Jan. 18, 2003 ~ Still cold here
but sweet Husband is home today and is doing the morning chores. Whew. So I'm doing household tasks instead, dishes and laundry and changing sheets, and who knows, I may even vacuum. I always have trouble remembering how to spell "vacuum," and invariably must look it up. As a matter of fact, I just got it wrong again! It only has one C. Fine.
I've revised my opinion about the effect of cold on my feet.
Ran a few errands yesterday. Went to the post office, Wal-mart, and the feed store. Took maybe two hours or so. My feet had been burning at Wal-Mart, but it was tolerable. By the time I left the feed store, the severe pain had started again. Was unable to drive, believe it or not. I say "believe it or not" because when I first heard people describe this particular pain, I shook my head and thought very smugly, "What babies." After all, I'd had the burning pain in other areas of my body before, and had lived through it. Sometimes it woke me up at night, but for the most part, it was something you could deal with. And I have a high pain tolerance. So when they talked about this thing with their feet, I assumed it was just more of the same, occasionally bad, but tolerable. Don't ever think these words, "What babies!" about somebody else's pain. Just don't. It's a bad, bad thing to do, because it will come back to haunt you. At any rate, I had to pull over yesterday and rip off my shoes and socks. That helped quite a bit, and I was able to continue on. When I got home, I sat in the truck for awhile, letting my feet dangle outside in the cold air. That helped, too. But putting my shoes back on, just long enough for me to walk to the house, brought the burning right back, and I had to pull the shoes off immediately, and ask College Boy to bring in all the groceries. I stood in the bathtub and soaked my feet in cool water, which helped a great deal. When that burning pain happens, the affected areas turn bright red and are hot to the touch. It feels as if they are literally on fire. The cool water and cool air does help tremendously.
I hope and pray that there are no more of these episodes, but I can't even imagine what I would do if this happened while I was standing in front of a room full of people. I don't think I could fake my way through it, or grin and bear it. Think I will start wearing sandals while driving to work, and then change into the hose and girly shoes at the very last minute. Maybe that will help.
Husband has decided to do some burning today. We have big piles of brush and logs in the woods, leftover from when we had the place logged a couple of years ago. We've made a good bit of progress on cleanup, but there is still a ways to go. Sometimes I think it would be best to just leave it alone, let it all decay naturally. But Husband wants it gone now, and admittedly, it does look nice when an area is cleared and cleaned up.
No word from Soldier Boy since last week, but it will probably be at least another couple of weeks before we get another letter.
Dakotah's hoof is healing up nicely, though the bandage won't stay properly in place. I just cut off the bandage yesterday and will hope for the best. There's no point in his wearing a bracelet, for goodness sake! It rides up around his ankle, instead of staying where it belongs. The farrier had said that would happen, though the vet felt it was worth a try. But his sore spot does look much, MUCH better, and he's no longer limping. I hate it when animals suffer. You can see the pain in their eyes, and that just hurts.
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