I can’t believe it’s been a little over a month since I had my foot surgery. I’ll admit. I haven’t thought much about flying in all that time. I did think about flying a lot on April 8th, though. My airline had two solar eclipse flights that day. Good golly. I would have hopped on my one good foot for hours to work either one of those flights. Instead, I hobbled outside to the patio with my faithful dog Finley and looked towards the sun. Of course, I wore my solar eclipse glasses. Finley did not. She immediately closed her eyes and took a nap in the shady grass. I ordered my solar eclipse glasses weeks prior on Amazon. I’ll have you know, I ordered Moon Pies the same day. Don’t judge. I needed the Moon Pies for the solar eclipse snacks and for The Masters golf tournament dinner. Oh, how I love a theme! I’ll admit. I’ve had many theme days since my foot surgery. My poor family! What can I say? Since I can’t fly, I’ve had loads of time to ponder about theme days. Heck. Since my foot surgery, I’ve had loads of time to ponder about many things. Not surprisingly, most of my pondering has revolved around my foot. Sadly, I’ve had a lot of quality time to stare at it and think about it. Even more sad, I’ve actually taken the time to scribble down these thoughts. I affectionately refer to these mental notes as my….foot notes. Wink. Wink…..I know. I definitely need to get back flying. The sooner, the better…. for all of us!

My return date to go back flying is still….. up in the air. Come on. I had to write that! Plus, technically, it’s an airline term. Wink. Wink. My first foot note I jotted down was the miscalculation of my recovery time. Believe me….it was a drastic Skytress miscalculation. Silly me. I thought for sure I’d be back flying six weeks after my foot surgery. Heck. I even chuckled under my breath when our airline in-flight administrator suggested I could be off three to four months before I was cleared to fly. I have no doubt she had a hearty laugh with her co-workers when I confidently told her I’d be back flying in six weeks. Well, our in-flight administrator got the last laugh. It’s been five weeks since my surgery. Last Thursday my foot doctor said I could finally wear a regular shoe on my foot…..for one hour. She said I could slowly increase the time each day. Heck. I barely lasted the full hour on the first day. Still, I’ve been increasing my shoe wearing time by fifteen minutes every day. I’ve done my Skytress calculations, my sweet friends. Based on this rate I’ll never be able to run a full marathon in my lifetime. Thank goodness!

Another foot note states that I am eternally grateful I have a sister that is a physical therapist. Yessiree. She has been a godsend. In my opinion, her tips and tricks to help my recovery go more smoothly was worth all the tuition she had to pay for her degree. Sure, I had to sit through all her disgusting gross anatomy stories at dinner time. But, now I look at it as a small price I had to pay for having a private physical therapist in my time of need. I’ll admit. My sister’s job was made much easier considering we have every walking cane, crutch, ice machine, heating pad and grip-grabbing tool known to mankind in our basement. But, hey. I didn’t have to schlep down the stairs to get them. And for this fact alone, my sister gets the “best sister…who happens to be a physical therapist” award.

It should be noted I won’t be receiving the best patient award. No siree. When I got home from my surgery I failed to read the post surgery instructions in my outpatient folder. I finally read the paperwork a week later. That’s when the guilt and worry set in. Half the things I did, I shouldn’t have done after surgery. Conversely, there were other things I didn’t do that I should have done. Egads. I’ll admit. I prayed the entire car ride to my first doctor’s appointment after my surgery. I was convinced in one short week I had royally messed up my foot. Yessiree. My Irish-Catholic guilt meter was off the charts. You can’t imagine my relief when my doctor said she was extremely pleased with how my foot was healing. She then informed me I had the hardest foot bone she has ever operated on. My Irish- Catholic guilt morphed into Skytress pride. I enthusiastically accepted this accolade. Heck. My hard foot bone was years in the making!

My doctor gave me the go ahead to drive a couple weeks after my surgery. I immediately noted my hesitation when she said I could drive while wearing my foot boot. However, I did have to see my primary doctor two days later. My physical therapist- sister- chauffeur couldn’t drive me. So, I awkwardly climbed into my Suburban and told Jesus he better take the wheel…. and the foot pedal. Ironically, I was heading to my primary doctor to get my blood pressure checked. I quickly discovered pushing on the break pedal hurt my foot. Pressing too hard on the gas pedal hurt my foot, too. Thus, I decided my best bet was to coast when I could and drive the speed limit when I couldn’t. Interestingly, my blood pressure was perfect when I got to my doctor’s appointment. I was flummoxed. Could it be there is a direct correlation between exceeding the speed limit and having a higher blood pressure reading? Who really knows? I’m no Skytress scientist. But, you can bet when I go for my physical in July, I’ll be sure to ease on down the road.

My healing foot definitely knows that when it comes to easing on down the aisles in various stores, there is quite a discrepancy. In fact, I have foot noted there is a direct relationship between the economic savings in a store to their floor’s hardness. Yessiree. The floors at my local grocery store are premium quality. I swear I walk on gentle air as I walk the aisles to grab my premium priced groceries. My healing foot loves shopping at my local grocery store. Of course, I saved a wee bit more money the one time I went shopping at Target post surgery. However, the Target floors weren’t so kind on my booted foot. I affectionately called my shopping gait up and down the aisles as “the Target trudge”. I’ll admit. My heart loves shopping at Target. My healing foot doesn’t so much. Thus, I have yet to return to Target to go shopping. I was definitely cutting costs when I went shopping at Costco. And guess what? Costco was definitely cutting costs when they chose their flooring. Holy moly. When it comes to hard floors, Costco’s floors are the grand daddy of them all. Yes. My savings were considerable at Costco. But, so was my foot pain. If the truth be known, I bought less items at Costco just in case I needed to jump in the back of the buggy and have my sister push me around the building. Needless to say, I was definitely doing the walking boot-scootin’ boogie on my way to the car when I left Costco.

Finally, I’d like to note my pre-surgery foot plan of catching up on 34 years of very little Skytress sleep hasn’t come to fruition. Before surgery, I pictured myself and my bandaged foot tucked in my bed dreaming of my much anticipated summer flying adventures to Alaska. Post surgery, my reality was I was awkwardly trying to sleep on my back with my foot elevated on a stack of pillows. Heck. I didn’t even sleep under my covers. No siree. I tossed my duvet over me, plopped the ice machine pad over my bandaged foot and cranked the heating pad so it could soothe my aching back. You can only imagine my joy when I no longer had to elevate my foot, use the ice machine or heating pad. I once again had high hopes for some sweet Skytress slumber. But I had to hit the snooze button on this Skytress dream. Amazingly, my foot nerves decided to wake up. Again, I am no Skytress scientist. So this is my non-scientific term for what my foot nerves were doing. Sharp jolts of sporadic pain would traverses from my toes to my ankle. I’ll admit. I constantly marvel at how the body heals itself. But, egads. It got on my nerves that my foot nerves would wait until the middle of the night to wake up. I’d like to note, my pre- surgery recovery plan didn’t include me watching “Reba” reruns on the Hallmark Channel in the middle of the night. But, like my good neighbor… who I previously blogged about in my ideal neighborhood…Reba was there. Her show kept me entertained in the wee hours of the morning when I couldn’t sleep. A daily dose of Reba may not have been what my doctor ordered. But, it should be noted it was just what this patient needed.

I have high hopes I will be back flying in June. Hopefully, I’ll be flying to Alaska again this summer with my friends. I’d like to get some good flying in before I have surgery on my other foot. Say, what?! Oh yes. I guess that really is my last foot note to pass along to you my sweet friends. I have to have surgery on my left foot, too. Gee wiz. I think I’ll start making my Amazon list now. I feel some theme days coming up.