As you well can imagine, my Christmas present this year is my foot, and still having it! I am so blessed to have made such a miraculous recovery, and I am so glad I chose to reconstruct my foot rather than have it amputated. With the uncertainties of Charcot, someday I may yet have to make that awful decision again, but with luck, faith and God’s will, and being extremely careful, hopefully I won’t have too!
My physical therapy is going very well, this week am supposed to put the full 100% weight on my foot! Am quite nervous about that, I might add. My therapy has been more sparse than it should have been, thanks to the long delays in communication between the insurance company and the rehab…they only approve 8 sessions at a time, within a limited time period, so one is constantly requesting more, and having to wait for approval. Twice I had to wait nearly a month between therapy sessions! But because of my go-go-go attitude, I end up giving myself my own therapy just running around town. And boy, what a difference being able to weight bear has made in my mobility! I even do some shopping in the walker now, though it is difficult…it’s just that I would rather walk in than use the wheelchair. After a year in the wheelchair, I have quite lost any love for it! Ha ha! Though of course, grateful for it’s ability to have allowed me to do my own shopping!
Tommorow I may try braving getting into the bathtub for a shower. Haven’t had one in over a year! Now, don’t go thinkin’ I’ma Stinkin’, LOL…I keep plenty clean with a daily sponge bath! But, if you are NWB (non-weight-bearing) too, you know it is impossible to step-up and into a bathtub. I’m not even sure I can do it now with full weight bearing, it just creeps me out to place ALL my weight on my bad foot while I attempt to backwards step the good foot into the tub. This backwards idea came to me apon awakening and I am fairly sure it will work, using the walker to displace some of my weight. I will have to wear my big clunky boot for full arch support, but will put a bag over it and waterproof it with a rubberband. Gonna have to be quick, as the rubberband will restrict my blood flow somewhat and that is worrisome. The shower issue is one that has long perplexed me, and my therapist had given me some ideas, but I jejected them as too frightening, or impossible. But I do think the stepping in backwards, and then exiting forward with my bad foot first will work. I will skip washing my hair, as the part about closing ones eyes AND putting your head back to rinse is way too dangerous because you lose your balance this way. I am doing in the kitchen sink, and that works fine. Well, I will let you know how it turned out!
-Cassandra, Charcotchacha, copyright 2015