Hello from my iPhone 4S

So I have found out that I can post to my blog from my iPhone... This is totally amazing!! More later!

Thursday...

Thursday is my day for Weight Watchers and the gym. I have been doing WW for 2 years and have lost 40 pounds so far I need to lose 25 more then I will be happy with my weight. I need to be at or close to my healthy weight range for my ankle. It can't handle excess weight. So, I have been doing WW for 2 years and during that time I had 2 surgeries on my ankle and non-weight bearing for 3 months. That did not help the weight loss. Oh well, I am back on the losing track!!!!

New Piano Books

My NEW piano books came today!!!!! I am so glad my friend recommended "I Use to Play Piano" Series!!! I LOVE them!!!! I actually remember more than I thought I did. Maybe one day I will play in public.....maybe.
I have to say that I go upstairs more now. See, that's where my piano is. I wish it was downstairs but the house we are living in has a very bad floor plan. We have tried to make the most of it for now anyways.
I really do enjoy playing the piano. I am so glad I got over my mental block of playing. Well, it's more involved than just a simple mental block but I am not ready to go into that right now. I.B. is even impressed that have started playing again. :)

Tuesday...

Today I went to the gym to workout with my trainer. I actually got there early enough to do my cardio-workout first. I enjoyed that more because I was warmed up for my workout with the weights. I was whole lot more sweaty but that was OK. It's amazing to see the results of consistent exercising. I really enjoy the escape!
I would like to try to do another 5K walk and maybe even work up to a Half Marathon walk. I don't know if my ankle will let me be BUT I want to try!!!! :D

Thoughts...

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. Thinking about deep stuff like what do I want out of life and how am I supposed to find the answer. I have been doing a lot of... I don't know what. I feel as though I am blocked on this issue. I believe that meditation might help but how do I meditate????? My sister & her hubby totally believes in The Transcendental Meditation Technique. I have looked into it and we have a place near by to learn it at BUT the cost!!!!!! It is expensive!!!! I am trying to convince my hubby to us learning it together. He has checked it out too but it's the cost that gets him too! :(
I just know that I want to live a HAPPY life. I just need help figuring out how to get on that path.

I'm so Tired...

I am so tired today. I went to the gym & rode the bike for 40 minutes. When I got home, Chloe wanted to get her science fair board done. So, we worked on that ALL DAY!!!!!
Trixie is worn out too. She is laying beside me asleep with the tip of her tongue sticking out of her mouth. And she is snoring!!!
I need to go upstairs and practice the piano. That's part of my goals for this new year..I am going to improve my piano playing skills. I bought my own copy of Hanon "Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises". I've been told those are very boring to play but I am finding them fun and challenging. I guess I am enjoying them now because I never had to practice them in all my 10 years of lessons as a child. When I think back to those lessons, I can't see what I learned. I think it was all spent learning hymns and pop music of the late 70 & 80's. I have found a cool website that I can download on my iPad or print off sheet music. That is cool because I can view the sheet music on my iPad and not have to print them off. :) I have ordered me some new piano books and they should be here in a few days.
Well, I must go and practice. More tomorrow!

Hello 2011

I have figured out how to post here using my iPad. I hope that this will make it easier for me to post more regularly during 2011. I enjoy writing about my crazy life. Sometimes I actually sound funny. So my goal is to post once a day this whole year. Let's hope I can do it!

Test

Hello! Goodbye 2010!!!

13 Stitches!!!

Finally, I got the 13 stitches out!!!

I couldn't believe how busy the doctor's office was at this visit. I mean I had to wait for an hour and a half to see the doctor. It took 3 people to take out all 13 stitches! The first nurse got 9 out and the second nurse got 2 more out BUT... the last 2 were a pain! The skin had over grown the knots of the last 2 stitches making removing them very difficult. They had to call in the Physician's Assistant to come in to remove those stitches. I have to say I didn't mind that at all. See, I like the Physician's Assistant. He is really nice and not to mention easy on the eyes! :)

So, all the stitches are out and I can take showers now. YAY!!!!! I did find out that I do have a little bit of cartilage left in my ankle and that this last surgery should buy my another 2 to 3 years of hopefully "comfort". I will still need to have the back side of my ankle cleaned out eventually. I hope that I can put that surgery off a little while longer now.

2.5 Weeks Past Surgery

I'm still not putting any weight on my foot and I still have about 10 stitches. I have been able to wash my leg to get the iodine and writing off of it. The skin has gotten very dry and is peeling. I'm glad to see that the pressure sore is looking a little better and that the top of my foot is less sensitive. I'm not wearing my BIG BLACK BOOT while I am at home and sitting around. I use it for when I have to leave the house. I'm trying to keep all pressure off the back of my heel & top of my foot. I have found that I need to keep it wrapped in a small ace bandage. I do that for the swelling as well as it just feels good to have it wrapped.

I am tired of the sitting all day. I do get up and help get dinner going or fill the dishwasher. I even make it into the laundry room (when the floor is clear) and fold clothes. I can't really get a load going in the washer too easily. I leave that for Courtney to take care of. She's pretty good about it even though some times she does it on her schedule and not mine. Ian has become a lot of help lately with fixin' dinner. He loves to make fresh tea! Chloe is my go get it girl as well as dog walker most days. I try to make sure Ian takes Trixie out at least once every day. I.B. has actually started making both Ian and Chloe go out together after it gets dark to walk Trixie. I.B. has done OK as far as helping out. He has had to do ALL the grocery shopping. I'll make a list and he goes to the store. I have to say I do miss going to the store and strolling the isles. Usually, I.B. will come back with exactly what is on the list and whatever junk he sees and is in the mood for.

I know that all this is good for my family. I mean good as in the sense of they all need to know how to do everything that I do on a daily bases. I am so ready to be back to being able to jump up and do as I please. At least I go back in 3 days to get the stitches out!!! AND it will be time to start putting a little weight through my foot!

Pressure Sores

I have been very happy living without that hard splint. It's nice to have it where I can see my foot and move my foot & ankle. I have a nasty although not open pressure sore on the back of my heel. I also have the beginnings of one on the top of my foot. It's along the long bone going to my big toe.

I have no feeling on the skin but I do for deeper pains along the top of my foot. My heel is completely numb. It's like my foot is asleep in most areas. It feels very odd. I'm hoping that the feeling will come back as I exercise my ankle. I will have to ask the doctor about this next week.

The Splint is Gone!!!

I finally got the hard splint off my leg!!! I found that my leg did shrink in size and that the doctor wrote a lot more on my leg than I remembered him writing. It was so nice to get that thing off and see what was done.

Here is what my ankle looked like when all the bandages were taken off. If you were wondering, I am not purposely holding my foot cocked-eyed. It's just how my foot looks. :/ I haven't counted the stitches yet but I think there are close to 10 nylon stitches.

Here's a closer view of the stitches. I will have to keep those in for 1 more week. So that means I will have to keep it dry and no showers until after next Weds. Yes...I will be bathing...in the tub until next week. The doctor was able to remove the large bone chunk, bone spurs, damaged cartilage and the second "deck screw" from this one incision.

In this view, the doctor made a small incision to remove that "deck screw" that was working its way out. Luckily, dissolving stitches where used here. I use the term "deck screw" because on the X-rays these 2 screws looked very big like deck screws!

Here is the surprise I found when all the bandages where gone. I knew my heel hurt very bad after surgery and during that first week. I still think that initial pain was from the surgery and all the trauma I have done to my ankle. I do remember my heel hurting in a different way sometime during the last part of the first week. Now I know what "Pressure/Bed Sore" feels like. It is very OUCHY!!! It's like a bad bruise that is always being poked. Needless to say the doctor was not very happy with me. He told me I should have called and come in the office and not have lived with the pain. Luckily for me this looks to be very superficial. However, I am to keep a close eye on it and if it starts to look infected then I am not to wait until my next appointment, I am to go into the office immediately.

So I am still in a non-weight baring mode for another week. I can take off the boot for sleeping and to do my exercises. I have to keep a gauze pad over the stitches and keep my heel very well padded so that sore can heal. It looks like I will be in my boot for the next 3 weeks. I will gradually start putting weight back thru my leg a week from today. I know that it is going to take more time than I want to get back to walking without the aide of anything or anyone. I am just happy to be on this side of the healing. I hope by March that I might be able to get back on my bike!

One Week Later...

So one week has passed since I had my 6th surgery and I'm in alot of pain. Which is very odd because I haven't had alot of pain from Friday thru Monday. I got a new prescription for pain meds on Friday and only had to take one pill and that was on Saturday. I didn't like how it made me feel all wigged out and all. So I just went to taking one pill at bedtime and that seemed to be working fine until last night.

I had a good day yesterday. I felt great even if I was bored to death. I broke my day up into getting the kids off to school followed by a little bit of computer time then I took a nap. When I awoke I got me some lunch and did needlepoint in bed for 3 hours. It was time to move on out of the bedroom and into the den until time to pick up kids from school. Courtney helped with making dinner and it was soooooo gooooood!!!!! Everything was going good until some of my family members decided not to use common sense to do things that needed to be done without being asked/told to do them. (That really pisses me off when they act like that!!!) So I believe it was that inconsiderateness of my family that set me spiraling back into the pit of pain I had worked so hard to get out of.

I went to bed with my standard one pill and tried to go to sleep. I slept some but the pain kept mounting. It felt like my leg/foot was swelling so much that the splint/cast was cutting of circulation. I'd wake up to get the pillows fixed to keep my let propped up. I had to give in and take another pill in the middle of the night. Still that didn't really give much relief besides helping to fall asleep and stay asleep until time to start the day. I was OK during the day and in the afternoon the pain came back with a vengeance!!! I've had to take 2 pills at one time at 5PM. It's almost an hour and a half later and I don't have much relief. My head is feeling really loopy. I don't like what these pain meds do to me.

Let's hope tomorrow is a better day....

A Few Days Later...

I've been doing OK these last few days. Besides the obvious pain in my ankle I have found out that I am allergic to Percocet. I have been ITCHY ever since I started taking those pills. Luckily, I don't have a rash (that I know of). I called the doctor's office today to see if I could get a different pain medication called in. So we will see....

I have been surprised that the majority of my pain has felt like it is in my heel. It would get to throbbing/aching so bad, I couldn't handle it. I've had minor pain where I know the doctor made his cuts but the heel is just awful.

I'm getting new medicine. YAY! Me!

The 6th Surgery is Done!

I am so glad that this day is coming to an end and I am home and clear headed. Seriously, I have felt awful ever since waking up in recovery until 8PM tonight.

The day started at 5AM. I made sure both legs were thoroughly shaved. I even used a new razor. See, I learned my lesson back in '07 on just how hairy your leg gets when it's all wrapped up. Anyway, I.B. and I leave for the hospital (Outpatient Surgery Building).

I have to say that the staff at the USF Morisani Center is awesome!! I didn't have to wait at all just check in and BAM! they take me back to tee-tee in a cup!!! It hurt pretty bad getting my IV but those things are never pleasant to get. I had to put on a Support Hose on my Right Leg. So it didn't matter if that leg had be recently shaved. The Anesthesiologist comes in asking me if I was going to get a Nerve Block. I was like...I don't remember Dr. Shereff mentioning that. In the end, I got a Nerve Block behind my left knee. Oh, I forgot to mention that I had to lay on my stomach for that and I had to be heavily sedated. So after that point, I was a little loopy. I remember Dr. Shereff coming in and marking my left leg to cut on. I asked for the screws and bone chunk to be given to me BUT, unfortunately, I could not have them. :( That's about the last I remember BEFORE surgery.

AFTER surgery....Ugh!!!! I had that anesthesiology smell/taste in my nose and mouth, my head hurt, and I was just not feeling good. I couldn't wake up. It took a long time for me to get awake enough to be moved to the awake area of recovery. I had to be given that nausea medicine thru my IV before I could transfer beds. I was soooooo light headed. I got to get my long shorts on during the transfer. The nurses gave me a Diet Coke to help with my stomach. It tasted funny but it was cold and wet and that is all I cared about. I think that I.B. has come in by this time. I remember him being loud but I could have just been dreaming that because he is naturally loud.

So Dr. Shereff finally came by to talk to us. He said I have a 90 yr old Arthritic Ankle. He said that it was a very trashed up ankle. He was able to remove BOTH large deck screws!!! He also removed the large bone chunk and bone spurs and the floating cartilage that was doing no good. I have an Ankle Joint Space now!!! He believes that I should get 20-30% of my motion back i.e. I should be able to move my ankle joint to bring my foot up towards my leg.

More later...

The Day Before the 6th Surgery

The countdown has begun. I've got 24 hours to go until surgery time tomorrow. I'm not ready for it.

I've been experiencing more pain on the outer front side of my ankle since I've decided to go thru with this surgery. Also, the screw head has seemed to come out even further. It is most annoying to try to lay on my side with my ankles touching each other. Hopefully, that will be more comfortable once I am healed from this surgery.

I imagine I will be taking Trixie out all 3-4 times she needs to go today. I've got a few more loads of laundry to do. And most important...I've got Cowboy Spaghetti to make for "linner" (that's a late lunch early dinner word...the kids came up with that!) I hope that I remember to get a picture or two of my ankle before surgery.

I've got lots to do.....more later.

I'm back....2010

I know that it has been a LONG time since I last posted. OOPS!!!

I'd like to use this blog more of as a journal for myself. If you all find it entertaining that's even better.

So, an update on my ankle situation, since that is what I like to post about. I finally went to an Orthopedic/Ankle Doc on March 17, 2009. He took ALOT of X-rays. I mean ALOT!!! He even did a CT scan. The result of it was Ankle Fusion. That was all he could do for me. I was like "No Thank You" and went on with life until August 2009, that's when I could not walk without crutches or cane. It was BAD!! I would be in tears from just trying to walk Trixie. I called that Doc up to get at least a Handicap hang tag and another appointment. This appointment the office assumed would be to discuss the Ankle Fusion surgery. I still didn't want to do that.

Time goes on. I get my handicap parking and I use my cane or crutches as needed. I had ALOT of people telling me to get a 2nd opinion and go to a Sports Medicine doctor. So I did. That was one of the BEST decisions I have ever made. My first appointment with Dr. Sheriff was September 14, 2009. He gave me soooooo many options instead of Ankle Fusion. He gave in shoe inserts, an air cast brace, and put me on Mobic. He also wanted to give me a Cortisone shot while I was under anesthesia. (Surgery #5) We did that on September 22, 2009. That was the best shot ever!! I was able to get up and walk bare foot without a limp!!! Of course, the Novicane helped alot at that point. Anyway, the shot worked pretty good over all. I had nearly a full week of NO pain. After that week, the pain was much more tolerable especially since I was taking Mobic.

I went back on November 4, 2009 to check how life was going. We re-evaluated the pain issue and at that point the screw on the inside of my ankle was the most bothersome hardware I had inside me. It has been trying to work it's way at since 6 months after it was put in!! Also, the 2 large bone chunks, 1 in front and 1 in the back, hinder my mobility of my ankle. (mostly the one in the front). So we left it at continue as I had been and come back after the holidays.

So, that brings me up to today's visit. I've decided to have surgery again. This time Dr. Sheriff will be removing the screw from the inside of my ankle and to remove the large bone chunk in front. If the other long screw is viewable at that time he will remove that also. This surgery is scheduled for January 19th.

We discussed that these 2 bone chunks are probably the result of the original doctor using "bone mesh" to try to clean up the mess that I made of my ankle when I fell off the step-ladder. We also discussed maybe one day (when insurance would cover it) of trying an injectable synovial fluid. I did find out that the brace I wear is for the arthritis and comfort. I have found that I do not begin the day without putting it on along with my shoes. There is no more going barefoot for me. Hopefully, this upcoming surgery will help me get back to walking comfortably without shoes.

Lowery Park Zoo

Here we are the Tampa Lowery Park Zoo. This was one of the best zoos we've visited. It has rides! Finally, we've got some goofy pictures to post.
Don't you just love Chloe's expression?!
Here, I am acting like I am going to touch a sting ray. I have touched them before. I just don't care form them. And yes I am sticking my tongue out at Courtney!

More Things We've Done in FL

The Naples Zoo! Here are a bunch of monkey like things just hanging in the tree. It was so hot that day we (me and the kids) wished we could have been up in a tree too. We were on a pontoon boat going around all the little monkey islands and it moved so slowly that there was no breeze to enjoy! Ugh! We went to The Naples Zoo when we drove down there with I.B. He had meetings to attend all day so we got to the zoo.
Courtney was tyring to get Chloe to act goofy but this is all Chloe could come up with. She was just too HOT! You can see the leopard in the background is not in the mood to be photogenic.
This is what Courtney was wanting Chloe to do...Act Silly! There is supposed to be vicious lions behind Courtney but I guess it was just to darn hot for them too!
Ian at least looks like he is happy. And yes I know he needs a hair cut BUT his daddy is set on living vicariously though Ian and his hair. I.B. wants it at least 3 inches longer. I have to say I do have Ian's hair trimmed whenever I can't see his eyes anymore.
So this was our visit to The Naples Zoo. It was nice in the since that it was small and the animals were usually rescued from somewhere. Oh, I forgot the most funniest part of the whole Naples Zoo experience that was the... REPTILE SHOW. They showed us the poisonous snakes for this area of Florida. They showed us lizards and even non-venomous snakes. I have to admit that I didn't care for that show very much.

Things We've Done in FL

I know that I have been dropping the ball on posting pictures so I'll try to make up for it now.
We have spent most our days at the pool here at the apartment. It's really a nice pool and usually it just us and maybe two other families there during the week. On the weekend, however, the pool is packed.

You can't tell it in the picture above but Courtney actually got a bikini top. Her belly is white. Ian on the other hand turned brown after the first week here in Florida.
Chloe is taking time out from swimming to work on her tan. Surprisingly enough she is tanning. I always thought she'd be like I.B. and just freckle.
Here, Ian and Trixie are in my bed. This is out in the living room of the apartment and some days we just don't feel like putting the bed back as a couch. You all can see the fan we had to buy soon after me and the kids got here to Florida. We've had two separate occasions of having to use that fan. The AC in the apartment goes out whenever the the landscaping crew works around the units. It's something about the drain pipe getting clogged and backing up that water and it freezing up back inside the part of the unit in the apartment. All this has just added to the LOVE I feel for Florida. Ugh!
So I caught Courtney and Chloe being sweet sisters. That's a rarity. Chloe wanted her hair cut like she had done there in Michigan. I have to say that it didn't turn out that way. Oh well, it will grow out... someday.
I.B. is in the kitchen at the apartment. He's so full of himself! All he ever does in there is get himself a snack and supervises the clean up after dinner.

That's what we do when we are here around the apartment. Exciting isn't it? I thought so!