Ankle Deep
I married a man with a bad ankle. I think it all started when he was 16 and skipped school one day, went water skiing and ended up with his foot too close to the boat propeller. Oh my. Bet he wished he was sitting in his Trig class about then.
He tells me his buddies pulled him out of the water, got him ashore and loaded him into someone's pickup. They rushed him to a pharmacy and the nice man behind the counter bandaged his foot and shot him up with something to take the sting off. Mind you this was in the good ole 70's so healthcare was a little freer back then.
Later at the hospital, flesh was taken from his butt cheek to graft onto his toe. For this reason he can honestly say that if he kicks something, he really kicks ass.
Over the years, his butt-foot went a little flat and for the past few, he hasn't been able to be on his feet more than a few hours without being in intense pain. He can ride a mountain bike 25 miles through rough terrain or swim laps all day long but the man was no good on his feet at the end of the day.
He made an appointment with a podiatrist and set in motion a plan to rebuild his butt bum ankle.
On July 14th, one day before his birthday, he had surgery. A tendon was lengthened, a bone was shimmed, he got some fancy hardware, and as a result, a well tailored arch.
The sexy cast he woke up with will be on him for 7 weeks. His foot had to stay elevated for the first 72 hours and he will be on crutches after that.
SO...
I have to take over all his duties. I have to cook now. I have to do all the laundry and the floors and did I mention I DON'T KNOW HOW TO COOK?
But I promised him I would try.
And it started out pretty well...
Supper. Day 1
I did cheat here because I thawed out some of his delicious chicken soup he'd made and frozen. I cooked heated it up in the microwave though.
Breakfast. Day 2
I scrambled two eggs and see that biscuit? He made a batch of those before his surgery so I technically didn't cook that other than heating it up. He also wanted fruit so check out that presentation...
I made him a sandwich for lunch. And for Supper, I made a run to Red Elephant because he wanted pizza for his Happy Birthday meal.
Breakfast. Day 3
Someone is getting spoiled with their sausage crumble scrambled eggs, perfectly toasted bagel with cream cheese and apple & orange fruit medley! Call me Betty Crocker. I am putting together some very fine meals for the patient!
Supper. Day 3
OMG I found this recipe on social media and all you do it put everything on the list in a crock pot and turn it on. I served this amazing chicken stuff on a bed of fat noodles (which I had to boil in a big pot) and then I steamed up some real broccoli in the microwave. So colorful. I could hardly wait to serve it to him! I plated it, trayed it, then lovingly took it to him for his dining pleasure. I worked so hard on this meal and he was going to love it and be so proud of me!
"Are you ready for your special dinner", I called out.
"Yes, I'm starving!" he replied.
The Before:
The After:
I did not understand. I thought it was delicious. I cleaned my plate and had another serving and he blamed his not eating on the pain meds. Yeah well you were just starving so...
We'll see how breakfast goes in the morning.
Breakfast. Day 4
I hope you like buttermilk cause we're out of the regular kind.
And later, his lunch...
Oh, sorry. Did I forget to bring you a can opener and a spoon?
My bad.
You know I'm joking, right? The can opener and spoon were already on the nightstand.
Okay, no, just kidding. I made him a decent breakfast and lunch. Those carrots and that apple ended up in some dog food. But that's for my next post...