Down and out again...

So Monday, December 9, I had my final surgery to remove the long ass pin connecting both fibula and tibia. 

Of course it was the first big snow of the season and we were caught smack dab in it. WTF is freezing fog?  Wierdiest thing but true story it exists. 

Well I was scared of going under because this time it wasn't an emergency so I've had a week to get all freaked out. I was going under AGAIN for a simple screw removal. This time we were at Indiana ortho hospital. The concierge service is nice and very personal.  The process was smooth leading up to entering the OR that's when things got weird. While conscious they restrained my arms and chest to the operating table.  I felt the thick medicine go in and felt the warming sensation that was actually a burn. I was not a happy camper!  

Surgery took 15 minutes, real quick in and out. The whole admission took longer then the discharge. 

The only things that are still bugging me are that my nerves are bothering me, skin sensation is very tender and places still feel numb. I also am sleeping like crap, can't go a whole full night of sleep.

So Saturday we attended Bleed Blue. 

My hubby doesn't know a thing about football but he supports my love of it. 

 The one thing we always do is feel the turf as it's a thing of wonder. 

 Turf love

I liked the Hoosier Dome aka RCA dome but Lucas Oil Stadium is beautiful. A great combo of brick, glass and metal. 

So we then met up for the first time with a group of instagrammers from igersindy who had an instameet at the Circle. This was a new concept for my hubby who doesn't Instagram and was wondering why we were meeting strangers who like taking pictures. 

Got to meet an interesting array of people who (I wish I had more time) I wanted to pick their brain concerning photo apps.  We did a group photo and then they took off to explore other parts of downtown. Hubby and I stayed behind to  go to the top of the monument. 

We went all the way up there. 

Indiana state Capitol. 

JW Marriott covered in fog. 

We then attended my hubby company Christmas party but before we went we tried wine at Chateau Thomas. 

By far the worse winery I've ever been too. We waited at the taste bar forever even though there was only one other couple there. The workers were constantly uncorking bottles. I finally stopped a girl and showed my $10 because we wanted a tasting and asked if they were busy. She stated they had a tour and a dinner. I said I understand how it gets busy during the holidays. Pause.... more waiting. We FINALLY got a tasting and it was not good.  The wines flavored were muted. They had a strawberry wine that had the description of candied strawberry. It tasted like that fake strawberry you get in jolly ranchers not crisp and fresh like I expect wine to taste.   

To top it off they give you a shot of wine not a true tasting.   

So after that bad winery experience we went to the company party and had a good time. I'm so happy for my hubby. 

 

I love my man, Sunday we wake up and he comes up with the great idea to go to Oliver Winery.  Just a recap, Oliver wine is the drink of choice on the boat - screw top bottles, good over ice, and I half a bottle goes into my non spill sippy cup. I digress.  Upon looking up Oliver I see that Butler winery is near it, so off we go to the Upland wine trail. 

First stop was Butler Winery. Be prepared for a long windy road in the countryside that is beautiful. 

The tastes are free and for the holiday they had free mulled wine. Again we are sweet wine drinkers so we ended up with  the vineyard white which is a Catawba grape.  

Next stop OLIVER!!!!

The grounds are beautiful. 

So it was hard to find a sweet wine that I hadn't already had.  I also love the Bean Blossom Cider!  We took a tour and purchased some blackberry. 

We love eating local. So I asked the tasting bar employee where to go and she suggested Farm located downtown Bloomington. Local and organic- my two favorite food words. I got the Lugar Burger - bison meat and hubby got a goat cheese salad. Yummy!

So what's a proud Boilermaker to do in the rival IU town?  Sport her Purdue pride on campus duh!

The oaken bucket will come back home. 

So after getting on the field my husband asks what next...break into Assembly Hall!

We got to walk all the inside of Assembly hall but had to look at the floor through cracked doors. You have to admit the history of Assembly hall is pretty cool to take in. 

Horrible propaganda!!

It was good to feel human again and stay active. Is trouble sleeping an after effect from surgery?  I can't sleep a straight night :(

Blogger vs. tumblr

I've had a tumblr blog but never really use it but
am curious of what it can offer. 
Any ideas of which you like better?

Thanksgiving

My belly is full from Thanksgiving.  Ate at Hubby Grandmas house which was a good time then went to my family house which was an awesome time.  I think its more relaxing at my family's house because alcohol is involved :)
I hate not having holidays at my own home so I prepared my first ever deep fried turkey and it turned out amazing!!  Better then the duck earlier in the week.  I had to make gravy from scratch so I came up with this concotion.

Never to just relax, we went to Michigan and had some Whiskey at the Journeymans distlierry which was just ok, the whiskey isn't as good as it is in Kentucky, the only thing I liked from here was the vodka.

The main goal of course was wine from St. Julian.  I love going there and pulling out my wine club member card because I'm instantly greeted with a huge ass wine glass.  I wish my husband would greet me at the door like that everyday :)  Hubby was happy as we bought 3 bottles of his favorite salad dressing.  We then decided to hop over to the round barn and boy was that a mistake as we drank not only wine but they had beer too.  George was the helper there and man was he good!  I just can't say no to these people.

We ended the night with a good game of Texas Hold Em with my racing friends.  Where's my Godfrey?  I had them all under one roof!

Pre-Thanksgiving

Well the holidays are upon us...what are you thankful for?

Last weekend the hubby and I bought an Butterball indoor turkey fryer.  I'm excited because it also steams and boils.  We love our snow crab leg nights so this is awesome. 

Prior to the big day of cooking we decided to test it out on a duck.  Man oh man was it good, we then went on to make kettle potato chips.  The garage now smells like a fast food restaurant.  A mix of fuel and peanut oil.

It has been a week full of basketball, my little sister and her team won the Indiana Kitchen Tournament.

The next day my friend invited me to watch the Purdue men's Basketball game in the opener in the Old Spice Classic tournament against Siena.  A win to the Boilermakers...BOILER UP!

It has been quite a busy winter, I'm excited as I thought once racing was done that I would have a lot of downtime.  My dad called the other day and complained that I move too much that I'm on the go go too much.  I say I'm doing everything I want to do and enjoying life.

So I am thinking about what I am thankful for...

I'm thankful that my leg healed up fast and that I'm moving better then first predicted. 

I'm thankful for all my critters..

Stub

Wasabi

Lucy

Ronnie, Roxanne, and Steve

Dryer Lint

I'm thankful for my husband...

I'm thankful for my family...

and I'm thankful for my friends...  they were with me during my injury and gave me so much love and support that I don't even now how to repay.   I am very lucky to have you all in my life.

So here's to hoping we don't burn down the house or the bird,  have safe travels as we go from one house to another, and enjoy the time we have with each other because it goes by so fast.

Defying Gravity

So this week has been hectic in a good way.  Proud to say my little sister...let me rephrase my younger but extremely taller sister 5'11 high school sophomore, is starting center for her high school basketball team. 

 

 

So last night the hubby took me out to see Wicked.  It's like my favorite thing in the world.  I blast the soundtrack whenever I need a pick me up.

 

 

 

 

Looks like I'm going to see Wicked College Mentor for Kids.

 

 

 

Come with me to the Emerald City

 

 

All I want for Christmas...

 

 

 

Broken leg and dislocated ankle

So on August 24th I thought I would be a daredevil and ride this beast of machinery.

                                    
                                          This is my husband riding it.  Looks scary right?

Well this is what it did to my leg. 

So basically I took it out thinking, I've owned bikes I know what I'm doing.  Well its amazing that after all these years of worrying about dropping my motorcycle that I would fall two inches off the ground and hurt myself.  My fall was only after riding about 10 feet.  I basically just kind of flubbed over but when I sat up I noticed my ankle was pointing in the opposite direction.  I calmly stated I broke my ankle only to have my husband and mom laugh thinking I was just an Oscar winning actress. After a second I then screamed, I BROKE MY ANKLE!  When they came over it was very apparent that the ankle was NOT pointed in the right direction.

Well this happened on a Saturday morning and the ER told me I would have to go to an ortho doctor on Monday.  WTF? I have to wait like this?  Oh yeah by the way he said I definitely broke my Fibula but he isn't quite sure if I did break my Tibia.  Did you know cracker jack boxes come with a MD license?

So back to camping because these is nothing left to do but get laughed at and taunted by the evil machine.  My poor husband had to listen to me scream in pain every time I sneezed and funny thing about nerves, when they get damaged they like to twitch.  Feeling the bones rubbing on each other DOES NOT feel good.
So Monday morning rolls around and I call the local orthopedic office and tell them what has happened and they tell me they can't see me until Tuesday.  TUESDAY!!!  I can't take another day of this pain, I tell my husband to keep driving south we are going to OrthoIndy.  I called them, told the exact same story and their response was, "How soon can you get here?"  We were there within an hour.  Oh yeah by the way since I thought I was having surgery I hadn't eaten nor brought any pain killers so now I'm back to deafcon 10 on the pain scale.

                                                           I used to have a cute foot

Dr. Baele was not happy with the cracker jack cast and could clearly see on my iPhone that I had indeed broken both bones and would be going straight into surgery.  He introduced me to Dr. Weber and his team and they had me on the way.  During my whole pain filled head I experienced two acts of kindness that I will never forget.  The first was Dr. Weber coming into the room, introducing himself, he took my hand and rubbed the back of it with his thumb and told me he would take care of me.  That kind touch meant the world to me.
The anethesiologist was AMAZING!  I explained to him my low threshold (meaning quick upchuck) to narcotics.  He hooked me up with Zofran and the ear patch.  I remember getting wheeled into the surgery wing as 5 people behind masks introduced themselves.  They wheeled me up to the surgical table and the next thing I know I'm waking up to a wonderful nurse feeding me ice chips!  That was the second act of kindness I remember, I woke up to this kind nurse who was by my side, I felt protected, I felt safe.

                 Final verdict is I broke both bones, dislocated my ankle, and tore all the cartilage.

See that long horizontal pin?  That is holding both my Tibia and Fibula in place while I heal, it will come out, the rest will stay.  I've been assimilated. :(

Yes they mark the limb they will be operating on just to make sure it's the right one.

Something funny happens when you are in the hospital, pudding and jello just become the biggest thing you crave.  I woke up with a huge appetite and ordered like a million things off the menu.  I love me some hospital food.

It's odd and nice how animals react to you when you are injured.  Wasabi never left my side.

 This is how my husband reacts when I'm hurt...it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt, hey wait.

So I was told I will be no weight bearing for 2 months and will have another surgery to remove the long pin in 4-6 months.  It's strange how this physical damage made me emotionally damaged.  I was a blubbering mess, I cried at the drop of a hat, it doesn't feel good to be helpless and to have to depend on others for help.  I couldn't even cook and Adam's job had him in another state until 11pm at night.  I got really depressed, Adam got really worried.  He started researching and went to myachybreakyfoot.com and discovered this was all part of the process, something about pain receptors and depression.  So there was reasoning behind my sadness.  Thankfully I had help from amazing friends and family who did come out to help. 

One of my biggest fears was how awful my scar was going to be.  At OrthoIndy they have a saying that goes, "My scar means..."  I sat down and really contemplated it, for the longest time i thought, "My scar means I'm a dumb ass." 

So holding back the tears (Gotta man up at the doctors office) they unveiled this monstrosity.

It was as bad as I thought.  Dr. Weber was proud to have saved my tattoo though.  I look like a Christmas roast!!

The dogs could feel my pain and sadness.

I didn't let this hold me back from attending every race this season.  Hell I was in the running for first place women's champ!

On October 2 (our wedding anniversary) I got the best news ever, I could go ahead and take off the metal cast and start weight bearing!!!  Best news ever but crap I didn't bring a damn shoe.  I started physical therapy at Miracles and let me tell you you must MUST follow the plan of care, fight through the pain.  My therapist said I have progressed and healed faster then anyone they have ever seen with this type of injury.  It hurts dealing with scar tissue but I didn't want the stiffness to win and set in, I'm got years of dumb ass decision left to make and I need my legs working. 

 I use bio oil everyday twice a day to work on the scar.

So back in June I bought tickets to see Kaskade in Chicago.  I was not letting this injury hold me back.  Going to the concert was the worse experience.  This sucked because the music and set was amazing; I'd been looking forward to it for months, focused my healing on being able to still go, and wanted to enjoy our first concert together.  I took the rollator because at Navy Pier there was no seating and I couldn't stand for 5 hours on my leg.  Adam pushed me through the streets of Chicago on the rollator.  We got to the middle of the pit about 30 feet from the stage.  As the night progressed before Kaskade came on stage it got more and more crowded.  It was unbearable as people kept tripping over the rollator.  We moved out to the side places but now I couldn't see ANYTHING!  I found a disabled station but it was right behind a pole.  WTF?   I feel sorry for anyone who is in a wheelchair who goes because you paid money to sit behind a huge pole.  

I know theres no crying at EDM concerts but...

I did manage to race the last race of the season.  Still waiting for final word but I think I still managed to become the woman's champ for the Indiana region.  Keep fingers crossed because it was a tight race.

So as of November 8, I am within 5 degrees of mobility of my other leg.  I will be undergoing another surgery at the end of December to take out that long pin.  I do feel blessed because time has gone by faster then expected.  Now I say, "My scar means I'm cared for."

Or "My scar means I'm Borg."

Wasabi

My little guy is so cute. He loves me unconditionally, keeps me warm, and purrs me to sleep.