Progress

I don't really do politics, but I'm OK on human rights. So I strongly encourage all 3 readers to contact their congresspeople (you can do a search here or here ) and other politicians and leaders (I'm thinking the US President and State Department officials, in particular) in order to voice your concerns over the situations in Darfur and now Zimbabwe. If you don't know about them, it's because the US news agencies are doing a woefully inadequate job in informing the public, presumably because 8 federal attorneys were fired recently under what may or may not be suspicious circumstances. So, if you feel like your news agencies, local or national, are letting you down by not reporting on important international crises and clear human rights violations, contact them. I imagine you can do this at places like abcnews.com, nbc.com, cbs.com and foxnews.com, among dozens of other sites (I don't actually imagine that, I already did it so I KNOW you can too!). In the meantime, do a google search for Darfur or Zimbabwe and read up on what much of the international community is apparently just hoping will go away.

Now, on to less important things.

As you may have anticipated, Tuesday last marked my first full day in a left-foot shoe since the 2nd of February, when they chopped my foot open and screwed the 5th metatarsal back into one piece. I had no pain in the area that got sewn shut, or in the area that has the screw now. But it came as something of a surprise to me that I have a condition that sounds similar to something known as "plantar fasciitis." I'm diagnosing my own situation here, but it seems that the "fascia" of the left sole had become somewhat atrophied or tightened or something through 6 weeks of disuse. Consequently, now that I am beginning a walking program, these ligaments are being stretched beyond their comfort level, causing me some pain. I have to keep working on this to make sure it doesn't plague me for a long time, and as long as I do my stretches and do not have a serious case of the condition, it should eventually go away. I hope.

Meanwhile, my friends over at the ACC have outlined their rehabilitation program, and I'm doing my "fast walking program" to try to regain my flexibility and ankle and foot strength. I'm still hoping for a return to full use by early April, but I have to wait for my late March x-rays and my (hopefully) last visit with the surgeon.

So that's the news for now. Exciting stuff, no?