A Day With Elite RV and Remodel

We are in Harrisburg, OR in the Riverbend RV park.  It's about three minutes away from Elite RV, which is why we stay here.  It's not a bad park, its biggest drawback is the water.  If you come here, bring drinking water and turn off your ice maker.  The Brita is defeated by the water here, even the filtered water smells of swamp.  Other than that, it's a fine place to stay.
This is from this morning.  It was a lovely start to the day.

 

Since I still have limited mobility, we spent much of the day hanging out in Erik's yard waiting.  In the early afternoon we were dispatched on a parts run for a new vacuum breaker.  Monaco doesn't stock them anymore, but Northwest RV Parts had them.  The nice lady who works there pulled one for us so we were in and out quickly.
This part of Oregon is very agricultural and it's very pleasant to look at.  The fields and the hills are extremely bucolic.  This is a recently harvested field.  Way out in the distance is a fire.  There were several little fires in the distant hills.  Controlled burn didn't seem to make sense, but we also didn't see anyone dumping fire retardant on them.  It's a mystery.   Nonetheless, it was a very pleasant drive down to Eugene.

 

This billboard has been here as long as we've been going to Northwest RV Parts.  I just don't know what to say about this.

 

Tomorrow we have one item left on the punch list.  We might be able to head south at mid-day.   I am so ready to be heading back to the desert.  The warm dry air is calling to me.

The Stitches Are Out

It rained yesterday, and took the fog away.  Finally!  Today was cool but with brilliant sunshine.  It was a good day to go the the doctor and have the stitches removed.

 

Here is before.  I had enough pain meds on board that it wasn't too terrible.  I know Dr. Lewis thinks I am a total wimp, but actually it's because I am a delicate flower.  He said my toes still look like snausages.  There is also a lot of swelling on the underside of the ball of my foot.  I couldn't figure out why my foot felt so lumpy when I walked, it's because the sole of my foot is hard from the presence of so much fluid.

 

Here is the after.  Eventually the incisions will flatten out and fade.  I am really looking forward to washing my foot.  After three weeks wrapped in gauze and an ace bandage, it really needs an application of soap and water.  I'm not supposed to soak it for another week, so I guess I'll continue showering while sitting on the foot stool in the shower stall.

 

Tomorrow we are leaving. We're having a continuation of the feeling of unreality; first that we were back here in October, and now that we are finally leaving.  We have the walkie-talkies on the charger, Jim has filled the fresh water tank, we've laid in food for a couple of days and we are ready.  

Fog-mageddon!!

If you watched the NBC Nightly News tonight, you saw a clip of the Seattle fog.  They're calling it Fogmageddon.  Cliff Mass wrote about it a couple of days ago, if you're interested in the meteorological reasons behind it. Basically, we have a huge ridge of high pressure, a temperature inversion, and no wind to move it all along.  Here are some photos borrowed from the SeattlePI.
These are the cranes that unload the container ships on Harbor Island.

 

Downtown Seattle.

 

The land on the left is Alki, in West Seattle.  That's fog on Puget Sound.

 

Today we went to the Redmond Town Center.  True to the nature of Redmond, it's a huge shopping mall.  The town itself is just amazing.  It used to be a nice little bedroom community, now huge apartment buildings have sprouted everywhere.  Roads have not sprouted along with the apartments, I can only imagine what traffic will be like in a few years.  These are now everywhere.

Have you ever spent any time in a wheelchair?   Today I used the chair instead of walking into Macy's because of the distances involved.  People will not look at me.  I have to force the issue to make them look at me so I can ask a question, such as where is the ladies room.  People are very uncomfortable with people in chairs.  And then there are the ladies rooms.  Yes, there are handicapped accessible stalls just about every where, but look at the door to the restroom.  It opens out, it's heavy.  Imagine sitting in your chair and pulling on the door.  The brake on the wheelchair has to be set to get any leverage on that door.  Then one must yank on the door, release the brake, back up the chair, rinse repeat.  There are some doors that I just can not get open.  Jim has had to spend time in the ladies this week rescuing me from stalls that are too small to wheel in to, and doors that are too heavy to open. 
We took the wheelchair back to the rental place this afternoon, so I'm now committed to walking on the foot. May the force be with me.

And the Lame Shall Walk

What, you wonder, am I doing here?  Why, I am walking without crutches! Yay!!!!  I can now move about the RV without the sticks tying up my hands.  It's really nice to be able to carry things around by myself.  Interestingly, rolling from heel to toe doesn't hurt, but I still can't leave my foot down too long because it accumulates tissue juice and swells.

 

Later we had an outing to Target.  They have the mobility carts for the disabled.  I became a hazard to navigation with my crutches sticking out of the basket.  One turn up an aisle took out a Q-tips display, but other than that no one was whacked in the head.

 

Here are Jim and Justin.  I took this sitting in the cart, hence the odd angle.  Justin is Jim's son.

 

Then we went to Trader Joe's and I crutch-walked through the store.  That was major.  We're feeling better about things.  Hopefully after Monday there will be no more gauze and Ace bandages on the foot.  After awhile it gets really old and your skin hurts.

Trip to the Foot Doctor and Ikea

It's been a difficult, foggy week.  Over the weekend the pain on the bottom of my foot was excruciating.  That much pain was not really something I'd anticipated.  There were a couple of days where we were pretty depressed, filled with angst and the fear that I was having another failed surgery.
This is what the days have looked like; gray, gloomy, devoid of color.

 

This morning we headed out to the doctor's office.  The trees across the freeway were lit by a sunbeam.  The sun actually came out today, it's very nice to see.

 

Here's the foot.  It looks much better.  Stitches are coming out MONDAY.  Yay!!!!!!!!!  The pain underneath my foot was from the cut nerves.  Apparently when a nerve is cut, it sends out signals (which are pain) looking for the other part of the nerve, because it wants to reattach.  I did not know this, it would have been useful information.  I really thought I was going to be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life.
My toes and foot are still fairly swollen.  None of the bones in my foot are visible.

 

After the doctor, Jim took me on an outing.  He pushed me through Ikea in the wheelchair.  Back when he was in a chair, I would take him to Ikea, it's flat, and it's easy to get in and out of.  We handled much merchandise and looked at all of the furniture.   The food section is the best.  This is the Swedish festive drink, Dryck Julmust.  It's a hop flavored carbonated drink.

 

Swedish ketchup.

 

This is lutefisk.  It's a Norwegian delicacy.  If you don't know what it is, click on the link.  This is actually a local product, from Poulsbo.   Poulsbo was founded by Scandinavians, which is why there is lutefisk.  No one else will eat it.  I know, I know, it's rude to be disrespectful of another culture's food, but really, dried fish soaked in lye?  Ewww.

 

According to the packaging, these are deep water prawns.

 

Salmon paste and crab paste are also available.

 

We're two weeks out from surgery.  When wearing the boot I can put about half my weight on my foot.  The screaming nerve pain has pretty much died down.  Hopefully by Monday I can return my crutches to the doctor's office.  The wheel chair has to go back on Sunday.
We're leaving either Monday after stitches removal, or else early Tuesday morning.  I'd like to go Monday and get part way to Harrisburg.  It's only 287 miles, but getting through Portland can be a bear.  The reviews of all of the RV parks in southern Washington are just dismal, so I don't know what we're going to do.  It's really good to know we're heading south for the sun.

One Week out from Surgery

Yesterday was the one-week-post-surgery bandage changing.  I can't say that it really looks much better than it did.  Bruising is down, but the incisions are still fairly unattractive.  Dr. Lewis says it looks fine, and not to worry about the pain in the bottom of my foot.  As I suspected, spreaders between the bones were used as well as a fair amount of digging around in the foot. It will be nice when I can put some weight on that foot.  My right hip is beginning to complain about the amount of time I spend standing on one foot.  This has, however, considerably streamlined my post shower beauty ritual to the bare minimum.
It's not raining this week.  We've having fairly dense fogs which take half a day to burn off.  These were taken yesterday on the way to the surgeon for the previously mentioned re-wrapping of the foot.

 

See the fog in the background?

 

Here is the foot, one week out.  It's still sort of damp along the edges.

 

We're hoping to leave next Wednesday after the next bandage change.  Dr. Lewis has a colleague in Phoenix, and we're thinking we could go see her for the removal of stitches.  We just can not stay here for the entire month of October.  The bus needs some attention at Elite RV and we would really like to be south of the Siskiyous mountains before it snows.  I hate me some snow in an RV! 
I am just beyond bored.  Jim is bored, as well.  The highlight of today will be a trip to Walgreen's.  If it's not too cold, maybe Jim will push me over to Fred Meyer's.  Whoo hoo!