Expiration Dates

I poured a quart of orange juice down the drain today. I'd bought this juice a couple of months ago. It sat in my fridge unopened, sealed tightly, until two weeks ago when I was baking something that needed a half cup of orange juice. I looked at that bottle, realized that it had never been opened. Even though it said right on it: use by November 11, I opened it and smelled it and tasted it, and it was just fine. I drank a glass and used it in my baking and used it again the next day. However, today, when I was going through the fridge again, I just didn't dare test it. I figured that it would really be pushing it to assume that six weeks after its expiration date, it would still be edible. So, down the drain it went.

 I'm musing about expiration dates, because, apparently there was an invisible one stamped on my feet when I was born: 2011. Done. Kaput. Over and Out. Finished. I've got another foot surgery scheduled in a month, because my other stupid, stupid foot has collapsed. I've been wearing the ortho boot again since Thanksgiving. I went to the doctor and he looked at the MRI report and it said, "complete tear, posterior tibial tendon." Complete this time, not just partially torn. It's unbelievable to me that my feet, although they've always been flat, would just both completely give up the ghost within such a short time!

Go read the link about this tendon....(Jeopardy! music plays till you come back....) Did you notice that it says there really isn't a "cause" or anything. Just that "it happens" usually to women over forty with flat feet. Actually, I guess it says "degeneration caused by long-term wear and tear." But why haven't I ever known anyone to whom this has happened? I don't have a single relative or friend who has had to have this surgery. Weird to me.

Plus, on my so-called "good foot" I now have a new bandage. I was moseying around my house on Wednesday night in bare feet because I get so tired of wearing this boot, and as I went outside to put some vegetable debris in my composter, I stubbed my pinkie toe on the leg of a large overstuffed chair. I've only walked past this chair nine billion times in the past as I've gone out this door, without stubbing my toe. But that night----whammmooo....it hurt so bad, it took my breath away.

The next morning, my pinkie had become a purplie. It was terrifically sore; I could barely put on my sock. So, after I left the mammogram place (I'm on vacation...I'm going to lots of annual appointments.) I went to a walk-in clinic (ha ha!! I guess for me it would be a stump-in clinic, huh?) Anyway, they didn't have an X-ray tech that day. The clinic down the street didn't take my insurance. So, I called my foot doctor's office and they told me to come on over. Yes, an X-ray later: I fractured the bone just below the toe part that sticks off your foot. GOOD GRIEF. Here's the poor thing:

Under that bandage it is purple and black and blue. So, I'm to keep it bandaged for a month and try to wear just my hiking boot because it has a stiff sole and won't let it bend much. DOH. I'm having a bad foot year, huh? Well, I'll keep you posted on the upcoming foot surgery. It's scheduled for Feb. 3. I have lots of paper work to do for the school system. Then, lesson plans to write for the first two weeks, and some type of outline for the next four weeks, so my sub will have a clue what to do. 

Oh, oh!! And I got a jury summons in the mail this week, too!! But, I'm pretty sure that my doctor will sign off on my not having to go there, because the jury duty is scheduled for two days before the surgery, and I think if he tells them that I'm not going to be available for a jury because of that, they'll waive it for me. But, seriously?? Jury summons?? Right now?? Amazing...