The first day back...

I survived my first "day" back at work. I'm only working from 9am-2pm this week, simply because I have to keep the swelling down and have two hours of PT to do after work. So, 5 hours has the potential to go by pretty fast and is very manageable.

That said, I'm exhausted already. I had insomnia last night, worrying about going back to work of all things. I don't like being out of the loop and felt so lost when I walked into the office today. The whole office was rearranged while I was out, and even my desk was moved and on the other side. I wandered the cube maze until I found my name plate.

Once I managed to get into my computer, I had over 6000 e-mails to wade through. I spent two hours straight on this task and still have about 1000 left to go through. I had to stop reading them and just start dumping some and keeping the ones to be read at a later time. It was astounding. Then I found out that there were some IT changes and all of the documents/files I had stored on my desktop are now gone...permanently. There is no way to get them back. Lovely. Could they have told me about this BEFORE I left so I could save stuff? HA.

There is a saying that the more things change the more they stay the same...this is how work is for me. Overall, the basic concepts are still there as the federal government still isn't forcing lenders to work with their customers, no matter how much they like to tout how much this stimulus will help homeowners. Hogwash. Things will not change until they are forced to change.

There are just little procedural changes that individually don't amount to much, but when you pile them on it becomes overwhelming. I will muddle through and be up to speed quickly, no doubt, but feel like I have mush for brains and it's only day #1!

Cleared!

Woo hoo! I have officially been cleared to return to work on Monday, Feburary 23rd! I can only go back for 5 hour shifts at first, because I sit all day at my job and this will cause swelling and I still have to go to PT for 1.5 hrs three times per week. My doc doesn't want me to overdo it at first, so he will gradually increase my hours depending on how my body handles this load. As of today I still can't fit my foot in a regular shoe--so I have to get this swelling down because the doctor doesn't want it to get any worse.

More good news--the 2nd read of the MRI didn't show any tears of the tendons! However, there is still a lot of inflammation that could be making visualizing a tear difficult. So, doc is keeping me in the lace up brace and gave me a prescription for topical anti-inflammatory gel to use on both ankles to reduce the swelling. If in 6-8 weeks I still have a lot of pain he may send me for a repeat MRI. We'll see how it goes. Hopefully it's just a ticked off tendon.

Physical therapy today was good too--I managed 5 minutes on the treadmill today and added quite a few more exercises to my repertoire. It's pretty tender today, so I'll be icing and elevating tonight. Where, I'm not sure. We are getting new couches tomorrow and had to take my trusty couch out today to make room. So, basically there is the floor and one recliner available. I have a feeling Aaron and I will be arguing over the chair. Of course we get new comfy couches once my time relegated to the couch is up...figures!

I'm looking forward to getting back to a normal life soon. Might not be so excited to be back at work once I get there, but I miss my friends and miss being challenged everyday. Just knowing that I can go back is a big mood lifter!