Silly Things You Never Think Of - The Kitchen

Living in a wheelchair I have encountered a few things you would never think ...
When filling your teacup remember to leave plenty of room at the top. It's funny how even a little change from hard floor to carpet can cause sloshing. When you walk you think of keeping your hand even, but from a chair you have to also adjust for changes in the terrain. I hate to say this but on more then one occasion I have forgotten this rule, however, I have learned in these incidents to put the cup or overfull bowl on the end of the counter and when I get on the carpet I pick it up again. It's silly I know but it is one thing you never think of.
The oven and stove are an adventure. First you need to have something to turn on the burners and the oven if you are like me and have an electric stove with the controls on the back of the stove. I use a long pair of tongs that have a silicone end to turn food. While it is great for cooking the end helps hold the knob so you can actually grab. press in and turn. The tip is sturdy enough to hit the on /off button for the oven and to set the temperature.
Cooking and baking is another challenge. The innocent cup of tea can become an adventure to the ER if you aren't careful. First, teapots that whistle are great but make sure the steam pouring out is facing to the back of the stove or you will get an instant sauna for your face. Next, make sure that you are not wearing a sleeve that can touch the hot burner or that you lower your arm when using the tongs to turn off the burner. Either of those cases can leave a mark, yes I know from first hand experience.
Next, think of when you put something in a hot pan or cook ground beef and there is spatter. Naturally you flinch your head back when this happens but when your head is even with the pan even flinching your head back does not get you away from the spray. I have learned to add things very carefully and with tongs. Sometimes my cooking can be described as smoke and mirrors. If I don't use a mirror to look into a tall pot or a dish cooking on the back burner, I end up with smoke. Can I tell you fanning the smoke detector from a wheelchair is an act I have turned into a fine art.
Baking brings me to my knees, literally. Try as I might the only way I can see how the mixer is mixing is to turn my chair around and kneel on it to look in. The mirror doesn't help here because you can't get a good angle. This is painful for me so when I do bake now days I try to do it the day before it is needed so I can recover, no I am not kidding. Also, though I doubt it has to be mentioned taking anything in and out of the oven was tricky for me when I was two legged, now it's a miracle that my CRO boots, wheelchair and arms are not severely scarred. I have no tricks for this except to make sure I wear long gloves, pull the rack out as far as possible and have a spot clear. Doing all those things and muttering to myself "carefully, carefully..." seem to help avoid major accidents.
Today I cleaned my oven - all I will say is had I known the oven installed with my condo in the beginning was not self-clean I would have gotten one immediately. However, this little fact was not known to me until months later when I started to bake for stress relief. It is pretty ironic that what was stress relief before is now stress inducing. My oven is clean and thank you God for making me very bendy so that I could contort and scrub from my chair.
One thing I am very grateful for is not buying the built in microwave above the stove. I moved my current microwave from its corner to an angle on the counter and can reach it easily.
And one other thing you don't think about, when closing the dishwasher door make sure your electric chair is back for enough or you will charlie both your knees and say words that would embarrass a trucker.

A quick reply to Nancy, the cut should be about mid-calf maybe a little higher. They need enough room from both the knee and the bottom to fit the prosthesis properly to high or to low will cause problems. Too high, the knee may not get full range of motion, too low and the prosthetist will be limited in what type of device to use.

What is wrong with my foot? How did I know?

I have been asked to explain what is wrong with my foot that I would need to have my foot amputated.
When I was diabetic I developed neuropathy in my feet, but I also had good circulation. These two things combined can lead to Charcot's Arthropathy. Not all who have these two conditions suffer from Charcot's only a lucky 20% of type 1 diabetics and only about 1% of all diabetics (type 1 and 2 combined).
What happens is that the malfunctioning nerves from the neuropathy tells the foot it needs more blood, resulting in increased circulation. This increased circulation then starts to wash away the calcium inside the bones and they can become weak and fracture. When they fracture it is not one break but many breaks, like a mirror shattering, and in some cases it is like an earthquake in your foot, and the plates move and shift. In the case of my right foot my heel first fractured in many places and then as time went on it shifted and then the heel gave way and basically no longer exists. There are pieces of it here and there in my heel area and if you look at my foot from the outside you can see bones pushing against the sides and bottom of my foot.
Yes it can very painful and as time has gone by the pain has gotten worse. No, I cannot walk on it more that a few steps. No, the fashionable CRO (Charcot Restraint Orthotic) walkers could not stop the progression. In fact the final crumble of my heel happened after I had been wearing the boots.
I was at work August 14th, the day after my transplant anniversary, sitting at my desk at work and I knew that something was very wrong. I went home early in the afternoon and have not worked at the office since. When I got home that day I inspected my foot and could see it was in an active state - swollen, red and hot to the touch. I went into a full contact cast for 9 weeks with no weight bearing a few days later. I did not run immediately to the ER, I had an appointment already scheduled for Tuesday and I knew what was wrong. I kept my foot up and iced and stopped using it as much as possible. I knew I was in trouble and that my foot may not make it. The first time it broke 7 years ago the second thing out of the doctor's mouth was" your foot may be amputated". The first break was not diagnosed correctly for 3 months. By the time it was diagnosed it had already started to deform. If it had not been for my transplant doctor I may never have gotten a proper diagnosis and lost my foot sooner. By the way when these fractures occur it is usually a non-event. The first time I stepped off a chair and slightly stepped awkward, in the last episode with my right foot, I stepped hard going down a stair.
As one doctor said to me about Charcot's, there is nothing I could have done to prevent it from happening and nothing I did made it happen. It just happens.
As far as my left foot it has had a minor Charcot's fracture in the heel and the bones below my toes have fractured several times leaving them very deformed after healing. But at this point in time it is no danger, and I watch it carefully for any changes. Hopefully it will stay stable.
I hope that answer your questions.
By the way if you go to http://www.ballert-op.com/pdf/BKInstructionSheet.pdf you can see what my first prosthetic will look like and see what the process will be once we get to that point.
Let me know if you have any more questions and I will try to answer them the best I can. We all are learning.

Three Weeks To Go

Hello All,

Well it is 3 weeks from surgery and the lists of to-do's seems to be growing instead of getting smaller. Every time I check off one thing I remember two others to add.

This surgery is slightly different from most. Not only does it change me physically but my surroundings must now change to accommodate my new lifestyle. Every time I go into the bathroom I try to decide where the best place to put a bar by the toilet will be, and where the bars by the shower should go. When I take a shower I try to decide what the best shower head will be. What will meet my needs and keep me safe and still be something I like and visually not to intrusive? It may sound trivial, but how I view my surroundings is very important to my mental health.

I have another doctor appointment today, this one is to clear me for surgery. After that I won't see the doctor until surgery. I was wondering today if I would have a room with a good view, after all I will be having surgery in Chicago.

As far as how I feel, physically I have had to take pain medication the last two days. Mentally, I wish surgery was here and I could get on with getting better. I have a vision of Jack , Brenna and I taking a walk to the playground and we all play. It won't happen right away but it will happen.

I will write again next week, maybe there will be something checked off the list and nothing added. A girl can dream can't she?