Foot surgery

By the time you read this, I will already have had foot surgery at Linksfield Clinic to remove a Morton's neuroma from my right foot. 

 

 

It started about 4 years ago while we were hiking at Groenkloof Nature Reserve, and has gotten progressively worse over the years with almost constant pain in my foot.  After walking anything more than about 2km's, my toes go numb, my foot burns and it feels like I have a hot coal in my shoe. 

 

The surgeon did a cortisone injection into my foot before my recent Alaskan adventure; it reduced the pain a bit, but not a lot.  Many days I just pushed myself to keep going while on holiday, and occasionally took pain killers.

 

All the non-surgical treatments no longer work - heat and ice packs, I now wear a bigger size shoe (and I look for wide shoes/boots/sandals so that my foot is not compressed - remember the 'ugly shoe' blog post??), and I've also tried using orthotics.  Nothing really works, so the surgeon is taking the damaged nerve out of my foot. 

 

I'm looking forward to walking regularly in my neighbourhood again, and doing some gentle hikes once my foot has healed.

Scrapbook layouts

The Scrap Addicts got together a few weeks back; here are some of the layouts that I completed (layouts designed by Lara Hanna):

Silly faces

Elizabeth loves posing for photos.  Especially when she can pull funny faces.  And of course she ropes me in to her silliness and nonsense....  She thinks it's hilarious.

 

 

Such a sweetie.  Love you princess!

Making waffles

During my family visit last weekend, Elizabeth helped to make waffles for breakfast on Sunday morning.  She enjoys helping out in the kitchen; I think for now it's more mess than help, but it's great that she's interested! 

 

Her mom Tonia and I have to force ourselves to step back and let her do things for herself, like putting the syrup and cream on her waffle.  She's growing up waaaay too fast!  Love you princess!

 

Weekend in review

I visited my family this past weekend.  It was bitter-sweet...my mom is really not well with the dementia starting to bite deeper and deeper, yet it was wonderful to see my nieces, brother and sister-in-law

 

 

Nanna and the girls

Elizabeth and Katy

LOVE these monsters! 

Tonia and her girls

 

Alaska

Alaska has been on my bucket list for-evah!  And the trip was so worth it.  I loved loved loved Alaska.

 

Here are some photo's...

 

we ate Dungeness Crab

did I tell you - I met a guy... 

 we did the world's longest zipline in Icy Straits Point (oh my gosh!!)

 

the retailers encourage the wives to shop and the husbands to sit

we did a helicopter trip out of Skagway to walk on Meade Glacier

The cruise up to Hubbard Glacier was breathtaking - the blue ice is beautiful

we spent a lot of time reading and occasionally staring out to sea 

 we did an 8 hour bus trip in to Denali National Park

 That's Mount McKinley (also known as Mt Denali) in the background, one of the world's 7 summits and the highest peak in North America

  

 

we saw this mama grizzly with her 3 cubs as we were leaving Denali

we visited Jeff King's Husky Homestead in Denali

the real 'downward dog'

the Alaskan huskies are lean, strong and very fast runners, unlike the huskies that we have in South Africa 

we met Jeff King, the Iditarod champion

 

 after meeting Jeff, Leonie thought that some of his mushing skills would rub off on her and she could handle a team of huskies

 we did a wonderful 4 hour journey from Denali to Fairbanks in the glass topped train

we panned for gold and did a river boat cruise in Fairbanks

After 18 glorious days, we finally headed home back to South Africa 

 

 

What's next on the bucket list you ask...Machu Picchu in Peru, Lapland, a pilgrimage to the Holy Land...and lots more