Just My Opinion - By Mary Kilen
At Least It Was The Other Foot This Time
The people around me might be wondering if I can be trusted to keep myself safe. Last August I broke my left foot, ended up having surgery and was incapacitated for two months.
For anyone that saw me over the last few days either using Grace Lystad’s knee scooter or my wheelchair again, here’s the story.
For about a week or so, my right foot was a little sore. I’m not sure what I did, but I knew it wasn’t right. Then on Thursday of last week, I tweaked it at the office. I managed to roll it when I was in the arena at Achievement Days. In the evening, I was going out to water flowers and twisted it really good. I came back in and was afraid I had broken it. It felt a lot like the left foot did when I broke it. I had Dale wrap it and I iced it and took something for the pain. I hoped it would feel better. Turns out, overnight it just seemed to get worse.
Early Friday morning, it was off to the ER to have it x-rayed while still praying for the best. Turns out the x-rays did not show a break, but I did sprain it really well.
I spent Friday afternoon with it elevated, wrapped and alternating with ice. Grace brought me back her knee scooter to use and Dale was trying to get my wheelchair started. Turns out it had a bad battery and he had to go to Minot to get that replaced.
On Saturday, I had promised to help at the Rib Riot. I took my trusty wheelchair and was still able to run all the duties of my usual job running the judges. I even was able to walk into the Sibyl Center for their concert.
I spent most of Sunday babying it some more and am using my chair quite a bit this week. While it feels better, I need it to heal up because Carter comes for his week starting over the weekend. He’s here for the State Fair and we have concert tickets. I’m praying it gets better, but if I need to, I guess the chair will come with us to the fair at least to give my foot a break if I need it.
I’m not going to lie. I hate not being as mobile as I’m used to, but at least this time I can walk on it and it seems to be getting better. Bear with me if you see me taking my time getting somewhere or using my chair. Here’s hoping it doesn’t take months to heal properly!
Oh It Took Me Back
When I saw the Sibyl Center schedule for this summer, I started making a list of the events I absolutely wanted to see. True story, there are a lot of them this summer.
One that caught my eye immediately was the Chris Golden concert. Chris is the son of William Lee Golden of the Oak Ridge Boys. The concert listing said that it would include gospel.
Dale and I made our way into the Sibyl Center and found our seats, thinking we might not stay for the whole thing because of my foot. We ended up staying and I’m so glad we did.
Chris was there despite the recent tragedy of losing his brother, Rusty. He paid tribute to his brother by singing some of his songs and other songs that had meaning to him.
He treated us to Thank God For Kids, a song that featured his father when the Oak Ridge Boys recorded it. He also gave a wonderful version of Elvira, which has some special meaning in our family. When Amanda was very little, she would ask Dale to “play oompahpah Daddy”.
The concert ended with a medley of old time gospel songs. Sitting there listening to it, I was taken back to my childhood. I grew up in Chicago and lived there with my parents until we moved to Rapid City when I was in the third grade.
My parents loved gospel singers and we would make frequent trips to downtown Chicago for gospel concerts that featured groups like the Oak Ridge Boys in their early days, The Blackwood Brothers Quartet, JD Sumner and the Stamps, The Gaithers and more. Sitting there listening to that final number, I was filled with a rush of memories of listening to just that type of music with my parents. Thank you to Chris Golden and the Sibyl Center for giving me that wonderful memory moment.