Kittens From The Dark Side: Summer Happenings

Some stuff has been happening around here. I decided it was time to again do something to see if my ankle can be fixed all the way or if this is the limit of my improvement. My original doctor wanted a CT scan, but the closer it got to the scans, the less settled I was (I was FREAKED OUT by the radiation), so I cancelled them. The next day I e-mailed my helpful physical therapist, Jake, and he suggested a second opinion. He even recommended an orthopedist!

I was able to get an appointment the same day, which was wonderful.

Greg drove me there because my car, Clarabelle, was having a spa day (paint protection treatment and oil change), and he came into the office with me, too, which was wonderful. Thankfully he was on vacation this week and was available, because he took wonderful notes and it was great to be able to share our thoughts and opinions after the appointment.

It was a bit of a drive for us (it's in Scottsdale), but the staff and the doctor were GREAT. The doctor himself spent almost an hour with us, explaining the three things he thought could be going on, watching me walk, and talking through the MRI with us (which was neat). His first step was to give me a shot of an anti-inflammatory directly into my ankle. Then last night I tried doing things I avoided due to pain to test how they felt after the shot. The medication was temporary, not meant as a fix, but as a diagnostic tool. Depending on what happened to the pain (I was keeping track of the pain levels in two specific spots: the tendons along the outer side of my ankle and secondly, deep in my ankle when it bends).

Here's what I wore.

top: ? (Ross)
skirt: Rekucci (Amazon)
sandals: Sketcher's (Amazon)
purse: Target

This clinic is on Princess Drive. The scenery was pretty along the drive.

This orthopedist is a specialist in sports medicine, yet in spite of the sports jerseys and photos all over, his office was still nice. I liked the photography in the waiting room. There was even an office bulldog (named Achilles)!

I sweated so much during the appointment that all the curls fell out of my hair. I was dripping. I don't know if it was because I was nervous or if it was because of the fact that we still haven't figured out my hormone balance since switching medication. This time of year we also get more humidity.

Here is beautiful Clarabelle after her spa day!

Since Greg and I were prevented from going to Minnesota for our normal time visiting our families by stupid COVID, we tried to make the week a little special by having a Zoom faux-birthday party with my family. We usually give all the birthday presents for the whole year during our week at the cabin, so we opened those gifts during our video chat. We also shared chocolate cake (mine is brownies!) and sang Happy Birthday to ourselves and each other. It was good to see their beautiful faces and remember they still exist for real!

Greg was surprised to find some new surround sound speakers in his gift pile! They are beautiful and work great!

My brother and his sweet family bought me some stainless steel pans for baking - hooray! They are shiny and lovely and I'm excited to bake some stuff in there!

It was good to sort of pretend we were in a cooler clime!

During this staying at home, I wanted to spiff things up and bring some new sunshine (without any heat!) into the house. I bought some lovely new yellow pillows!

The rectangle one is on the bed in the main bedroom.