Tuesday, March 20, 2012

So this is what a nervous breakdown feels like!

Hopefully you've read my caringridge post and you are in the know in my upcoming surgery. 

When it rains it pours.  We know this well.  And usually have our umbrella handy.  But it rains so much, from time to time the umbrella gets weak.  That's this week here.

The cookie sales are ending their season and so the normal chaos of that is occuring.  The icing on the cake is that my darling Emma bean has lost her money envelop and order form.  I have no idea how much still needed to be paid, who still needs cookie, or any of the other info I NEED to have.  I've turned the house upside down and then back again.  We cleaned out the tahoe completely.  I've gone through 5 bags of garbage.  I've gone through every paper in my file cabinet and desk.  I've looked under all furniture and emptied all bags. We even made a trip to school at 5 oclock to clean out her desk.  I've prayed to the Lord and St. Anthony.  I even have other people praying. Maybe if I was just a "normal" mom in a normal life, I wouldn't be freaking out as bad.  But that's not the case.  And I start to have a mini panic attack whenever I start thinking about the stupid envelope.

I am not making the headway on the must-do-before-surgery list I thought I would.

I have to get the taxes done.  But not sure why we haven't received on of our forms yet.  Maybe we did...I honestly don't know at the moment.

The kids are having anticpated anxiety, but still hard to deal with in the midst of all the other chaos.

I'm having some leg issues, which leads me to believe God might have a very sick sense of humor. Just kidding...I dont ever think of things that way.  I just try to remind myself that all of this stuff happens for a reason.

I will try to post as I am able.  But at this point, not really sure how that will go! If it's medical related, it will be on my Caringbridge site.  So check there also! Thanks and love to all!

Monday, March 5, 2012

My latest Prosthetic victory!

Yikes! Already March 5th! I just realized tonight that I posted less than a handful of times in February.  Now that's a little sad.  I guess I focus on my other blog so much and creating the image I want for my some day actual business, that I forget about this one.  And I've honestly been so busy with Girl Scout Cookie Sales, I have little time left for a personal blog. But I've wanted to share something exciting for awhile.  So I made some time! :)

If you are a prosthetic wearer, or you know one, you know that every day is a victory in and of itself.  I did a post awhile back about my leg.    I talked about wanting toe nails that we could paint.  I went to Walmart and bought some regular acrylic toe nails. 




I did it like you would do any other acrylic nail.  I held up the closest size to the "real" nail.  I shaped, filed and sanded those nails like mad! It was a challenge for sure.  The toes are laid almost side ways on the prosthetic foot.  The more I look at it, the weirder I think it looks.  But its better than nothing. 

Yes, this picture probably looks familiar.  I was so excited to put the nails on, I forgot to take a true before picture! :) But, here is the foot I have before I put the nails on it.  It gets really scuffed and dirty (even in my sock and shoe) so I just wash up the foot shell with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and then wipe it down with a Clorox wipe just because that's who I am.


Ta-Da! One foot shell with realish looking toe nails. Hell, lets be honest, these look better than most real toenails! And of course these can be painted.  And with the right remover they can be repainted. 

Some tips I have for anyone else wanting to do this would be: make sure you clip and sand in small increments.  I had to completely reshape the last 3 nails.  The foot shell nail was nothing like the acrylic shape.  So just do this in small steps. I also cut it much shorter.  I made sure there was no way to catch the acrylic on a sock or something and rip the nail off.  Also, the instructions say to only use a few drops of the glue.  I gobbed it on.  I used the included stick to clean off any extra as soon as I pressed the nail down.  I tried to hold them down with my finger and took extra care to try not to let them bend - even slightly.  Because any slight opposite bend created these whitish lines. And if you used the stick to press them down you will get these same white lines.  They are hard to see to the naked eye and you can not really tell looking down when I have the leg one, but of course I know they are there, and so I can really tell :)

I hope this helps someone (if they haven't already done this!) and I will try to remember to update how they do against wear and polish and the like! Here's hoping for some sandal weather soon!