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!!!!