful. I didn’t have strong enough pain meds or a good enough strategy for dealing with the pain. Fortunately, I knew enough not to suffer too long, and called the weekend emergency number to talk to the on call doctor (who I woke up at 6:30 on Sunday morning) – which really helped. It meant that Sunday didn’t suck nearly as bad as Saturday evening did.

By Monday the pain reduced, and now I’m almost totally off of pain meds – I’m taking Tylenol about once a day. One of the challenges with less pain is the temptation to put weight on my foot. The doc wants me to not put any weight on for another week – so that the implant has a chance to set – in order to reduce the risk of the implant shifting. Makes sense, but it is a lot harder than I expected it to be.

One the challenges I’m having is the knee scooter is causing me to use my leg muscles differently. My muscles are cramping and sore, just from trying to do a few basic things like making myself lunch or dinner! It got to the point where I was feeling I needed strong pain meds for the scooter related muscle pains rather than the toe pain (ugg). So, I’ve had to rely on friends and hubby to ensure that I have food. I am glad for the visits from friends – it has kept me from feeling isolated while I’m housebound.

I’ve spent most of the last week on the couch. I hope to spend most of today either in front of my computer or on the couch – perhaps alternating between the two. Writing and reading – working on my dissertation. Since the sun is out today, I may try to spend a little time reading on the front porch – it isn’t really in the sun until late in the day, but just sitting outside and breathing in the fresh air will improve my mood.

It occurred to me that I also need to create a new category for my blog. This time last year I created a category “two years and counting” .. now I’m at “three years and counting” … I’m not sure when I’ll stop counting, but for now, I am recognizing that I’m three years without any known cancer. My outlook on life is slowly shifting. I’m looking at ways to reduce the number of doctors I have (although I’m not completely succeeding at it). I am still dealing with several issues with chronic illness / chronic side effects. But, as my toe surgery demonstrates, I’m moving onto non-cancer related health concerns. I’m hopeful that once I’m healed from this, I’ll be able to walk and hike with less pain. I’m so looking forward to getting back onto the trail.

Figured I’d end this post with some coastal pictures – taken up at Point Bonita the weekend before surgery.