what a great day!

So today was the last Sunday for a while where I will be able to lead music and participate in the Praise Team. I figure it will be at least 3 Sundays before I will be able to walk up and down stairs without being too disruptive, and also able to stand or sit with my leg down for any length of time.  It was  a fabulous day, though. BEAUTIFUL early spring-like weather, great worship, wonderful people. I got to drive my car with the top down, got to lead one of my very favorite worship songs (HALLELUJAH, ANYHOW!!), and to hear the Youth Choir in rehearsal. I have lots of movie clips downloaded on my computer just waiting to be converted to MP4 and edited into some projects for dinner theatre. 

I found a really great post on a discussion site which was all about coping strategies for being non-weightbearing after foot surgery.  Here is the link to that post, hopefully:

http://www.healthboards.com/boards/showthread.php?t=737812

Another thing I hope to do is to take some pictures of my foot/let along the way. Gotta pass the time some how, right??

Lots to do in the three days before surgery:

-grocery shopping to stock up on things that Doug can cook

-washing sheets on all the beds

-spiffy up the house

-make sure the people taking my rehearsals have all they need

-get a PEDICURE

-staff meeting on Tuesday

-get info on the computer at church for next two Sundays (as much as possible)

-Doug and I need to figure out the best car for me to be able to get into after surgery to come home (need to be able to have leg up)

Oh, and Doug, Sarah and I are going to see a show at the Alliance on Tuesday. That should be fun! One more time to wear those boots....

So this is one of the things...

that I definitely was concerned about: having to stop taking any sort of aspirin or advil before the surgery. I have one of the nasty headaches this morning and cannot take anything for it. Well, tylenol, but that has never helped before . Guess I will give it a go, though.

Five days to go. Yesterday was my last Friday to keep Jackson by myself for what I must assume will be a couple months, at least. Probably more like 3, since I won't be able to drive until after I am out of the boot and have good ROM and strength in my ankle. It was a wonderful day! We grocery shopped, we ran around the house chasing each other, we baked a cake, we played frisbee in the yard with Reesie (he kept saying "Hi, deedee!"), we rolled around on the big exercise ball, we played trains, we sang, and we snuggled. It was glorious. I had a couple of moments when I got teary-eyed just thinking about how great it was. I showed him the crutches and walked around a little and he was not freaked out or anything, which was good.

We had the praise team over last night for calzones and rock band, which is something I have wanted to do for a while. It was a lot of fun and I think everyone enjoyed it. My knee and ankle were aching pretty good by the end of the evening, but I just kept thinking about how much I enjoyed having everyone over. I hope to do it again some time!

I keep thinking of goofy little things I need to do. Like get some sort of "back pack" that I can use in place of a purse while on crutches; like get at least one more set of pants that are large and stretchy and will fit over my splint and bandage and cast so we are not having to wash clothes every other day; and I know there are more things but I can't think of them right now. Obviously, I need a list!

So, here's to my last "active" weekend for a few weeks! The weather is supposed to be beautiful and I will indeed be driving with the top down!! Wahoo!

One week from now...

I will be probably eating a snack, drinking lots of water, and trying to figure out how in the world to get some sleep.

Things continue to move along well. I think I have almost all I need to cover the first two Sundays I am out, except I hope that the guy who works with me (leads music in the other service) comes through with material for my choir so they have a couple of weeks to prepare. Even if I have to take another Sunday or two off, I will still be doing all the planning and song selection and such...

Got my crutches from Jenn and Doug replaced all the pads and tips and adjusted the sizes, so I am good. I have had a lot of time with Jackson this week which has been great. I surely hope he is cool with all of this and that we still get to see him.

Oh, and our kids are planning to come over a little over a week after my surgery and make us dinner! So great!

Count down!!

Pre-op today!

So, it begins. 

Went today armed with my MRI images for my knee, a bit worried that somehow things had been mis-communicated and I would not see the doc at all or something. All for naught, though.

He said  my knee is not that bad, but that he did think that it is a good idea to go ahead and clean up some rough areas on the joint and remove any pieces of meniscus floating around. So again, a two-fer, of sorts.

I also talked to Dr Cullen to make sure that he knows that I want him to do all he needs to do to fix this ankle THIS go-round. No leaving tougher procedures for later if necessary. He still maintains that I do not need the osteotomy, even though he said back in the fall that I did. The recovery without the osteotomy is WAY easier, and that is cool. But, again, I think I have things in place as well as I ever will to be off for an extended time if needed. I don't' want to have to do this again!  I am, however, very good with the idea of not having him cut into the bones of my leg, so that is all to the good. Kind of funny, though: I asked him if I will be able to return to playing tennis without the osteotomy, and he said "yes, nobody sprains their ankle playing tennis". Which, of course, I did. But I will be wearing this brace, so that should be ok.

So, Doug and I will head out bright and early on Thursday Feb 3rd with a grumpy (no coffee) and nervous and probably sleep-deprived me to head to the surgery center by 6:00 am.  They will get IV started and draw pictures on my R leg and talk to us and I should be in the OR by 7:15 to start at 7:30---the first procedure of the day! Yay! I forgot to ask how long it would take, but I imagine less than a couple of hours. Probably closer to 1??

Dr Cullen will scope my knee as described above. Then he will scope my ankle to see if any areas need to be cleaned or scraped and, I imagine, to see the full extent of damage. Then he will make an incision on the outside of the ankle and proceed to cut and then shorten the two lateral ligaments. He'll staple me up and put me in a split and wrap me up. An hour of recovery and then off to home!

My appointment to remove the staples and then place my leg in a cast is on Feb 18th. That is a bit longer than he first said, 15 days. Then in a cast for about 4 weeks. I am thinking that being NWB (non-weight bearing) for 3-4 weeks will be problematic for work,  mostly for leading services. There are stairs all over the place and going down, in particular, will be a challenge. Much less going down them without being very disruptive. I will see how recovery is going with regard to the weight-bearing issue and see how nifty I am doing with the crutches before deciding if I should take an additional Sunday off besides the two I had planned for. Leading rehearsal should be way easier since there are no stairs involved.

The other thing I am concerned about is how Jackson will deal with this. We had a wonderful time this past weekend...I had him by myself all day on Friday and Friday evening and then we were together Saturday and some last night. I have so much fun running around with him and playing on the floor, etc. He loves grabbing my hand (not just me, but you know what I mean!) to take me where ever he wants to go. I am afraid he will be pretty frustrated with me when I cannot get up and go with him. Or, worse, afraid of the big splint and bandage and such. I just hope that does not happen! At least I am getting to spend lots of time with him this week.

So, just a few things to take care of in the 9 days or so remaining before surgery: stock up on foods Doug is comfy with cooking; clean up the house really well, get play lists ready for church, pick up my meds (pain and nausea), and get my crutches from Jennifer. I am also excited about the fact that the praise team is coming over here for calzones this Friday night! That will be fun! Then I think we are working at Daniel and Mackenzie's house on Saturday.

Adventures ahead! 

Around 3 weeks and counting

So, surgery is three weeks from tomorrow. Right now I am so glad that I did not plan this in January, since we are in our third day of enforced isolation due to a winter storm and resultant ice-covered roads. It would be awful to have scheduled this surgery  and planned for it only to have it postponed. And I am sure there are those out there to whom this exact thing has happened.

This time off has given me ample time to accomplish many items on my pre-surgery to-do list. I ordered a set of new tips and pads for my crutches (which I need to get back from Jennifer), a can of soothing spray for skin discomfort under casts, and a thingey to slip on over my cast so I can bathe/shower. I will let you know how that works out! I thought about also getting a leg-elevation pillow, but those are so expensive and I just don't know...but repeatedly piling and un-piling pillows seems a hassle. But what else am I gonna do?  :) I also cleaned out one of the freezers and will do the other when it's not like standing IN a freezer while working in the garage. IE, next week.

I am frankly a bit stir-crazy. We tried to go for a walk a couple of days ago, but walking on ice and in the snow seemed a bad idea. we may venture out this afternoon to run a couple of errands, though. We will see how driving the truck goes! All church activities are cancelled for tonight, so no rehearsals to plan and lead. I miss all my friends!

Oh, I did have my MRI last week on my knee. I will find out what the doc says about that at my pre-op appointment a bit later. I tried to look at them, but what do I know? MRIs are magic.

Nothing exciting, obviously.

Less than a month to go

So, one month from now I will be on the way to recovery!

I officially began my month of preparations yesterday...well, Sunday, really....by cleaning out and re-organizing our kitchen closet (former pantry) and our bathroom linen closet. The later was kind of ridiculous in that I threw away old prescription and over-the-counter medications, some out of date by a decade! But that closet is CLEAN and organized now! We are still experiencing some trash overload from Christmas as well as the cleaning spree, so I will wait until next week to begin cleaning out the freezers and the fridge.

Doug is already asking about what he is going to do about food while I am unable to cook and such. So I guess I need to come up with a list of things he can easily prepare, and  then stock up on those ingredients. Also, make and freeze some things.

Work-wise, I think things are in pretty good shape. Kids' music is purchased and I am EXCITED about it! I need to schedule out a rehearsal and recording plan, and then I can make detailed plans for the video while recovering. Also I will probably be doing some video editing for the HP, so that will be FUN! Between Ben and John, leading during worship should be covered, and I may only miss a couple of Sundays, one of which the HP will be doing the music. Susie will lead the kids' choir rehearsals, and once I have made the rehearsal schedule, she will be good to go.

I am pretty sure I am in denial about not being able to drive myself at all for around 3 months. That will be crazy-making at times, I am sure. At least I will be able to be productive and sit up and such. Poor Eddie! He is having a rough time recovering form his retina surgery. Ugh.

Had a great time seeing old dance company friends last night and catching up. Fun memories!