It's very humbling (and frustrating) being physically limited and I am truly thankful this is short term in nature. Like many of us, I know I take much for granted yet I do try and appreciate everything, including my health and well being. Yes, I know I don't have a serious disease, but navigating on crutches and a knee scooter is enough of a reality check for me, and quite frankly I don't like it. I guess it's day 22 and hopefully I am about halfway though this little blip in my life. Whine, whine, whine!!! Yes I am going crazy and my foot hurts.  The pin comes out of the toe on Friday!  Still no weight-bearing, but...

Okay, let me get positive. My foot is slightly swollen but looks to be healing. My daughter finished her first college finals and is home for Christmas break. I have done 20 consecutive days of floor yoga (I don't think I have have done 20 consecutive days of anything besides sleep, eat and breath). My son helped me while my husband was out of town.  I watched one of my favorite/annual holiday movies and shed a tear for want and ignorance; even before this I offered to sent my nephew to an ACT prep class.  I'm employed and on disability leave.  I can use the bathroom without assistance (I will forgo crutches in the middle of the night details) or drugs.  I'm alive.  Yes Santa, life is good.  So why am I feeling so sorry for myself? Maybe it's not my foot after all, and I am suffering from that lack of sun and fresh air syndrome.

I continue to read about the health benefits of a daily yoga practice especially as one ages for strength, balance, mobility, tranquility and confidence!  I have banned myself from reading any more foot surgery experiences since I am convinced only negative postings find there way to the top of the search engine.

Not eating is really not an option for me.  Although, I hear this strategy has been deployed by others with foot mobility issues.    As part of my effort to not become a beached whale during my infirmary and be able to fit into some section of my wardrobe (actually have clothes I own fit me) I am diligently working my consumption strategy.  I seem to have settled on the 3 core provisions of NO snacking, counting calories and limiting my wine drinking.  There are so many apps that help you count calories the trick is picking one that works for me.  They all take time (have that) and of course diligence and some level of accuracy (or is it honesty?).  Anyway, I started on the day day of my surgery, which really helped given all the restrictions, i.e. no breakfast, no alcohol, small amounts, no appetite, etc., and I am holding my own.  Of course, I can't weigh myself, so...

I read an inspirational article in MORE magazine titled "Fat? Who Cares? How to be healthy without dieting".  It had a number of very good points in that yo-yo weight changes are bad, healthy eating and exercise habits are good, and feeling good about yourself and hanging with people that feel the same way is very good.  All stuff we know, but repetition is good!

So I guess I am am somewhere between making sure each calorie is worth it and staying positive with positive voices, as I sit on my keister and hope it doesn't widen.

The good, the bad and the ugly.  My foot doctor believes the foot looks to be healing nicely, absolutely no touch down contact until January 9th at the earliest and swollen colorful foot with pin sticking out of 2nd toe along with ~ 3 inch incision.  I keep telling everyone there was a reason I did not go into teaching or medicine -  the nurse insisted I put an icepack on the back of my neck to sooth me following the surgical dressing removal and new x-ray and new bandage - there was concern I was going to pass out and the tears were real, but I did not scream.  Needless to say by the time I reached my comfortable position on my living room sofa, the pain medication was definitely overdue.  A word of wisdom here - take the drugs before the visit to the doctor's office.

I definitely believe doing the hammer toe and bunionectomy at the same time was the way to go for my preferred life style choice, i.e. once and done.  It is interesting reading about other's experiences with similar afflictions including their healing and coping processes.  The nature of these issues is different for everyone especially as it relates to the bunionectomy.  As I understand the ratings go from mild to moderate to severe, with my issue being in the severe category.  I mention this so that others may benefit from my procrastination - fix it early!   I continue to be optimistic that the pain and numbness I was experiencing prior to the surgery will be replaced by simple pleasures such as walking, golfing (no cart), yoga, traveling and working free of pain and complications, relatively of course.

Day 6 of captivity!  I continue to follow the daily regimen and have yet to leave the first and second floors of my home, and except for the early accident, I have not put my foot down with any weight.  Navigating through the snow and ice, I will venture out tomorrow for my 7-day post-op doctor visit.  I definitely have morphed into a routine of Internet shopping, junk mail, the golf channel and Christmas movies.  My recycling habits have been stellar and I am on my third grocery bag!

My daily active life style event is my floor yoga practice.  I am counting on it for  for circulation, flexibility and all things exercise (excluding the extremely unattractive daily ritual of pulling myself upstairs).  I have created my floor practice from a variety of topic sources such as healing yoga, foot surgery practices and listening to the many great teachers I have had the past couple of years at Corepower Yoga.  Of course, no one would confuse my current practice with all the toxins expelled at any of the Corepower yoga practices.  Whoever coined the term 'pacticing yogi' certainly was talking about me; I listen well, try really hard, but have limited balance from my half-century of life choices.  My plan is to make this up in the second half with practice, practice, practice.  Plan vs. reality hmmm.....

A happy birthday shout out to my buddy Al - sorry I will miss the birthday celebration, although my wine consumption (not to be confused with whine) is at an all time low so I would have been cheap!  More on this later.

In my musings yesterday about exercise, pain killers and feeling sorry for myself I did not mention the care of my dog, Snickers.  Snickers is staying as close by as he possibly can.  He clearly knows something is wrong with me and he particularly likes to be as close to the bandage as possible.  No, I do not believe another dog 'marked his post' on my leg while I was in a semi-drug induced state, although I cannot say for certain while I was sedated during surgery, but the medical team that worked on my foot was phenomenal.  There have been many stories about the healing power of dogs and I believe my dog is transferring his powers of healing not only to my foot but my spirit as well.  Okay, maybe not the spirit yet since I really could use a change of attitude or scenery.

This is by far the longest period of time I have been sequestered in my house.  Just to give you an example of my past madness, 19 years ago I gave birth to my daughter on Thursday and played nine holes of golf on the following Sunday.  No, I did not take her on the golf cart, that did not happen for five months with her six week old cousin.  Anyway, I am really trying to heal.  A good friend stopped over last night and shared her mother's wisdom on how important it is to take good care of your feet.  These reminders are helpful as I lay here with my foot up and on ice.

As for the pain killers, I was strongly encouraged by my foot last night to consume, which I quickly did without hesitation.  I did my floor yoga and continue to navigate by crutches and knee scooter and arm/butt action. Will the minimal exercise possibly be enough?

I had foot surgery four days ago and thought it may be therapeutic to share my experience, for both me and others.  Prior to the foot surgery I did some searching on the web to see how other's exercised after their surgery.  Mostly what I uncovered were negative experiences with the foot long after surgery was over and not much regarding exercising during recovery.  Given that I am an slightly overweight female in her early 50's, I was, and continue to be, concerned about gaining more weight while doing nothing for an extended period of time.  I also do not want to end up addicted to the pain killers.

So here I am laying on the couch with my foot jacked up and feeling a bit sorry for myself.  My recovery period is estimated at 6 - 8 weeks with zero use of my left foot.  Yikes.  Yesterday I did 40 minutes of floor yoga.  It was okay, although my foot did hurt a bit afterwards and I decided to take a pain pill - hey it was only day three post-surgery.  I am using both crutches and a knee scooter to navigate through a fairly unfriendly house layout for a non-mobile person.  For the past three days I have navigated the up-stairs to bed on my butt, and used the crutches and banister hobbling back down to spend my days in the living room.  I feel relatively unstable on the crutches and I am concerned about using them for the duration.  The knee scooter is good on the hardwood floor, but not so much on rugs, and can be brutal when going over a small bump - like the edge of a rug.  I flipped backward onto my bad foot on day two - ouch! 

I am grateful that I have bathroom on the same floor as the living room and a husband waiting on me and concerned that I not fall or further injure my foot or other bodily parts - he has been great!

I have not taken any pain killers yet this morning and am thinking of moving into floor yoga before lunch today.  My foot feels mostly fuzzy, but does not really hurt unless I move it.  I am not sure if I will be able to make it through the day without drugs and do not plan on being a drug martyr.