The podiatrist took the cast off my foot today! Right after which he put a stretchy 'brace' around the arch of my foot, a splint on my big toe and a connector thing that went on either side of the foot and stretched behind the ankle. Over that went a flimsy sock like thing and over that went a ginormous boot that stops shy of my knee.
Here's the scoop according to the good doc: stitches look great (to me they looked like a dried bloody mess), side of foot from tendon repair is kind of numb (I told him that, he didn't just magically know when he touched it - unless he's the Foot Whisperer) which may or may not be permanent. If it is permanent it's no big deal since I would only realize it's numb I touch it. The reason it is numb is because the tendon repair job was a bigger job than they thought it was going to be. He said it was torn and stenosed. If I remember correctly stenosis is a hardening - you mostly hear it when people talk about aortic stenosis.
I still have to be off my feet for several more weeks. 3 weeks and 1 and a half days to be exact.
After the podiatry appointment I asked my mom to take me to the PCC since we were in West Seattle. There I loaded up on baby food since it is going to be a while since I can go to grocery shopping. Sure, I could have Ryan buy the food but I wanted to make sure it was organic and had a single ingredient only and wanted only vegetables, no fruit.
It was while at the PCC I encountered the first perk of the crutches. Instead of waiting in either of the two longish lines a cashier opened up his register and helped me. He opened up just long enough to help me then closed up again.
Since I wasn't in any big hurry to rush home to continue my confinement I took Mom on a driving tour of my 'new' neighborhood. Mom drove and I narrated what little I knew about the area.
The last stop on the tour O South Seattle was Galaxie Espresso where their coffee is out of this world. Yes, you may gag on my pun as it was fully intentional. Mom really enjoyed her Americano and I enjoyed my orange juice. Don't ask me why I got orange juice when a hand crafted espresso drink is going to be the ultimate treat these next couple of weeks. Lame. So, we drank our respective beverages and each at a very naughty chocolate croissant in just the right amount of time for as soon as we were done Gavin chimed in that he was sorry he refused his morning nap and could he please take the first of his afternoon naps now?
As I stood up my eyes fell on a shiny cane being held by a man at the counter. I followed the cane up and saw it belonged to a young man, and by young I mean in his 30's - funny how the definition of young changes as one ages. The young man saw my crutches and commented on how much more he liked my boot than the one he had. I told him it was brand new and to give it a few days. He asked what happened to my leg so I told him what I had done and "bunions: not just for old ladies, anymore". I asked him what happened to his leg.
He said he was shot. It took a second to register. At first I thought he was joking so I said, "Well, at least that's a cooler story than a bunion." To which he replied, "No, it's not."
I felt like a jerk but he followed it up with, "It would be if it was a gun fight and I had a gun and was shooting back."
We wished each other well and Mom and I left the store. Part of me wanted to know the story of the shooting but I could imagine where that story could go. It had the potential to be so much weirder than the Subway man's story about abandoning his children.
3 comments:
So, was the guy on crutches, or part of his leg missing from shot wounds? Did he look like he came back from Iraq?
Just curious.
Crina
Glad you have your cast off now, and that your mommie is there to help. I enjoyed reading your 2 stories, boy you have some interesting ppl living in Seattle!
Nicole
I doubt he was a soldier because he said something along the lines of "if I had a gun and shot back..." He was using a cane as he lost sensation in that leg (but it was returning).
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