7/6/14. The post where I'm glad I have a day job.

7/6/14:  woke up at about a 3.5, so I decided to do something bold.  I went on my full, pre-diagnosis morning walk for the first time in nearly a year.  It is approximately two miles, with some rolling inclines and something I call "the hill" at the mid-point of the walk.  I know from cycling up the hill that it has an 11% grade - not much by Tour de France standards, but enough.  I figured that after two weeks of walking up and down stairs, hills, and cliffs in Europe, surely I could stand the hill.  

The walk seemed to go fine.  Did it hurt?  Sure.  But not much more than walking on flat surfaces.  And frankly, not much more than sitting on the couch.  I remember my PT saying that what's important is not what it feels like when you are doing it, but how you feel the next day.  So I decided to do a controlled study.  If everything else was the same (shoes, activity, etc.) and I felt worse on Monday, I would cut back on the walk.

Since the trip and the grill purchase, we've been spending a lot more time outside, even in the heat.  Our tiny backyard (is "yardlet" a word?) is on the east side of the house, so it is mostly shaded by noon, which makes it a little more pleasant.  Sunday afternoon, I was doing some work on our patio container garden while my patient, long-suffering husband grilled.  

All it takes is one moment of inattention.  I was crouching forward on a knee pad repotting some plants and when I stood up, I bent my toes forward and stood up by rocking back and putting my weight on the balls of my feet, just like anyone would.  Unless they have CRPS from a damaged nerve on the ball of their foot, that is. I felt a momentary shock wave of pain go through my foot that can't be described using the 1-10 scale.  It knocked the breath out of me and I stood there for a moment, stunned.  In normal circumstances, I would have guessed I had a broken bone and headed to the minor emergency clinic for an x-ray.  

And this brought up a question I had not previously considered.  In the future, how will I know if I really do injure my foot?  Visible blood will be an obvious clue, but swelling, redness, bruising, pain?  All could be associated with the CRPS.  I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, presuming I didn't come to it on Sunday.

Other than continuing pain, there was no other indicator that I had done anything wrong this time.  A little pinkness and bruising, but it was contained to a very small area and nothing like the discoloration I've had at other times with no obvious cause.  Hopefully not a serious setback.  But it ruined my controlled study.  Now if I have more pain on Monday, I won't know if it was from the walk or the gardening episode.  Good thing I'm not a scientist.

While my foot felt pretty rotten the rest of the evening (7-7.5), it was not so bad that I couldn't make cupcakes for a friend's birthday.  For those of you who don't know my family very well, my mother has been well-known for her baking skills my entire life.  Not only are her baked goods delicious, they are beautifully decorated.  They could be on magazine covers or in store-front windows.  While I inherited her ability to make tasty treats, mine leave something to be desired in the aesthetics department.  They are more like what you'd see at the factory seconds outlet for half off.  

What I lack in skill, I make up for in enthusiasm, and I was determined to make some pretty cupcakes. I decided my best bet was to go for elegant simplicity. Vanilla and chocolate.  Nothing too intricate or complicated.  When I finished, I was pretty proud of myself.  These cupcakes might not merit store-front window status, but they could be sold for full price.  Maybe all my effort is paying off.

Then I looked a little more closely at the chocolate cupcakes.  Since you are reading this blog on a computer, you probably know what an emoticon is.  Those little smiley faces, etc. people use to dress up their text messages and emails.  There is one emoticon used to express the sentiment that things aren't going well.  Since it's a little delicate, rather than try to explain it, I'll just show it to you.  💩  And I realized that was exactly what my chocolate cupcakes looked like, minus the smiley face.

No worries, I had a backup plan.  I got out the colored sugar crystals and went to work.  And when I finished, guess what they looked like to me?  A pile of droppings from a dog who had eaten an entire jar of glitter.  Good thing I'm not a professional baker.  I decided to leave bad enough alone and hope my friends didn't make the connection.  I tasted one and they are quite delicious, if I do say so myself.  As long as you close your eyes while you eat them.