JAY'S IMPENDING SURGERY

So, something else that needs to be mentioned here on the good ol' blog... Jay is having surgery on his foot/ankle next week on Wednesday (August 7th).

It all started with a sore toe... He went to our family doctor, had an x-ray, and found a little piece of bone broken off his second toe (on his right foot). He was told there was nothing that could be done unless he wanted surgery to remove it, which may or may not have made the situation worse. Then we went on vacation. And Jay ran with me a few times. It still hurt. He raced the Watermelon Classic 5K anyway, because he's a mutant that can handle large amounts of pain, apparently. He'd been referred to a specialist (a foot and ankle specialist who is also a surgeon, to be specific), so he went to see her that week. She did another round of x-rays and discovered that in addition to that little chip of bone, Jay had partially torn the ligament under that toe (and she also discovered another "pearl" of bone chipped off and ossified above his heel that shouldn't be there). The ligament tear happened way back in April during the Warrior Dash (jumping down off one of the obstacles). He was told by the specialist not to run for 12 weeks. Major bummer, but oh well, it could have been worse, right? He could still "aqua jog" and do spin class and get on the elliptical and swim laps. Well, then she had him go in for an MRI, the results of which required another office visit rather than an answer over the phone. So we stressed. Because you just never know what an MRI is going to find... Turns out he has far worse problems than the torn ligament and toe-bone chip (but nothing life-threatening - I don't want to freak you out). 

That little pearl above his heel is dangerously close to pressing on a critical bunch of nerves, and it needs to be removed.

Additionally, the MRI found a HOLE in one of his ankle bones (it's the white spot under the arrow below - MRIs show bones as black and blood/tissue as white). There are not suppose to be holes in your bones... This has occurred because Jay has had multiple stress fractures in his feet and ankles over the years. Most are likely old injuries from high school soccer days, but they could be from anything really (including the newest sport he's taken up - running). The cavity is fluid/fat-filled and is slowly eroding away, and will eventually get big enough that the bone would snap. Which would make walking quite difficult. So in addition to the removal of the "pearl", the surgeon will drill into this bone to create blood flow that will heal the weak spot.

What this ultimately means is that Jay will have to take off running for 12 weeks after the surgery (and he's already been off running for 4 weeks, as well as most other cardio since he was told to stop going to spin class and that he can't aqua jog or swim laps or get on the elliptical, so that is basically 4 months without exercise and his regular influx of happy running endorphins), and at least 8 of those weeks he will be unable to drive (because it's his right foot). NO DRIVING FOR EIGHT WEEKS! (And it could be as much as the entire 12 weeks, but we won't talk about that possibility right now...)

That may not sound like a big deal, but for a couple who have zero family living locally and who split childcare duties daily (dropping off and picking up from daycare, where the kids spend 6.5-7 hours, so that we can each get our 8-hour work days in without having to pay a fortune for aftercare), this is going to be very difficult to manage. We scheduled his surgery ASAP so that we could take advantage of having my mom here to watch the kids (they are out of school all next week as their end of summer break before the real school year starts) while I drive Jay to and from his surgery and we adjust to a new routine. I've been granted the flexibility to split my furlough day throughout the week (today is my 4th unpaid Friday this month, as I am required to take leave without pay for 16 hours out of every biweekly paycheck), so starting the week after my mom goes home, I'll be working one full 8-hour day and four 6-hour days each week (so that I can drop off and pick up the kids, while chauffering Jay to and from work with me, and not miss any working hours). Theoretically, I can do that for 6 weeks of Jay's recovery (we're scheduled to have 11 days of furlough total), though there is confirmed talk from above of reducing furlough down to as low as 6 days. That would be great for us money-wise, obviously (it sucks losing 20% of your income), but bad for our "surgery recovery plan". Mostly, it will be unfortunate for the kids because they'd be stuck in aftercare for 7 weeks instead of just 2 (which is the current plan for Jay's last 2 weeks of recovery). Everyone has to make sacrifices when someone gets sick though, and that's fine, but for kids who are used to being in school for 7 hours max, long days of 9 hours will be quite the adjustment for them, and we definitely have some guilt over that. We may be able to work around it though (our workplace is honestly very flexible and understanding and family-oriented), using the telework option (hooray post-bedtime working hours?), so we shall see. Of course, if anyone wants to come out here for a "vacation" and help with driving duty (not babysitting duty, since the kids will be in school daily for the entirety of Jay's driving ban), we'd sure love to have house guests!

If you would, please keep Jay in your thoughts and prayers on Wednesday (we won't know what time he's scheduled for until Tuesday afternoon). Surgery is scary no matter what it's for and we're both pretty anxious. I promise to update when he's out in recovery