Update on the Wrist

As some of you know, I had a triangular fibrocartilage tear in my left wrist which was caused by my ulna in that same wrist being too long and it degeneratively moved over tearing cartilage and causing me quite a bit of pain!!! So, Dr. Ekman, who I think is pretty AMAZING!, decided to do a scope of my wrist to repair the tear and clean up and debride the area. I had the procedure done on November 18th.

The surgery was perhaps the easy part. I decided to go with the nerve block in my arm to help with the pain after surgery and they gave me general anesthesia because I absolutely refuse to be awake or have the possibility of waking up during a procedure! The interesting thing about the surgery is that they had given me the impression that the nerve block would wear off within 10-12 hours. This did not happen to be the case. They put me in a sling because they were afraid I might damage my wrist or arm because it had no feeling from the shoulder down. This was indeed a strange sensation. It took closer to 24 hours for the feeling to return and during that time I often forgot that I was unable to use it and at some point I actually recovered partial use and ended up forgetting in the midst of it and slapping myself in the face with my own hand...it was quite laughable and happened twice!! The weekend passed pretty quickly with not a lot of sleep but not much pain since I was pretty good about taking the meds when I needed them and keeping ice on it regularly.

This recovery has not been as easy as I would have expected. I admit, I might have jumped the gun just a bit by returning to work a little earlier than I should have. I only took two days off and when I returned to work the first day, I had the great pleasure of throwing up everything I had eaten and my pain meds. Of course, then I was terrified to even try to put anything back on my stomach including food and pain meds! So, that started a pretty difficult week. I chose to wear the sling while I was at work because I wanted to make sure that customers knew I had had surgery and was unable to lift with that arm. It was a good plan and for the most part kept me from using the wrist too much. I had the stitches removed on the Wednesday after surgery. Then I was down to using steri-strips to keep the incisions closed and healing and wrapping it in an ace bandage to keep from using it too much.

That went pretty well for only a short while. However, that same day, I ended up getting headbutted by an overzealous and friendly old English bulldog directly on my left wrist. Talk about painful! Ouch!!! I ended up having to go back to being on pain meds during the day as well and back to icing because it had begun to swell again. This definitely slowed the healing process a little. And work did not help the wrist too much because I still had to try to do what I could at work and with the extra pain, I have had a difficult couple of weeks.

All of this also kept me out of the gym for the past few weeks. And that has been horribly difficult. The first week I knew I could not hit the gym. Week 2, I had intended to head back to the gym but I was exhausted and still taking pain meds. And work was intense, so I did not make it in at all. I knew I would not be lifting upper body and would likely do either cardio or just lower body, but between not feeling well and a stressful week, I just did not make it to the gym.

Today, however, I made it back to the gym and had a pretty great workout. I got a good leg workout in and it was exhausting but necessary! I am certain I will be feeling it for a few days too! I am not sure when I can include upper body in again, but I will definitely be waiting to hear back from the surgeon with more information about my restrictions and activities and even expectations. I had no idea how much strength I had lost in my lower body since I had not been doing legs lately. Tripp had injured his knee and we had not been doing legs together and I had not had an opportunity to get in by myself and do a leg workout, so it has been awhile. The good thing is that my legs recover quickly and I will be back to my regular weights soon!

So, the wrist is doing well. I still have a couple weeks before I see the surgeon again for another post op check. Hopefully, he will be happy with my progress. I am still trying to take it slowly and carefully, so we'll see.

And my hiatus from running is coming to an end. This week I will be hitting the elliptical a lot and getting some short runs in. It is time to get back to my love/hate relationship with running :)

What a Week!!

Seriously, I just had a pretty amazing week! I always enjoy spending time with friends and this week has been filled with visits from friends!!!

Monday afternoon, my dear friend, Laura, got here with her 3 precious daughters! They arrived about the same time a crazy rain and thunderstorm did!! It was insane. I wasn't sure they were going to make it from their car to the house!! And then just to welcome them to our house, the storm decided to take the lights out. It wasn't too bad at first, but the older girls got bored and it started to get hot in the house! Luckily, the power was restored and we were able to enjoy some time with Laura and the girls.

I am afraid that I don't quite have a house babyproofed for a 9-month old! I felt bad for Layla who was crawling everywhere that we had to keep blocking her. She was such a sweetheart! Annagrace is so smart and funny. She kept me laughing. I really enjoyed talking with her too. She is so bright!! And Madalyn and I had fun...middle children unite :) LOL!! She is a very spirited child and also very smart! I really enjoyed meeting the girls and spending time with them! And it was really awesome to see Laura and hang out with her again!!!

We had a great visit! Tuesday, we headed out to the zoo and spent quite a bit of time there checking out all the animals. It was so hot out!!! I felt like we were all melting!! Then we headed over to Build-A-Bear so the girls could make bears to remember their trip! On Wednesday, we hit the gym and did an upper body workout and some cardio. The girls enjoyed playing in the kids' area while we got a workout in. And after getting all cleaned up and having lunch, we headed to EdVenture, the children's museum. This was my second visit to the museum and the second time I was disappointed. The museum is pretty expensive and on this visit, a lot of the exhibits were broken or just not working. The girls had a pretty good time in spite of it.

It was a great visit. I am definitely going to have to head up to visit them this fall. Jason and I were both sad that they had to leave because we truly enjoyed having them visit!

Thursday, I picked up my friend, Chuck, so that he could hang out with us for a few days! I had asked him to come and help me take down a branch on our cedar tree that had fallen during the storm on Monday. Jason was unable to get it trimmed with his foot still healing. So, Chuck agreed to help me out.

I also went to see my orthopedic surgeon on Thursday. I got great news. Dr. Ekman released me back to my regular routines. He is very happy with my progress. And he told me that he wanted me to continue slowly getting back to where I was and that if I had pain while doing an exercise that I was to stop doing it. From now on, pain in my hip means stop doing that. I can try it again later, but I need to be careful and listen to the hip!! I was so happy to get a good report!!!

Jason also got a good report on his foot on Friday. He got the stitches out and is now able to drive again! Hooray!!!

I got to train Chuck on Friday. It was leg day and I ended up having a pretty great one!! I was able to lift a set on leg press that is the heaviest that I lifted prior to my injury. And I also was able to move from the small box to the medium box for box jumps!! I felt very accomplished. I tried to work Chuck pretty hard too. I felt like I didn't give him too great a workout until Saturday when he started telling me how his legs hurt :) Mine hurt too :) So, yay for great leg day!!!

So Friday night, we celebrated. I invited Cathy & Robert over to join us for dinner and hanging out! We watched a couple episodes of Top Gear and then we watched a movie. It was a great night!! Saturday was a long day...but it ended up being fun. I will give you details about that at a later date! Let's just say that I am happy with the results of my Saturday!

This morning, I got up early and Cathy and I headed out to Harbison State Forest for some hiking. We actually ran into my physical therapist, Daniel, and chatted for a few minutes. I assured him I was not going running but walking because as we all know I am not all that coordinated :) We had a great walk and talk. The weather was not too sweltering and it was overcast! Afterwards we grabbed breakfast at Cracker Barrel!!!

So, it's been a pretty great week for me. I am tired, really tired...bordering on exhaustion to be quite honest. But it's a good tired. I enjoyed all the guests this week and spending quality time with my friends! I am headed to bed early tonight! And I think Jason and I will enjoy some quality time until he heads out to Vermont this coming weekend.

I am looking forward to a great week. Tye is back from vacation so I get to train with him again. And I will get to spend some quality time with Jacob and Jillian :)

Just One of Those Days....

Have you ever had one of those days when you wake up and you don't want to crawl back in bed, but under it? When you want to call in dead? Or you just want to forget that you even exist (even if it's just for a few minutes!)? That is how I have felt the past couple of days.

I admit, that it's my own fault. I got way overwhelmed, took on way too much and frankly, should just learn to say NO! But, if I did any of that, then it just wouldn't be me, now would it?

I normally don't sleep well the days leading up to any type of medical procedures that Jason has. I worry about him all the time, but when I know he is going to have to undergo a procedure, it sends me into overdrive! I love him so much that I would spare him any pain by taking it myself. He's been through so much in his life that it hurts me to think of all that he has endured in his short life and things that he may have to endure later on. So, the past several days leading up to his flexor tendon release surgery, I didn't sleep well. I had a lot to do and did it all on very little sleep. And the sleep I did manage to get wasn't particularly restful!

Jason's procedure went well. He has had some pain but no more than expected. He had a little bit of nausea but I was able to help that with some anti-nausea meds. Mostly, he has just been really, really tired. So, I have let him sleep as much as he wanted because I know his body needs that in order to recover.

Add on top of that, our friend, Chuck, flew in from Korea last night and had asked me to pick him up at the airport. He spent the night with us and may be bunking out here off and on for a little while. If you don't know this about me, you might be surprised but I take on the role of hostess and my desire is to make sure that guests feel completely welcome...like a home away from home. So, of course, this week I was busying about getting things ready for his arrival. And then, I worried yesterday as I left Jason for a little while to pick him up. Luckily, I used my brains and called our niece, Katrina, and she stayed with Jason for awhile which definitely made me feel better.

And perhaps, I should've requested some time off from work since Jason was having surgery. Perhaps that would have been intelligent to do. However, things at work are crazy...as always! Our last audit didn't turn out the way I would have expected for my office and I am very unhappy. Granted, the reasons points were deducted were things that I had no control over and no way of knowing about. But, still, I am angry and I like to run a tight ship. So, I am being even more vigilant than ever when it comes to my office. I have the audit information and I am bound and determined that it will not happen again! I refuse to have points deducted when our next audit occurs in two to three months. (Yes, I am that stubborn!) So, I left Jason this morning for awhile to go into work and will have to leave him for a bit tomorrow to work as well. I feel guilty about it, but he slept the entire time I was gone. However, my mothering instinct is gnawing at me saying I need to be present at all times.

The great thing about today, in spite of the craziness, was that I had a massage scheduled. Now, I know you're probably thinking I am a very selfish wife. I will say Jason insisted I keep my regularly scheduled appointment and I was only 10 minutes away if he needed me. And for the first time ever, my phone was audible in case he needed me. Balancing it all, he was dead asleep thanks to anti-nausea meds and pain meds for the time I was gone. So, with all those precautions and some guilt, I went in for my regular appointment. It was good. It was necessary. I have no regrets about it.

The reason I have no regrets about it is that I would not be functioning right now had it not been for that appointment! My massage therapist, Jeremy, is my friend. I figure after about a year of massage therapy with him and lots and lots of good conversations, I can absolutely say he is more than just my massage therapist. I can tell him things like I would a psychologist (maybe I should give him more money! LOL!) So, today, when I walked in and said I was fine...he called me on it. I told him what was going on...vented for a few minutes and then, as usual, he distracted me from life and all it's insanity and made me laugh...A LOT! I have learned much from him over this year and I appreciate his insights and the way he knows me. He keeps my head clear and refocuses me when I get too caught up in something. And a lot of times, I walk out of our appointments with some profound wisdom that he has given me (and sometimes it can be something others have told me). Maybe it's the simple way that he explains things to me or the way he mentions things without ordering me to do something. Or maybe it's because he knows how to get through to me. I don't quite know, but what I do know is, that today I needed a friend to talk to and he listened and advised. And he is a good friend!

And my aching muscles got some relief because we were finally able to start back to our normal routines since I am no longer in physical therapy. While I was in physical therapy, the surgeon didn't want anyone else doing joint mobilizations. So, now we are back to that. I don't know if that is a good thing or not because after hip surgery I have become really nervous about my hip. I trust Jeremy and that says a lot about him. I respect him and I know that there are days I make his job difficult because I am such a control freak. But this hip injury has me intimidated. I know without a doubt that he would never do anything to hurt me. So, I have to remind myself whenever my hip is involved that he is there to help me and wouldn't ever dream of hurting me. And of course, as I predicted to him, I did much better on the right leg than the left. I am sure in time that will cease to be an issue for me...but I hate that I am reacting like that! At least, he understands and that helps! And hopefully it will be better soon!


So, in the midst of one of THOSE days, I was blessed to have a friend to listen to me and clear my head. I am blessed to have a sweet hubby whom I love more than anything and who knows what I need. One thing is for sure, I have found during my journey that true friends are quite simply a treasure. Finding someone who not only gets you but also allows you to be exactly who you are is priceless. And having friends who can tell when you are not being completely honest and call you out on it is just too awesome for words. I am grateful for the dear friends that fit in these categories. I am blessed that God has placed these people in my life. And I am more than blessed to have God who always knows exactly what I need and provides even more than I can ever imagine! Hope everyone has a great weekend!