Wow! I can’t believe it has been 8 weeks since my surgery. Granted while it was happening the time ticked by like Tom Cruise’s final period in school in Risky Business. But now I’m less than 48 hours away from wearing two shoes.
Let’s take a look back at the last 10 days or so.
My business trip went about as well as could be expected, but I was really amazed, I mean appalled, at how rude people are at the airport to a slow moving guy with a cane. From people pretty much cutting me off and jumping in front of me in lines, to playing the let’s see how close we can come to the guy with the cane, to just running/bumping into me.
On one flight, after settling into my seat, I started loosing up the straps on my boot, and some lady almost knocked me out… Not a glancing blow, but a serious shot to the head which rammed my head into the seat in front of me. And she didn’t even say sorry. So I did, and I wasn’t quiet about it… “Sorry for running my head into your hip”. The guy in the seat next to me laughed, but the lady just kept walking. Rude I tell you, rude.
The reason for trip was a success too, but St. Louis is a lot more humid than Denver, and it didn’t help my ankle. I normally don’t mind humid places as it makes my broken down body feel good - like being in a sauna. But not this time. I was sore. Plus had to do a lot of walking at the airports. In fact, my flight home got into gate B90. About as far away from my car as possible. The first (really the last) 10 gates or so are in a semi-circle, and then you get to the actual terminal, and gate B80. And while DIA (Denver’s airport) has moving sidewalks, the last section was not working… Argh. It took about 30 minutes to get from the gate to my car, and other than a few minutes on the train from terminal about to the main terminal, I was walking the whole time.
One thing that made the time go quickly was that I texted my daughter when I landed saying I made it back to Denver. She just replied “ok”, which made me a bit upset. She’s 17, so I don’t always get much from her while traveling, maybe just a few minutes each night, but usually it’s different when I return home from trips. But then she made my night when she called while I was walking. And she kept talking. It wasn’t until I was in my car that I said bye to her. 
My first day back I had my PT appointment and my therapist said my ankle was definitely inflamed.
Massage, stretching, riding the bike (with my boot on), and balancing on my “bad” foot. All went okay, and I’m still on schedule for moving to two shoes this Friday… 6/13. Just noticed the date… I had better be careful.
I was feeling good enough on Saturday that I thought about opening up my online dating profile (I basically shut it down when I hurt my ankle). I didn’t, but I thought about it. Maybe this weekend, but given it is Father’s Day, probably not. But at least I was thinking about the fairer sex. 
On Sunday I broke the rehab/recovery rules a bit, and put on a heavy duty ankle brace, strapped on my mowing shoes and mowed the jungle that was growing in my back yard. Two months of growth, and I had lost one of my dogs at least a few times. I took it slow, and was careful. And while it was a bit sore, and I was definitely tired, I felt pretty good. And the yard looked decent too. Plus I found the dog, a few chew toys, a sock, and at least 4 gartner snakes. Don’t worry, none of them found the blades of the mower. I forgot to take a picture of me in two shoes, but I was too tired afterwards to care.
On Monday night, I climbed into bed without my boot, and came so close to going to sleep without putting on my boot, but I was too nervous about it; too worried it would hurt too much in the morning, so I climbed out of bed and put the boot on.
But last night, after doing the same thing, I just rolled over bootless and went to sleep. And guess what? No problems in the morning. And I’m going to do the same tonight.
I almost wore two shows to work today, but decided against it. I wasn’t worried about hurting my ankle, I was more worried that if I got tired later in the day, I’d be too stubborn to suck it up and put the boot on, so two shoes will have to wait until Friday after PT. I’d also feel guilty about using my handicapped placard for parking if I was wearing both shoes.
My bag, along with my two shoes are already packed.
As always, good luck everyone out there. Hang in there. It might be bad, ok terrible, but it will get better.
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