False Alarms

Aside from routine annual check-ups, I had not been to the doctor for the past 12 years. I am every insurance company's dream come true. Every sore throat, ear ache, runny nose, fever, cough, ache and pain has been successfully self-medicated with a regimen of Tylenol, Nyquil and rest. However, for the past two months, I have been battling pain in my right foot, just below the ankle bone. It is a very strange, sharp, shooting pain, that primarily strikes when I have my foot elevated, most notably when I am sleeping (well, trying to sleep). One would think it would hurt when I put weight on it, run, walk up steps, stand on one leg, etc., yet no, the pain occurs when the foot is at rest. Mulling over this pain for several weeks, I had convinced myself that something quite serious was wrong - gout? a blood clot? Concerned the blood clot would soon travel to my heart, I decided a trip to the doctor was inevitable. (My husband thinks I read too many freak health stories on the internet, and my other downfall is that I come from a long line of worriers - yes, mom, you know it's true.) So, yesterday, I broke down and went to a doctor. The prognosis...inflamed cartilage (what's left of it) in the point of the foot where several little bones come together. This is common in the foot of a runner (or a previous runner, now I am more accurately referred to as a jogger) where the cartilage in the joint has experienced a lot of pressure. The doctor kindly advised this is likely the onset of arthritis in the ankle joint. Yikes, I thought I just hit my 30th birthday? The prescription: rest.

On the subject of rest, which was my intention this evening, here is how our evening actually turned out:
An acquaintence of Mike's (Nick) has been building a retaining brick wall in both the front and back yards. Today, as per the Nick's instruction, we had 3 yards of black dirt delivered to our driveway. I had no idea how much 3 yards of dirt would amount to. Nick come over and worked from 5:00pm -8:00pm and moved what looked like a mere dent in the pile of dirt. We checked out the weather forecast and to our surprise, found a line of rain showers potentially headed our way. Hummm, what happens to a pile of dirt when saturated with rain?...our greatest fear, a big block of mud!!! So, at 8:15pm we headed outside to finish off the pile. At 10:15pm, when we could barely see the end of our noses, we finished with the final load. We headed inside, showered and settled in to watch the news - just in time to see the weather forecast. Interestly, the storm cells had headed south. Just our luck! We'll post some landscaping pictures over the weekend to show off our work.