Foot Doctor and Shopping

We left home at 9:30 to head to Idaho Falls for my 2 PM appointment at the Eastern Idaho Foot Clinic. The drive is always a pleasurable one as it takes us through some pretty country in Idaho. The drive also involves another trip over the Teton Pass that Josie was deathly afraid of for a long time. It still makes her nervous, but she is getting used to the Pass and doesn't want to crawl on the floor to avoid looking out the windows. We travel through Victor, ID and then through Swan Valley along the Snake River which is a favorite area of mine. Then, the trip takes us through some rolling hills of farmland before arriving in Idaho Falls.

We arrived in time to do some local shopping before my appointment. The first stop was at Michael's where we picked up some yarn for Josie and we then went to the Teton Valley Mall, where we walked through the Sears store looking for deals. The time was moving on, so we cut that visit short to head to the Doctor's office which was close by.

Following the usual paperwork at the doctor's office, I went into the patient room and visited with the doctor about my toes and the fungus infection. The infection was causing pain in only one toe, the big toe on my left foot, but was visible in several other toes. The doctor cut back my toenails as far as he could (ouch) and sent me to the blood lab across the street to get a blood test to ensure that my liver was normal before he is able to prescribe medication for the fungus. The reason my fungus wasn't improving was that I had been using medication that kills bacteria, but not a fungus. Hmm. He is prescribing a medication that I must take for 3 months, after which my toenails will begin to appear normal once again. He has already removed much of the pain with his extreme trimming of my toenail. It could have been worse, I guess, but he will phone the prescription to the local pharmacy here in Jackson once he receives the results of the blood test. There were other options that he discussed, non of which were acceptable to me, including "burning" off the toenail for life. Sheesh.

We then headed to the local DQ in Idaho Falls for a Blizzard before heading back to the Mall for more shopping. Josie had batteries replaced in a couple of her watches at the Kay Jewelers in the Mall, and we just walked around looking at this Mall for the first time. At around 5 PM, we made it to Sam's Club where we did our shopping for meats and fish and a few other items. We take our cooler with us and fill it with ice so we can travel home with the frozen and refrigerated foods without any spoilage or thawing.

As far as we know, the expected rain never arrived in Jackson and we have a 50% chance for rain today. Right now the sun is shining again, and it doesn't look like any rain is coming. I'm getting frustrated with the weather forecasts being so far off. Our days off are valuable to us and we like to plan for activities that will not be washed out. It is what it is, so we will play it by ear today...