I've decided that I need to be self-employed. I just had the most excruciating day all so I could get my allotted hours in...so they would pay me my 40 hours...of salaried pay.
Here are the things I like to do:
Read
Write
Talk
How do I make this into a job? Anyone? Well, just popped a pill and now I will rest hoping that my drug induced dozing will produce an amazing idea. Sigh...
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Post-op 2 weeks gone
So, when I said I would be blogging more often I did intend for it to be more than once a month. :) And fair warning, this is a LONG ASS post.
I am now bionic. I will now set off the metal detectors in the airport. I now will have to check the box for radiology that says, 'metal implants'. I am repaired!
The surgery went really well according to the Dr., I obviously do not remember much about it. (Whew!) I was really nervous for some reason, not sure why, but just scared. My blood pressure was up to 125/80 or something like that and I rarely hit the 120s. Anyway, that morning I got there at 6:30am and had my blood drawn for my clotting factor. Then I met with the anesthesiologist team, one guy (Joe) was really sweet and he put in the nerve block. (The nerve block basically makes it so you can't feel anything on/in your leg...at all...trippy.) They wheeled me back as soon as they found out I wasn't going to bleed all over the place and started right about 8:35am. T left at that point to take Brodster to be boarded, we needed him nice and exhausted for when we were home together.
I woke up in recovery and was apparently out of it for hours. From my last couple of surgeries I remember that I do not wake up well, I'm cold, disoriented and well...scared...and thirsty. I was there for approx 3 hours and finally I was rolled up to a room, after I made them give me drugs for the vicious headache that just wouldn't go away. They gave me laudanum, which I only know from the movie 'Tombstone.' :) So I was plenty out of it in my room when my first visitor appeared. My friend who is a nurse of anesthesiology and was laughing at me...nice, but seriously it was SO sweet of her to show up. T had to work so he didn't see me until much later.
Have you ever been in the hospital? If not, let me tell you, it is NOT a restful place. They are in and out of your room every 2-3 hours. I was up and walking on crutches that very day! THAT DAY! Can you believe it? I couldn't, I thought the PT guy was stealing my drugs. But with the surgery I had they want you mobile as soon as possible so your quad doesn't wither up and die. Seriously. And of course at this point I still didn't know what kind of surgery I had. Fast forward, T comes by after work, I finally get my phone...my PHONE...my life line. Sad. I took my funny pics for FB. (what did we do before all this technology? Oh yes, relaxed and called and WROTE people...with a pen and paper.) I didn't have breakfast of course, or lunch and so my first meal (hospital meal) was dinner...and what did they bring me? FISH. EFFING FISH. Gross. Okay, well, I do like fish, when I prepare it or have it prepared in a way that I know I'll like. So I had them take that away and the really sweet nurse brought me a turkey and cheese sandwich that lasted me the entire night.
I slept...kind of...for about an hour at a time. Used the bedpan at 3 am...yes, I said bedpan. I hate bedpans, I can't imagine anyone out there who really likes them, but seriously...they suck. And my body refused to 'go' in a bedpan. T came by before he went to work in the am, some more friends stopped by, that was awesome, I had two more PT appts, all this before 3pm! That's when I finally got to go home. I hadn't seen my knee and still didn't know exactly what was done. The surgeon's PA (the one who diagnosed me) checked me out and she said I apparently have a high pain tolerance to have been walking around with a knee like that. I had damage in 3 places, side of the knee, under the knee and the patella, all down to the bone. Rockin.
The first 3 days post surgery were good, I was doing my PT, I was making progress thinking this wasn't so bad and then *BOOM* my nerve block wore off. Holy.Shit.Balls. I woke up and was crying, I don't cry that often, especially from pain. I took a lot of drugs that day. The next day was equally as bad and the day after that was minimally better. The fourth day I was seeing the light, when I didn't have the urge to wake up at 4am, pop a pill and go back to sleep. Fast forward to 2 weeks later, I'm feeling good.
I was weening myself off of the drugs until yesterday when I had my post-op appt. The dr said, "I'll be the first to cut you off if you're overdoing it, but by not taking them you are stalling your recovery." Huh, so today, back to popping pills every 6-7 hours. I have to do PT 3x a day, I generally do it 1.5x a day, I have to do a stim treatment 2x a day, I make it 1-2x as I can fit in, and I have to be on the CPM machine 4x a day. Well, I sleep with it and get one longer session in the afternoon, I figure the hours even out right?
Today was a big day though...I FINALLY got to take a shower. Sponge bathes, not my thing. *shudder*
Okay, so I had a partial knee replacement with metallic implants (or a metallic OATS procedure) and have two metal implants and a plastic patella. It's pretty wild looking. The Dr is going to send me pics of during surgery as well, it was nasty gnarly, but cool.
Alrighty, so I do have more to post about, but it will wait. I've already babbled on for the day. I do apologize if there are a ton of grammatical errors, I am under the influence. I'll be using that excuse for a bit. ;)
Peace out kiddies!
I am now bionic. I will now set off the metal detectors in the airport. I now will have to check the box for radiology that says, 'metal implants'. I am repaired!
The surgery went really well according to the Dr., I obviously do not remember much about it. (Whew!) I was really nervous for some reason, not sure why, but just scared. My blood pressure was up to 125/80 or something like that and I rarely hit the 120s. Anyway, that morning I got there at 6:30am and had my blood drawn for my clotting factor. Then I met with the anesthesiologist team, one guy (Joe) was really sweet and he put in the nerve block. (The nerve block basically makes it so you can't feel anything on/in your leg...at all...trippy.) They wheeled me back as soon as they found out I wasn't going to bleed all over the place and started right about 8:35am. T left at that point to take Brodster to be boarded, we needed him nice and exhausted for when we were home together.
I woke up in recovery and was apparently out of it for hours. From my last couple of surgeries I remember that I do not wake up well, I'm cold, disoriented and well...scared...and thirsty. I was there for approx 3 hours and finally I was rolled up to a room, after I made them give me drugs for the vicious headache that just wouldn't go away. They gave me laudanum, which I only know from the movie 'Tombstone.' :) So I was plenty out of it in my room when my first visitor appeared. My friend who is a nurse of anesthesiology and was laughing at me...nice, but seriously it was SO sweet of her to show up. T had to work so he didn't see me until much later.
Have you ever been in the hospital? If not, let me tell you, it is NOT a restful place. They are in and out of your room every 2-3 hours. I was up and walking on crutches that very day! THAT DAY! Can you believe it? I couldn't, I thought the PT guy was stealing my drugs. But with the surgery I had they want you mobile as soon as possible so your quad doesn't wither up and die. Seriously. And of course at this point I still didn't know what kind of surgery I had. Fast forward, T comes by after work, I finally get my phone...my PHONE...my life line. Sad. I took my funny pics for FB. (what did we do before all this technology? Oh yes, relaxed and called and WROTE people...with a pen and paper.) I didn't have breakfast of course, or lunch and so my first meal (hospital meal) was dinner...and what did they bring me? FISH. EFFING FISH. Gross. Okay, well, I do like fish, when I prepare it or have it prepared in a way that I know I'll like. So I had them take that away and the really sweet nurse brought me a turkey and cheese sandwich that lasted me the entire night.
I slept...kind of...for about an hour at a time. Used the bedpan at 3 am...yes, I said bedpan. I hate bedpans, I can't imagine anyone out there who really likes them, but seriously...they suck. And my body refused to 'go' in a bedpan. T came by before he went to work in the am, some more friends stopped by, that was awesome, I had two more PT appts, all this before 3pm! That's when I finally got to go home. I hadn't seen my knee and still didn't know exactly what was done. The surgeon's PA (the one who diagnosed me) checked me out and she said I apparently have a high pain tolerance to have been walking around with a knee like that. I had damage in 3 places, side of the knee, under the knee and the patella, all down to the bone. Rockin.
The first 3 days post surgery were good, I was doing my PT, I was making progress thinking this wasn't so bad and then *BOOM* my nerve block wore off. Holy.Shit.Balls. I woke up and was crying, I don't cry that often, especially from pain. I took a lot of drugs that day. The next day was equally as bad and the day after that was minimally better. The fourth day I was seeing the light, when I didn't have the urge to wake up at 4am, pop a pill and go back to sleep. Fast forward to 2 weeks later, I'm feeling good.
I was weening myself off of the drugs until yesterday when I had my post-op appt. The dr said, "I'll be the first to cut you off if you're overdoing it, but by not taking them you are stalling your recovery." Huh, so today, back to popping pills every 6-7 hours. I have to do PT 3x a day, I generally do it 1.5x a day, I have to do a stim treatment 2x a day, I make it 1-2x as I can fit in, and I have to be on the CPM machine 4x a day. Well, I sleep with it and get one longer session in the afternoon, I figure the hours even out right?
Today was a big day though...I FINALLY got to take a shower. Sponge bathes, not my thing. *shudder*
Okay, so I had a partial knee replacement with metallic implants (or a metallic OATS procedure) and have two metal implants and a plastic patella. It's pretty wild looking. The Dr is going to send me pics of during surgery as well, it was nasty gnarly, but cool.
Alrighty, so I do have more to post about, but it will wait. I've already babbled on for the day. I do apologize if there are a ton of grammatical errors, I am under the influence. I'll be using that excuse for a bit. ;)
Peace out kiddies!
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Time...flies....by...
Holy shitballs! Another 6-7 months has slipped by. I really had nothing to blog about, or rather that I wanted to blog about. I just read my last couple of blog posts...hahaha, my 'To Do' list for my 38th year is going to hell. I did do the 3M half and I signed up for the Splash and Dash races, I even signed up for an early race. Had the whole year planned out...SO excited....and then...life.
While training for the 3M half, which by the way was great and was my fastest half marathon to date, I took a hard fall on one of my last long runs. I was by myself, on mile 11 of 12 and was looking behind me to see if I could sprint across the street, and sadly my foot landed on the side of the curb, I was falling and didn't realize it until I hit the ground. I hit my knee and my wrist. Took a week off, went to the Dr (it was my fat clot leg) and they said to watch it. I did, nada, pain but I'm always in pain so whatever. I finished the race a few weeks later and then took about a month off. :)
I was training about 3-4 days a week, when I could squeeze it in. And then the most amazing thing happened..my work decided to send me to Europe! I've been wanting to go and meet my clients for years but never thought it would happen. So in late April I went over with the full intention of starting my training for my first almost Oly race in July. The first week I traveled everyday and the only exercise I got was walking/running to the gates in the airport and lifting my suitcase up above me on every flight. I'll have to write about my time in EU later, good times. ;) The second week I rode a commuter bike to my place of work every day (so 3 days) and swam twice. No running though. SO, when I came back I ran on Monday morning, 4 miles. Then Tuesday morning, 4 miles...exhausted! My next run was Saturday, I had an hour of running to complete and I did 5.5 miles, and then my knee blew up.
Well...it swelled up pretty bad anyway. So bad that I couldn't bend it by the end of the night. The next morning I couldn't put any weight on it so on Monday I got into the Dr. They drained 40cc of fluid out of the knee..gross, and gave me a cortisone shot and sent me on my way. They said to wait a few days before exercising so I did nothing and that weekend I swam...because by day three after I had it drained it was filling up with fluid again. Called the Dr the next Monday and they said to call an Ortho doc. Got in to them on Tuesday, they drained it and sent me for a MRI on Wednesday, and it started filling up again on Wednesday. We thought maybe a meniscus tear.
My inlaws came into town (another post...) and the Dr went on vacation so I had to wait for the results. When I called to check and see if I could exercise (I'd been 4 weeks without any consistent exercise and it was killing me) the medical assistant said, "yeah, so no meniscus tear, acl, lcl, all okay so just don't do anything high impact." Which I took as, "there is nothing wrong with you, it's in your head and you're going to have to deal with the pain." SO I swam on Saturday and rode my bike Sunday. Hurt like a mother effer. Got extremely drunk that Sunday night (it was Memorial Day weekend) and was hungover Monday but still swam that afternoon. Had my appt on Thursday when...
...my Dr (or PA) said, "well, there is no tear, but there is a LOT going on with your knee." Apparently I have a 13mm hole in my cartilage (see fall up above), left knee, and have worn all the cartilage down to the bone on my patella. Bone on bone. Enter pain and swelling and THANK GAWD it is not all in my head. The only fix is surgery unless I want to deal with the pain, not being able to walk my dogs more than a mile, getting into the shower and not being able to put my undies on like a normal person. Oh, and become a swimmer...not gonna happen. So T and I met with the surgeon on Monday, set a date...June 26th, and he is going to decide on which surgery once he gets in there. I have a surgical clearance appt with my primary on Monday, get my doppler done, blood work yada yada. And then we're just 2 weeks away.
I mean, there are worse things in the world. But this really screws with my plans this year. I'm gaining weight like no ones business...apparently my body didn't share with my appetite that we are doing less...therefore I do NOT NEED TO EAT SO FUCKING MUCH! I digress...it sucks. I can't even work out to get in shape before the surgery. Lame ass. And I may not be able to do my IM next year as I've been planning since LAST year. Ugh. Again though, there are worse things that could happen to a person.
Well, this was long, I apologize if I even have readers left. Ha. Peace out kids, I'll be blogging more b/c I will be immobile for 8 weeks, the first 2 at home with not much to do. Brody above at 1yr, he's gonna be a monster, but such a sweet monster.
While training for the 3M half, which by the way was great and was my fastest half marathon to date, I took a hard fall on one of my last long runs. I was by myself, on mile 11 of 12 and was looking behind me to see if I could sprint across the street, and sadly my foot landed on the side of the curb, I was falling and didn't realize it until I hit the ground. I hit my knee and my wrist. Took a week off, went to the Dr (it was my fat clot leg) and they said to watch it. I did, nada, pain but I'm always in pain so whatever. I finished the race a few weeks later and then took about a month off. :)
I was training about 3-4 days a week, when I could squeeze it in. And then the most amazing thing happened..my work decided to send me to Europe! I've been wanting to go and meet my clients for years but never thought it would happen. So in late April I went over with the full intention of starting my training for my first almost Oly race in July. The first week I traveled everyday and the only exercise I got was walking/running to the gates in the airport and lifting my suitcase up above me on every flight. I'll have to write about my time in EU later, good times. ;) The second week I rode a commuter bike to my place of work every day (so 3 days) and swam twice. No running though. SO, when I came back I ran on Monday morning, 4 miles. Then Tuesday morning, 4 miles...exhausted! My next run was Saturday, I had an hour of running to complete and I did 5.5 miles, and then my knee blew up.
Well...it swelled up pretty bad anyway. So bad that I couldn't bend it by the end of the night. The next morning I couldn't put any weight on it so on Monday I got into the Dr. They drained 40cc of fluid out of the knee..gross, and gave me a cortisone shot and sent me on my way. They said to wait a few days before exercising so I did nothing and that weekend I swam...because by day three after I had it drained it was filling up with fluid again. Called the Dr the next Monday and they said to call an Ortho doc. Got in to them on Tuesday, they drained it and sent me for a MRI on Wednesday, and it started filling up again on Wednesday. We thought maybe a meniscus tear.
My inlaws came into town (another post...) and the Dr went on vacation so I had to wait for the results. When I called to check and see if I could exercise (I'd been 4 weeks without any consistent exercise and it was killing me) the medical assistant said, "yeah, so no meniscus tear, acl, lcl, all okay so just don't do anything high impact." Which I took as, "there is nothing wrong with you, it's in your head and you're going to have to deal with the pain." SO I swam on Saturday and rode my bike Sunday. Hurt like a mother effer. Got extremely drunk that Sunday night (it was Memorial Day weekend) and was hungover Monday but still swam that afternoon. Had my appt on Thursday when...
...my Dr (or PA) said, "well, there is no tear, but there is a LOT going on with your knee." Apparently I have a 13mm hole in my cartilage (see fall up above), left knee, and have worn all the cartilage down to the bone on my patella. Bone on bone. Enter pain and swelling and THANK GAWD it is not all in my head. The only fix is surgery unless I want to deal with the pain, not being able to walk my dogs more than a mile, getting into the shower and not being able to put my undies on like a normal person. Oh, and become a swimmer...not gonna happen. So T and I met with the surgeon on Monday, set a date...June 26th, and he is going to decide on which surgery once he gets in there. I have a surgical clearance appt with my primary on Monday, get my doppler done, blood work yada yada. And then we're just 2 weeks away.
I mean, there are worse things in the world. But this really screws with my plans this year. I'm gaining weight like no ones business...apparently my body didn't share with my appetite that we are doing less...therefore I do NOT NEED TO EAT SO FUCKING MUCH! I digress...it sucks. I can't even work out to get in shape before the surgery. Lame ass. And I may not be able to do my IM next year as I've been planning since LAST year. Ugh. Again though, there are worse things that could happen to a person.
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