"dust in the wind" my entire ass

[the_siobhan]

Got my orthotics today. My foot still hurts. This is taking too long to sort itself out and I wish to register a complaint.

***

Lord Brock has figured out what time steroid dosing happens and has started reminding me about it because he knows he'll get treats immediately after. He still hates getting medicated, but he hates it so much less than the gabapentin (I think it tasted worse) that he will almost barely tolerate it and then happily snarffle up the treats once the dosing part is done with.

***

Roof repairs unlocked. Dude also does the kind of work needed for the stairs so he's going to give me a quote for that as well. AND he thinks he can work with his plumber to drop the sump pump into the floor properly so it takes up less space and won't leave an open water feature in the room. He send me some links with examples of what he wants to do, and honestly it would be a huge improvement.

***

Project raccoon did NOT go as originally planned. Original contractor had said that the stairs would just flip up so I could clean underneath them. No, not so much.

The problem is that the wooden stairs are basically a triangle set in a sunken concrete hole. The back/top of the stairs is supported by a piece of wood in the shape of a T. To get under them you have to pull the whole thing towards the interior door to make room behind the triangle to flip it up on it's back. Only the T isn't solid enough, when I tried it the bottom of the wood stayed in the same spot while the top cracked and splintered. I was able to climb to the top and kind of kick the T forward but not far enough to make room to flip it. So I could stand there and hold the stairs up, because they're not heavy, but I couldn't get under it at the same time.

Yesterday and today daughter came over to work on the yard, and this afternoon the ex-housemate & their wife dropped by to pick up some government forms that had been delivered to the house. So the four of us picked up the stairs bodily and moved them out of the staircase. The ex-housemate has anosmia, so they volunteered to shovel up the very very decayed raccoon. Garbage day isn't for another two weeks so we just dumped him out by the railroad tracks and covered him with dirt. And then shovelled up the accumulated mud and vermin that had collected under the stairs and dropped it in the same spot.

It was so gross, y'all. So gross. But it's out of my basement doorway now and it's in a spot where it will be unlikely to bother anybody except the occasional passing coyote.

The daughter and I spent the next three hours digging the drainage pit. I found the sand layer I was hoping for, and then underneath that (about four feet down) is a layer of a broken shist which I think will work even better. We have probably about 80% of the trench dug out - one more day should be enough to finish if off. Then I'll line it with cinderblocks and start filling it in with rocks. The trench is probably four times as big as I'll need to be in any normal year, but since 100-year storms are coming every 10 years now (and probably every 2 by the time I ever leave this house) it seems like a good investment of labour.

Entertainment was provided by a juvenile robin that realized all that turned earth was a worm goldmine and got increasingly braver about getting close enough to us to grab them as the day progressed.

Then we ate our own weight in pizza.

Needless to say, every part of me hurts after two days of digging, so I'm taking tomorrow off doing any more building/fixing things. Chores only. And I might check with the local massage clinic to see if they have a free spot because I know I'm going to feel like somebody worked me over with my own shovel.

Comments

[cornerofmadness]

the orthotics will sadly take time

I'm glad Lord Brock is tolerating his meds

[the_siobhan]

So everybody keeps telling me. I hate not being able to just walk places if I feel like it.

[cornerofmadness]

understandable. I used to tell my patients to wear the orthotics for an hour the first day, two the next so on and so forth because trying to do it all in o ne day can often make even more pain as your body fights to adjust to them

[elusis]

This is absolutely true, they can hurt like SHIT before you are adjusted to the new, non-fascia-tearing norm.

[cornerofmadness]

definitely and there's this whole closed chain of kinetics to consider. By changing how the foot is working we are by default changing the ankle, knee, hip and spine. This is why some people get headaches wearing high heels, the changes in the spine cause muscle tension headaches

[the_siobhan]

This is why some people get headaches wearing high heels


Really!?

I never though of that before, but upon consideration it makes perfect sense.

[cornerofmadness]

Most people don't. If I didn't spend 4 years studying the lower limb I doubt I would have thought of it either

[kest]

The foot bone's connected to the ankle bone, the ankle bone's connected to the leg bone...

[elusis]

Tell me about it. Knock-on effects from a long bout of flared-up PF probably resulted in a period of several years where I could often not walk without a cane because of hip and knee problems, and a catastrophic knee explosion while visiting NYC that put me on a search for an ortho who would do a knee replacement on a fat person (which I gave up on once the PT took hold). Took rather a lot of PT to unwind that whole mess, and I would sometimes come in and say things like "look the good news is that my hip is less painful; the bad news is that now my opposite shoulder hurts a lot???" Closed chain of kinetics indeed.

[cornerofmadness]

that all sucks but at least the PT helped some. I getcha. I exploded my knee so badly 4 years ago I nearly lost the leg

[the_siobhan]

The podiatrist who fitted them said the same thing. So far they're surprisingly comfortable, but my feet do get tired after a while.

[cornerofmadness]

ha yes, it's our standard spiel but I'm glad they're comfortable

[runcible]

As someone who wore orthotics for a very long time for comically flat feet, I wish I could say there was a speedrun for them taking effect. May it pass quickly?

That is... a great deal of accomplishment to end the week on!

[the_siobhan]

My sister has worn orthotics her entire life for the exact same problem.

I have the opposite - I have overly pronounced arches so I pronate like crazy. I suspect I just landed on it wrong and tore something and connective tissue takes a long time to heal.

Very poor design if you ask me.

We did get a lot done this week - it's amazing how much difference an extra set of hands is making. Daughter is getting even fewer hours at work this coming week so she's promised me a couple of days.

[greylock]

Got my orthotics today. My foot still hurts. This is taking too long to sort itself out and I wish to register a complaint.

It'll take time.
Take up running. It'll be faster! :P

...hat he will almost barely tolerate it and then happily snarffle up the treats once the dosing part is done with.


Is it a shot or a pill? 13 needs to start taking heart meds that are "very bitter" (vets have never warned me about that before), so I am curious.
13 is VERY food motivated.

ave probably about 80% of the trench dug out -

shist yeah!

Entertainment was provided by a juvenile robin that realized all that turned earth was a worm goldmine

Bless. When I was chainsawing last weekend I attracted a willy wagtail/Djiti-Djiti for similar reasons.

Steel yourself for the angry cute :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_wagtail

[the_siobhan]

It's a liquid that I squirt into his mouth from a syringe. The gabapentin was also a liquid and he fought that one hard and wouldn't take the treats immediately after.

[kest]

Upside of dead raccoon burial is you could dig it up some time down the road and... free raccoon skeleton!