All-American Surgery One Year Later

This Wednesday, just three hundred and seventy days after my All-American Surgery, I had my one-year follow-up appointment with my surgeon. It has been a long and tough twelve months, but I wanted to take some time to talk about where I'm at now and what work is still left.

Let's start with a high note. November was the healthiest month I've had in probably two years. On Thanksgiving, I went running. Outside. I went 2.3 miles alternating running for 60 seconds and walking for 90 and felt great. Like, might have sat down and cried a little bit from happiness once I was done. That wasn't the first time I'd run, I'd gone on several on the treadmill at the gym. I also was very successfully meeting with a personal trainer once a week and doing a variety of strengthening and stretching exercises, not just with my ankle but in general.

And now the low note. The Sunday after Thanksgiving, my husband and I were doing yard work (in Upstate NY. CRAZY weather this year). We've had one spot on our gutters that drips onto a windowsill when it rains, so we decided to go up and clean the gutters out. Ladders + unsteady ankles do not equal a good plan, so I asked my wonderful husband to go up for me while I held the bottom. We successfully cleaned the gutters out, he didn't fall off the ladder, and as he was coming down I took a step backwards to get out of his way and rolled my ankle on a clump of grass.

What has followed has been very frustrating. My Achilles tendon swelled right back up, and I'm having pain on the outside of my ankle joint, right where I was having problems prior to the surgery. I've stopped running and training, cut way back on my daily physical activity, and still have quite a bit of swelling.

The good news is that I had my one-year follow-up appointment on the 16th. As part of the regular appointment, we took x-rays of the ankle and bone wise, everything looks great. He gave me a script to restart physical therapy, and if things haven't improved after a few weeks I'm supposed to come back in for an MRI. The trick has been that we did a lot of traveling over the holidays (been gone since the 20th, heading home this afternoon) and we are heading back to Disney World with my family on January 19th. That doesn't give me as much physical therapy before our trip as I'd like, but we'll make do.

All-in-all, I'm glad I did the surgery but the recovery has been difficult. They said that full recovery was at least a year out and boy, I did not believe them. The sprain is absolutely because my ankle is still weaker than it should be, which just means I need to be more vigilant about doing my exercises. In my ideal happy world, once the swelling goes down I'll start doing yoga consistently to help keep everything flexible and strong. If you saw in the photo, I still have a lot of swelling but also quite a bit of bruising which at this point I'm just assuming I'll have from here on out.

So, sorry that this wasn't the glowing and excited one-year report I was expecting to write after Thanksgiving. Check back soon for my 2016 goals and ambitions.

Chefs de France Dinner Review

 I love France. I studied French in college, I've visited the country six times, lived in Nantes for a semester, Paris for two separate months, and of course visited Disneyland Paris twice. So it is a given that whenever we're in Epcot, I love getting to eat at the France Pavilion. Our first in-park stop on our first day of our last trip was to try the first of our Drinks Around the World at Les Vins des Chefs de France (I went with the Grey Goose Slush, yum!). Our last day I'd actually been planning to eat lunch at the quick service Les Halles Boulangerie-Patisserie, but we ended up eating dinner at Chefs de France so we ended up eating our last lunch in Japan at Kastura Grill (review coming soon!).

La Hacienda de San Angel Dinner Review

One of my favorite things to do in Walt Disney World is to eat, especially around the World Showcase. Sure, a lot of the food is a slightly watered down version of what you might get if you actually traveled to those countries, but it would much harder to eat lunch in Japan and dinner in France. My parents were never big on Mexican food, but my in-laws (who we took this trip with) eat it quite often so I knew this was a safe bet. 

All American Surgery: Nine & Ten Month Recovery

I think that, at this stage in my recovery, it is easy to forget how far I've come. In the last two months, I went to and danced at a friend's wedding, I spent an entire day walking around the Adirondack Museum with a friend, and as you'll see below I'm even rocking walking tours at work. I no longer have to plan my schedule around my ankle, and that is amazing. It still hurts, it still definitely gets tired at the end of the day. My left hip aches quite a bit, largely because of my stride. But, I have come SUCH a long way from where I was even three months ago, and I'd be remiss if I get into the grumbling about not moving fast enough without mentioning that fact.

I'll probably give one year its own post, but the last two months have blown by so quickly and change at this stage is slow and incremental, so I didn't feel like each month warranted its own post. Sorry those of you who were waiting on baited breath!

What I Would Have Done Differently - Been More Consisent
Unfortunately some of this was out of my hands. I managed to get a really nasty sinus infection that is still sticking around, even post-antibiotics, and it has slowed me down a bit. But, most weeks I am making it to the gym twice a week, huzzah! It still isn't a habit yet, which is my next goal for sure.

Starring Rolls Cafe Lunch Review

Our day at Disney Hollywood Studios went by very quickly, but we still managed to ride all of our top choices. Between Rockin' Roller Coaster, Toy Story Mania, and strolling through the exhibit before "Walt Disney: One Man's Dream" (you can take the girl out of the museum...) we managed to squeeze in lunch at Starring Rolls Cafe. My husband and I are big sushi fans and I knew they served sushi as well as cafe style sandwiches, which would appease my non-sushi eating in-laws. Plus, they are known for their cupcakes. Hard to go wrong there!

Big River Grille & Brewing Works Lunch Review

During our trip to Walt Disney World in August we stayed at the Boardwalk Inn. My husband and I arrived (via Magical Express) just after noon, and my in-laws pulled in around 1:30. Before jumping into the parks, we decided to start with our bellies full. As a family we like to visit craft breweries, so my father-in-law voted that we visit the Big River Grille & Brewing Works, located right on the Boardwalk next to our hotel.

Also, I managed to take exactly 0 pictures while we were at lunch, so my apologies for not having images to go along with this review. You'll have to channel your inner Figment and use your imagination!

Be Our Guest Breakfast Review

We had the chance to eat at so many awesome places during our trip to Disney World in August, and I wanted to share my experiences with you. There are so many options for dining in the parks that it can get very overwhelming. I may or may not have a spreadsheet just to help me keep everything sorted. Here's the breakdown of the only real breakfast we had in the parks (my husband and his parents are not big breakfast eaters).

Be Our Guest Breakfast, August 2015
Making Reservations
I feel like we really lucked out in terms of our reservations. Being slightly Disney obsessed, I get a lot of news updates for new and exciting things happening around the parks. I knew they had been doing a test-run of breakfast at Be Our Guest, but it was scheduled to end before our trip and all the remaining lunches and dinners for the duration of our stay were already booked. Luckily, I saw the news that breakfast was being extended, and after a brief consultation with my mother-in-law we made the booking. The process was very easy online, and you use a credit card to hold your reservation.