♫ serendippy522 ♫

In January of 2008 I injured my ankle (high heels on ice...durh!), and initial Xrays from urgent care didn't show a break, so it was treated as a bad sprain (I was unable to bear weight for almost a week after the initial injury).

After seeing my regular podiatrist about a month later when there was slow recovery, he diagnosed an OCD of the talus from an MRI. His solution was a lace up brace with boning and aquatic physical therapy. I still had little mobility and lots of pain, so after reading about surgical options, sought out an orthopedic surgeon for more aggressive treatment.

I had the ankle drilled in April 2009 (retrograde drilling) and remained non-weightbearing for 5 weeks post-surgery. Recovery was effortless and painless, and I noticed immediate improvement in pain and mobility, but the ankle still fatigued after overuse such as Zumba classes, long days shopping, at fairs, traveling, etc (which I attributed to my obesity).

After a year, however, the ankle started swelling more and becoming painful and unstable again. A followup visit to the orthopedist provided no relief (xray showed healing was good, and no physical therapy, braces, etc was recommended - pretty much got a response of "it is what it is").

This year, I visited a podiatrist who speculated that pain and instability was due to arthritis. Most recently, the pain has become insufferable (think head rush after drinking a Slurpee kind of pain, but in the ankle...if that makes sense!)

So my questions are:

Was my ultimate recovery worsened by the delay in surgical treatment between the time of the injury and surgery?

Does arthritis seem to be a reasonable diagnosis for an obese patient post-surgery?

Would more surgical treatment (OATS, other options) be advisable at this point?

Or....is this something I will have to just deal with the rest of my life?

I know it's impossible to assess site unseen, but I just really need direction on alternatives to "just live with it" because, at 36, this injury has disrupted and taken over my life!

Thanks in advance for any and all answers!

Sorry for the lengthiness, but thank you for reading and for any/all advice.

Last winter my coworker/teammate announced her engagement.

Since I'm handy with crafts and always enjoy a good project, I offered to help with favors, etc.

After she showed me a cheap-looking card box for the reception she found online, I offered to make one for her, which she and others found to be genuinely gorgeous (and acceptable).

A few weeks ago, the invite came, and from there things have gone downhill.

The invite came addressed just to me, a single girl, with no invite for a "plus one". The few other coworkers invited - the only people I will know at the wedding - all will have invited dates.

Then, the bottom of the invite specified there would be a "Wishing Well Reception" (i.e. the couple's way of specifying they only want cash gifts). Of course, both of those left an odd taste in my mouth.

Last week, the bride started asking me if I've gotten my invite for the bridal shower thrown by her maid of honor which included the couple's families. I hadn't, but she continued to ask and ultimately extended the invite. Since after almost 10 years of knowing each other, we have never hung out socially, I also found this odd, but after I told her I would "shower" her outside of the event, she was cheery and never pushed for my presence at the shower again.

The shower was this weekend, and apparently was a disaster due to poor planning on the maid of honor's part (not all invites were sent, no cake, spoiled food, etc). The bride now knows that the maid of honor failed to follow thru on other key assignments for the Big Day (cake deposit, order ice sculpture, etc), and because of this, the bride/coworker is crossing her t's and dotting her i's in a panic.

Among the things she is now not satisfied with is the card box I made, which apparently now is not big enough, in her opinion. She's asked me to add to it, less than one week before she goes on leave wedding! I never committed to "fixing" it, reminding her (as she already knows) that money is tight and I don't have the cash nor time to work on it, but she keeps talking like since I already made the first box that amending it is my responsibility to her.

While I feel for her that she can't count on those who she entrusted to help plan her big day, the whole situation has made me sour as I feel that I'm not invited as a longtime acquaintance and close team member that she wants to share her day with, but just as another person to finance the wedding she can't afford, and now I really, really don't want to be a part of it.

Soooo...with all the details here, keeping in mind she is a close coworker (teammate on a small team of 6), should I suck it up and go to the wedding to keep good graces during the work week, or simply send a card with a check and call it a day? How do I get out of "fixing" this card box without there being resentment, also?

Thank you in advance for any and all help!!!

I was extended an informal dinner invite via a Facebook message about 2 weeks before the dinner, but no time was provided. Today is the day of the dinner. Others I know were given a time and are planning to attend.

Should I just show up since the invite was extended and assume the failure to give a time was an oversight, contact the hostess by phone and ask about the time, or just skip the dinner altogether and consider the failure to provide a time was a snub?

Thanks in advance for any and all advice!

Debating with myself what to do and seeking opinitons, please.

I have a 1997 Lumina with 78,xxx miles and a leaky head gasket. It runs fine - great, actually - but I am regularly having to replenish the antifreeze (gallon a month or so). I only drive about 50-60 miles a week.

In your opinion....with an older car but with low miles for it's age and the low miles anticipated to be put on it, would you invest in the $1000+ to repair the leak (practically the value of the car) or start car shopping? Why?

Thanks in advance for any and all answers!

I am the only Caucasian among several African-American coworkers. I frequently am teased that I need to have my hearing checked because I ask "what?" several times during a workday. The difficulty that I'm having is not with my hearing, as I have no problems outside of the workplace. The problem I'm having is understanding the urban dialect of my coworkers. I'm not talking about slang, but mis- and under-pronunciation of words, different vowel sounds, etc. A perfect example of this is how "Precious" speaks (which, btw, I had to watch in closed captioning to comprehend the character, but have no difficulties understanding the actress in interviews).

This is such a predicament for me because I receive little empathy when I have to ask my coworkers frequently to repeat themselves (sometimes multiple times for the same word/sentence), but fear there is no possible way to address that this isn't a physical issue but a cultural one without appearing racist and becoming even more isolated.

Thoughts? This is really becoming an embarrasing issue!!!

Looking to do a quick two day visit (probably in early May), seeing and staying near the Constitution sites and catching a Phillies game.

1. Should and afternoon and morning/afternoon be enough time for the Constitution hall parts?

2. Am I reading the SEPTA map right that the blue Market-Frankford and orange Broad Street lines should take me between these destinations pretty directly? I've navigated NYC's system pretty effortlessly, so should I anticipate problems with SEPTA, or is it pretty tourist-friendly?

If you have any restaurant/hotel/bar/whatever suggestions for these areas, would love to hear them, too!

Thanks for any and all input!

Looking for an online audio source (torrent download, avi, wav, mp3....I don't care) for the new Bud Light Real Men of Genius "Mr. Shouldn't Drive in the Snow".

This is the one where they salute the guy who "plows into rush hour on 4 bald tires in his no-wheel drive crapmobile".

Thanks in advance for any and all sources!!!

Any reason why the butter in this recipe couldn't be left out? Just seems like added fat for no reason since the eggs and canned pumpkin adds enough moisture.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled

1 cup mashed pumpkin

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup chopped pecans

I have a Le Creuset 3.5 Qt braiser....can I bake mac & cheese in that, or will it burn on the edges before the middle gets hot?

I assume I would have to butter it WELL or else it will stick.

Thanks in advance for the help!

I'm going to be laid up for a few weeks and don't want people to have to do a lot of shopping for me.

I have the list of pantry items (rice, beans, pasta, canned meats, etc), but does anyone have any good recipes for things made with pantry items?

I only have limited freezer space for meats and veggies, so wanted some more recipes so I'm not living on tuna casserole, marinara pasta, and beans & franks for a month.

Thanks in advance!!!

I ping my local address....all is good.

I ping my IPv4 address...all is good.

I ping my Default Gateway...I get frequent "Destination Host Unreachable" and "Request Timed Out" errors.

I'm connected from the cable modem to the PC using Ethernet (no router),

Does this sound like a PC or ISP issue?

If it could be the PC, any thoughts on what I can do or should look for?

Thanks in advance for any and all help!!!

I've had the cable company out twice in a week to test my internet that is dropping, and both techs have said they see no issue with the signal. It's been suggested that the NIC on my 5 week old Dell Studio is bad.

However, tonight I ran some speed tests on the cable company's site, and speeds on my 10Mbps service were as follows:

9.9 Mbps 8:58pm

2Mbps 8:59pm

0Mbps 9:00pm

10.1Mbps 9:01pm

0Mbps 9:07pm

267kbps 9:12pm

9.7Mbps 9:13pm

Is there ANY chance this is a PC issue, or is there most likely an amp out of whack somewhere?

I want to note the modem in my DVR is doing the same thing but not causing any problems for it. Also, powercycling (unplugging the modem from power for about 10 secs) restores service for about 20 minutes, then the drops start up again.

I am not using a network of any kind (modem is connected straight into PC with Ethernet.)

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!!!

I'm buying a new PC, and expect to only use it for basic things (shopping, email, banking, surfing, bittorrent, YouTube, etc). No gaming, networking, wireless, etc.

Please share your thoughts between these two processors, and why if the dual core is needed.

Intel® Celeron® processor 450 (2.2GHz, 800 FSB)

or

Intel® Core™2 Duo processor E7200 (3MB L2, 2.53GHz, 1066 FSB)

Thanks in advance for all your help!!!

I'm looking for an online resource for a lamp that looks like the Statue of Liberty's torch (like seen in the early episodes of How I Met Your Mother, if you ever watch that.)

Thanks in advance for your help!

What NYC parade, festival, concert, rally, fair, flea market, etc do you not miss each year, and why?

Can anybody share their experiences with me on their ankle injury? Most of what I've read only tells what to do immediately after an injury, but I'm not finding a whole lot of advice on the long-term

Slipped on ice 1/30/08, wasn't mobile for a week after the injury. (Xrays were taken at the ER ruling out any breaks).

Saw my DPN 3/6/08 after recovery plateued, and he prescribed a lace-up brace and aquatic physical therapy.

Didn't do the aquatic therapy because I'm quite obese and didn't want to get in a swimsuit (I know!), but I wor the brace consistently.

In June when nothing was inproving, DPN prescribed land-based therapy and have been doing that since. With no improvement in the land therapy and home exercises (and quite a bit of pain), I gave into aquatic therapy. After 6 sessions, I'm still not seeing any improvement.

Looooooong story short.....it's going on 7 months, and I haven't seen any improvements in recovery past the first week after the major swelling and bruising went down.

I know weight plays some factor, but the therapist insists there should still be some improvement by now.

Where do I go from here?!?!?!

There was a motorcade with a bunch of police and a black SUV this morning around 8am on westbound 70. Anybody know for sure who that motorcade was for?

I work in an office that works closely with an office in South Carolina, and as a thank you, we want to send something uniquely St.Louis to the group, but don't want to get into anything too pricey.

Ted Drewes is expensive to ship, and we thought maybe gooey butter cake is growing in popularity in the south so that might not be unique enough.

Doesn't have to be a food item.....but food is usually universal.

Thoughts?

Thanks!!!

1. Shedd Aquarium

2. The Field Museum & Underground Adventure

3. Adler Planetarium

4. Museum of Science and Industry plus OMNIMAX

Single traveller going to Chicago for 3 days, 2 nights (arriving around noon first day and leaving around 5pm third day).

Any "must-sees" at these locations, or "don't waste your time on..." advice?

Also.....(if you know) is the food at the Billy Goat Tavern any good, or is it pretty much just a gimmick kinda place?

Thanks in advance for the help.....it's very much appreciated!