Another Ankle Update

I was pretty nervous about this orthopedist appointment.

Greg and I prayed and came up with some lists of questions to ask,

and that helped.  I know there were other people praying, too (thank you!)

I dressed in a cheerful happy outfit and felt cute.

It turns out that my ankle has not healed.  The physical therapy exercises strengthened my leg muscles, but my ankle itself stayed painful.  Whenever I do a lot of standing or walking, it swells up and gets sore.  

I had an MRI last Monday and I saw the orthopedist this morning to go over the results. A number of ligaments in my left (injured) ankle were torn in the accident, some bones are bruised and swollen (bone marrow edema - who knew that was possible?!) and cracked a piece of cartilage. He said that since these things haven't healed on their own by now (more than three months out from the time of injury), they aren't likely to.  It looks like surgery is the next step to repair the broken parts.

The recovery will not be very fun.  

I'll have to do no weight bearing (so whenever I'm moving around I'll need crutches or a little knee cart for three weeks.  Then I'll be back in the big (knee-high) boot for another six weeks.  I'll be doing physical therapy again during that time, I think.  After three months I should be all better.  

I'm glad to have some answers and I feel extremely confident in this surgeon.  He answered all my many questions and gave me lots of time, which I appreciate.  I'm thinking about scheduling surgery for August sometime so that I will hopefully miss mostly hot summer weather recuperating, and hopefully I won't miss much beautiful cool winter weather!

After the appointment, I needed some run-off-the-adrenaline time, so I stopped by Hobby Lobby and TJ Maxx on the way home.  I bought some fun and useful things!

A pouch for storing things in my purse.

This is where I'll keep my lipstick, nail clippers and file, floss, etc.

It's bigger than it looks in this photo.

This little winking ceramic cat stole my heart.

She has black and gold dots and stripes around the end of her tail.

She is a reminder to me that God is with me and He is faithful at all times

in all circumstances.

Her spots look great next to the holey tree!

The reason I went to TJ Maxx in the first place was that I needed a suitcase.

The corner of my beautiful marble and gold one (that was brand new in January!)

got broken in transit.  The corner with one of the wheels on it broke completely off.

TJ Maxx actually gave me a gift card for the entire purchase price of that suitcase because I still had the receipt and tags.

Today I found THIS BEAUTIFUL ONE!

Look at the pretty shiny reflection on the tile!

I was able to pay for most of it with the gift card from the broken old one.

I am a little scared about the surgery and recovery, but the future does indeed look bright!

Surgery is scheduled for August 20.