A Day of Battles

The sounds of one of "The Magic Treehouse" books on J's iPod, the toilet flushing, and the shower coming on from upstairs for my background music. I finished the last of my pinot noir before beginning this post. It was a hard day for me--the hardest in mid-recent memory. I'm almost tempted to run through the blog archives to see what days have been worse, but I'll forbear.

Yesterday afternoon I became concerned that my ankle was moving around too much in the boot thingy (mostly at night while I slept), and I called the orthopedist's office where I was treated last week so I could speak to the PA (Physician's Assistant)--the person who actually treated me for my injury to ask him some questions. I was told he no longer works there... Full of a lack of confidence for this particular physician's practice, I spent over an hour this morning trying to get an appointment with an orthopedist in Atlanta. I would have liked to see someone who specialized in treatment of fractures, ankles, sports injuries even, but I was not picky. Was I able to get an appointment with even one doctor out of the many practices I called? Not likely. The earliest I could be seen would be late Friday--and most of them were closer to the 17th of July. Well if I am already concerned that I am irreparably damaging my ankle with the thing-a-ma-jiggie I have on it and the course of action prescribed by the PA, Friday is probably going to be a little too late to do anything to avoid surgery.

Fortunately I have my friend Dr. Bill--whom I trust more than any other medical professional I know anyway--who calmed me down this morning, and supported completely my treatment so far. No, I shouldn't be in a cast because my foot and ankle swell a lot and I could develop compartment syndrome. Yes, the foot sloshes around in the boot. It is normal and I am healing. Healing is going to take time--maybe three months. It's going to hurt, sometimes a lot. I may need surgery at the end of it. Put on my big girl panties and deal with it. I felt MUCH better after chatting with him.

Then there were sandblast etching travails (why did I commit to doing these awards again?), fusing issues from yesterday's loads, and a host of other petty things that just made my exhausted body Want to curl up and cry. Come to think of it, I did do that a bit this morning before I slapped myself out of it. Everything takes at least twice as long as it should, and even after cutting my commitments and schedule in half, I am still pressed, rushed, behind and tired beyond belief at the end of each day (well, all two of them so far).

The evening ended well as Stacy (the friend and former wunder assistant) brought us dinner, served it, opened the wine, listened to my whine--and then cleaned up the kitchen for me! I have SUCH good friends! Christie dropped off a load of garden stakes from Todd this afternoon so I can have Becky pack them up to ship them tomorrow, and on the way over to the studio she grocery shopped for me so I didn't have to get OJ and grape jelly for the J. Dee even made a trek back down today from her studio with more stencils because the ones from yesterday didn't stick right. At this rate, it doesn't take a village, it takes a country!

Now I'm going to hie myself off to bed (by 9:30), take a pain pill, read a chapter of The Mousehunter to my daughter, and fall asleep with her as we listen to another of the Magic Treehouse books on her iPod. Everything else will just have to wait.