Don't Be Fooled. Spring Is Not Here Yet.

Spring, it seems, is upon us in the upper Midwest. All of the piles and piles of dirty snow are slowly melting away revealing soupy, muddy messes. My dog is having a wonderful time splashing in puddles and sniffing all that the snow banks had kept hidden for so long. Of course, Ozy's joy becomes our sorrow when he runs madly into the house only to leave paw prints on the carpet and sofa. Sigh. Spring, oh how we've missed you.

As much as we would like to welcome the sunshine and temperate clime, I simply can't. You see, I am nobody's fool. I refuse to be lured into a false sense of complacency by this trixy weather. Oh sure, it's all light winds, soft rains, 50 degrees with birds twittering in the soon-to-be budding trees. I can actually see grass. What a cruel temptress Mother Nature is. She plays with our emotions. No sooner than we start busting out our bermuda shorts and SPF 30 and, BAM, we'll be hit by a blizzard. Oh, don't you know it. So, I urge all of you to guard your feelings well. Don't open yourself up to the happiness of Spring just yet lest you be burned.

On that optimistic note, I'm sure you have all been dying for an ankle update. Last I blogged, I was about to get my air cast off. Well, it's been 2 weeks without the cast (8 weeks total since I broke my ankle) and things are o.k. The first week found me limping and getting around quite slowly. Unfortunately, I still had a lot of swelling and by the end of each day my whole ankle and foot were puffed up to roughly the size of a Ford Focus. Apparently, this condition is known in the medical circles as pitting edema and it is a common occurance in healing of lower extremity fractures. Good times.

Anyway, the past week has definitely been better. I'm able to walk much better and navigate the stairs. My swelling has subsided a bit, but not entirely. For those who are visually inclined, here is a photo of my foot today. Note, this is after a day of moderate activity where I was able to keep my foot elevated for several hours. It gets much worse when I don't elevate my foot:



In case, you think this looks normal. It isn't. I typically don't wield cankles of this proportion. Just so you can get a sense of what usual looks like for me, here is my right ankle. Notice the sharp dimensions of bony protrusion, the definition around the foot and ankle. In other words, the non-cankle like appearance:
Yes, I know, I know. I could use a pedicure. I actually got one the day I removed das boot. It was heavenly. However, I think another pass through the foot scraper would be helpful. Skin does not do well when confined for 6 weeks in an air cast. I'm just sayin.

Another fun thing is I can't really fit into too many of my shoes yet. The puffiness keeps me confined to Uggs and the like. Today was truly a milestone as I was able to get a sneaker on for the first time. Hip, hip hooray! Who knows, maybe in another few weeks I'll be wearing 3 inch high heels . . . . NOT!