It has been quite some time since I have posted a blog entry, almost four weeks to be exact, and it has been quite some time since I’ve had this long of a break, so I thought I would give you a little update as to why I’ve been so silent as of late.

The week before Christmas I was suffering with a little pain in my left ankle. I figured I had sprained it or pulled something there in the back, so I adopted a limp and didn’t think too much about it.  On January 2nd, my wife and daughter left North Carolina to go to Arizona where they would see my mother-in-law (more on that in a minute). That night I sat and watched some movies with my boys, played some Warhammer 40K: Armageddon, and went to bed.  When I took my shoe off it hurt pretty badly. I expected that because I had gimped my way around the Charlotte airport for an hour and a half and I was a bit sore. When I looked at my foot it was swollen. Now I don’t mean it was a little puffy, I mean it was alien looking.  The next morning I went to urgent care.

The doctor took some x-rays and asked me a bunch of questions while waiting for them to develop.  Based on the questions she and the nurse were asking, I’m pretty sure they thought I had a bad case of gout. Oh how
I wish that were the case. When the doctor came back after looking at the X-Rays she said I had a huge calcium deposit on my Achilles Tendon, the biggest she had ever seen. They slapped me in an air-cast, gave me a set of crutches, and a prescription for Oxycodone.

The medication did not help, my foot remained swollen and I was dealing with the most physical pain I have ever suffered through. Thankfully my boys were able to help me out around the house, but I still had to work and I had a huge project to work on, so I could not let the crutches slow me down. After a week and some more medication, the swelling started to go down and now I can walk on my air-cast without the crutches. There is still a little swelling and there is plenty of pain when I overdo it or try to walk without the boot, but I am definitely on the road to recovery.

Now why was my wife in Arizona without me? Well my mother-in-law was diagnosed in November with stage five cancer. The cancer is so pervasive at this point that they are not even sure of its point of origin. My wife went down with my daughter for a visit and to say goodbye. We are not in a position to go to Arizona constantly or for my wife to take off work for the duration. The timing of the visit was excellent and my wife was able to get Phyllis situated in a group home with the help of hospice.

My wife has to bear the brunt of the work in taking care of her dying mother from across the country, so all I can do is hold her tight and try to take care of more here on the home front. My wife is a saint. She has spent countless hours on the phone arranging transportation, radiation appointments, and talking to her mother, who is confused, scared, and in pain. I only hope that if I am ever put to the test that I’ll prove to be as strong as her.

The third piece in this carnival of misery has to do with our pending purchase of a new home. Last month we put some money down on a home because we were told by the lender that we would qualify for USDA financing. Every step along the way has been delays, questions and paperwork to the point where our financing is in question. I’m confident that everything will work out, but this has been a torturous process. I spend more time scanning and emailing documents than I do just about anything else.

As you can see, my life has been a bit full as of late. Honestly, the pain from my Achilles tendon has been the most devastating to my writing. I didn’t think it would be an impediment to my writing, but it is insufferably hard to concentrate with so much discomfort. I’ve had a hard time getting used to it.

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