Beautiful Day!!!........(Of Peace And Rest)

Seriously? Is this what winter is going to be like this year? I don't think I remember the last time it rained here.

Anyways my point of this blog post is this...

If there ever was a day that I wanted to get things done around here, today is the day. There's just one little problem.

I can't.

I know you're tired of me whining about my stupid leg, cause I am too. Well too bad!

All I wanna do is have some fun All I wanna do is get busy doin' stuff. Ya know?

Clean my house

Organize things

Do laundry

(OK so I'm already breaking the rule on that one)

Decorate my house

Build furniture!!!

But no. I can't.

Not yet.

I have to "keep the leg up" and wait till my appointment on Monday morning to see what the next step is.

Watch movies.

Read.

Sit with a laptop and surf the web.

BORING!

(why isn't it so boring when I actually want to do this!?)

Boo hoo

Yeah, yeah

Suze you're such a whiner!

I know.

Believe me, I know!

Bored

I don't know what to write other than I'm bored.

My surgery went well. Pretty much all I've done since last week is sit in bed with my leg up, watching all sorts of movies and TV shows and livin' the life.

Yeah....right.

Isn't it strange when you get to do absolutely nothing at all....all you wish to do is something?

It's seriously driving me insane.

It's total déjà vu, from 9 months ago, except with different surroundings (a different house/bedroom, etc...)

To tell you the truth it's a bit freaky that this has been officially 9 months since the drama due to my injury, began.

9 months of agony
9 months of pain
9 months of depression
9 months of discomfort
9 months of MY LIFE!......wasted

Anyways I'm just feelin' pretty crappy right now and all I know to do is blog about it.....cause it's my way of venting.

I did have my post-op with my doctor and he'll see me in another week to get the stitches out. But for now doctor's orders are to stay off my leg.

Brilliant

It's Just Another Manicure Monday (Woa-oo-woa)

No I don't get manicures every Monday....but I did today.
Was it selfish?
YES.
Was it worth it?
Maybe.
Do my nails look awesome?
As awesome as they can I guess. (I chose a really dark, semi-sparkly blue)
Did it totally ruin the experience, having my two kids tag along?
Oh heck yeah.
But am I glad I did it?
Yes. Yes. and YES!

This whole going in for surgery crap has really gotten me down lately. I did some more shopping this morning at The Village and ran into a friend which was really nice (Hey Alli!). So that cheered me up a bit. But as I was heading home and picking up my mail I decided I wanted to treat myself to a manicure. I wish it were a pedicure, but the whole, hole in my leg thing kinda puts a damper on things down there. Can't soak my feet, for fear of getting the bandage wet. And half the pedicure is the massage and I can't exactly feel anything on the inside of my right leg anyways (it's still numb from my injury.....yeah I know.....ew gross.....well, at least I think it is), so that totally ruins things. So a mani it was. I went to my old nail salon, from when I used to live in Redmond. They don't do the greatest of jobs, but they're cheap and it was an old place, with people who recognized me and that made me feel good. It's kinda like walking into Cheers.....you know....the place "where every body knows your naay-ay-ame (dun dun dun) and they're always glad you caay-ay-ame (dun dun dun)". Okay that's enough of the Cheers theme song.

But my point was that I needed to feel the love. (It worked)

Are you getting me?

Well.....I'm needin' to feel the love and a great way to do that is, if you're reading this post, leave a comment. Even if you don't know me and are reading this blog for the first time, leave a comment.

Show me the love!

My Leg.....The Never Ending Saga

So in case all of you don't know, the injury that I sustained in May '09, isn't healed yet. I've pretty much had an open wound on my leg that hasn't closed up. I've been seeing a specialized clinic that deals with chronic wounds for the last 6 months and we're almost there, but not quite. I've had to deal with several infections and this last one is just too much.

The wound clinic cultured my wound, a couple of weeks ago and I went and saw my doctor yesterday morning. I thought it would be the typical, "oh yeah, it's infected again. Let's shove some antibiotics down your throat again and see what happens". I was wrong.

My doctor took a look at my leg and said basically that he wants me to go under the knife again to remove all of the unhealthy tissue that's inhibiting healthy tissue from growing and a good blood supply to flow to the area.

He then told me the other option was to wait.

I wanted to ball my eyes out right then and there.

I've been waiting for this to heal for almost 9 months now and I most definitely DO NOT want surgery again. I told the doc I'd talk to my husband about it and then get back to him.

Luckily Dan's new office is 5 minutes from the hospital (& my doc's office), so I drove over to him in tears.

Have I mentioned that I have the best husband in the world?

He was very comforting and he supported the decision to have surgery, cause as much as I didn't want it, I knew it was the best option. And then because I was so distraught, he told me the sweetest words a man could tell his wife when she's emotionally distressed and needed comforting.

"Suze, go shopping and take the girls out to lunch."

Believe me, Dan knows me so well and he knows that shopping makes me happy. I know, I know, it's totally superficial, but it does. Shopping for me (even if I don't spend any money, but better if I do, of course) releases endorphins in my brain and truly lifts my spirits again. Even better than that is when I find a great bargain. Whoa ho! Don't even get me started on the kicks I get from finding a bargain.

One of my favorite places to shop is Ross. I found 4 pairs of pants for Dan that cost me $3......in total! Oh yeah, I was on a definite high!

Anyways after that I took the girls to my favorite Sushi place in Woodinville. Sushi Connections. I'm so elated that my oldest daughter is a sushi nut. She even ate Eel!

After lunch it was like the heavens opened up and sent me the best day ever. The sun was shining and it was warm and dry out, so the girls and I went to the park. They played and I read my book. The Hunger Games is SOOOO good. I really don't ever want to put it down, but I have to sometimes. I have the next one in the series ready to go, but I have about a 1/4 of the book left.

Anyways my day was brightened despite the fact that I was majorly depressed about having to have this surgery next week. I will let you all know how it goes. In the meantime I'm going to be stocking up on good books, movies and food, to comfort me in my time of recovery.

Random Things I Am Thankful For

There will be no explinations, however strange these things may be that I'm thankful for. Simply a small list of the things I'm grateful to have in my life:

My husband

My children

The FULLNESS of the Gospel of Jesus Christ

The Atonement of Jesus Christ

Prayer

Partaking of the Sacrament

The restoration of the Priesthood

Scriptures

Temples

Eternal marriage

Having the girls sealed to us for eternity

Infertility

Adoption

Birth Moms

My parents (Mom & Step-dad)

My Dad and Step-mom

ALL of my siblings (be they blood or step)

My husbands parents

My husbands siblings and their families

24 nieces and nephews (& one more on the way)

Grandmas & Grandpas

Aunts & Uncles

ALL of my friends, past & present

My leg injury sustained earlier this year

Service

My daily headache

My Diabetes diagnosis

Technology

Email

Microsoft

Dan's job

Being a Hairstylist

My clients

Pay checks

Budgets

My Mom & Dad's immigration to Canada

My immigration to the US

Thriftiness

GREAT Health Insurance

Netflix

Coupons

Sales

Computers

Online Shopping

Public Libraries

The Relief Society

Church callings

Stake Choir

CPAP's

Reliable Cars

Neighbors

Visiting Teachers

Home Teachers

Priesthood blessings

Cameras

Telephones

K-7 Number

Sushi

Subway's $5 Footlongs

Friend's Blogs

Blogs in general

Getting off Facebook

House Cleaners

Home schooling

Craigslist

FREE STUFF

Garage sales

"The Village"

Jamba Juice

Lindor Chocolate

Whirpool Cabrio Washer/Dryer

Food storage

Blue Fire Mongolian

WinCo

Poison Control

Duvall Fire Department

Melaleuca Products

Lip Balm!

Renew Hand Lotion

Games

Fire extinguishers

Speech Therapy

Occupational Therapy

Ballerina School

Children wiping their own butts

YouTube

Wound Clinics

Leapsters

Crokpots

Music

Singing

Laughter

Sheets of Egyptian Cotton (na na na na na na na na)

Firearms

Babysitters

Freecycle

Sisters of Duvall/Sisters That Rock Big

Talent Shows

Early to bed.....early to rise

TV

DVD players

Hair elastics

Rain

Vegetable gardens

Paint

Day Spas

Doctors (MD's & ND's)

Drive-up Banking

Yankee Candles

Personal Injury Lawyers

Adoption Lawyers

Shirley-our Real Estate agent

Big Rock Ward

Toasty Warms

Good Books

Showers

Kids who put themselves to sleep

Kids who dress themselves & brush their own hair

MY NEW HOUSE!!!

Couldn't Have Come At A Better Time

So the whole leg injury ordeal has made me appreciate the service of others a lot more. As much as it ached me to be the giver than the reciever, I always said when I healed up that I would be right there to help all those who helped me.

There's a lady in my ward who recently had surgery. She is a Kindred Spirit. Not only is she fabulous, but she is CANADIAN! Like HELL-LO! She's awesome. Anyways this lady was a HUGE help in my time of need. She not only brought us dinner, but she came and helped out with the girls. Even when she was called at the last minute to help out, she was there. Now at her time of need I am MORE than grateful to help her family out, because she was exceptionally helpful to me.

I write this post as I'm baking cookies and making dinner for her family.

I could not have been able to do this a week ago.

My leg is progressing. I'm still on the Wound VAC and my wound is infected again. But I'm on the road to recovery. PHEW!

Anyways I couldn't have felt better in time when my friend needed my help. I'm not the ONLY one helping mind you.....and this post IS NOT to toot my own horn to say, "look at me I'm doing service!"......are you kidding me? I am just NOT that kind of person (at least I HOPE I'm not!).However I wanted to write that I feel great today. It wasn't the start of the greatest of days, but my Visiting Teachers came over early this afternoon (I love it when they come!) and being able to serve another has given me a renewed bout of energy. Who knows how long it will last. But the greatest part of it is that I CAN do it.

Gotta run......my cookies are done!

Update on "The Leg"

So the day after I wrote that last post, something happend.

I awoke to a wet bed.

I seriously thought I had an accident and wet my bed.....but then I realized that it was my leg that was "leaking".

It had been a week since my stitches had come out and I still had surgical tape on them. It had leaked a little since stitches had come out, but nothing like this. My sheet and pillow that my leg sat on, were so wet that I freaked out.

That day we went back in to see the surgeon and he bandaged it up, put me on antibiotics again and had me come and see him a few days later to see what was going on.

The next visit, the seeping hadn't stopped and so he put me on another antibiotic and wanted me to see an "Infection Specialist".

A.......WHAT DID YOU SAY?

So since then I went to go see the specialist, which freaked me out, cause when I got to his office, under his name on his business card read,

"Infectious Diseases"

But the doctor was super nice and Dan and I both really liked him. However, what he did to me violates all that is sweet and holy.

Pretty much there's a hole in my leg and he wanted to "impact" it to draw all of the icky stuff out, that wasn't coming out by itself.

IMPACT? Impact what?

Oh.....you mean stick a bunch of gauze inside my leg incision....where there's a hole....and you want me to still keep my lunch down? Oh gee......okay.....oh no wait......you want my hubby with the incredibly weak stomach to do it......yeah....sure.....no problem.

Okay even writing about it is seriously making me wanna lose my lunch and it's causing my leg to throb. This is all I will say about this. Maybe I'll let Dan write about it. I'll post more pictures later.

Until then, I'm still suffering at home.......seriously....I feel your pitty.....no really.....I do.

On The Blog Again......Couln't Wait To Get On The Blog Again

Hello fellow peoples. Those who read, those who care, those here for the first time ever. I am semi-back. It's been 5 1/2 weeks since my injury was sustained and almost 3 weeks since the day I had surgery on my leg. I must say it's getting better, but it's taking sweet ol' time to do it. My doc said it would be 6 weeks to fully recover from surgery and I'm almost 1/2 way there, but still feeling discouraged cause of the pain I still have and all of the swelling.

The day I got my stitches out I was finally able to bare weight on my leg (I cheated and was doing it a bit anyways.....just to hobble to and from the bathroom) and I was overjoyed!!! I realized that we take things for granted a lot, like being able to walk, and I was simply ecstatic to be able to use whatever mobility I had in my leg, even for a short time. Each day gets better, but I usually can't walk or stand for more than 5-10 minutes at a time or else it hurts too much. Plus if I'm on my leg it swells up like crazy and I feel like my leg is about to explode. So pretty much my days are still had lying on my bed or the couch with my leg up. I prefer my bed, but since I have two toddlers at home it's a lot more fun and exciting downstairs in our Activity/Family room. Although they've watched a lot of TV lately.....as have I. I'm starting to remember why I dislike TV so much.


But since I can't really do much except watch TV or read books, I have been up on my Scrubs, Becker, NCIS, 24, Hannah Montana, Suite Life with Zack and Cody & Growing Pains. YES I watch those kid shows and NO I don't watch them with my kids. Go ahead....make fun. I haven't read much, cause it's hard to read in bed, unless I'm sitting up, (usually I'm laying down with my leg up), but I have read some Rachel Ann Nunes. Her latest was Eyes of a Stranger and I'm also reading the Ariana Trilogy. I had already read the Ariana series when they were first published, but it was so long ago. When they published it into one big book, I bought it, since I'm missing some of the series, due to lending them out. I also have Stephenie Meyer's book "The Host", sitting on my bed to read, but I have yet to delve into it.


Anyways I just thought I'd write this in order to fill everyone in on what's been going on for the last month and a half. It's been pretty darn crappy. We've missed out on a lot. I've missed out on a lot. My 5th year anniversary, going to visit family, my sis-in-law's baby shower, the birth of her baby (she went into labor at her shower and had the baby the next day....we would've been there for all of it, had I not.......), a birthday party for my daughter who turned 5.......you know, just to name a few. Not to mention half of the summer has gone by and I haven't been outside to enjoy it. Although.....you wouldn't catch my dead on our back porch! I'm too chicken to go on there. There goes BBQ season!


Well for those of you out there who have been wondering what my leg looks like and all that stuff, I'm posting a leg progression from day one, till the time I got my stitches out. Beware to those with weak stomachs. It's pretty graphic. Oh and some of the pictures are pretty crappy, since they were taken with my hubby's camera phone.

***Warning! Graphic Photos***

This is the hole.

Technically I fell thru a rotten 2x4 on the deck and you can see where another piece of the deck was cut out so that I could be freed.

This was my leg after the EMS dropped my off at the ER.

The day after the first ER visit.

I was severely disappointed that I didn't have much of a "war wound", cause it wasn't "bruised enough" for me

I know my leg is fat, but it is in fact swollen more that my other leg

A few days later, after visiting with my doctor & her thinking that if was infected

I know it doesn't look like much of a size difference, but I assure you it was.

Second trip to the ER.

I was told to get Ultrasound on my leg and they found a mass of "pussy bloody stuff", so the ER doc decided he wanted to "drain" it. First he numbed me up. That's what the "X" was for and all the paleness around the redness is where he injected me with numbing. Funny though, my leg has no feeling in it, that I didn't even feel the needle.

Now the ER Doc is putting a drain tube in my leg to try and get most of the "stuff" out. He was then surprised to see that it didn't easily come out. There were a couple of big clots that came out, but nothing major.

This is where the "surgical consult" came to see me. (never understood this until I started watching SCRUBS)

A week after the 2nd trip to the ER and 2 weeks after the accident, I got the drain tube taken out. I was to be "surgeried on" a couple of days later.




Day of surgery. Prepped and ready to go!

The girls waiting for me to get out of recovery. You like the sundress, the hat & the combat boots? That's my 3 yr old when I don't help dress her.

12 days after surgery and 4 & 1/2 weeks after the injury, I finally get my stitches out and I'm able to take a shower for the first time in almost 4 weeks!

I still have my surgeon's signature on the bottom of my leg.

Suze is still on Percocet

Susan asked me to write a short entry to let everyone know what is going on and how she is going. The following post isn't for the faint of heart. I'm holding off on pictures until Susan is able to look at and approve me posting them.

It's been almost 3 weeks since her leg has gotten stuck and those three weeks have included a 2nd trip to the ER (her leg became very infected and even though she was on antibiotics it continued to get worse) In the ER they did an ultra sound and discovered a large mass of what they thought was blood/puss in her calf that was all infected. The doctor decided to cut her leg open enough to drain it out. I watched it was pretty cool for those who know me really well will probably not even believe it because I have such a week stomach. So I got to watch as he dug around and after it didn't really drain he started poking around with tweezers and started pulling out blood clots. At this point he realized that it wasn't just going to bleed out and decided to put a drain in her leg ie some flexible plastic tubing they shove in there to give the blood and gunk a path to get out and to keep the wound open so it can drain.

Her leg isn't really draining with the tube and is still red, infected and painful. We are referred to another doctor an Orthopedic who came to look at her leg while she was in the ER. He sends her for a MRI on her leg and then when we follow up in a few days we decide that the best option at this point is to have surgery on her leg to remove it.

That brings us up to today. Susan when in for surgery and the doctor was able to clean it all out of her leg. In talking to the doctor after the operation he said it had spread up and down her leg quite a bit and the blood clot was pretty much like jelly. In holding up his hands to show me how much he cleaned out it was about the size of two softballs of stuff. So Susan is suppose to be bedridden and off her leg until next Tuesday.

And now you know the rest of the story.

I Got My Leg Stuck In The Deck And All I Got Was This Darn Hospital Blanket & Bracelet

*WARNING* I'm on Percocet as I write this....

It was a glorious Thursday evening and I was making dinner. I was cooking some Perogies on the stove (a RARE find in the US, but I bought some at Costco) and was about to BBQ some Italian Sausage....

....I should probably mention that our patio has a few "watch out for that board"-spots. There's one in particular that I stepped on about a month ago that I had to constantly remind myself not to step on, each time I go outside. This particular board is on route to my BBQ. I keep forgetting it's there and have to remind myself all the time NOT TO STEP ON IT!

Well, gee........wouldn't you know it......I forgot.

So as I'm walking back inside from my BBQ, my life flashes before my eyes as I plummet through this rotten board and get my leg stuck.

Panic stricken I SCREAM my head off for help! My girls are outside playing and have not even a clue that I need help, even though I'm screaming at the top of my lungs, "HELP!!!". My husband wasn't home yet and I was alone.

I prayed.

Flash back to when I sprained my ankle in an underground parking garage 2 1/2 years ago, when that same morning Dan flew on business to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

I was alone yet again.

I still screamed my head off, cause now, not only was I scared, but I was in severe pain and agony!

After what seemed to be a couple of minutes, my heroic next door neighbor hopped the fence to come to my rescue.

Although, BIG problem here.....

....did I mention, my leg was stuck?

As much as we tried to pull my leg out, or he tried to rip the other board to make room, it just wasn't happening. He needed to cut me out and NO, I don't mean my leg!

This is when he hopped the fence for the second time to go get his saw.

Meanwhile our way-back-yard neighbors heard my cries and came over to see what was wrong. One of them also called 911 and all I could think of at this point was:

"HOW EMBARRASSING!!!"

Anyways my heroic neighbor hopped the fence for the 3rd time and brought his saw. It took probably another minute or so for him to cut the wood and I was free.....

...that's when I saw my freakishly warped leg. My worst fear was that it was broken, or that it the blood supply was cut off so much that I would have to loose my leg.

Well Dan arrived home and here are all these people at our house and all he sees it the ambulance outside our driveway and he's still clueless as to what's going on. He even stopped to check the mail! (He felt badly about that after).

So to cut this story short, I had my first ambulance ride ever and come to find out that one of the paramedics is one of my neighbors. Yet another embarrassing moment.

Anyways I spent an agonizing 4 hours in the ER, in the most excruciating pain I've ever felt in my whole entire life!!!! (and that's with severe cramps running the race, I thought nothing could beat that pain!) only to find out that my leg wasn't broken, but that it was severely bruised. I had a hematoma, which I thought was something severe, but it turns out that it's just internal bleeding of the muscle. Oh, is that it?

Anyways I left the hospital in pain, even though they gave me a shot for pain, (yeah, didn't kick in till a couple of hours later) and I was disappointed that all this was nothing.

Okay to me it wasn't nothing, cause I'm in total pain and all I can do is lay in bed with my leg elevated. Yeah.....been through this before!

BORING!!!

That's why I decided it was time to blog about it. So I hobbled my way downstairs not only so I could come on the puter, but I needed a severe change in scenery.

My "war wound" was supposed to be really bad.....and to my disappointment, looks like I was just hit in the leg.

SUCKS TO BE ME!!!

I'll post pictures later.

You know when you're addicted to blogging, cause all I kept thinking during the whole ordeal was, "I hope someone's taking pictures, cause this is SO blog worthy!"

I'm sick.