Thistle Cove Farm

I didn't take a photo after I left the Radiologist today - but the foot(s) are now about 8 inches.  Since I'm using size 3 needles, I need to make the foot about 9 1/2 inches in length - then after I finish toes (hopefully tonight) I'll be washing them and drying them, to see if there's any shrinkage.  The Socks for Soldiers website notes that there may be about 1/4" in shrinkage - so I'll have to see. 

More later ...   not promisin' how much later -- that got me in trouble, the last time!

So, that "weirdness" does accomplish something ... Now, the next step is to "pick up stitches along the heel flap" so you can do the gusset. 
           TO BE CONTINUED later today ...

I have become a card-carrying member  (sort of) of Socks for Soldiers.  got my first batch of "official" yarn - meeting all military regulations, and kindly sent to me by Suzetta in Washington State, on Friday.
 
Today's progress (BEFORE  the dr visit) :

Does anyone know what these are?  They grow in my yard every year - but you have to be on your toes (with your eyes open) to catch them.  The birds eat them so fast, you may miss them!
So - I keep thinking, if the birds eat them, maybe i ought to try one. ... hmmmmm ...    
But .. considering the kinds of things I've gotten myself into lately, i decided against it ... at least for this year.  ..  maybe next year ... 

Now, about the feet ...  You all are so sweet.  People care.  That's wonderful - it isn't often that you find "strangers" caring about anything.  Although, you all don't feel to me like strangers -- so anyway - the update.  I decided to try some tea tree oil on the feet last night (after I managed to procrastinate long enough to avoid that call to the orthopedist).  Now, I know you're wondering why on earth would she sit there with a migraine in her ankles and NOT call the orthopedist.  Well - other than being a die-hard procrastinator, there are some other reasons.  It's a tiny bit like not wanting to know you have some deadly disease.  What if he says I have to wear casts for weeks?  or what if he says I have to have surgery?  or what if, what if, what if?   When my fine, handsome, young son (Dan'l)  was about 3 he started asking "What if?" about everything.  And I told him that God knows all the answers to all the what-ifs, and that he didn't have to worry about the what-ifs, unless he already knew it was wrong.  So ... here I am - about 25 or so years later - not taking my own advice.    And, there is one other tiny little reason - I don't actually have the cash to lay out for the co-pay!  that's what comes of quitting your second job, ya'll.  Anyway - that's another oh-woeful-day story, and i just hate those, don't you? 

Anyway- back to the tea tree oil .. (hoo hoo, try to say that 3 times fast - my fingers are all tangled around my eye teeth trying to just type it!)   Apparently, tea tree oil has some kind of medicinal properties that I had no clue about.  I can't seem to remember why I got it in the first place, but I think it had something to do with anti-inflammatory stuff - you know, like something to keep the fibromyalgia from turning me into a suicide.  Anyway, apparently that worked ok - because I can't remember what happened - and that's usually the way it is.  If I can't remember it, then it must have turned out okay.  Doncha just hate when that happens!

So -- the tea tree oil --- why am I having such a hard time staying on topic today ???
('Cause there are a half-dozen things I want to write about, and I'm afraid I'll forget one - or more.)   Tea Tree Oil -- the swelling is less, and I was able to walk around on my feet with almost no limping, at least until I got to the parking lot at the office.  By the time I got to my desk, things had regressed a little, but I can still see that things are much much better.  The achy breaky feeling only happens when i try to turn the ankles sideways.  I'm starting to wonder if they're just stiff and sore because i'm trying so hard to pamper them.  ha ha ha  -- yeah, right ... dream on ..

This whole experience has given me a great deal of newly found respect for folks who deal with painful handicaps all the time.  Now, I don't want you to think I'm a person who regularly looks the other way, or refuses to acknowledge others with handicaps.  I try to treat folks with disabilities with all the respect and caring I would want to be treated with ... sometimes they invite help, or conversation about the problem - sometimes they don't.  I try to respect however they choose to deal with it.  BUT -- I had never thought about how hard it might be to just stand there long enough to wash dishes .. or how painful it might be just getting down the two steps from the deck to to the driveway.  Or how much it hurts someone to forget that they need to turn sideways to sit down in the car, rather than twisting a perfectly healthy ankle and stepping in from the side.   Or how standing in the grocery line could be torture.  Or how the trip to the prescription counter at the Big Box Store seems like a thousand mile walk.  I have avoided all kinds of "necessary" trips, just because I couldn't bear to think of the pain that walk would be. 

I sure hope it causes me to be much much more caring than I have ever been.  I know that some disabled people do not want help - and hopefully, I'll have enough wits about me to realize when that's the case.  But, I pray that I will be so much more aware of what people are dealing with.  I pray that this whole experience will not go for naught ...

Now - finally, here's a smile-inducer if I ever saw one ...

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