want to know a secret?

I am less than a week away from starting to walk with a shoe on my post-operative foot.  I am walking all over with the boot now without problems, even alternating feet on the stairs sometimes and handling our uneven, gravel driveway easily enough.

I bought a lot of shoes.  Different sizes, different styles to make sure that I had shoes that were right to re-learn walking in.  I have been wearing extremely supportive shoes for years and those didn't seem like the right idea because I think I need to be able to feel the surface I'm walking on more than I can in those shoes.  So I got a variety of flexibility in the soles.

Tonight I tried on a pair and just messing around in sitting could tell this was the pair that I will want.  I stood up in them with some weight on my foot and it still felt good.  So using my crutches for most of my weight I took 3 steps with the shoes on.  It wasn't allowed but I'm so close and was so careful to keep the weight very limited that I wasn't concerned.  It feels incredibly strange to do that after nearly 14 weeks.  But it didn't hurt and the shoe definitely lets me have feedback that I'm going to want.  They are also very well-padded which is important with an incision that gets sore when it swells which still happen sometimes and probably will for another 6-8 months. 

So we're not admitting this to anyone but I have taken my first baby steps.  Sort of.  Not really since there was so little weight involved.  But kind of.

Shhhhh.....