Well, we’ve had a bit of a setback. There I was at work, walking around the Customer Service area w/o crutches as I had been doing. It was feeling good so I even made it to the last office around the corner & down the hall – about 35-40 steps one way – earlier that morning. For whatever reason that only the Lord knows for sure, on this step I felt a tingling/numbness starting to happen at the base of my foot. I stopped in mid-step, commented ‘THAT didnt’ feel too good’ and decided to reach around the corner to my cubicle & get my crutches before I proceeded. The rest of the day it hurt to try to walk so I was back to hugging crutches.
I called the doc at lunch (this happened late morning) to ask how long she wanted me to let it go before she saw me (I wasn’t scheduled for an appt. for another week). This was on a Friday. The call came back to stay on crutches, don’t do anything to aggravate it over the weekend, and come in Monday night.
I saw her this last week. I was still on the crutches. There was nothing ‘different’ I had done that we could identify. She said the plantar fascia is flared up again. Best we can figure is the cold front that rolled through set it off. And it’s been colder & rainy all week which hasn’t helped. I’m back to seeing her in 2 weeks and we’re back to staying on crutches until it settles. She was going to get some topical anti-inflammatory cream samples to give me but as of Friday I hadn’t heard on that yet. We can’t do any more cortisone injections until December because there has to be 6 months between any series. My last shot was early July.
Currently I can walk OK at home inside with little discomfort though there is still some fatigue & mild pain at times with that. Outside other than going to the car from the front door I use my crutches. I’m doing some of the plantar fascia exercises (rolling it on a golf-ball, etc.) to try to stretch it. So we’ve taken a step or two backwards (no pun intended).
Doc said we’re not ‘pedaling backwards’ so to speak but it is a detour on our route. I don’t know if we’ll hit our goal of being off crutches by Thanksgiving. At first that was a bit disappointing but the Lord quickly reminded me He’s in control, not me, and I found myself praying ‘not until I’ve learned all You want me to learn through this – not til You’re done with me in this.’
So we’ll see what happens. It’s hurting less this week than last week, which is good, but when I try to touch it to the ground as I walk to put a little light pressure on it I feel it, so I stop after about 2 steps. Other than inside at home, I’m back on crutches.
Thanks for your continued prayers and encouragement through this ordeal. When you’ve tasted the land of milk & honey (walking without crutches and being able to air-drum again, for example) and then to go back to being limited again, it is a bit of a challenge on the attitude. But it could always be worse.
On the other side, Spanish is going great! And my missionary friends from church have been home since August after their traning school at To Every Tribe Ministries. They found a Spanish tutor in town and it’s less expensive to do their initial language training here, so instead of going back to Texas next month they’re staying here until the end of February. I’m VERY thankful. They are very dear to my heart and will be sorely missed when they leave again. So I”ll treasure the time I have with them. They are family. And soon we’ll all be able to speak Spanish to practice!