I'd Get Up and Do A Cheer But Who Wants A One-Footed Cheerleader?

I had a great night last night. I slept well without the cocktail of drugs necessary in the not-so-distance past. My foot hasn't been miserable in the last 24 hours and I've been able to sit upright for more than an hour without causing excessive pain. AND I haven't called the Doc since yesterday morning. I think this is the best day of recovery thus far. I hope it continues to get better.

And prune juice killed Constance too. She is no longer a nuisance to me although Hubs might have preferred Constance to what he's enduring now.

And for the first time in 6 days, I can worry about something other than pain. Like taking a bath, washing my hair and brushing my teeth ...

Sentence

I think we could sentence criminals to lying on their back with their foot propped up and the order to stay that way until hell freezes over. I think that's how long I've been lying here. And subject them to crutches and an aching foot and then put them in a small room with a farting, poop-eating dog that you can't escape quickly. It's an appropriate punishment for almost anything.

I have been passing my time with a number of things that are also becoming quite a bore. Like this one:

Even the best book gets boring when it's all you can do ... And like this:

Luckily, I have a book of 200 crosswords so when I get bored with one, I just move on to the next esp. because my crossword puzzle dictionary is two floors up and that's just too much work to get.

Luckily, I can use this to pass my time too:

And lucky for you all, the subject is consistent: "Pity Me."

Most of all though, what would I do without this? Thanks buddy.

Constance

An unannounced and not so welcome visitor to my surgery recovery is, what I have affectionately called Constance, known better to others as constipation. The pain meds aren't all they're cracked up to be ...

I tried the fruits and veggie suggestion for a couple days hoping that it would ferret out Constance without too much trouble - no results to write home about (or write here about). So, last night, Hubs dug out my old pink box of Correctol - relief in a box, or so I thought. The box says, "Gentle, overnight relief." The only true word in that statement is "overnight."

I hadn't eaten much yesterday because I have no way to work up an appetite yet in this first lie-on-my-back-with-foot-propped-up stage of recovery. So, on an empty stomach, I took two tablets and went to bed. And while the night wore on and my meds wore off, I also took two pain meds on an empty stomach.

Realizing my mistake, I stuffed a half column of saltines in my face hoping that it wasn't too late. It was too late.

At about 3:30 a.m., I ended up on the toilet with a wastebasket on my lap. Needless to say, I didn't need the toilet.

Hubs got out of bed, cleaned up the mess and put me back to bed without so much as a fuss. He is in the running for "Best Husband In The World Award" for his performance in the last few days of this saga and his ability to deal with Constance is no exception.

Post-op Update

I am lying on my futon downstairs with my right foot elevated "above my nose." I've been lying like this for what seems like weeks, but it's really only been since the afternoon of Friday, Jan. 25th which was the day I officially parted ways with Rafael.

I went in for surgery at 6:30 Friday morning for prep. The surgery was scheduled for 7:30 but they checked my vitals, started an IV and then gave me a nerve block for the lower part of my right leg. I didn't yet know the value of the nerve block which I discovered much later, so as I had a needle the size of a garden hose piercing the back side of my knee, I wished that I could reconsider the whole deal. The cramping, which is a much less severe word than the feeling I experienced, encompassed the whole lower half of my leg and caused my muscles to twitch and shake uncontrollably. The anesthesiologist confirmed this was "normal" which is hardly the word I'd use to describe it. Luckily, I already had an IV administering fluids so I fell asleep after the 3rd or 4th poke and don't remember much more of anything until I awoke in the recovery room much later.

My first thought when I awoke was to check my foot and to wiggle my toes. The nurse told me my first words were, "Is it appropriate to wiggle my toes?" A legitimate question given that I'd just spent 2.5 hours , unbeknownst to me, in an operation where they broke bones, reshaped them, shaved portions of bones and reconnected them with screws that will be with me for life. And then they shaved off more bone on the offending bunion area; that's where Rafael was excommunicated from my life; and then made some incisions so that my toes could straighten. According to the Doc, the surgery went well. I got to see an "after" x-ray and it was shocking to see the transformation when compared to the "before" x-ray. I hope to talk Dr. Hanson out of a set of those pics.

Yesterday, the day after the surgery, the nerve block wore off. And then the pain hit. I didn't understand, until then, why I'd been prescribed such a hearty cocktail of Oxycontin, Percocet and ibuprofin. The nerve block had effectively kept me without pain for a good 24 hours; a blessing I can't even begin to count. And even with the star line-up of prescribed drug cocktails, I am still feeling pain on a regular basis. Last night, hopefully, was the worst of it; even caused me to lose appetite for homemade lasagna, garlic toast and brownies brought to us by a friend who usually knows the way to my heart. I was reticent, at first, to rely so much on addictive pain meds for pain relief. But now that I know the level of pain I'll endure if I continue my hesitation to relieve the pain with conventional meds that are intended for this purpose, I think I'll opt for the meds.

I have my first post-op appointment in a week. I'm already having dreams about the Doc unwrapping my foot and letting me see the horror underneath. The blood I can see seeping through the bandages (again, a "normal" part of recovery) has been feeding my imagination and manifesting into horror movie dreams. Last night, Hubs appeared in my dream as a head-to-toe bandaged, drag-foot zombie that followed me around. When he linked his bandage accidentally around a doorknob and it was removed, he looked like a mangled foot underneath.

Are There Any Friends Left?

I have never made a friendship bracelet. Having grown up through the 70's and 80's, it's amazing to me that I never made or gave any friendship bracelets as a youngster. It's any wonder I had any friends....

I used yarn instead of embroidery thread cuz that's all I had at home. I'm not sure what all the hype was back in the day cuz it wasn't all that fun - my back hurt from hunching over it and it didn't turn out all that great either as you can see. There are different versions so there are many varieties that I could make. I made the one that was mid-level difficult and looked the best ... if it's done right. Luckily, if times get tough, I can crank out some bracelets and give them as gifts to friends and family. It's always good to have that option in your back pocket.

Merging of Cultures Right Here In Helena

On Saturday, I went with AVD and boyfriend to a Newbie concert at the Myrna Loy in Helena; MARIMBA music. I'd never seen it performed live and it was quite a treat. Who would have imagined that a Montana group could be so good at playing music from Zimbabwe? There were probably 10 people in the ensemble and their instruments were xylophones - the only way I know to describe it - that ranged from small like the Tinker Toys version we had as children to a very large one that required a step to access it because the pipes that resonated the sound were large enough for me crawl in them. The music was energetic, fun, and hard to resist foot-stomping or doing a little jig in my chair. There were many brave souls that ventured out on the dance floor but I was not one of them. I love to dance but not when the whole audience is aimed directly at the dance floor with nothing else to watch but the dancers. It made for a great people-watching concert though.

At one point, mid-concert, the band moved their instruments to make room for another Newbie and treat. A group of 4 kids - probably not older than 21, 22, choreographed a break dancing routine to one of the songs performed by the marimba band. Fascinating. They performed it onstage with the band and because I was late to the concert and had to, actually GOT TO sit up front where no one else wanted to sit, I was able to see how proud they were of their performance. It was great to see the kids so appreciative of a likely different type of music than they generally enjoy and it was even more great to see how good they were at their art. I think I'll take up break dancing for a Newbie sometime.

Not-Wet-With-Water Cleaners

Did you know that dry cleaning doesn't necessarily mean 'dry'? I took my fave sweater to the dry cleaners last Monday cuz it was looking a bit dingy. In order to log another Newbie, I asked the woman a bit about dry cleaning. She showed me a machine much like a washing machine that cleans the clothes in mass quanitities. The cleaning solvent is a liquid but because the process doesn't use water, it is dubbed "dry" cleaning. The solvent is constantly filtered through at an amazing rate so that my sweater was cleaned for 8 minutes and used approx. 200 gallons of solvent. She said that their business in little ol' Helena probably used millions of gallons of solvent PER DAY. Seems like a total waste when I really don't mind wearing a dirty sweater. My sweater was definitely clean and shiny when I got it back, but not clean or shiny enough to justify all that pollutant and energy just to clean my fave sweater.

Snowshoeing

Last Saturday, I finally tried out my Christmas gift from Hubs - snowshoeing. I'd never done it before and was glad to log at least one Newbie for the New Years weekend. I went with BFFs AVD and SH and had a great time frolicking in the snow like we actually have it - which we don't here in the dry barren desolate brown desert of Helena. We had to go high to get any of the white stuff but it was like a winter wonderland once we did. Snowshoeing is definitely a contender for the Fave winter play right up there with x-country skiing, downhill skiing, and Guiness drinking.

Speaking of winter wonderland, I think Lost Trail Ski Resort is the last best place left in Montana for skiing. It's cheap (unlike the ridiculous mountain, BS -a fitting acronym - that claims home in Montana but charges more than most Montanans can afford), it ALWAYS has great snow even in the face of global warming and desert-like conditions elsewhere, there are hardly any people there; I've never waited in line at the lift, and it's tucked back in the middle of nowhere on the border of ID and MT. It's my new favorite place to ski. Plus, they serve a really kickass brownie with chocolate frosting that I can't resist every time I go. I daresay it's better than the massive chocolate chip cookie that I get at Discovery Ski Basin every time we ski there. I think it could feed most of Helena in a food shortage. Mmmmmm, maybe it's time to go skiing again.

Death by Hanging

Did you know that death by hanging is still allowed in 2 states in the U.S.? I found this out last Friday, December 28, 2007, by playing my favorite Boxerjam game, KnowItAll. It's like a trivia game and one of the questions was about what other methods of death, besides lethal injection, are allowed in some states with the death pentaly. It made me curious so I looked it up. Washington and Delaware still allow death by hanging. The website where I found it, my new favorite site, Howstuffworks.com, has more fascinating information about how hanging actually works. The website claims that when it's done right, hanging can be one of the "most humane ways to inflict death." Isn't that an oxymoron?

It's still appalling to me that we share this honor (<--insert sarcasm) of being a country with the death penalty with other countries like Rwanda, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, etc. And yet, we bomb them for the "human atrocities" they inflict on their people. It makes me gag.

Once and for all...

On 12/27, 2007, I finally called the doc for an apointment to deal with Rafael once and for all. This counts as a legit Newbie because for one, I’m the judge and jury of my own project, and for two, I haven’t been ready for the likely outcome of making an appointment; and now I am. So, for me, this counts. I have lived with this painful knob on the inside of my right foot since, hmmm, maybe since high school. I have become much more active in my adult life and therefore, it has grown and festered for most of its existence. Having trained for and finished 4 marathons, I probably secured the fate of its maturity, but everything I do now is with pain in my foot. The final straw was the infection. So, it’s a Newbie for me to finally buck up and call the doc because I know what he’ll say: cut it off. Calling the doc meant being prepared for a major, difficult and painful surgery and recovery. And for my Newbie, I’m finally ready. The prospect of no more pain while I run, ski, dance, walk, backpack, etc, is enough to seal the deal once and for all.

HAPPY 2008!

It hasn't been a good New Year for Newbies thus far. The first step to fixing my lackadaisical attitude toward Newbie makings is to admit that I have a problem; lack of creativity. I endeavored to be more creative by doing this project for my 36th year of life and alas, it has only confirmed my fears about a low level of creative juices flowing through my body.


I can safely say that since Thursday, December 27, I've tallied approximately 4 Newbies which is terrible since it's been over a week. But I've been distracted by travels, family, eating, drinking, skiing, drinking, eating and friends - not good excuses but they're the only ones I've got ... And let me tell you, the ideas are slow to come to me. I've been just getting on the internet to learn more things and that's the easy way out - still following my own rules, but it's still the easy way out! I need suggestions. I've had a good amount of suggestions from AP and they have been helping me through the rough times. But I'm running out - help! I am vowing to get back to the Newbie makings but with your help, it'll be a lot easier.