Three, Three, Three, and Two

Three, three, three, and two. No, that is not how my new kindergarten friends count (although it's pretty close). ;)

Three weeks of school - done! 

Three weeks on crutches/knee scooter.

Three MORE weeks on crutches/knee scooter.

Two years of Chronic Idiopathic Urticaria Angioedema. 

The first day of Kindergarten was a great success! Minimal tears, lots of fun, and very tiring! My Fitbit sums up my first day pretty well. 

Then...came the second day of school. I was leaving the house and I slipped on the steps. I fell down the rest of the steps with my foot under me. When I got my foot out from under me, it was crooked. And swollen. And it hurt. There I sat trying to figure out how I fell and what I was going to do about my foot. I quickly realized there would be no standing up. Thankfully my phone was in my pocket. I called my mom (who was also on her way to her second day of school). She turned around and came back to get me. I may have been slightly hysterical and very worried. My mind was spinning. Can't miss the second day of school...where are the crutches...go to the ER...text teaching BFF...call principal...wait and go to doctor...why...why...ouch...ugh. I'm super blessed to babysit for an orthopedic doctor and even more blessed that he called me after listening to my tearful voicemail while he was at the hospital. He called his office and let them know I was coming. X-rays and another fall (stupid crutches) later, I was in my boot of shame with a diagnosis of a chipped bone and a severe ankle sprain. I was determined to go to work. After all, it was the SECOND day of Kindergarten. 

My super awesome teacher BFF and some equally awesome coworkers had taken good care of my class. The kids were really sweet when I finally got to work that day. And being pretty much immobile made my leg a great place to count the bears during math centers. 

It probably wasn't my best decision to go to work that day. I ended up spending the next two days at home in the bed. I quickly got tired (and sore) from the crutches. I ended up finding a knee scooter to rent from a local medical supply store. I only rented it for one week being super optimistic and not realizing how bad I'd sprained my ankle. Little did I know how long the scooter would be in my life. When I returned to work again, the amazing coworkers helped me out anytime I needed. All while getting some good laughs at me scooting around on my knee scooter. 

A humongous shout out goes to the World's Best Mom!!! She has taken such good care of me and is always making sure I get ice and rest for my foot. I appreciate her more than she will ever know!! She also has taken good care of Houdini for me. He's a bit spoiled and can be high maintenance!

Three weeks on crutches/knee scooter was not the way I wanted to start my school year, but I've got to deal with the cards that I'm dealt. It's been a challenge in more ways than one. I've had to ask for and allow people to help me. I'm a pretty independent (stubborn) person and accepting help can be hard for me. 

I've also had to swallow my pride and ride the scooter buggy at Publix. I'll be much more understanding to people in those things and offer to help them. It can be hard to shop sitting down. And it's pretty embarrassing when it beeps super loudly when you back up!

My one week check up at the doctor included more X-rays and the news that it'd probably be two more weeks until I could walk again. Ugh. I called and re-rented the knee scooter for another week. Still being overly ambitious (stubborn), I rented it by the week again. Then the next week rolled around and I still wasn't walking, so I called back and rented the scooter again. This time for the rest of the month! 

I went back to the doctor today. I knew I wouldn't be walking out without the boot of shame. But a girl can dream, can't she?!? There would be no walking at all. Got the news that it'll be three MORE weeks until I can walk. And I'll have to spend a few weeks in physical therapy to regain strength and movement in my ankle. Not the news I wanted to hear. 

Two. Two years. In the midst of a crazy start to the school year, there was an anniversary. An unwanted anniversary. August 8th marked two years of Chronic Idiopathic Urticaria Angioedema. Two years of hell. Two years of struggling. Struggling medically, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. The ankle injury did take my mind off of this anniversary. I'm not going to go into a ton of detail about how I feel about this. No one wants to hear about it. It would be ugly. There are some victories in this two year struggle. I'm now able to skip my afternoon antihistamines (most days)! And I've completely dropped a twice daily medicine for hives. My immunologist, my mom, and I hope that this is a trend and we will continue to be able to lower doses and drop medicines!