Balance -- feet, ears, eyes. Center of gravity somewhere in the center of the stomach.

Physical therapy for my healing right foot -- one exercise is standing on the right foot, raising the left behind, balancing.

Holding it for 30 seconds.

Standing at a windowsill, hands over the sill, tapping down on the index and 3rd finger of each hand as needed to steady me.

Easy enough to do by spotting, holding the spot with my vision, like the crook of tree branches.

Relaxing, breathing steadily.

And then I try it on my right foot, balance, spot, and close my eyes.

Then all hell breaks loose.

That's what it looks like, to the right. And I wobble, tip, lean, incline and just lose control.

Very disconcerting.

I realized my eyes behind my closed lids were roaming around in crazy darts.

I tried spotting behind the closed lids, finding a spot and concentrating on it.

Wonder if I'll get any better at this.  Wonder if I'll be able to keep balance?

Today I got new orthotics for my shoes. They're made of cork with foam and at the ball of the foot, the blue squishy stuff that we all use (Dr. Scholl's kind of things) to ease the pressure on our feet. 

Initially, they seem comfortable.

I like Lisa a lot. She's very careful and seemed to really know what she's doing about orthotics.

You are fitted for them by stepping in a box of pink foam. If you've been measured for other kinds of orthotics, you may know the gauze soaked in plaster kind of stuff.

The wet gauze is wrapped around your foot and a cast is made. This is much less messy.

So I checked my feet every hour to be sure there was no rubbing against the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd toes.  I even wore them during tai chi class today.

I'll break them in over the next few days. They can be modified at any time.

Lisa removed a bit of the "stalagmite" (my word) where it was touching the 3rd toe.


This is all very interesting technology!

Another guy at the Hanger office in Rockville had a prosthetic leg. A motorcyclist ran him down and took off.

The man, who is 60, likes his prosthesis but wanted it modified some because softball season will begin soon.

He plays on a team in Olney off Georgia Avenue. He's the youngest; everybody else is in their 80s, he said.

When I first called Hanger Orthotics, and the lady took the information over the phone, she was giving me a lot of info, too.

She asked: Are you a _____ patient? Or a _____ patient?

I had to ask her to repeat it several times. It sounded like baloney patient.

"Excuse me, did you say baloney patient?"

"Below-knee patient." (Versus above-knee.)

Yes indeed, I am a baloney patient.




Baloney illustration courtesy of the Safeway deli on Bradley and Arlington.

 

Though I overslept and missed my dental appointment yesterday morning, I made the afternoon A1C test at Dr. Mohamadi's office in the afternoon.

Will know Monday how it turned out -- what my average glucose level was over the last 3 months.

It may not be too bad. While I dove headfirst into my cousin Jolanta's Christmas cookies, my holiday visit in New Berlin, Wisconsin involved plenty of other good and good-for-us foods like her protein-rich seafood and goose. 


Generally I've been adding more vegetables and fruits, balanced with good protein. I feel better, and my daily blood glucose testing shows healthy numbers. 


                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                        Yes, the sugar level shoots up on days of  pizza for lunch and dinner. Learning not to do that.

One thing that helps is eliminating or limiting starches (carbs). Remember how we were taught that a balanced meal was protein, vegetables, and starch?

For someone dealing with diabetes or pre-diabetes, the starches/carbs are a problem.

I've been learning to cook extra vegetables and add them so that I may be doubling the amount of vegetables I'd have eaten in the past. 

They replace the white rice, white pasta, white bread I would have had before.

I use fresh vegetables and frozen vegetables. Steam-in-bag veggies are handy.














The result is that after a balanced meal of protein and vegetables and/or fruit, low on carbs, or a balanced snack -- I feel good. 

It's a treat to go to a place like SweetGreen for a healthy salad -- even in winter.

Sugar and a slug of carbs bring a feeling of depleted energy, fatigue, as the pancreas struggles to shoot down the high glucose level.

I'm upping my exercise slowly, with tai chi class and more walking. Plan to do more as I get stronger.


Reading supporting books helps. I liked Al Roker's Never Goin' Back for its sensible ideas AND total lack of telling readers what to do.

Suggestions are one thing, but I believe we all have to find what works for us as we try to eat and live healthily in America, now the land of cheap fast, fat and sugary food all around.





Roker's book also has good recipes. Very amusing, too, and touching in his struggles.

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/502587411

Another book that I think will be helpful, amusingly titled, is Why Quantum Physicists Don't Get Fat.

IMHO, I don't think it makes the link to  quantum physics that author Greg Kuhn wants, but it does express the power of positive thinking and feeling in a persuasive way. http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/530297332

An incisive explanation he offered was the false stories we tell ourselves before eating the doughnuts or cookies or candy or bag of dorritos:  (“I deserve them, I’ve worked hard, 1 or 2 or 3 won’t hurt”).

What follows are the shaming stories we declare after we’ve downed the doughnuts or cookies or ice cream or bag of potato chips: (“oh crap, I’ve blown it, I’m crap, my hard work of healthy eating is lost, might as well give up”).

His suggestions are helpful: eat only what we can tell ourselves believable, positive stories about, and to move every day as much as we can, with gratitude. Sound simple?

Really, it's mindful eating. Truly a good thing.

The key is not to put the book on the shelf on the “read” pile, but to do these steps, practice them.

I'm going to give it a try.

How I'm spending SuperBowl Sunday evening... This medieval instrument is called a DynaSplint, familiarly called a "shoe." The bar is spring loaded and the padded knob pushes down on...

 

For me, on the 3rd toe, which a couple of days into the new year started to move leftward and up. Maybe having to have a couple of bone spurs removed from the left side of the toe was a factor? The tissue, nicely healed from the Nov. 30 procedure, must still be malleable.

 

I'm supposed to use the "shoe" two or three times a day, 15 minutes a session, then upping to 30, 45, and hour. I'm at half an hour now. When the toe doesn't ache after an hour, then I increase the tension of the bar from 1 now to 2, etc.

Medicare and I are renting the DynaSplint by the week. DynaSplint is a company in Severna Park, Maryland. I like supporting Maryland businesses.

Jessica Plank is the rep who brought it to my place and showed me how to use it. I like her a lot. The DynaSplint itself, not so much.

But I think it is working.

That is the point.

Go Ravens!