Next up in the saga of Carrie’s poor health, I have developed Plantar Fasciitis. That basically means my feet hurt. A lot.

It’s a dasdardly cycle. A few weeks ago I took the boys on an extra-long walk and my feet hurt afterwards.

You know how we’re taught that your body heals when you sleep? Well, your feet tend to relax and “point” when you’re sleeping. The irony here is that your body heals the plantar fascia in that position, so when you get up in the morning and put your weight on your feet, it stretches that fascia and hurts like hell, re-injuring it. I hobble around in the morning until things warm up but basically my feet hurt all day.

So I’ve been stretching my feet and putting ice on them when possible, but last night I finally took my bro’s advice and wore boots to bed. Doesn’t that sound silly? I mean, really. Shoes in bed. My feet are hot enough as it is!

The thing is, apparently you need your body to heal your feet in the position you walk in, so that you don’t re-injure your feet when they bear weight in the morning. Therefore a splint is necessary to hold your feet in that position — or if you’re cheap, boots!

It felt silly, but it also totally worked. My right foot feels fine now and my left foot just hurts a little. More ice and boots for me, but I hope to get this malady healed up soon! Because seriously? I have to be on my feet to look after these kids. Staying off them really isn’t an option.

A while back I wrote about this odd thing my mom got me, called the Neti Pot. It’s for your nose and sinuses and is supposed to be a great thing. It did indeed work, but it also felt like inhaling pool water, so I didn’t use it a lot.

In fact, I sort of forgot I had it.

Until I got a sinus infection a week or so ago. First I called my doctor relatives to see if I should bother seeing my GP here seeing as 1) I didn’t really want to pay to go to a doc if the thinking these days was that antibiotics didn’t do anything, and 2) I didn’t want antibiotics anyway unless it sounded really bad. They thought I should give it a few days to see if it went away on its own.

Then I called my mom, and she reminded me that the Neti Pot was intended to treat and prevent sinus infections. Oh yeah! I forgot.

It totally worked. Within two days I was back to runny nose, and your bog standard cold (which keeps coming back — yet another story).  I still can’t stand to do it every day, but every few days seems to be a good idea. Hurrah for holistic solutions!

It may have slipped by without note on the blog, but Friday was my last day of Lovenox shots! Hopefully forever! Yay! I won’t miss that little ritual, that’s for sure.

I’m at 36 weeks and a bit, so it’s time to switch to Heparin.

Up to now I’ve been on Lovenox, which is a version of Heparin that is not easily reversible, like the real thing, but can be taken once daily, and thus is much more convenient. Since labour involves blood, the docs wanted to have me on something they could reverse. Works for me.

Unfortunately what I did not previously appreciate was that Lovenox comes packaged in previously filled syringes. Take and toss, if you will.

Heparin comes in vials. Like at the doctor’s office. I had to buy syringes! I have to learn to fill my own shots. I know this shouldn’t sound daunting, but damn. I’m nervous! I’m sure there are people who do this every day (do diabetics draw their own insulin?) but still… Eeek!

And since Heparin wears off so quickly I get to do it three times a day. Yippee! I am going to be so black and blue by the time this is over.
Thank goodness it’s only for another few weeks. 3 weeks if all goes according to plan. Insert another ‘Eeeek!’ here :)

I am an idiot. I managed to slice open my thumb today.

The silly thing is I don’t know what I was thinking. I got out the fancy pants pampered chef grater thing because I had a bunch of parmesan to grate. After that I wanted to cut up a zucchini, which I usually do by hand with a good old fashioned knife, but I saw the blade that does thin slices and thought, ah ha! That will be fast and neat and I have to wash this contraption anyway so might as well try it. So I did. And as I was doing that, Boo said something, I looked at him but kept right on slicing, and shit if I didn’t slice open my thumb. My right thumb, the one I need to do everything with.

It’s stupid because I would never keep cutting with a knife without looking, what the hell did I think I was doing slicing without looking on this doohickie?

And of course my thumb practically fountained with blood, I felt woozy and slightly sick, and knew that it would take ages to stop bleeding because hello! I’m on blood thinners! Fortunately it wasn’t deep enough for stitches, so the bleeding did stop eventually. Now it’s all neosporined and bound up and waiting to slowly heal. Sigh. H was home early and able to finish dinner (thanks honey!) so at least that didn’t get spoiled since I was suddenly incapable of doing anything. I ate left handed. That was charming to watch, I’m sure.

Incidently, it’s rather hard to type and knit. Fortunately the movie we watched tonight was way too gory to knit to anyway, so no harm done.

Get better soon thumb! I need you!

Apparently people are now calculating the “carbon footprint” of excess weight.

Well I’m almost back to normal. Probably 95%. A few twinges if I attempt to head for the floor or bend over, and I still get sore if I do too much, otherwise all good. I think.

The thing is I’m now very scared of my back going out again. That was awful — much more awful than anything previously related to my back, including when I originally hurt it 16 years ago. Pregnancy doesn’t help with the situation either.

So I’ve come up with some rules for myself in an attempt to keep myself functioning the best I can for the next couple of months — or beyond.

1. No sitting on the floor.

The child is so not happy about this one.  Pretty much his most treasured activities occur on the floor — playing with trains, cars, doing puzzles, what have you. I’ve tried to convince him to do these things on the table so I can participate, and sometimes that works, but not always. It certainly hasn’t stopped him asking. Over and over and over.

It also means I have a devil of a time getting him dressed and putting on things like shoes. Not to mentioning cleaning up certain things, like cat puke (ugh).

Nevertheless I’m determined to stand firm. My back going out again simply cannot happen again, and sitting on the floor just makes my back hurt constantly. Not to mention it makes my belly hurt too.

2. No bending over.

It’s amazing how many things require bending over that you don’t think about. Dishwasher, laundry, bathing a child or yourself, using the toilet, cleaning, getting in and out of a car, sewing for that matter. I’ve never done so many squats in my life as loading the dishwasher today. I suppose this could be a good thing! If my knee didn’t hurt as well. Ha.

Unfortunately for the child, yet again, this means no train table playing. He’s grumpy about this one too.

3.  Taking time outs.

I need to rest. It’s pretty rare that I’m go-go-go anyway, but I need to take time to sit down, possibly with a hot water bottle if my back is aching, and just not move for a while. That sounds counterproductive to health, but rest is just the best thing for my back at the moment. So rest it is.

The child isn’t thrilled about this one either, although he can sit in my lap (or what’s left of it) at least.

You’ve probably spotted a trend in the rules above where the child isn’t happy about any of this. And that really, truly pains me. I’m sorry I can’t be the interactive mommy I want to be — even if being that interactive drove me loony in and of itself. I still want to be that person.

The logical part of my brain (what’s left of it) knows that in a prioritized list of what a mom should do, the top things have nothing to do with playing or keeping your child happy. They include things like keeping him clean, clothed, fed, and keeping the house generally in a state that won’t require CPS being called. When it comes down to my back, these are the things I have to protect. These are the things I have to do no matter what. If that means I can’t play trains, then I can’t play trains.

Part of me thinks, “he’ll survive”. Which is absolutely true. But it does make me sad. Shouldn’t life be about more than survival? It seems like we’ve been in “survival mode” for quite a while now, and I don’t like it. It doesn’t feel very nurturing, much less fun. I keep saying that I’m looking forward to spring and summer when we can play outdoors and learn things like riding a bike and visit parks and go for lots of walks and….

Then I remember that we’re supposed to have a baby by then. How on earth is that going to work?

Ah well. We’ll see. I’m going to stick by my rules and try to explain to him as much as possible that it’s more important for mommy to save her back than to play trains. It’s more important for mommy to be able to cook than to spin in one place. He doesn’t believe me, but I guess this is one of those times they tell you about when you and your child just aren’t going to see eye to eye. And I do, in fact, know best.

My back is slowly healing (I can get out of bed by myself! Yay!) but other things are rearing their ugly heads. Some pregnancy related, some not.

On the pregnancy front, I’ve got some issues that I’ve never had to deal with before. We’ll blame these on excess weight:

• My right knee is popping and very sore. Not good.
• Occasional heartburn. Let’s hope this doesn’t become frequent.
• Freakin’ horrible leg cramps in the night. They wake me up and I want to scream. Ooooowwwww!!!

And last night I had a sore throat, although it’s better today. Honestly. I could use a break!

Sigh. My back is out again.

I’m particularly annoyed this time because I was trying to be extra careful not to do anything to make my back angry. I don’t even know what did it this time — usually I can tell when I’ve bent over too much or whatever it is that annoys my spinal column. This time? It just crept up on me until Valentine’s night I could hardly move.

I’m also really mad at myself for letting my body get this out of control.  For living in denial that anything needs my attention right this second. I prefer living like Scarlett O’Hara — it can all wait until tomorrow, right?

Apparently not. I shouldn’t be this heavy, I should be exercising more, and I should be taking better care of myself. As it is I cannot take care of my 3 year old, my hubby has to do everything including hauling my ass up off the floor when I’m literally stuck on my knees and can’t get up for the pain, and we won’t get into personal hygiene issues.

Sigh. I am feeling slightly better today, although still totally wiped. I’m making a Zeebee hat for hubby and can only manage an 1/8 of the pattern at a time. Too tired. Too much constant pain. I hope to get better enough by tomorrow to visit uncle-in-law-the-chiropractor. If I can suck up the nerve to call him.

Most annoying thing? Last month being really sick for a week totally cut into my knitting and sewing time, and now this is doing the same thing! I really need to be healthy in March so I can finish my quilt, my mom’s birthday present, and all the baby pressies I have lined up to make! I was really getting psyched about the quilt too. The piecework is insane! I so don’t understand quilting, but it’s fascinating nonetheless.

Of course that’s really not the worst thing. The worst thing is I’ve let myself get in this position where I cannot really do the things that need to be done, i.e. exercise more and lose weight to make things easier on my back. Not with a baby in utero. I hope I remember this episode once life is back to normal with el bebe because really? Nobody needs an incapacitated mommy.

Last year I was having the worst pretty bad dental problems (I think they’re the worst, but I do know that in fact there are much worse things that can happen). I can’t find the post, but I know I wrote about it. Basically the dentist we went to when we first moved here completely shook any confidence I had in the industry and I’ve struggled to find a dentist since. I’ve even gone into denial that I need to see one. It wasn’t good.

Today though, I finally had an appointment with yet another new dentist, and it was wonderful! And I don’t say that a lot about dentists.

They said I had lovely teeth! They could tell that I brush and floss regularly (which makes for a big change from a lifetime of hygenists lecturing me about how I need to floss even though I was already doing it) and said that everything looked good. I do have one cavity (surprise, surprise, but at least it’s not the three (out of seven, four of which I suffered to get filled) that the other dentist claimed, but that she a) has a different method of numbing which is made just for people like me who have problems with novocain taking, and b) promises to give me some TLC. Yay!

The hygenist was equally nice. She used some crazy sonic tool to get off the plaque and tartar which worked better than traditional methods for my teeth. Oh and I learned something new! Part of why I have such problems with my teeth is that they aren’t flat, they’re ridged, so despite my brushing and flossing properly there are still spots I simply can’t clean on my own. I might look into a sonic toothbrush, but will have to do some research on that prospect.

ANYWAY. I’m practically thrilled. Best part? They take my insurance, and even told me how much to expect to pay out of pocket for the cavity filling, which is yet another problem I’m had with dentists here. Clearly they know what’s up with insurance. Thank goodness. Lord knows I’m sick to death of insurance problems.

Most importantly, today I have happy teeth! So I’m a happy girl.