Pigeon: Impossible

Sally sent me this, and I thought it was fabulous. Just thought you'd enjoy it :)

At Last!

I wore both shoes today! Not a slipper--a shoe. :)

Progress!

I played the piano in church yesterday for the first time since "The Incident." It's my left foot that's burned, not my right, but I hadn't been able to have it down for that long. I usually prop it up on a chair while I'm at work. Also, after a week at work, my nerves freak out on the weekends to where I'm doped up pretty thoroughly. This weekend--just a little!

Hopefully I'll be able to wear a shoe in another week or so. I definitely need new slippers :)

Wrong Corner

Went back to the doctor yesterday. I swore there was infection brewing after a hellish weekend where I popped pills like candy. He said I was "healing beautifully" and everything looked perfectly normal.

I win.

Now my foot is all red and inflamed, swollen up, shooting electric shocks throughout the nerves, and generally ticking me off.

I'll pick up an antibiotic as soon as the pharmacy opens in the morning, but I can barely walk on it tonight.

I'm so sick of this! I would give anything for Hermione's time turner.

Turning The Corner!!

Well, I think the worst is definitely over! This past weekend I think the nerves were finally wide awake, but they've gone into "normal" mode now. I can see skin starting to grow on my foot (I'd take a picture but Sweetie hid the camera somewhere), and I'm down to just 800 mg Ibuprofens a couple of times a day. Yippee Skippy!!! Still wearing a sock over the bandages instead of a shoe, which makes walking across the playground at school a little awkward, but I'm walking!

And I'm going to be teaching my Civil War unit for Gifted/Talented for the next three weeks, which makes me very happy! I finally get to show the kids my replica bullets Sweetie bought me a few years ago. He knew I'd love them :)

Angels Among Us

Burns hurt--more than anything else I can think of. There's just no way around it. At first, I had kind of hoped that the nerves in the top of my foot were fried. In comparison to losing the nerves in my fingers, it was no big deal in the "big picture" of it all, and I didn't mind not feeling the pain so much.

Oh, they're alive and well. And angry.

I'm back on the pills, after not taking a single one since the day it happened. I'd be on the sauce, too, if I could walk into the liquor store to get any. That's what Dad prescribed, and Daddy's always right, isn't he?

This has been a growing experience for me, for lack of a silver lining anywhere else. My darling friend Sue offered to bring dinner to me the day after it happened. At first I declined--I was sure Elvira could throw something together. But then I realized that I really did need help, and she was there in a flash. I grossly overestimated my recovery time, so Lisa brought dinner over last Monday out of the blue. It was amazing, and with 5 children of her own she still took care of the five of us. My coworkers have been so kind to me and completely accepted the little I can do at this point. My amazing mom, who has her own stresses in life, has called and texted me every single day. All of my sisters and my brother have called too, multiple times. Sweet ladies, one of whom I've never even met, played the piano for me in church so I could stay home.

When I heard about Stephanie's plane crash, I of course felt such sorrow for her. How painful in every way possible to suffer burns over 85% of your body. But I had no idea at all, and fortunately I still don't. What's the surface area of the top of my left foot? (I'm not really counting my hand anymore--it is healing up very well) About 1% of my body? And yet that alone has completely debilitated me! I'm on serious drugs for the pain, and can still barely walk nearly two weeks after. And yet she experiences it daily, at 85 times the amount I do. Amazing, so I can't really complain--it could be and is worse for so many other people.

So thank you to you all, you who have sent kind words and done kind things for our family. You are all angels.

Healing

I've always known I was impatient and competitive. It can be a strength in some situations, but a weakness in others for sure. I make a terrible patient when I'm sick or otherwise physically impaired. I never take it as easy as I should and think I'm ready for "normal" way before my injury does.

So yesterday I went back to work. I knew that morning it was a bad idea, but I did it anyway. I still can't wear a shoe on my left foot, so I threw on a big sock and limped in to work. Even with the least amount of movement possible during the day (a slug would have been victorious over my pace) I was still hurting pretty badly. I came home, peeled off all the bandages, and didn't like what I saw.

Sunburns peel in an icky but harmless manner. 3rd degree burns peel in a scary and infection-attracting manner. I'm not going into details here, but I swear I was down to raw flesh on my finger. Sorry, I guess that was detailed enough. Enough to scare the bejesus out of me, to be quite honest. My foot looks horrible, and I have no idea how long it's going to take to heal up. The doctor said 7-10 days, and this is the one week mark. Way more than 10, I'm thinking.

So I'm playing hooky today. I'll prop my foot up on a chair, finish doing my taxes online, take copious amounts of ibuprofen, and really hope that all this doesn't get worse.