As the Ankle Heals....

It's been a while since I've updated about my broken ankle. So, lucky you, you get to see a photo of one of the two scars (this is the prettier one, on the medial side of my leg).

Physiotherapy has been helping a lot; each time I visit, the physiotherapist adds new exercises to my routine. As I mentioned yesterday, the gym here has almost everything I need to do all the exercises I've practiced thus far (and I did do them tonight).

I am starting to rely less and less on the use of the cane to walk; I even ventured out without it last Friday -- I decided it would be easier to lean on Hubby as needed rather than take the cane into a movie theatre (we saw the Bee Movie which I don't recommend doing, even though Richard Roeper and Guest saw fit to give it two thumbs up. I don't think they saw the same movie... but I digress...). I did fine.

I also have been encouraged to venture short trips outside the house in shoes (as opposed to one shoe plus the AirCast) and to wear shoes during the day at work (both of which I have been doing). Today, I wore the cast throughout both the morning and afternoon session, which was too much. Tomorrow the plan is to wear the AirCast in the morning and the shoes in the afternoon.

As for pain, most of the time it's fine. After a long day or immediately following my physio routines, it does ache and if I try to walk fast, I end up jarring my foot and sending sharp shooting pain up my leg. The only other time I've noticed major pain has been when I forget that my foot is injured and use it like "a real foot" -- twice now, I have pivoted on my right foot and regretted it for the following day. In the long run, it's probably good but in the short term, not so much.

I'm still working half-time until at least the 15th when I next see the doctor (I see the surgeon the following monday). Hopefully both will give me the go ahead to stop using the AirCast all together... and possibly return to work full time (though I may use my vacation days rather liberally through to Christmas....).

Parksville Day One

After a bit of a challenge finding the hotel, we made it here. We were surprised to find one of the best outfitted fitness centres we've seen in a hotel -- it even has equipment comparable to what I have been using at the physiotherapy gym (hooray!). The room itself is average (at least it's clean) and happily Hubby accompanied me, even though it means Kiddo is with her Nana for a whole week! To make that easier, though, Hubby has just set up Skype Credit so we can call Kiddo without spending a week's salary on hotel phone charges or cell minutes.

There's four other members of my local here (all women, oddly) out of what looks like close to eighty or so CUPE members each taking or leading one of five courses offered this week. Being at the Parksville school will mean I have been to all the major education schools available to our local at one point or another in the past 15 years -- Harrison, Naramata, Parksville and other local courses. In the past I have also attended seminars, conferences, conventions (CUPE BC and CUPE National) and even a think-tank at the request of and for the benefit of the local. Over the years I have been a steward, a health and safety representative, and member of several committees. Currently, I am on three committees: Libraries Technical and Organizational Change, Agreement Study (assessment of the contract in preparation for negotiations) and Communications (as chair). I find the union work interesting and am lucky to work in a department which is very flexible in allowing me to do much of the work inside my schedule, as time and workload allows.

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NaBloPoMo....

OK, it's November. I know November is always busy, so I wasn't about to get sucked into NaNoWriMo again but for some reason there was some insanity lingering at the back of my brain and I decided to try NaBloPoMo (that's National Blog Posting Month if you want to stretch it all out). I had been on the fence, but since this post will make three for three, I figured I might as well give it a shot. Also, I am member #5413, so I guess there are more than five thousand other insane bloggers out there.

It's going to be a bit of a challenge as I will be away from the computer mid-month at least (for a quick cross-border Christmas shopping trip)... and this coming week I will be in Parksville for a CUPE Education course (Advanced Communications) and while I will have my laptop with me, I will also be busy!

So, I am keeping a running tab of "ideas" in a Google Document (any suggestions for topics this month are welcome -- just leave me a comment); and I will write my computer-free posts out long-hand while I am away, transcribe them and backdate the posts on my return (I don't think it's "cheating" if I write them out while I am away....)

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Making a Difference a Dollar at a time...

Yes, it's a little break from my usual sarcasm and navel-gazing to look at the "bigger picture....



Maybe you've heard about microlending or microfinance, maybe not. Basically, it's exactly what you would expect: small scale business loans (under $100). However, Kiva takes it one step further, allowing people like you and me to fund small businesses in developing countries through local financing organizations. It really does look easy: register, browse borrowers, pick one (or more), and lend as little as $25 using your credit card or PayPal balance.

This is way more useful to the world than so many other things I regularly throw $25 at... in fact I think this is a great family activity, and we may actually decide where to invest as a group.

the_haul

the_haul
Originally uploaded by triviaqueen

Kiddo did well tonight.... first was Mall-o-ween followed by dinner and a mall-wander, then Hubby accompanied her for some random trick-or-treating while I waited in the van (to rest my foot), then we met up with some friends and hit their neighbourhood....

Her spider costume was a hit -- lots of ooohs and aaaahs and a few eeks, too.