Thursday, March 27, 2008

Weak at heart need not apply...

I unveiled my knee today :o) Of course, I wasn't supposed to... but you know me! I have a brace that I have to wear from the tip-top of my thigh down to my ankle with some fancy hinges at the knee that are locked out for now to keep me from bending it. But, when I took that all off and unwrapped all the bandages and gauze... this is what I found.
Dumm... dummmm.. duuummmmmmmmm

So there's the handy work! Severl "poke holes" to peak in there an fix the meniscus, and then the incisions were to "harvest" my hamstring and then re-attach it into my femur and tibia! How do they attach it? By drilling into the bone! Sweet, eh??
Ok - so now that you feel sorry for poor pitiful me, you are welcome to send all checks, giftcards and baked goodies directly to the house :o) I'll send James and Geeves (aka Josh and Mom) to the mailbox to retrieve them. HA
In all seriousness, I am doing pretty good -- but I am absolutely blessed beyond words with a wonderful husband and mother that have been so willing to take GREAT care of me and Lily (and Graci) without batting an eye! It's not much fun to tend to other people all day long and they're both doing it without complaining. Thanks sooo much to them!!!

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Scratch those plans...

Josh WAS coming home in June, but now... thanks to Uncle Sam, he will not be. We're really having to get use to this re-working of our schedules EVERY SINGLE WEEK! We try to plan and something always seems to spoil'em! So now, I shall come home the last week of May for Cheryl's birthday with Lily alone... and come back home, alone. LOTS of flying time with baby alone :o( Then we both may come home in July - but I'm reluctant to say we WILL considering how things seems to be going anyway but ours these days!
We'll see...

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Surgery is over... now the fun beings

Sooooo, surgery was today -- NO FUN... hurts like, um... I don't know what - but it hurts A LOT! I did have my ACL reconstructed with my hamstring... (all from the same leg) and had a big meniscus tear as well that was repaired. The repair was close to the red zone, so it may not heal and I may have another surgery to take it out... :o) Prayer that it heals please? So the way it works, only part of your meniscus has a blood supply... so when you tear it - if it's in the right spot, you can take it back together and it'll heal. Otherwise, once torn you just have to clean it up and take out the torn piece to keep it from getting in the way of the joint. Why not take it out to begin with? Because you can't replace that piecd and it's the cushion you have between your femur and tibia. TAking it out means more problems done the road - IE arthritis. Just having to have knee surgery at all means increased chance of arthritis --- SOOOOO, all of this to say it's worth triying to fix it and see if it'll heal. The DR scraped the area and it bled, so he felt positive that it might heal! Bla bla bla, medical talk.
The post-op nurses and such weren't stellar shall we say... they insisted I get up before they gave me pain meds? WHAT? I refused, so they thought I was a real pain in the patootie... but I didn't care. I was ill, in pain, and waking up from anesthesia. I kinda got my way - I got my medicine and they gave me about 15 whole minutes for it to work before they had me get up. I told them I needed to sit in the chair before I walked... they refused. Sooooooooo, as I was expecting - I yarfed about 10 times, got hot and dizzy and they had to catch me and put me in the chair. Stupids.. that's how I felt at least because I told them I wasn't ready --- but they were ready. Yea for them.
I sat for about 15 minutes and then was ready to walk on my own - I did, and we got to go home. I'm still mad at them for being so rude? I would never ever treat a patient that way... but whatever. They're probably used to alot of crotchety old men that won't listen to anything around there. (No offense if you are a crotchety old man reading this - ha)
Grandma Pernell flew in yesterday and had her first run with Lily the fussy baby today. She took her bottles relatively OK, shall we say. She'll learn. Mom now understands that sometimes when she screams and cries, there is nothing in the world you can do to make it better... feed her, bounch her, walk her, change her, rock her, medicate her (sillies - she has reflux... so THAT kinda medicine - nothing to knowck her out) and sometimes that's just not enough. BUT - in between those screams, she's super duper sweet and cute and cuddly and smiley. I love her :o)
Ok - enough writing. I'm a little wordy now... we'll blame it on the medication. Many of my friends remember me taking this medication last knee surgery (which by the way was a DREAM compared to this one...) and found me quite hilarious. I'm a little less funny this time... it hurts too much :o)
Each time I get up, it seems a little better though. So we're glad it's over and we're going on to pray hard and work hard to get things as good as new as quick as we can!
Stay tuned - but I'll be coming home around May 23rd and Josh will join me around June 1st/2nd!!! I'll be home for about 2 and a half weeks to see you all before we head back up here. I"m looking forward to it... but flying home with Lily, alone - scares me!!! We'll see!
Much love - enjoy this slideshow of Lily. These are all pictures of her since she turned 3 months old! There is a theme too... we always have a few pictures of her screaming. Daddy wants to keep them as colateral to show her someday and remind her of her temper!
Thanks for prayers and concerns! We love and miss you all.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Happy Easter


Lily Belle and her very first Easter :o) She was a trooper through church... or should I say pooper? All dressed up in her pretty little pink dress that Grandma Elston gave her for Christmas... sparkley tights and all - and what does she do? POOPS right through it all! We managed to get a few pictures... screaming baby and all :o) Who knows, you might can see the poo in the pictures?! I'm not sure when we recognized the "seepage"

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Go TARHEELS

Uncle Larry, Dad, Nina and Scott watching the game this close... worth a few hundered bucks


Scott's quick moment on TV... worth the money spent on tickets.


Dee, Bob, and Alan's disbelief on national television... even in Alaska :o) PRICELESS