To give you an idea of my penchant for procrastination, I have had a pretty painful foot for a couple years now, but waited until 12 weeks before we leave to have it fixed. Crazy, right? Now, it might now be as bad as it sounds – I actually have a reason for waiting. Here’s the story – I saw the surgeon in November and we thought about doing it then, but it would have meant missing the majority of the ski season. Because we’ve been having such fun skiing with the kids lately, I didn’t want to do that. So, I had to balance a decent ski season with enough time to be able to handle any recovery issues before we leave. Given that our departure date is 1 July 2013, I wanted at least 12 weeks recovery – so surgery was March 25.

All in all, it is going as planned, but not as I had expected. When I had a similar procedure done 15 years ago, I was in a short leg cast for 6 weeks and on crutches the whole time. Luckily, things have progressed since that time. The surgeon said that I’d be able to heel walk in a boot (and ditch the crutches) as soon as I was comfortable doing so. In my mind, this would be a few days to maybe a week or so post-op. I’ve always rebounded pretty quickly from surgery and really thought this would be similar. Whoa, was I wrong! My little piggy is tired and sore! Not really pain, but rather an intense itching, stretching, pulling kind of sensation. The only place I am truly comfortable is lying in bed with my foot up and an icepack on it. When I had my back fixed, after the first 24 hours, I only needed to take pain pills every once in a while – like 2 or 3 in my whole 8 week recovery. This, in contrast, still needs consistent medication even 10 days later! But, I guess part of it is aging too – I’m a few years older than when my back was done and it was a relief to get it taken care of – this is different because it only hurt when I walked.

C and the kids have been awesome – waiting on me hand and foot, coming in to bed for our morning snuggles, and making sure everyone is “calm” when my foot is out of the boot. I couldn’t ask for a more loving or caring family. Yet, being wounded is a lesson in humility – I can’t shower on my own, need to have someone bring in my plate of dinner, and retrieve my morning coffee for me. Today was the first day I drove – and had a little sense of giddiness as I was able to take the kids to school. Really, it is the simple things that are most difficult. I haven’t been able to help make dinner, clean up, do laundry, pick up the kids from school, etc. and feel so helpless. These are the foundations of my daily activities and all I can do now is aimlessly wander the internet.

The benefit of my aimless wandering on the internet is that we are going to the Galapagos!

Going to the Galapagos is a lifetime dream of mine – other than perhaps safari in Africa, I can’t think of another place that I have always wanted to visit. Initially we were considering doing a boat tour, but these are very pricey ($2,000-5,000 per person!) and we have a daughter who is very prone to motion illness – making it less-than-optimal. We decided to pull the trigger and were almost ready to book, when I came across an article which suggested, “why not spend a whole month if you have the time?”. Well, guess what, time is what we have! So, with a little poking around we were able to secure a 2 bedroom flat on the main island for substantially less than what it would have cost for even one of us to do the cheapest boat tour! We will do some day tours and short hops to the other islands from our home base, but will spend more time getting to know the ecosystems, ecology and issues rather than cruising from island to island and spending less than a half day in each location. We are all VERY excited – a month on the Galapagos – pinch me!