Physical Therapy funtimes

It's official, it's been more that 4 weeks. It's great, I'm allowed to bend my knee and am in physical therapy learning how to use my muscles all over again. I went to the Dr last Thursday and he made me cry by bending my knee, then told me to go to his referred PT and work with her. She is great, and a fan of all sports Boston, even pronounces Car - Cahhh.

I also finally got to hang out with my boys last week. Betz, Josh, and Murray came over to hang out with me, since I can't really go anywhere. We had a blast, at least I did. I miss hanging out with people, not that I don't like Galen a lot, but I miss other people. I miss my friends. I also met some new friends in the courtyard of my apartment. All in all, a great time and much needed break from the norm.

Physical Therapy was on Friday for the first time. My PT is great, I really like her and I can tell she's good at her job. She massaged my knee area to try and break up some of the swelling that's just been stuck there since there hasn't been any movement. She also had me do some exercises for bending my knee and strengthen my right leg again, since it's pretty much lost all its muscle. She recommended doing exercises in the pool too, so yay! Too bad it wasn't very nice Saturday and all day Sunday I was exhausted. Pool will be open tomorrow and I will test them out.

A thank you to Galen - Cafe Atlantico. So I told him that it was a surprise and wouldn't give him hints as to where we were going. He's been by my side and wonderful, because I know I'm hard to deal with, I have my bad moments with the leg. My friend Domenick is a chef at Atlantico, so I made arrangements to let him know we were coming. We had great cocktails and the manager even brought us Mini-bar treats (olive oil encased in sugar, beet tumble weed, and nitrous frozen popcorn called Dragon Breath). Dragon breath was awesome, we each had the smoke from the nitrous come out of our mouths and nose. Dinner was expensive, but worth it because it was a great experience.

Mom and Kimmie came down on Saturday morning to spend the day and evening with me. Kim sure is pregnant, and so cute. I'm so excited to be an Aunt. So mom took Kim and me to Target (which is quite hilarious walking around with me in a motorized cart and Kimmie very pregnant) and then we went to Home Goods. Since Home Goods doesn't have carts for me I somehow managed to walk around on crutches for over a half hour. I was definitely tired and done by the time we left. We went to Mexicali Blues for dinner then came home to watch "He's Just Not That Into You." Galen decided to go out, which is great to get away with his friends. He did decide, also, to come over at 3 am to stay with me, which is better than driving. We all went to breakfast at Whitlow's the next morning and then took Kimmie to the train station. Galen and I slept for the majority of the day as I didn't sleep well Saturday night and he didn't' sleep much.

I was back at PT this morning and got my leg to bend to 100 degrees, yay me. The goal is by next Thursday to have it to at least 135 degrees for the Dr. I slept for a lot of the day as still catching up from the weekend and not sleeping well last night. I have some great arts and crafts to start doing to keep me occupied. I'm totally ready to learn to walk again, but have to be patient and keep doing my exercises daily.

3 weeks done

Yep, I'm still extremely frustrated and having good days and bad. This past weekend was fun, at least I got to go out of town. Galen got to wakeboard, and I got to sit on the boat and drink beer. Seems like my life is sit, eat and sleep right now, but I'm trying to fit in work, ab work, arm lifting, etc. I've completely stopped taking Vicodin, so that's the good news, and I have no pain, so no Tylenol too. Just in time, since the trace amount of tylenol in vicodin has reason for it to be possibly taken off the market.

I miss walking, more than anything. I just want to get up from the couch and walk to the kitchen. I also want to clean my place so bad, I've never wanted to clean more in my life. It's either that I'm noticing more dust because I'm at home all the time or I'm so bored that I just want to do something (that and I don't like to live like a slob - unlike my teenage years). There are certain people that like to be waited on (I'm sure I've mentioned this before), and I want to do everything myself. I hate not being able to make my own dinner, clean the house, go to the store, etc. I feel like one of the humans in Wall-e who hasn't used their muscles/bones forever and I feel that fat too.

So I've been dealing with work too, am I working from home or am I on short term disability. Today was the most frustrating part of this process as no one on the leaves team and the right contact info for my HR. Then when talking with my HR, she needed the forms I sent the leaves team, so what's the point of the leaves team? I'm not sure. I've just decided to keep myself on a work from home status unless I hear differently. I'm starting to actually do some work too, which is great, because boredom has hit an all time high.

I crutched 2 whole blocks yesterday to get my check from the person replacing me in the Army 10 miler, since I won't be able to race 10 miles by then. I'm still looking for a replacement for my Reach the Beach relay race in September. I have asked a bunch of people, but it seems that I don't know many females who want to run 22 miles over 3 legs of the relay. I was so looking forward to this too. ARGH!!! And the other morning it was beautiful outside, like morning run beautiful.

So enough whining for now, I have another Dr's appointment for this Thursday. I am supposed to be in physical therapy (PT) this week, but they didn't have any openings. At this point I'm ready to burn my crutches and brace, but we'll throw a party to do that when I get to walk again. Yay, walking!!!! In the meantime it's abs, arms, and upper body lifting.

Frustration - 2.5 weeks

That's the favorite word now - frustrated. The leg feels fine and doesn't hurt, and that's great, but it also means that I feel fine enough to walk and can't. I know that I can't put any weight on my leg and I miss walking/running, etc. I made appointments for the physical therapist, but they didn't have anything for next week, so I go on the 15th. I'm excited to start the process of healing so that I can walk again soon. I'm getting really good on the crutches though. But I still get tired if I try to walk too far.

The whole work thing has been a pain, took 2 weeks to get the Dr to fill out the forms. I'm required to work from home, but that has to be approved by HR, so waiting for that final approval too. I really needed a vacation, and I only had one more week of work until the beach when this happened. I wish I could do anything to be back at work without a broken leg. And the unfortunate thing is that right before the accident I was starting to get settled in my new position and was learning and had the opportunity to get on projects.

I was able to get a ride to girls night at Mc and Schmicks with Chops, Missy, and Cristen. I also got to go out with Lauren for her birthday. And I even made it to Hard Times for wing night last night. I'm trying to get back to normal life, I just have to sit everywhere I go and take up 2 seats, but if that's the worst I do, it's not that bad.

Everything was going so well, and now the frustration has set in. But to count my blessings, I have friends and Galen that want to take care of me and are doing a great job. I'm off to Tappahannock with Galen to his dad's house for some fun in the sun. Yay! Happy Birthday America!!!!

Week 2 - Done

So Saturday was 2 weeks since the accident, freak accident I've decided. I was really mean and grumpy on Friday, I think the leg is starting to irritate me more than anything. I went to see Terminator 2 - awesome, but was very hard to sit through such a long movie with my leg not elevated. The foot was quite swollen by the time we got out of the theater and I was not very nice to Galen because I was upset and frustrated. I called Mom on Saturday morning to learn that Grandmother had fallen on Friday night and broken her bone that was connected to her new titanium hip (femur I think). She just had surgery yesterday, so I have to realize my leg could be a lot worse.

The Dr.'s appointment went well on Friday, I don't have to have surgery for the break as of now, but there is a slight depression on the bone so we will have to monitor the healing progress via getting x-ray's frequently. I have also learned that there is a slight tear in my PCL, but the damage can't be assessed until the tibia bone heals completely. The test is to bend my leg at 90 degrees and push down on the tibia to see if the PCL holds or if it doesn't and the bone goes back behind my knee (ouch). So in about 6 weeks I'll know whether or not I have to have surgery on my PCL. I start physical therapy next week and can (hopefully) start bending my knee again. Still no weight bearing for 6-8 weeks from the date of injury (I think).

Galen was able to go out with his guy friends on Saturday night, a much needed break for him as he's been by my side to help me for the past 2 weeks. I'm learning to be more independent, but still have to rely on people for rides as I can't even walk more than a block without getting tired. Stupid crutches, I hate them! Right now the most frustrating part is that I am not in pain (which is good), but that I can't function like I used to. I hate not being able to be active, I hate not being able to walk, and I hate having to be dependent on people. There are some people in the world that would love to be waited on, I am not like that, I want to be able to do things on my own. Hopefully I will find out about work today, as I need to let the leaves team know.

Back from the beach - Dr today

So I decided to leave OBX early because I wanted to get an earlier appointment with the Dr to read my MRI. The leg is starting to feel better and is looking more and more "normal." Wednesday on the beach was really hot, and it was only supposed to get hotter throughout the week, I would've been miserable just sitting there not being able to get in the water. People keep asking me why I didn't just get in the water, and there are numerous reasons. I only have one brace for the leg, and at $500 I didn't want to ruin this one and risk insurance not paying for the other one. Secondly, I want to have a fast recovery and be back running in the future, the strength of waves in OBX could have done more damage and I didn't want to risk that. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get the Dr to sign off on short term disability, but I have no clue how I would get to work or a client assignment if I was put on a project. I guess a lot of my questions will be answered today, which is why I got an earlier appointment. When I spoke with the surgical scheduler on Wednesday she said that there was no Meniscal damage, but didn't' say anything about ligaments/tendons. I'm very happy that my leg is feeling better, and can't wait until I can bend my knee again, much less bear weight on it too!

Week 1 - Going to the beach

Have had a family reunion and beach trip planned since August 2008, good thing I broke my leg a week before. Jeff, Terri, and Cade rode down in my car and Galen and I rode in his car. I have been more cranky lately, probably a mix of a lot of things. We got Dunkin' Donuts on the way down and that was just great. Hit the road at about 8:45 and didn't hit traffic on 95 until Fredericksburg, and then again getting onto 64. The trip was fairly uneventful, despite me trying to start fights because I was so tired. We finally arrived in Whalehead at about 3 pm, and it was a mere 95 degrees with a ton of humidity. My foot looked like a 500 lb person's and was so swollen. Galen piggy-backed me onto the beach (which was hard on my knee but the only choice before we could check into our houses). The beach was hot and windy and I wanted to go back to the houses and go to the pool where I could at least get in the water. Mom and Dad made me put my leg up for the remainder of the night so that the swelling would go down.

It was hard to just sit in the chair as family arrived, and all I want to do is play with the little kids. Hannah (16 months - cousin) is so cute, and so are my other cousin's kids (Conner - 5, and Kylie - 8). I love seeing all the cousins as they live out west or mid-west. I had so much fun just seeing everyone though.
The first full day of the beach was Sunday and we went down in the morning. This is the first day that I got to use my awesome beach wheelchair (that we originally rented for my grandmother who just had hip replacement surgery). The beach was nice, but it was awfully windy so the afternoon was spent back and the houses. Galen and I took a nap on a twin bed, yikes! Kimmie (sister) and Alden (bro in law) arrive with their two dogs (Buster and Gus). They just make me smile, such a great family and Kimmie is very pregnant and so cute.

I really wish that I was capable of moving around. I've had ups and downs lately where I just wish I could walk. Especially being at the beach, I'm that person that body surfs and is in the water constantly. I miss not being able to go in the water, but if this is the only summer I have to deal with it, I guess I'll survive.
I called the Dr. on Monday and they won't read the MRI over the phone to me, so I have to wait until I go next Monday. I've called the office about the short term disability too, waiting to hear back from them. The swelling has definitely gone down though. And the beach was awesome on Monday. I have a great tan, but only on the front of my body, just like back in the day life guarding. I'll post pictures soon, I have them all on my camera for the week. The highlight of yesterday was killing everyone in scrabble.

Day 6 - MRI Day

So today is the day for the MRI - FINALLY! Jimmie comes to get me and we go to into DC, he goes to Starbucks and I'm off to the Dr's office. I walk in, give them my name, update my address (yes, I'm this young with this being my 2nd MRI) and the lady tells me I don't have an appt. "Yes, I do, the ortho's office told me I did, 9 am" I say. She tells me to have a seat and wait. "The ortho office called and your appointment is for WRA not here, but we'll fit you in" she says. Um, wait what? I went to the wrong office - yes I sure did. Don't give injured, vicidon using, already mad for waiting patients information - it is too much to handle and they will screw it up; just like me. haha. After waiting only an hour (which is lucky since I didn't have an appt) I got to get the MRI done. I jammed out to Dark Side of the Moon during the process.

I take Jimmie to Silver Diner for his patience and ride to the radiologist and am headed home to try and get ready for the beach. I'm picking fights with Galen because I'm tired and frustrated and that's not fair to him. I'm just about ready for a nap and I invite Pablo and his friend from CO over to go swimming. They come over and I give them my keys for the pool so they can enjoy themselves. I am far too lazy to take the clean clothes I've folded off my bed, so I just nap on the floor.

Galen comes over after work and is awesome and vacuums and cleans the bathroom and kitchen floor for me. Jeff, Terri & Cade (cousin's and kid) are arriving from Co. Springs for our family reunion at the beach. I'm so excited, but stupid leg! Galen and I go to his place so he can put away his laundry and pack. The cousin's arrive and we're off to DCA to pick them up and decide to go to Piola for late dinner pizza. I love my pizza (4 cheese) and Galen has his bacon & egg pizza, Jeff gets pineapple and ham, Cade gets artichoke and something else and Terri gets smoked mozzarella and spinach. I think all but Cade enjoy their pizza, but he seems content enough. We get back to my place and pop in Zoolander as I attempt to pack. Packing consists of throwing all my stuff towards my suitcase figuring I'll stuff it in later. I'm off to bed, I'm exhausted.
I'm now taking 750mg of Vicidon at night, but I still wake up in the middle of the night freaking out about something ridiculous and call Galen to calm me down. I think the leg is starting to get the best of me. I'll survive, the beach is Saturday!!!