Project Runway - Crutch Edition

This morning I was due for my post-op appointment with Dr. Boghossian. He is my Podiatrist. I had, last night, fortunately attended Slimmons. That's where Michelle - and I, but mostly Michelle - came up with the idea that as many people as we could recruit should sign my bandage with a Sharpie pen.

Since I knew that the bandage would be cut off this morning, I allowed anything to be said. Not that my restrictions would be great under any circumstances.

There was only one rule... No squeezing the foot while writing! That would be a big owie.
Yes, if you think you see Richard's name in the lower left hand side of this picture on my foot, you would be correct.

In most of the cases, having people write on my foot either did not hurt at all, or the pain was so minimal that it was worth it. However, I'm here to inform you that when people write on the bottom of your foot with a Sharpie pen, it tickles!

This morning, I donned the boot - which is plain wrap so far - on my left foot and a wool sock on my right. After all, it was chilly out and raining. I put a red suede boot over the red sock, and was ready to go. As is typical for Los Angeles during the morning commute (especially in the rain), the freeways were jammed. A drive that in mid day might take me a total of 10 minutes was an hour long.
But I had started out early and arrived at Dr. Boghossian's office only a few minutes late. I was escorted to "Exam Room 5" where I immediately informed them that they had to be very careful when cutting my bandage off. "Don't chop up any of the names."

The gal in charge of the scissors was quite agreeable.
Yes, I took pictures of my foot without the bandage. It was actually quite ugly. Ugly enough that I decided not to post the picture here. If you really want to see it, e-mail me privately and I'll forward a copy. Becky, I'm a-waitin' for your request. ;)

The surgery was open foot, and I'd guess that there were five staples or stitches or whatever the h-ll they were. The bruising was incredible. Gross and cool all at the same time!
Dr. Boghossian came in, gave my foot a summary glance, and announced that I was "healing well." Wrapped my foot in a new bandage (his office only offers boring brown),
and left me to my own devices with instructions to keep it dry and return again in a week.
So I made my appointment, was refused permission to take pictures of the front office gals for my blog - by the front office gals - with promises that they might reconsider and let me snap them on Friday after my post-op Knee appointment with Dr. Sisto.

I would have been upset except that they complimented me on my appearance (I was in full make-up even that early in the morning), my sweater (which I not only knit, but spun the yarn for), my belt (which I bargained for last year in the heart of the Beverly Hills Triangle and got quite a steal on), and my crutches (which I had decorated with both fake sheepskin and ribbon).

I felt like both a designer and a model on Project Runway, all at the same time! There are worse ways to start a day.

Evolution

"WHOA!" I hear you say. "What in the heck has just happened to your web site? I was just here "x" days ago and it was nothing like this!"

Yeah, very true. The look and feel of www.LauraRSilverman has changed. A great deal. "And why?" you ask. "I was just fine with it the way it was.

Well, it's kind of a long story, but here goes.

2007 has been a year of great changes for me Both for good and also some disturbing. It's been a year of incredible growth and learning opportunities. And new challenges as far as my health goes.

I originally concieved of this web site mainly in response to a traumatic event at Slimmons when I passed out during class and was kidnapped by Paramedics. Although I had kept updated medical files there, the staff - in their panic - gave the medical help old and way outdated information sheets, not realizing that not all the copies were the same. I spent almost the entire visit at the Emergency Room trying to convince the nurses and doctors that they were working with such old information that it was worse than useless... it was dangerous. For they were assuming that I was taking "X" medicines when I was now taking "Y." And the kinds of meds that I often take are often dangerous and have severe interactions with other ones. I realized after that visit that I needed a vehicle by which all I had to do was provide anyone who might witness a situation where I can't speak for myself (more frequent than I like to admit) current medical information without having to ever second guess what they had on hand. And so I got my web site. Those that potentially need my medical information know how to get to it. And no longer does anyone have to deal with multiples of paper.

In the meantime, I'm also somewhat of a writer. I've even been published a few times and may someday take the pen back up again although I'm afraid to send off query letters for fear of acceptance and -because of health issues- not being able to deliver on a deadline. I don't need a reputation of not being as good as my word. But I still have a need to express myself via the written word. Blogging was a natural course for me to follow. And so my web site became mainly an outlet for my thoughts.

Last March, I attended a fiber conference that may have changed the course of my life. I discovered a latent talent for beading and making jewelry. And much to my surprise, I also found out that people would pay for my work! And so I developed a small business in it. And decided that my web site was a good location to post my work too.

And of course, my weight loss pictures and story. I suppose, based on the amount of e-mail I get from others, I am providing some degree of comfort and hope to others who are traveling down the same road that I did. And so my web site also became a vehicle for posting pictures and motivation.

So many purposes for one little site! But a couple of things became abundantly clear as I learned about writing html code and maintaining the site. First, my audience who check my blog has grown at a rather startling rate, but it's still limited because I was not in a traditional blogging site. By that lack of connection, I have been unable to join "feeds" and increase my audience because of exposure. I long to have an impact on a bigger scale. And so I joined blogspot. I'm learning the ropes now, and hope to expose myself on a bigger scale shortly. Another writer I know has said "If you write it, they will come." We'll see about that.

I also realized that my web site had a look of 'fun and games' and was not an appropriate location to send potential clients to preview my work. Jewelry is fashion; jewelry is art. And what I had was a very servicable site, but nothing to impress. It was time to go "pretty."

If you've come here through my site, you probably noticed that it's no where near completion. Some of the pictures duplicate, many of the links are not operational yet. All that will be corrected in due time. My first priority is to re-establish access to everything that was there before. My favorite links, Fab Four pictures, weight loss story. Then I will get other items of business established. My Etsy Store where you can actually buy my work. Clips and credits from the media. And updated show of my jewelry and other items that I have learned to make.

And there are some lovely advantages to how I envision things going. First on my blog... you will be able to comment back to me on my blog. I have lived for your e-mails, but they have mostly been one-on-one responses. Now you can publish on the internet too! You will be able to see what I am working on via my artisan links and connect directly into vehicles to buy it if you like it and think that the price is right.

Because the web page is more efficient, I hope to be able to update the links on a more regular basis and keep you more in sync with what's happening. And along with the updates, I will decrease the size of the memory required to run the site and you'll be able to pull up the information more quickly and more efficiently.

I realize that I am rambling on here and I have an appointment to keep in about an hour. So I'm going to wish you adieu for the moment. I do hope that you enjoy what I am developing and will continue visiting as often as you have.

Thank you so much for your show of support!

Laura