Stuck With Books

Well, it's 5:30am and I've been up for an hour already. The gerbils in the cage in the living room were making a racket that sounded as if they had finally chewed through the metal cage and I'm a light sleeper. I slid out of bed to check it out and slowly crumpled to my knees because I couldn't stand. 

The back of my left foot has been hurting since Tuesday night. Fine all day, came home, took a 30 minute nap, and when I got up, pain. Bearable and even walkable after a few steps, but unmistakably there. This exact feeling had happened to my right foot four or so years ago and I had been told to wear an air cast and not overdo it. I had stopped walking so much before making it into the doctor that it had healed mostly and they could only guess that it was likely a tear starting in my Achilles' tendon. I didn't miss any work and healed up easily and quickly. So Tuesday night I put on the air cast and went about life. What I didn't take into account is that my classroom is upstairs now and my kids and I are all much more active (as in places to go and people to see) than we were even four years ago. Even at school, I have duties that take me up and down the stairs more than once. (There is book talk coming up here, I promise.)

So, getting home this evening I found my ankle so swollen and discolored I immediately called the doctor, but couldn't get an appointment until Monday. I put ice packs on it, swelling stayed. When I got up around 8:45pm and my strong foot hurt, I knew there was no way I could get to work tomorrow...err, today. (Luckily, I have an amazing student teacher right now, so my classes will be fine.)

So, getting up to see what the rodent ruckus was about, I found myself on the floor. Fine, I'll crawl. My husband has a huge day ahead of him today and I didn't want to wake him up. I made it in there crawling, but not without pain. From holding my feet at certain angles, holding still, and limping about, my knees are stiff. They pop, crack, and ache when I stretch my legs out. And here I thought I was doing a great job limping around.

So regardless of whether I can get the doctor to squeeze me in tomorrow, I'm stuck in bed. Literally, my husband is going to pile food and drinks around me and I'm stuck. Ahhh, my fellow bibliophiles know where this is headed now. Besides sending my students' grades in, I'll be reading...well possibly napping too, after sleeping for only a few hours. I'm in the middle of both The World's Strongest Librarian and Paris in Love. I have a feeling they'll be done tomorrow...umm, today, which bodes well for November reading I suppose. But I'd really like to be able to walk. It's kinda handy.

Oh and just to throw it in here, I hit my Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge of 60 books! I was going to up it, but I think I'll just keep going so people can see that I didn't just make it, I smashed it! And on that note, it's 6am. My family will be getting up and ready in about 20 minutes...maybe someone will help me to the bathroom before they go?!