The Summer of Jon . . . and his cast

This summer was going to be great. Jon and I had it all planned out in our minds. We had no major house projects that had to get done so we were going to go camping, fishing, off-road trips, play at the lake etc. Then Jon decided he had to go to the doctor. When Jon decides to go to the doctor it has to be bad, and it was.

For a while Jon’s foot had been bothering him. Eventually it got to the point where it hurt to walk. At that point he knew it was time to see the doctor. It can never be good news when a doctor looks at an x-ray and gravely says “Oh, wow”. Jon had a bone spur on the back of his heel and it was big enough that it was cutting into his Achilles tendon. Jon was given the choice of wearing a brace for the rest of his life (which Jon and the doctor both knew that this was not an option) or surgery. Surgery it was. I was then reminded of a Seinfeld episode entitled “The Summer of George”. This summer was now going to be our “Summer of Jon”.

We received a call the night before letting us know when to arrive at the hospital. Jon had requested an early surgery so he didn’t have to wait around all day. I didn’t think Jon expected it to be as early as it was (neither did I). We had to show up at the hospital at 5:30 am. It was early to bed and early to rise for us that day.

When we walked in the hospital we were welcomed with a surprise to see that one of the nurses is our neighbor. We didn’t know that she was a nurse. It was nice to have an acquaintance take care of you, and she let us know that if we ever needed anything to give her a call. Jon got prepped for surgery and when they wheeled him off it was my cue to hit the waiting room. I was the first one there so I got the prime choice of seats.

The surgery took longer than expected but that was because the bone spur was bigger than expected and tore more of the tendon than the doctor originally thought. I may have been the first one in the waiting room but I wasn’t the first one out. When he was finished the doctor came out and explained what they did and what medication he was prescribing. Soon after a nurse came and took me back to see Jon. He was still all drugged up but was starting to come out of it. It took about an hour before we were able to leave.



They put a hard cast on Jon and the doctor told him that if he wanted he could walk around on it. There was no walking on it that day; it hurt too badly. Jon decided that instead of risking injury he would just use crutches. I’m glad he has the sense not to reinjure himself. The first week or so I got to wait on him hand and foot. It was hard for him to get around and it took him forever to get anywhere, especially with all the stairs in our house.

Because of his cast and his inability to drive a manual transmission we missed a rock crawling trip over the 4th of July. Instead we went up to Trial Lake and went fishing. It was nice and cool up there; only about 60 degrees. I only caught one fish but Jon caught four and his dad caught five. For some reason the fish just don’t like me this year.




After five weeks Jon was able to get his cast off. He then spent about two weeks in a walking boot. Now after seven weeks he is able to walk but with a limp, but he doesn’t care he is just so happy to be back in his shoes. He has been told by others that it will be months before he is back to normal.

Maybe next summer can be the “Summer of Jon” . . . and Wendy.