A couple weeks ago my doctor released me and my ankle. This means no more blanket restrictions on what I can and can’t do with it. Of course, I will still have to wear my brace anytime I do any sort of physical activity for the next year and I’m supposed to “let pain be my guide” when deciding if a pursuit is appropriate for my ankle. Basically meaning, if something hurts my ankle, I shouldn’t do it. Yeah right, after 7 years of habitually ignoring the pain in my ankle and doing whatever I felt like anyway, I doubt I would even notice if it decided to spontaneously combust at this point.

Either way, I am thrilled I was released two months ahead of schedule and unbelievably excited to get my body back into shape!

So what happened just days after I got this exciting news? Jason ended up at the doctor’s and in physical therapy for a tendon injury. (Snickering now is appropriate.)

Yes, just literally days after I got released from physical therapy following my tendon repair surgery, Jason wound up at my physical therapist’s because he hurt his tendon. Admitting this may make me seem a little cruel, but I have a hard time not laughing when I think about the situation.

So how did Jason hurt his tendon? A friend of his was visiting from Ireland a couple months ago and wanted to go mountain biking. Although I was out of commission, I encouraged him to go and have some fun, so he did. Jas and I have been biking on all sorts of crazy terrain and have never injured ourselves beyond road rashes and bruises, but since I was not there this time to be the voice of reason, he and his boys went flying down the mountain way too fast and he injured the tendon under his bicep by overexerting it.

It took me weeks to convince him to go see the doctor even though his arm continued to hurt. But he finally did and yup, it was his tendon, and yup he has to do physical therapy. (I will try to contain my laughter since it makes typing difficult.) The doctor told him to wear a sling for a few weeks so his arm could rest and heal. Does he wear it? No. He complained that it was too hard to sleep in so he stopped wearing it to bed after only one night and then he decided that it was far too inconvenient to wear during the day too. Oh brother-I am rolling my eyes right now-cry me a river! I just spent months sleeping with casts and boots and braces on my foot, even though they made sleeping next to impossible. Jason was extremely quick to scold me if I even thought about sleeping without them but his sling is just “too uncomfortable” for him to follow the doctor’s instructions and wear it as he should.

Sigh-what am I going to do with that boy? I guess I’ll just keep laughing and hope that physical therapy, and the painful deep-tissue friction massages the therapist has been giving him, work. (Yes, he has been complaining about those as well. My eyes are now rolling again-try getting a friction massage on the site you just had surgery on a few weeks ago. Then you can talk to me about pain. Wimp!)

Despite Jason’s unwillingness to follow the doctor’s orders, may he and I both have healthy happy tendons soon!

*I think this post needs a disclaimer, lest all of you think I am monstrously heartless with my sweet husband. Here it is: It is only the irony of the situation that I find funny not my husband’s pain. And while I do think he is being a complete wimp about all of this, and that makes me laugh also, I wish him a speedy recovery. And of course, I love him dearly despite the fact that he seems to have as much backbone as a gummy worm.

It’s been three months since I had my ankle surgery and my life is slowly returning to normal. Here’s what’s up on the ankle front.

My foot no longer looks like it belongs on the Stay-Puffed marshmallow man. The swelling has decreased dramatically and is now confined to the area surrounding my ankle bone.

My scar is a lovely shade of purple-pink. It’s still very noticeable but I’m okay with that since it is no longer open and raw.

I have to wear my awesome ankle brace anytime I go out of the house but I get to take it off when I’m home and I don’t have to wear it to bed. Sleeping without a cast, boot, or brace! It’s absolutely sublime! I also no longer need to keep my foot elevated on pillows at night. Yeah, I can actually sleep again!

I still can’t do any weight-bearing exercises but I can ride a stationary bike (with the brace on) or go swimming. I cycle on the stationary bike about three times a week. I have dearly missed exercise and I’m glad to have it back in my life in any form-even if riding the stationary bike is pretty boring compared to the activities I’m used to doing for exercise.

My left calve is still visibly smaller than my right. It doesn’t jiggle like a bowl of Jell-O gone awry anymore, but its muscle mass is pathetically petite and not quite the right shape. Hopefully, in a couple months it will be back to normal and ready for soccer and snowboarding again.

My handicapped parking pass expires tomorrow. Although I will miss the convenience this pass offered, I’m excited that my foot is well enough not to need it anymore. Jason, on the other hand, is not excited at all about its upcoming expiration. He’s grown rather accustomed to parking remarkably close to everything and doesn’t want to give up his newly acquired laziness. The poor boy won’t be able to profit from my pain anymore-how sad! I almost feel bad for him.

Although the loss of my parking pass troubles Jason exceedingly, he is excited that I will be handing the keys to our new Maxima over to him. The three-month mark means I should be able to drive my manual again. Admittedly, I’m not thrilled to give up the Maxima; it’s incredibly fun to drive. Jas definitely deserves a sweet ride though, so I might shed a few tears, but I will let him have his car back.

Just three more months to go until my ankle, theoretically, should be as good as new!