Ok, well before we begin, here is a quick picture of Birdie snuggling with me on the couch. I love her so much.
I don't know why but she loves to lay in between your legs. Must be because it's warm?
Ok, back to the "let us begin" part.
Friday morning started off with my MRI.
Thankfully I've had two in the past, so I knew not to be scared. My previous two were of my knee, and each time I was only in the machine for about 20 minutes. Well friends, feet take longer! After 45 minutes of trying to hold perfectly still, I was done. One step closer to the illusive "answers" I've been after. Of course you don't get any results there, so the waiting game continued until my next appointment, which was Tuesday the 22nd.
The weekend was BUSY.
Emily came to town so I got to get out of the house for FroYo to see her. I miss Emily so much. She is such a good person.
Speaking of good people, Elizabeth and Anna win the award for most amazing helpful friends in the entire universe. Elizabeth came over on Saturday for four hours and basically packed up our entire kitchen for us. I am forever indebted to her! And Anna came over on Sunday for the entire morning and helped me pack the living room and both bedrooms. And then she came to the new place on Monday and helped me unpack the entire kitchen. WOW!!! Anyone need some amazing friends?? Too bad!!! Elizabeth and Anna are taken!!! They're mine!!!! Mwa ha ha. ;)
Birdie did not like all of those boxes around, so she spent most of her time on my lap, no matter where I was or what I was doing. Usually I was just laying on the couch. That's what I do...
Sunday, in a whirlwind of people and activity, all of our things (for the most part) got moved from our old place and into our new place. I can't believe it all happened so fast. Here I am elevating my foot in the new house! Haha, thrilling I know.
Wouldn't you know, the second everyone left, Andy fell down our new basement stairs. We are having terrible luck... He did a number on his toe, and has been walking around with a little limp for a few days now. Poor guy.
Birdie is slowly getting used to her new home. She likes to peek out the windows...
But her favorite thing is playing with the puppy that visits her in the sliding glass door reflection. :)
See her little butt up in the air? She is playing with that puppy! (sorry some of these pictures are so dark)
The house is great. It is a total disaster, I have no idea where anything is, and once I find things I have no idea where we will put them, but to have everything on one floor is the best thing a crutch-bound girl could ask for. Now I can freely drink beverages because it's easy to go to the bathroom!
Alright, onto the answers now.
I had my follow-up on Tuesday morning...
...and finally have my pain validated. I swear there have been a handful of people that think I'm just making this all up... especially when three rounds of X-Rays showed nothing. Well turns out my pain has been legit! Imagine that! I have bruised bones. 1) I didn't know you could bruise a bone. 2) That doesn't sound like it should be super painful. Bruises aren't cool but they usually don't hurt that bad, and not for that long...
Here's what the ol' internet has to say about a bone bruise.
What is a bone bruise?
The term bone bruise is a misnomer and makes the injury seem less serious than it is. A so-called bone bruise is actually a fracturing of the inner layer of bone.
Bones are composed of 2 different types of bony tissue, the compact (cortical) bone and the cancellous (spongy) bone.
- The compact bone is the outer layer of bone and is highly organized, solid, and extremely strong. When you injure this layer of the bone, it is referred to as a stress reaction or an occult fracture.
- The cancellous bone is the innermost layer of bone. Unlike the outer layer of bone, it is not arranged in concentric layers, but in plates (called trabeculae) which form an irregular meshwork that is neither as organized nor as strong as the outer bone. An injury to this area of the bone represents very small fractures to the trabeculae in the meshwork of the bone and may be referred to as a bone bruise.
Awesome. The MRI showed I have a bruised talus and cuboid bone. Here's where those are...
Well, no wonder I feel pain, especially in my heel area when I put too much weight on my foot. And depending on the day, that "weight" can be as little as 9 pounds.
My MRI also showed lots of fluid buildup throughout my foot. Well no duh, it's totally swollen - no surprise there.
The good news. No surgery. Everything should heal properly (eventually). The bad news. He said it will take anywhere from several weeks to several months for it to heal.
*head in hands*
This is not what I wanted to hear.
Let me tell you something. Crutches suck. In fact I'll probably write a post at some point about the dos and don'ts or can and cannots of crutches. So to hear that there's not a near end in sight....
Oh Hellllllll No. I rented a kneely scooter.
I zoomed around on this last night and this morning. It is definitely an improvement over crutches. However, after five and half weeks of not using my leg muscles, my thigh got so tired SO fast from holding me up. It's a good thing - hopefully I'll be able to build up the muscle a little bit at least while using this. Also my shin is covered in bruises now, but I don't care. To be able to have some relief from the crutches and also to have my hands free a little bit more is worth it.
Now if all of that weren't enough to absorb, there's more, although I'll keep it short. Yesterday we learned Birdie has a luxating patella on her back right leg. Again, here's the Internet's definition of that...
Luxating patella (or trick knee, subluxation of patella, floating patella, or floating kneecap) is a condition in which the patella, or kneecap, dislocates or moves out of its normal location. Patellar luxation is a common condition in dogs, particularly small and miniature breeds.
My poor little angel face. She is possibly going to need surgery to fix it and prevent it from giving her arthritis, which of course can't be fixed.
And there you have it. We are in our new house. Andy is working hard to get the old place cleaned so we can be done with it. All three of us have issues with either a knee, foot, or toe. Poor us.
Looking ahead...
- Still glad to have Good Friday off! Hopefully we can get some stuff accomplished around our new place.
- No clue what we will do for Easter, but did get an Easter package from my parents which was much appreciated. Thank you!
- Can't WAIT for my mom to get here.
- And another doctor's appointment to check on my progress in three weeks. Although not much to really do/look forward to about that except I don't know... maybe he'll have me start PT...
There you have it. Stay tuned for future posts with pics from the new place and my full thoughts about the crutch life.
