October 16, 2010

This is about the new prosthetic. I got my new socket this Wednesday. It is pretty beautiful to look at - and you can see it on my facebook page. I don't want to spend the time to figure out how to get pictures on this blog (and I'm sure it is easy). I took some quilt blocks that I was working on, put them together big enough to cover the new socket, and they were "tattooed" on the socket. It surely is one of a kind.

And this socket is much smaller than the last one. I probably told you that the residual limb shrinks - it is part of the process, and is likely to keep shrinking for a year or so. So, this is unlikely to be my last socket - but it could last for a year. And it is offering me some challenges.

The pipe, or stem or pylon - it is called many things but it exists between the socket and the foot - is longer than the previous one. So the socket it further from the foot. Seems to me as if I have to really learn some new balancing techniques. I am not as stable as I was on the prior socket. And that means, that I simply have to take two canes or a crutch or something and get very deliberate about walking as exercise. I don't know any other way to get comfortable with this. And I'm not sure that walking around the supermarket with a cart or from my car to the movies works. I simply don't focus on the walking when I do that. So, let me start today. I'll have some food and take a walk around the block before I start my errands.

And I am starting my day really late. I read a book last night and this morning "Banished" by an old friend, Sophie Littlefield. Sophie worked for me when I was director of an organization known as ACNS at Northwestern. She is now writing the kind of novels that I love to read, and I didn't get up until 10:30 this morning when I finished the book. Started it last night, picked it up again at 7am and finished it. You go Sophie!!
So, if I am going to get my stuff done today, it it probably time to go for it.

I will keep posting about how I do with this new socket. (Next big "anniesankle" adventure could be a new foot in the spring - maybePost Options even a computerized one).

October 7, 2010

This morning, as I was driving to Physical Therapy with the car windows open - enjoying the 70 degree weather, the song that kept running through my head was "It's a wonderful day in the neighborhood". And I was only four or five blocks away from Mr. Roger's real neighborhood - where he lived in Pittsburgh. My mind kept going about the gifts I have been given. I will be 75 in December. My mom died at 60, my dad at 65. In my early 40s, I was the oldest person alive in my whole family. And here I am, coming up to three quarters of a century. My life has been interesting, and often really good. And it's good right now, even with out one of my legs. I was discharged from PT this morning. I have not achieved my goal of being able to walk a mile non-stop, but I bet my daughter will push me to that when I am in Cape Town in December. (Other PT goals all achieved). Not willing to walk in Frick Park alone (with or without the dogs) yet either. That too may wait until Julie returns from Cape Town next summer. Otherwise, I am going about my life quite well, thank you. I'm driving, I'm visiting interesting places, I have interesting friends, I am working some (was at Penn State in State College this week and last and in two more weeks I head for Champaign-Urbana and UIUC. I did that great Seattle and Oregon trip. I am getting ready for a quilting week in Madison and the month of December in Cape Town.

And I had my second fitting for my second prosthesis today. The residual limb shrinks, and after a while, the prosthesis is really sloppy on the limb and it's time for a new one. My new one will be ready next week, and wait until you see it. I will take a couple of pictures (or have someone take them with me and the prosthesis as one) and post them on facebook.

Just came home from seeing the facebook movie and dinner with a friend. Want to get that book and read it. And now it is bed time and time to start another book. (Just finished a mystery about Inspector Gamache in Canada (what's the French section called? the province that houses Montreal? is that Ottawa? - delightful mysteries). I'll see what the pile by my bed is made of and pick one - take off this prosthesis and call it a lovely day!!