Doctors ... Doctors ... Doctors ...

So ... in my great day of

"Blog Catch Up"

I am going to briefly (OK, I am proof reading this and that 'breifly' part? While it was a goal ... I can't really say that I accomplished it ...) well - that would be as brief as Lori can make it - go over last Thursdays Doctor appointment and contrast it with yesterday's Tuesdays Doctors appointment.

It is AMAZING how things can turn out so completely different than how you ever expected it to ...

And WHY, OH WHY is it always some disaster?

Why can't it be a pleasant surprise of something wonderful?

I got to Thursdays appointment via "Gary's Chauffeur Service". He waited until the doors opened and then headed off to meetings he had at work.

His problem was that people had flown in from Norway for these meetings and if Gary was not there the meeting could not be held ... since it was his meeting.

For that reason I was taking a Taxi home.

This is no big deal - have done it many many times in Australia, a few times here - not a problem. My wonderful friends felt horrible but were stuck in their own things and could not help. I felt bad that they felt bad, because, really -


How bad can one Taxi ride be?


And on that question we head into my appointment that went well.  OK - now THERE is something surprisingly wonderful ... maybe I am just not looking hard enough?

I begged out of getting my blood drawn since she took it when I came in for the broken foot. And although she said I was anemic, she gave me a bye since I was so pathetic in my begging ...

Left her office - complete with all three months of Morphine prescriptions (the reason for the visit and also the reason that even though I did not have rides both ways was not going to cancel ...).

Happily skipping off ... well as best a girl can do on a scooter - so I guess I happily 'Scootered Off' and down the elevator.

Got out my phone and called the cab companies number that I had oh-so-cleverly saved on my phone the night before. Told them I needed someone with a toll pass and that could take cards. The dispatcher said no problem and they would send one right out.


GOING GOOD!


Am I a genius or what?


OK - this here photo is where I should have started thinking that things JUST MIGHT not go down the way I expected them to:



Trouble is I had called YELLOW CAB ... 

I scootered over and he said that 'yes' he was the one dispatched for me - gave me my name thus ensuring this was my one-and-only cab then said they were all part of the same company.


OK, no biggie and started to ATTEMPT to get in the van.


I SHOULD have asked for help ...


I SHOULD NOT have had to ...


I was just stubborn enough that if he wanted to watch me clearly struggling to get myself and my damn heavy scooter in the van with no help whatsoever from him that I would let him so that when he dies and goes to Heaven he will have to explain himself ...


You're Welcome Mr. Taxi Driver ...


Sort of hurt my foot ... and my pride ... and my dignity but got myself and the scooter in the van and the door shut.


And suddenly I realized that I might have just made a VITAL MISTAKE ...


"Do you have a Toll Pass?" I asked - merely confirming what the dispatcher had promised.


"No" he replied.


WHAT?!*&?!*?


See - here is where I REALLY, REALLY should have asked him this question before that fifteen minute debacle of getting in his damn van ...

I was going to get out but he was frustrated and I was frustrated so I thought:

"How bad could Beltway 8 to Hwy 59 to 99 be? It is in the middle of the day ..."


And settled in.


Took this photo longingly as we passed the entrance to the Tollway:




Decided to get comfy for the ride and settled back and closed my eyes. It is at this moment that I realize that I must have hurt my foot a bit.

If you remember where we last left off after my last appointment with the Orthopedic Surgeon - my foot was too swollen to put a 'real' cast on thus he put me in a 'soft' cast.

It was basically some padding and a couple of ace bandages and I felt, as I said in that Wednesdays post, a little exposed.

I sat there wondering if I had hurt it a lot or a little when I opened my eyes to check on the Taxi status and saw this:



I was a little disoriented - then it hit me ...


OH.


MY.


GOSH.


This freaking stupid Taxi driver is going to take the Tollway FEEDER all the way out to my house!


Yeah - see all those cars down there it that photo?


On the Tollway - zipping away to and fro ...


And me?


I get to STOP AT EVERY DANG LIGHT BETWEEN HERE AND HOME.



I was seriously not liking this guy.


See - the light down there in the photo?


See where I am sitting taking the photo with my iPhone?



Now - THAT light was fine - it was GREEN.


Lets fast forward a couple of lights and this one is turning RED.


Does he notice?



Apparently not until he almost back ended the car stopped in front of him ...



So - what does he do?


Why YES HE DID!


I mean what else do you do but smash on the brakes?



I mean really?



I had opened my eyes about a millisecond before he slammed on said brakes and I flew into his swankified, all techno dashboard up there ...


and SMASHED IT HARD.



But for good measure on the way there I somehow smashed my foot up on the back of the seat and then it bounced off the floor.



Not good.



Not good at all.



Suddenly he was all concerned about me.



I told him that I had smashed my broken foot and it was as if it was the first time he realized that I had a broken foot!


Got myself back up on the bench seat, in huge amounts of pain, pretty sure if I spoke I would vomit and strangely enough didn't take another single photo for the rest of the ride home ...


... weird, huh?



So - I spent the rest of that day in bed and it got worse and worse and worse.



I was in a serious pain spiral and not thinking straight when it occurred to me that it was swelling with nowhere to go.


I immediately sat up in bed and started to rip the soft cast off.


I was NO WHERE NEAR rational or even semi normal. I don't remember much of it but Gary said I was a mad woman trying to get it off when he noticed and came over and cut it off of me. He said my toes were blue and I did not look well.



It felt MUCH BETTER after that ....



So I spent the weekend trying to get the swelling down and wondering if I should call the Doctor and go in and have it checked out. In the end I just decided to keep trying to get the swelling down and go to my Wednesday appointment and let the chips fly ...



By Tuesday night it was looking pretty good - but not great:



My dear, sweet friend Bonne came and picked me up the next morning for my Doctors appointment.

Now that is friendship!


I don't know if my two 'besties' know how much there transportation helps have meant to me. It is wonderful feeling as if someone loves you!


Soooo much nicer when my friends take me to the Doctor ... I know that they cannot always do it - but I will take what I can get and be satisfied with that.


I took another shot of the swelling while waiting for the doctor - still not good, but not bad:



He was not pleased when I told him what had happened, but agreed that taking the soft cast off was the only option. I had told him that I had been wearing the 'Boot' he had put me in at our first visit (before the surgery).

I told him that I had tried to put it on with the soft cast and the cast was too big - it would not fit. And I sorta MIGHT have left off how often I actually wore it ...


He agreed that we could not put a cast on again this week, but I asked him what were the chances that he would agree to NEVER put that cast on me? He was not convinced at first but when I told him how much easier it made bathing, etc he decided since I had gone so long without it ... why not?

That was AFTER he made me promise to not to put any weight on my foot. I mean he actually said it:

"Do you promise not to put any weight on that foot?"

and right then the argument came to mind that had he gone and put a cast on my foot - either way if I wanted to I COULD TOTALLY PUT WEIGHT ON MY FOOT ... this was a moot point - but wisely decided not to mention this and just promised him.

So, he grabbed an ace bandage - swaddled my foot and then put the boot on - we were stuck with each other (but I can TOTALLY TAKE IT OFF WHEN I WANT TO!  Such a plus!!):



He said that next week I would be getting an x-ray.  He wrote me out an order for it and so next week I go in and get pictures of my foot!

It is next door to the Doctor, so after they x-ray it they will give me the films and I take them to the Doc.


TOTALLY going to take some tape in my purse, stop on route to the Good Doctor - tape it to a window and snap a few photos before giving them up ... of course.


Left his office and back out to Bonne. Outside was fixing to be an absolutely lovely, wonderful day ...


It felt nice.




And door to door service ... are my friends not the greatest?



And then Bonne gave me the treat of the month!



IT WAS HUGE!!!



EPIC!!!



She stopped her car on the side of the road on 99 & Alternate 90 (a rather busy intersection) and let me take photos of the Bluebonnets!

What a wonderful gift!


She knew I needed some photos and I apparently needed to play with them well past the point of reason in Photoshop ...


Call me crazy - I had a blast playing last night and today!













She had dropped off a special treat when she picked me up:


Flowers from her yard:




She knows how much I love flowers and love to photograph flowers.

I went in and sat them in a lovely bright spot:



What?


The 'S'?


Oh.

Well both Bonne and I had noticed that my cleaning ladies must have switched back the 'Hurts' to 'Hurst' the day before when they were here and Bonne decided that it just WOULD NOT DO ...


And decided FURTHER that it looked best like this:



And so it sits. My 'Hurts' spelled by a kindergartner!


I like it!




I noticed my foot was bothering me and I decided it was time for some air.


Dang!


He must had wrapped that puppy tight!


Is this really the preferred method to get swelling down?

I know that is a VERY GROSS PHOTO but look at those grooves!

It does not seem like this is doing my foot or the swelling any good - other than to make it look horrible when I take off the bandage ...



This does not seem to be the way to do it ...



... then I am not a doctor, either ...