I Faced The Scale

It was scary. I didn't know what it would say. It had been 45 days since my last weigh in. EEK! So I got myself on that scale and it said, after 45 days, with a road trip, a wedding, surgery, and very little exercise, I was +2.6. I am bummed because that puts me at 162.3, but on the other side, it could have been a LOT worse.

It has been really hard for me not being allowed to run, or walk long distances without a crutch. I see my son running morning and night, and I so desperately want to join him. I am signed up for a half marathon taking place in two months. Will I be allowed to even train? I go back to the doctor in a week, and I hope he at least clears me for PT, that way I can at least know what I am allowed to do as far as stairs, running, walking, strength exercises, etc.

Have a happy Labor Day! I am off to make me some corn meal mush. It is perfect for a day like today, high of 65, cloudy.

Long Hiatus?

It is one of the longest I have had yet. So much has happened since we last spoke. First, I found my niece's father/my brother after 12 years of no contact. My mom and I took my niece to where he lives for his wedding, so she got to meet her daddy in person. Very exciting. Two days after we got home, August 18, I had knee surgery. I had a tendon snipped, arthritis scraped out, and holes drilled into the marrow to produce new cartilage. It was pretty painful, but the doctor is pleased with my speed of recovery. He told me on Monday that I shouldn't even try stairs until the 12th of September. I will have been doing stairs for two weeks by then. 

So two weeks post surgery, I am feeling pretty good. I am still experiencing some pain, but it's really not much worse than before I had the surgery. Since I am still healing, I am noticing my knee giving way some times, but I still use a crutch when I will be doing a lot of walking. 

Yankee has started running cross-country. I want so desperately to be out there running with him, but he is keeping it up. He ran 24:16 for two miles the other night. It was 97 degrees at the time. Today, he ran two miles in 20:12. I am really proud of him.

Dimples is on a new ADHD medicine that has turned him back into the funny, witty boy he used to be. He doesn't seem to get angry as fast, and his moods have improved greatly. 

Brown Eyes is a stink pot. He is in second grade now, mainstreamed for most of the day, and improving beyond anyone's expectations (well, except mine). 

I have not weighed myself since they put me on the bed at the hospital, and that was in kilograms, so I'm happy being 70 something K. I noticed that my size 12s are a little snug, but I am sure that will fall away as I am able to start moving more.

Today, I had the first day of my Horsemanship class. I dare anyone to do something like that 16 days post surgery! It was a little rough. First, I have only ever ridden a horse. I have never had to do anything besides ride the beast, never ever groom, put on the saddle or any of the other stuff I did today. I even had to clean her hooves! That was really tricky. I would lean on her so that I could lift her foot, and she would lean back over on me and almost know me over. We finally came to an understanding. I would only clean one hoof, and everyone got to laugh at me. 

Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired!

Last week, I figured that I was getting a migraine from the Celebrex. So I stopped taking it. It took a few days but the skin itching stopped, the migraine went away and everything was peachy. Then Friday, I started getting stuffy. I have a full blown cold that is causing some phlegm in my throat and chest. Our water heater went out last week, too. Oh! And my oldest ran his bike into a light pole, needed three stitches in his face and broke his toe. In all of the confusion, I have been not paying attention to my health the way I should be. But, I decided to weigh in this morning. 156.9!!!! That gives me a BMI of less than 27! I was shocked, and happy. Now I am making sure I don't let it creep up on me. I am ready for bed and it is only 6:15.

What a day!

I had to take Pumpkin home yesterday. I love getting her and taking her away from her less than ideal living conditions, but I hate taking her back. She just thrives when she is here. So yesterday was a bad day as far as that goes.

Last week, my sister-in-law's van broke down. She drives a rural route for the P.O. So does Hubby. Anyway, the engine is shot, needs to be either rebuilt or replaced. She borrowed our van last week and we were a one car family with 6 people and 5 seats. We didn't go anywhere together for a few days. Then we got our van back last week on Friday night, had two nights of late baseball games and a noon game yesterday. Yankee's team lost all three. It was pretty sad. The team had a losing season, but it was the most enjoyable season we have had for many years. Yankee has been playing baseball since 2004. He has had some good coaches, some not-so-good coaches, and one really horrible one. I can say, that hands down, we had the best coaches this year. And because of those good coaches, we had some great fans, and great games. The sportsmanship and grace these coaches taught our boys made this a winning season. I am SO happy!

I have started making gluten-free chocolate chip waffles. Everything is 100% gluten-free as Dimples seems to be allergic to most kinds of grains, so I am very careful of cross-contamination. I will post the recipe another day, though, because it is somewhat involved, and I don't have exact measurements.

Hubby called me today while he was out on a mail route to tell me that the van was running hot. Then he called to tell me it was overheating. Then he called to tell me that the van wouldn't run anymore. So I went out to the rural backroads to find him. I pushed his van for two miles in the rain (by nudging the bumper of the other car to his van).

Sister-in-law drove Poppy's truck to get me and the brakes went out. She put it into park to stop it. A very kind member of our church family brought a vehicle to us to use for hubby to finish his route and then he borrowed a vehicle from a co-worker for tomorrow.

The meds are not helping my knee, but I've only been on them since Friday, so we shall see.

Doctor Visit #2

This week, Brown Eyes went to the doc to get his stitches out. He has been cleared for pond swimming! YAY!

I went to the same doc on Friday. I had more x-rays and the doc decided to try first with Celebrex, a knee brace and some physical therapy exercises. I go back in a month. If that hasn't helped, I will get an injection of some sort. If that doesn't help, I will have arthroscopic surgery. If that doesn't help, I will have a partial knee replacement.

The doc did tell me that I am cleared to run! WOOT! I can resume training as usual. I am thrilled. Anyways, that's my news. Pumpkin has to go home tomorrow. So we will go back to a five member family with no little girls. *sigh*

Enough With The Excitement Already!

I have spent more time visiting with doctors, nurses, physician's assistants, and the like than I care to mention, but nonetheless, I have spent a LOT of time in the last two weeks. I finally had my MRI last week on Thursday. Sunday night, Brown Eyes slammed his pinky finger in the door near the hinge end causing his finger to be severed from the base of the nail bed (removing it from the bone) to the fat pad. It was gruesome! The kid made it through the reattachment phenomenally and watched the whole time. Monday, I had to take him in to make sure that the nail bed had been successfully attached to the bone, and it did. They changed his dressings and rewrapped his finger only for the wrapping to come off the next morning. We went back to the doc to have the finger rerewrapped and it has stayed. I have been given all the stuff to do any rewrapping that is necessary.

Today I went to see my doctor to get the results of my MRI and the results of Dimples' IgG test. Dimples has some major allergy issues! He needs to be completely nut free, gluten-free, yeast free, mostly dairy free (he can have yogurt and cottage cheese), and melon-free. We are hoping that with the elimination of these foods, it will reduce some of his agitation and anger issues. We shall see!

Now for the results of my MRI. I have no tumors! Yay! That is the good news. Now for the bad news: I will most likely need surgery. there is a severe loss of hyaline cartlage at the lateral facet of the patella suggesting advanced chondromalacia. There is a large joint effusion; a Baker's cyst that measures approximately 4 cm in diameter. I see a orthopedic surgeon a week from tomorrow.

What a Week!

Summer is busy! I feel like I have been going non-stop all week!

On Tuesday night, I hosted a girls' night sleep-over at my in-laws' for my niece, my fake niece and my husband's niece. We were having a great night of swimming when fake-niece yells to me, "Look at the sky!" I yelled back, "What guy?" She said, "The sky! Behind you! Up in the air!" I did pick up some eye rolling in her voice, but there was a scary storm coming from behind us (the southeast) when the storms usually come from the west. Well, all I can say is that I'm glad I've been running lately, because that superpower came in handy. I ran around to the other end of the pond to get the girls out and get them into the house just before the storm really started going. We ended up losing power for a couple of hours which gave us the opportunity to play Mad Libs, charades, and 20 questions.

I got the girls to sleep and I slept on the couch. Well, "slept" is too strong of a word. I had one nightmare that I was being sucked up by a tornado and woke myself up doing that moan scream that you do in your sleep. Apparently I woke up my mother-in-law who woke up my father-in-law and very little sleep was had by any of the adults after that. I also at Bis-kit sleeping with me and every time I moved, I disturbed her. Now in my exhausted stupor, I forgot who was the human and tried not to bother the poor cat anymore.

The girls got up bright and early Wednesday morning and I made them some awesome waffles that also happened to be gluten-free. The recipe was my mother-in-laws and I don't know that I can recreate it. Anyway, we then went back outside where the girls gathered eggs. They swam some more and then we went back inside for lunch. Then the girls went out to collect mulberries. Then parents came to pick up two of the girls. Fake niece went back out to the pond to show her parents how she can jump off the pole on the rope swing.

After the girls were gone, I grabbed my niece to take her to Yankee's baseball game. On Thursday, I cleaned my house as much as I could because my cousin was coming to visit and I wanted my house clean for her to see it for the first time. We never made it to my house. On Friday, we went to the hotel where my aunt and uncle were staying. They have an indoor pool there. We swam for about 5 hours with a lunch break in the middle and then took the whole clan over to my in-laws for a cookout. I also rode the elliptical and the recumbent bike while at the hotel. My niece and nephew were there, so there were 8 kiddos and 8 adults there at one point. We cooked brats on the grill, went for a hike in the woods, went fishing and roasted marshmallows. Yankee caught a bass over 20" long!

Oh yeah! On Thursday, I had my MRI. I will know the results early next week and will update when I have them. I am tired just going over my week! Time for another nap... (still under 160!)