Truly, my healing foot is fatter. A lotta new stuff.

Wearing an old-lady stocking.

Icing the foot once and maybe a couple of times a day.

Trying to walk balancedly, normally, tho on the sidewalk I wander. Try to walk normally. Exercising.

John at PT showed me how to fold the long knee-high tough stocking in half, down, then stttrrrrrrretch the sucker over the toes, pull up, and tug and tug it up to the ankle, calf, knee.

Julia said her dad, in his 80s, didn't have the strength to use them.

I don't have the power of my nephew Geoff who does Brazilian jiujitsu. But I can get the stocking up to the knee.

Got the stockings and cold pack at Rodman's, 5100 Wisconsin Ave. What a great store! Food, wine, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices. All at prices cheaper than many other places.

Stockings $72 vs. $99 aat other specialty drug stores (like the one 4 blocks up on Wisconsin, a neighborhood of many older people, some who don't have transportation so they can be taken advantage of for that fact. Nice. Not.)

I've been begging for 2x2 gauze pads since I don't have a visiting nurse any more, but the CVS stores only carry a limited supply. Had to go back and go back. I use a box every 4 days. Stocked up at Rodman's at a $1 less a box...maybe to the light at the end of the tunnel. We'll see.

Also new: a little pain. I have been so blessed to have no pain since 2 days after the April 24 surgery. Something like a little electrical shock now and then. An "unease" walking because it feels like a squishy big thing connected to my leg; almost other-being resistance to new challenges like the Game Ready cooler at PT.

It is almost as if the right foot has a mind of its own; it wants to be normal like the left and doesn't want any transitional steps whatsoever. Fortunately, my brain and will, and the support of the PT folks can overrule the R ft.

On Friday, a throb in maybe the end of the 3rd toe, maybe the 2nd. John said it could be phantom pain. I remember my Mom's phantom feeling in her left leg below the knee, amputated. So strange. Our brain and their pathways are not amputated.

Keep on! Hang 10, and I'll hang 9.6.

Photo: Nephews Geoff, Kevin, and brother Pat.

8/18/12 Saturday