Iowa Winter

We seem to experience a winter storm every week. This week is no exception. Yesterday afternoon we had rain for a couple of hours. Then the low temperature turned the water to ice and a layer of snow fell. This morning the roads were treacherous. Winter can't last much longer, or so goes the conventional wisdom. I've yet to see signs of spring.

I am including some photos of Iowa winter (credit to several people who posted on KCCI.com).

Mom has photos of a bright red cardinal who visits our deck on a regular basis. It looks very much like this one (don't they all?).

Almost every night before the sun sets I see a herd of deer come out of the trees south of my office and feed in the field just across the street from our parking lot. I am fortunate to have a window panel in my cube that provides me an outside view. I brought my binoculars to work recently for a closer look. I don't know where this deer was feeding, but enjoyed seeing its long tongue scooping up seeds from the bird feeder.

This is the time of year when it is not unusual to see sun dogs. The other night we even had a moon dog, but I don't have a photo of that.

And here is what everything in Central Iowa looks like today -- ice covered, but beautiful!

No improvement (sigh)

This is the third week of physical therapy to treat my plantar fasciitis. Unfortunately, I am not seeing the improvement for which I had hoped. Oh, I am back to wearing a regular shoe rather than the orthopedic boot I wore for a couple of months last year. And when I wake up in the morning I don't have to hobble as badly for the first few steps as I once did. But I'm not anywhere close to being back to normal.

The ultrasound treatments on my foot make no noticeable difference. And the one iontophoresis treatment I received last week actually seemed to make things worse for a day or two. My therapist keeps taping up my foot, but the tape makes me walk funny and my foot winds up more sore than it is without the tape. Could this be the end of basketball? Heck, could this be the end of walking without pain?

I keep telling Mom I need to come home from work every night to soak in a hot tub, send out for pizza, and go to bed early and keep my feet up. Mom tells me I can soak something, all right, but that it is attached to the other end of my body. I guess I am going have to take up video game basketball.

Eclipse

Last night was a lunar eclipse. I called Mom to let her know that the eclipse would be full at 9:01 p.m. in case she wanted to take see it. I came home from church to find Mom bundled up in her coat sitting at the front of the garage in her wheelchair with the door open so she could see the moon above the trees in the island across the street from our house. While the sky was a little cloudy, Mom did get some photos of the eclipse. These are not Mom's photos, but were taken from Iowa and are similar to what we saw.

Unfortunately, Mom stayed out a little too long. When she came in the house her fingers were like icicles. I would not let her touch me! Instead, I helped her run lukewarm water over her hands until the pain diminished and she regained normal movement. I think this was a case of taking one's hobby a little too far!

More art

Because of inclement weather over the weekend our church meetings were not held and I spent the day organizing my office and going through stacks of paper to decide what to toss and what to file. In doing so I found another invaluable piece of art to add to my blog collection, this time from Vaughn. Note the date of September 2006, which shows how long it has been since I went through my papers. I look forward to more priceless works of art for my growing collection!

Maybe Mom is right???

I began physical therapy on Monday to treat the pain (diagnosed as plantar fasciitis) in the heel and arch of my left foot. On Wednesday I was at church after Mutual watching the Young Men play basketball while waiting to take two of them home. One of the players had to go home, leaving an odd number to finish their game. What else could I do but step in to even out the teams?

Unfortunately, I was wearing sandals and not athletic shoes. Even more unfortunately, I caught the toe of my sandal on the floor and bent my toe quite far forward. It didn’t even hurt much, at least until later that night. The next day my toe felt much better, but it didn’t look so good. I told Mom that I got a black eye on my toe.

Mom says it serves me right and that I ought finally to start acting my age. I think she means this as a compliment, even if it didn’t come out quite right.

Thanks, Autumn!

I was inundated with mail yesterday, including letters from Lisa, Lindsey, and my first ever letter from Autumn. I was so tickled to get four pictures Autumn drew on notebook paper in crayon. Because I am so proud of her artwork I scanned the drawings (though scanning doesn't do them justice) and include them here for your viewing pleasure.

# 1 of 4

# 2 of 4

# 3 of 4

# 4 of 4

Doctors thank us

As if Mom going for lymphedema treatments 2-3 times each week isn't bad enough, I have to start physical therapy on my foot twice a week for a month. When you do the math, it means that on average someone is going for medical help every week day! Now every time I see a Mercedes or Audi or BMW driving down the street I look to see if the driver is one of our doctors.

The good news is that my most recent foot x-ray showed no stress fracture, heel spur, or evidence of arthritis. So we are most likely dealing with inflammation and a high arch that needs more and better support. The physical therapy should help lessen the inflammation and strengthen the foot so I can hopefully get back to normal. I have to lay off basketball for awhile, of course. Maybe I will start sleeping in on Saturdays.

In addition to stretching and strengthening exercises, I will be getting ultrasound treatments and iontophoresis treatments. Here is some information about these treatments:

• Therapeutic ultrasound in physical therapy is a relatively low intensity technique that uses high-frequency sound waves (ultrasound) to speed healing in injured joint or muscle tissue.

• Iontophoresis is the process by which drugs, usually dexamethasone and lidocaine, are introduced into a joint or small body part via electrical current. It is non-invasive, painless and it eliminates potential side effects and adverse reactions which can occur with medications delivered orally or by injection." I saw this described in simpler terms as moving medication with electrical current. Here is what I believe this treatment will look like.

Anywho, it looks like we will both be getting our money's worth from our insurance premiums this year. Wish us luck!

A Leg to Stand On

I am very happy to announce that Mom completed the compression bandaging treatment on her left leg! Her leg is significantly improved and she is able to wear a compression stocking instead of the bulky wrap! Yeah, Brenda! Mom has a much improved leg to stand on.

Now Mom has started the same treatment on her right leg and probably faces the same month-long ordeal as with her left leg. While this hasn't been a lot of fun for her, we are very encouraged by the progress we have seen since the first of the year. None of the other doctors who treated Mom diagnosed this malady or suggested this treatment. We are very grateful for Mom's new pain management specialist who, in the initial consultation, sent Mom to the lymphedema center for care.

This photo is not of Mom (her leg was not nearly this swollen), but does give a fairly good idea of the improvement she experienced. You can see the swelling in the right leg of this person and the near-normal appearance in the left leg. I am amazed at the results for Mom in such a relatively short period of time.

When I was ordering supplies for Mom today, I came across something called a ReidSleeve (see below). This device provides compression with adjustable straps and eliminates the need for the layers of wrapping and bandaging. I was quite excited to think that this might be much easier for Mom -- until I saw that the price was almost $2,000! Maybe I can find one on craigslist ...