June 6th update on Katie's foot

The Doctor's visit for another x-ray was somewhat disappointing for Katie. She had hoped by using the Ultrasound machine that there would be some obvious signs of healing. There was a little bit on the inside of the break toward the center of the foot, but nothing significant.

Good news is that the Doctor got her to do several foot exercises and she did not feel any pain...but there is no doubt there is still a fracture.

So...exercises it is...continue with the Ultrasound...wear the boot when on anything but a flat surface and back to the Doc in a month.

update on Katie's foot

As I mentioned in the last post, Katie's foot is showing no signs of healing due to lack of blood flow at the site of the break...but....

The other evening Katie got a phone call from her Doctor who told her that he may have an alternate treatment for her rather than just wearing the boot and hoping for the best.

He told her about a treatment called Exogen 4000 which is a bone stimulator.

Faster healing for broken bones

The EXOGEN Ultrasound Bone Healing System is the clinically tested, FDA-approved treatment for indicated* bone fractures. Using painless ultrasound waves, EXOGEN may help heal broken bones by speeding up your body’s natural repair process. In just 20 minutes a day, you can help ensure healing for stubborn-to-heal* bone fractures or an indicated* freshly broken tibia or broken radius. It’s faster healing for broken bones — and less hassle for you.

You actually have to buy the machine as they have a countdown clock and are only good for approx 150 applications and the machine is quite expensive.

We managed to get Katie one, and she has been using it now for several days with her Doctor's blessing. He wants her to wear her boot at all times except at home, and she goes back to see him June 1st....so we are keeping our fingers and toes crossed, well, only toes in my cases...that we will see some progress.

A nurse that we know, had a broken ankle but was misdiagnosed and did more damage as a result. She used the machine for two months and is fine now with no surgery.

We are not planning on healing by June 1st, but healing in two months without surgery putting a large screw in is mucho preferable.

Hope you are all having a great summer! More later...

May 2nd

Katie went to the Doctor today...oh oh...4 more weeks of winter.

No real sign of healing...Doc wants her to keep the boot on
but walk a little bit, nothing too strenuous, and not too
far. Basically she will be testing it out to see if she
will be able to function well without surgery in case
it doesn't heal at all. If it is too difficult or
painful then it will be surgery.

Then she will be looked at again in a month. She might
even be able to try golf this month...we'll see.

Katie's Doctor Visit

Katie went to Legacy Sports Clinic Yesterday for her appointment. Didn't have to wait long and the Doctor got his cutting machine out and cut the cast off. Then it was down the hall for xray and within 5 minutes Dr. McKay was reading the xray. He showed both Katie and I where the break was and you could see it clearly. Dr. McKay said he was not crazy about the location of the break and said if it doesn't heal it could be troublesome for Katie. He said the goal was to get her in a boot rather than the cast and so he prescribed a boot for Katie. She has to wear it for the next three weeks to see if the break is going to heal at all.

So now we only had to go back to the waiting room and next door into the store where Katie got fitted for the walking boot. What a piece of technology that is! Looks like a robot foot.

The nice part of all this is that the whole process took less than an hour, instead of the two days in Texas.

At any rate it was back to work for Katie today, and at least she can take the boot off for baths and when it is bothering her.

I may post again in three weeks after the next Doctor appointment.

Day 34 Council Bluffs to home

Had breakfast and got away from Council Bluffs around 10. Nice easy drive as always on this stretch, as long as the weather is good. WDAZ Fargo Last year reported on good friday, high winds and a foot of snow in the Dakotas...thankfully not the case this year.

Got to the border around 7:30 and just as we hoped, there were two lanes open and three cars in each lane ahead of us. When it was our turn, the normal and not so normal questions occurred. Q. When did you leave Canada? A. March 1st Q Where did you go A Pharr Texas...that's Pharr not far...Q how much are you bring back
A $1240 Q you bringing back any good for anyone else A no (hard to fathom why this would matter other than if a drug dealer gave you a package to bring back for them...and sure enough Q Are you bringing back any packages A no. Now for a couple of strange questions Q So what was going on in Pharr A we have a trailer there and go every year for a month (Did he really want me to tell him about the HUD festival and Jake Cortez performing at the Santa Fe Steakhouse?) Then Q how did you get there A we drove (Did he really want me to say we walked or flew?) Anyway I was getting tired of looking at him straight in the eyes without blinking, so off we went without any further questions.

This was easy, but....in the future, with the elevated levels for bringing goods back, one can only imagine how long the lineups are going to be. $200 each for 24 hour stays from the previous $50. There should be a very large contingent of people going for one day, especially families of 4 who can then bring back a total of $800. Then 48 hours or longer $800 each, so a family of 4 could bring back $3,200. Previously Katie and I could bring back $750 each for a month, now we get a whopping increase of $50 Whooopeee! Something wrong with this picture! Perhaps we should go by X amount per car instead of how many people you can pack in.

We picked up some supper, as the fridge was bare, and on Good Friday nothing much open other than Seven Eleven. Funny thing happened at breakfast when I asked the waitress what was open for Good Friday. She basically said everything....we're Americans and laughed heartily!.

I've just about had it with the idiots who drive at 80 miles an hour holding a cell phone in their hand, passing cars, and texting, checking emails, and/or talking at the same time. Seems like this is now about every third car. Can't even leave the cell phone alone for a minute or so, might miss the opportunity to instruct the world how to save itself! Grrrrrr. So ends my rant for the day.

But...we are home safe and sound, happy and healthy (except for Katie's foot) and regardless we had a great holiday, and got to spend time with good friends, and had lots of great conversation and a ton of laughs. What could be better than that?

Now it's time to get down to serious business, gym, walking, and proper eating. Katie and I have decided to go back to vegan routine, for how long not sure.

And so...time to sign off the blogging thing..until next year...if the lord is willing and the creek don't rise.

Thanks to all of you who have been following...hope you enjoyed another year of our adventures.

For those of you not on facebook or twitter...might do one more post about the results of Katie's Doctor's appt about her foot on Tuesday.

and so ends another great day in the Red River Valley

Day 33 Council Bluffs

We got away from Denton about 8AM. Good travelling until we got close to Oklahoma City. The GPS then told us there was a road closed on our route and wanted to re-route us. We said yes...but when it started to re-route without even getting into Oklahoma City, we smelled a rat and things just didn't look right. To make a long story short we ended up ignoring what it said and we didn't have a problem staying on Interstate 35. hmmmm....

After lunch stop and some delays for construction on Highway 75 which it didn't warn us about...we got to the Kelly Inn in Omaha about 7. We have stayed here before and it is good. We would prefer to stay at the one in Council Bluffs, but it was always a dump. Apparently it has been remodelled but still gets some bad reviews and get this...it allows two dogs of 40 lbs each, it allows cats, and it allows birds. Got to wonder if this is a hotel or a zoo. Nothing against people with pets, my son has a great dog, friends as well, some with cats...but birds as well??? Just not for me thanks.

We were off to our favorite casino then, the Horseshoe. About 8 when we got there and we had the buffet. Pretty good with large assortment. I about broke even but Katie did her normal thing and netted $425.

Just about pays for gas....we probably averaged $3.78/gal on the way home.

Then it was back to the hotel to grab some sleep.

Friday it will be another 10 hour drive back to home, and we really don't care what time we get home.

more later...

Day 32 Denton, Tx

Had a good drive yesterday...GPS warned us about change in driving conditions and told us if we re-routed it would save 4 minutes. Did this about 4 times, and we said no each time. This was in the San Antonio by-pass area.

Then when we were on the way to Austin, the GPS told us there was about a 25 minute delay and said if we re-routed we would save 15 minutes. We said o.k. and it took us on the toll road by-pass around Austin.

We have used this before and had to stop and pay tolls several times. It was fairly annoying. You also have to use exact change. They also give an option to pay by mail, so this time we decided not to stop at all, and if/when they send mail we will be only too happy to pay.

This turned out to be a good re-route, and was an easy drive.

We ended up going around Ft. Worth about 8:30 because we only left Paradise at Noon. This is another easy drive at this time of night. We arrived at our favorite Best Western at 9:15.

Then it was time to grab a bite to eat and soon after, off to bed.

On the way to Council Bluffs in the morning, driving and weather conditions look good.

more later....