It has been a considerable time since the last update. Since then Carol has continued to move on with her life. Each event has been slightly harder than anticipated, took longer than expected, and generally took more out of her than she probably expected. That being said, she has made tremendous progress. Today she went in for yet another prosthetic fitting. This time she got her "final" prosthetic design, though her new foot isn't due in until this Friday.

Her previous prosthetic, though heavy and someone problematic, she had adjusted to. It was held onto her stump via pressure against the patella tendon. Her knee didn't really appreciate the added pressure and it was decided to go with a design that utilized a vacuum. The new design has her putting significant weight onto the bottom of her stump. It caused her a lot of pain today. She is hoping that the final one will fit better than this one and will be more comfortable. If the past is any barometer of what to expect then she will have a few more "adjustments" ahead of her.

She has adapted to getting around the house. This house is not friendly to crutches. There are stairs at all the entrances, stairs down to the family room, stairs to the bedrooms, and a steep driveway. Even so, she managed to learn to walk up and down the stairs one foot over the other just as anyone else would. That may not seem like, much, but when your ankle doesn't bend and you can't feel the stairs, walking that way can be more than a little scary.

We went to Myrtle Beach, SC over the summer and she walked out onto the beach through the heavy sand. I carried into the ocean and back since she wasn't sure the foot she had was okay to get wet and even if it was, she didn't have extra socks that were necessary to keep it from falling off.

Her stump has shrunk to the point where it is now smaller than her other leg. Each time we think it has reached the smallest possible size it seems to shrink some more. She was wearing so many socks with the other prosthetic that she couldn't put long pants on. With this new one she doesn't need any socks.

She starts her new job tomorrow so yet another chapter begins.

In our family I'm the designated "math" person. It isn't because I'm necessarily all that great at math. Oh, I've taken my share of calculus, but I always struggled with math. So one of the things I decided once I had children was to make sure they had a good appreciation for numbers without resorting to boring flash cards. I still remember the endless flashcard sessions I had with my dad. I know he meant well, but they were really painful and probably had the opposite impact that he expected.

They key to understanding and appreciating math isn't math itself, it is numbers. Unlike math, numbers are fun, easy to learn, and can be integrated into just about everything you do with your children.

Step 1

Make It fun
Let's face it, when you were a kid and your parents were force feeding you something how well did you pay attention? If you are like most kids the answer is not very well. In order to help prevent getting yourself into a position like that with early math skills you need to introduce the concept of numbers early and often. Teaching young children is always about consistency and repetition. Don't overwhelm them with numbers games, just slowly introduce them.

For my son we started with counting things in the car:

• How many blue houses can you count
• How many kids are playing ball in the park

At home we introduced card games:

• War - making him decide who had won each hand by both reading the number and counting the icons
• Uno - again make him decide who had won each hand
• Skipbo - this was a game for kids 2+ years older than he was when he started, but he never had any problem

Dominos - the combinations of pips provide for a real math challenge

All these games were about numbers and all of them were fun. My son still loves to play all of them.

Step 2

Keep it fresh
No matter how many math games you come up with eventually the child is going to grow bored. That's to be expected. Look for other less obvious avenues to push numbers.

Cooking

We had our son helping us bake cookies or make dinner. Cooking is great because the measurements introduce them to fractions. It is easy to take a piece of dough and tell your child to cut it into fourths. When the child asks what that is just explain it and move on. Next time you tell the child to cut something into a fourth or an eight they will pick upon the relationship and very shortly they will be asking you about fractions.

Playing

When there is a sibling present it's always easy to introduce the "you stay on this half of the room" concept. Of course you can use quarters, eights or whatever other measurement fits. Most toys break down into parts as well so you can explain percentages.

• Checkers
• Marbles
• Anything with more than a few pieces

Step 3

Praise
What child doesn't to be praised when they have done something good. Make sure you tell your child how well they are doing at that particular skill. More general praise is thought to possibly cause harm later in life. See this for details.

That's it. There isn't much to it because if its done as part of your everyday activities it will just be something that your children always do. They will learn and grow confident in their math abilities without having to resort to flashcards and stressful parent teacher sessions.

Over the last few weeks the number of rather large holes in my yard has grown. I've suspected that I have a critter living in the woods outback that is causing the problem. A few days ago I noticed a bunch of new dirt that was tossed out from underneath some stairs. A day or so later I saw him. His name is Cujo.

I had a great time telling Carol how we should get rid of him with some dynamite... Alas my well timed Caddyshack references were lost upon her, because she had a poor childhood that did not include the movie Caddyshack. I'm hopeful that it is available for download on Netflix so I can prove to her just how funny I was.

This weekend I bought a Reel Mower otherwise known as a manual push mower. My lawn had not been mowed since last year and the previous owners failed to leave there lawn mower as promised.

Home Depot had a couple of styles. I chose the Scott's Elite 16" which got better consumer ratings for the North East. The 20" is slightly heavier and didn't fair as well in peoples opinions.

After bringing it home it took about 5 minutes to put together and I was off mowing. It had exactly 3 bolts and a set of washers. Let's see you put a push mower together that fast!

My lawn was rather tall so I was expecting to have problems. In reality it did a fantastic job. There were occasional tall weeds that got pushed down and didn't spring back up to get cut, but for the most part it worked just fine.

As far as pushing it, I found it to be lighter than a push gas mower and even in tall grass easy to push. It is also much easier to turn and, if needed simply pickup. My lot isn't level and I found running across steep grades was very easy and didn't elicit any sense of danger that you typically get with a gas mower.

The mower is quiet. I can hear my kids while they are running around outside and they can be in the same part of the yard I am without having to worry about flying debris hitting them.

Why a reel mower you might ask. I'll quote the guide at the link above:

7 Reasons to use a reel mower

1. They're light.
2. They're quiet.
3. They're environmentally friendly.
4. They're better for your grass. (Rotary mowers tear the grass. Reel mowers cut the grass like scissors, leaving a fine spray of cuttings as mulch for your yard.)
5. They're maintenance free.
6. They're as easy to push as much heavier motorized mowers.
7. They don't blow exhaust into your face while you're mowing.

Today, on the way home from work, the driver's side front tire on my car fell off. I was only going about 10mph and knew something was seriously wrong, but I made a poor decision in not having Carol come get me. I would have made it home, but got lost and drove past the house and into Wilton.

The car took some serious damage, though how much I don't know yet. I'm having AAA tow it, but Carol and I have already decided that a new vehicle probably makes more sense. It will be a fiscal stretch, but given that my Honda has 168k miles and has a number of things going wrong with it a new car is probably the best bet.

I was supposed to be at work at 4am tomorrow, but obviously that isn't going to happen... sigh.

On the bright side, Carol and I bought a nice new couch and a dining table for the house. Good thing we bought those before the car fell apart otherwise we would probably have never gotten them.

Our last update was week 12 here. Since then the wound has fully closed and the stump has shrunk considerably. She went for her prosthetic two weeks ago and after a couple of hours of trying to walk and get the device to fit properly they decided that it was about a 1/2 a centimeter too tall. She went back the next week and after about an hour they decided that the prosthetic itself was too big to fit on her stump properly. She goes back again this Wednesday and hopefully the third visit will result in her coming home with a foot.

Some of the realities of not having a foot have set in. I think there is a difference between knowing that you aren't going to have a foot and actually understanding the impact that has on your life. It isn't the larger things that really matter, it's all the little stuff that you take for granted. One example is that unless Carol is willing to get her prosthetic wet she will never stand in a shower again. That, to me, is daunting.

Today, since she is still on crutches, I'm her FedEx guy. I fetch and carry virtually anything she needs. At this point I think that bothers her more than it does me. She doesn't like being dependent on me to get her things, but the reality is carrying something while using crutches is difficult at best. I can grab something and bring it to her before she can manage to get up and get to the item in question. That will change once she gets her prosthetic, but there will always be times when she isn't wearing it and she will have to rely on me to help her. That knowledge can be tough to internalize. Carol is very independent; some of that was lost along with her foot.

Getting up in the middle of the night, for whatever reason, is another one of those things that is taken for granted. If you have only one foot, then getting up is much more of a production. She will either have to use crutches or put a prosthetic on. Her nights of wandering around half asleep are essentially over. You can't use crutches half asleep and I'm guessing you can't put a prosthetic on when you are half asleep either.

In terms of pain management Carol seems to have made great progress. Phantom pain has decreased to the point where she doesn't mention it anymore. Since going to try and get a prosthetic she has experienced a bit more real pain. We aren't sure if that is a function of the special stump shrinking sock she's been wearing or just the change in usage patterns with the prosthetic. She has had a couple of stitches migrate their way out of the end of the stump. Right now, she appears to have another trying to push its way out, and that is causing some pain. It isn't close enough to the surface yet to break through so we can't get it out by just pulling on it.

As might be expected, Carol spends a lot of time researching various prosthetic feet, reading message boards for amputees, and generally gathering information from any source she can find. There seems to be a lot of information about what happens, what to expect, right after surgery, but that time between first getting your prosthetic and moving on with life there is very little. How much pain should she expect? How long until walking becomes natural? How heavy should the prosthetic feel? All of these and a ton more questions remain to be resolved. The answers to these are probably very specific to the person in question; even so, it would be nice to some sort of idea of what to expect.

I skipped week 11 since there really wasn't much to write about. Carol has continued to make good progress. She started back to work last week and survived. The wound continues to close and heal at its own pace. She went in yesterday to get the initial measurements for a prosthetic. Assuming no new issues she should probably be walking on it in 3 to 4 weeks. That will be a welcome change. She's starting to get used to going back to work. The early mornings (5am) are a little rough, but she's quickly adjusting.

Carol fell last week; the first serious fall. She had two or three others, but they were not bad. This time she hit the stump against the bathroom tile floor. She said it made her "see stars". After she got herself composed she called Dr. Ertl and talked to him about it. They concluded that she hadn't done any real harm. By the next day there was some bruising, but no real damage to her. The bathroom wall and towel rack weren't so lucky.

Yesterday she pumped gas for the first time since January. Since it, like everything else she tries to do on crutches, is so difficult I've been filling her tank for her.

Tor is launching a new web site and as part of the promotion they are giving away free e-books. I collected my first free book today: Farthing by Jo Walton. Since I have two or three other books already queued up, it may be a while till I get to this one, but you can never have too many books around.

It's been 10 weeks since Carol had her left foot amputated. I must say that we expected to be a lot further along than we are today. That being said, the last week has seen a lot of improvement. Carol went to see Dr. Ertl on Wednesday and as of that morning the left side of the wound had closed up. The left side was the side with the largest opening so it closing up was rather unexpected.

I was traveling all week at a conference and I didn't get to see it happen. Carol wasn't really able to take pictures given the location of the wound. I did take a few pictures yesterday and today. You can see that the left side is closed up nicely and the rest of the wound is also closing. Carol has picked out the foot she wants and it getting ready to go back to work on the 18th.

She was kind of a changed person when I got back from my trip. Since the operation she has been rather stressed and anxious, but when I got home she was once again the smiling and joyful person I fell in love with. Glad to have her back!

3-3-2008

3-8-2008

3-9-2008

This week we've reached the point where the wound looks as if it will really close. There is enough distinctive progress that from day to day we can see change. We've been a long time getting here. Carol is getting out and about a lot more than she has in previous weeks and she is becoming less and less conscious of the wound itself. An example: driving home yesterday she was sitting with her legs crossed. In the past she would be sitting straight up holding her left leg.

We are still bandaging the wound each night. That process has become very routine. Where it used to take over an hour from start (shower) to finish (fully bandaged) we are now down to just a couple of minutes to bandage and whatever length of time Carols decides to take to shower.

Carol has been spending a ton of time looking at feet. She's settled on one she really wants from Endolite and a couple of others that are under consideration. One issue that she is finding is that she has a fair amount of padding post bone bridge. When you couple that with the fact that she is very short, she ends up with just about 7" of clearance between the floor and the bottom of the stump. The other outstanding issue is that she intends to be very active with the foot and so she has to have something that will withstand her pounding.

2/24/2008

2/26/2008

2/28/2008

2/29/2008

3/1/2008