Scar stories

One good thing about the Internet is the ability to connect. My own orthopedic surgeon encouraged me to Google my ankle condition (OCD Talus) because it was so bizzare. Doing this I happened upon several other ladies my age who have the same foot injury and surgery - they have been so helpful and encouraging! So now is the time to compare scars!

My knee scar looks like something out of Frankenstein and my ankle looks like I have 2 permanent mosquito bites - but hey, a small price to pay for mobility!

Here is my attempt at living as a blond. What do you think?

My roommates

Because of the lack of a husband I now have the dreaded spinster cats as my roommates. But they are so loveable and cute that I don't mind organizing my entire life around them. My grey one, Sebastian is so sweet. I found him as a stray outside of Douglas WY in 2003. He's had a rough time as he developed some auto-immune disorder that now requires 'gold therapy' treatments. I inject him 3x/month with gold salts and he seems to do well. I now consider myself pretty close to being a vet with all the shots and drugs I give him. People ask if it's possible to melt him down after he passes away to recoup the gold. I don't think it works that way.

Caspian is my 'foster' cat. I'm holding on to him for a missionary family who has been in Croatia for almost 3 years. I have no idea if he'll eventually return to his owners or if he'll be mine to keep. His family came to visit him last year and it took him a while to spark a memory of them. They only had him 8 years! Anyway, he's not really hugable as he is easily irritated but he likes to play and is a great watchdog 'kitty'.

My foot

All my friends wish I would stop talking about my foot. But being semi-disabled for 3 years tends to make you want to obsess about a thing like that. My foot was injured July 2005 while I was backpacking. It took a year to diagnose a osteochondral fracture of the talar dome. Say what? Basically I crushed my foot bone and ripped the joint cartilage off of it. Suffice to say, it was painful for a great while as my foot bone turned into swiss cheese. January 25, 2008 I had OATS surgery to graft part of my knee into my foot and had to stay off of it for 3 months. 9 months out now and I'm just starting to jog. I'm so thankful that I have one of the best ankle surgeons in the world living close by in Boise, ID., Dr. Michael J. Coughlin. So now I'm part of the on-going research into cutting edge ankle cartilage reconstruction. I'm glad I can give my foot woes to science.

Now it's all fixed - look close, you can see my knee!

Working on the West Fork

Working for the West Fork Ranger District is pretty awesome! Although I have a 20 mile drive one way, the scenery never gets old. Everyday I'm either dogging deer, moose or wild turkeys while trying not to drive into the Bitterroot River, but still loving it. The people I work with are great and are some of the most physically active people I know. We go walking, hiking, skiing, mountain biking, rafting all the time. Here is our office last winter after getting quite a bit of snow.

We've spent the last few weeks picking up garbage from hungry bears getting into the trash cans. Fortunately Bitterroot bears are pretty small. Here's a cub that came to visit last year - I'm looking out my office window.