PARTS OF THIS POST MAY BE DISTURBING TO MORE THAN JUST ME

Hello, my sweet friends!

This is Part 2 of the "IT SUCKS TO BE ME" post of a few weeks ago. You'll recall that I fractured four of the metarsals in my right foot and received a spiral fracture of the tibia (the smaller bone that runs the length of your calf located next to the larger fibia) just above the ankle on my right foot.

Look, a diagram for you:)

If any of that interested you, you're ready for vet school or even med school. Give it some thought - you should see how much the surgeon made to put me back together...Oh, wait. Never mind. Obama. Yeah.

Okay, let us move on to the more fun aspects of my stupid injuries...Just below is a picture of the historic Nix Hospital in downtown San Antonio, built in 1930, where I had my surgery and where my surgeon's office is located. You can't tell, but it only has three sides!! It is so cool looking!

This is a close-up of the outside of the building.

I took the picture below while we waited for the valet to park our car.

Oh, this picture is so cool - it's a picture of the elevators in the lobby of the 'we're really expensive because we're a historical' hospital.

You can see the amazing brass relief in the elevator doors. These doors are the original ones. Isn't that something?

'

P.A. Ryan and Doctor Casillas' partner (can't remember his name - he filled in for the picture because Dr. C. was MIA) Check it out - both docs wear a suit and tie every day.

Oh, you'll love this. The guy on the left is James. He always does the casting. So, the first time we met, we were talking, and I was being congenial and asked him what his title was and without missing a beat he said, "housekeeping". ROTF!! We do have fun!

The guy next to him is Dr. C.'s other P.A., Pat - he's the one that keeps telling me I can't walk yet. He is mean and uncooperative.

I thought the stitching on my foot was interesting and though it's not my nature to look at things icky, I took these next two pictures to give you an idea of what went on. See the pins sticking out of my foot? I did throw up a little in the back of my throat when I focused in on those - Woah!!! And you can see some of the staples that run up my leg where they went in to fix the spiral fracture on my tibia. There are pins, screws and plates in my foot and leg.

No more polka for me.

If you are finding this fascinating rather than a wee bit disgusting, I would get an application for vet school.

These are the stitches on the inside of my foot (and my swollen ankle). Yeah.

James from housekeeping getting my foot and leg ready for my RED cast. ...Did you know that they don't make casting in pale pink? I even looked on the internet; just neon pink which is for someone other than me.

I'm James' favorite as is evidenced by the purple band at the top of my cast.

My mom is my #1 nurse and I couldn't have gotten along these last 6 weeks without her. The Tank would have been in charge *shudder* lol. #1 nurse has a nurse's aide, Sister Mary Tina *she's Catholic*, and she is a huge help to #1 nurse. Not.

But she's really cute:)

Instead of crutches I have a red scooter just like the one pictured below. And, trust me, I am cuh-yut steering it around!

Now you know as much as I do (don't you love being in the loop??). I see Dr. C. on Monday. I will most likely be re-casted for two more weeks:( If I am, I sure hope I'll be allowed to put my foot down - not weight bearing, but at least down! OR, Dr. C. could agree with me that it's time for the Darth Vadar boot and some walkin'). Uh, yeah, that's gunna happen. LOL

Thanks for sharing in my recovery process by reading about it and leaving a comment that will make me smile. (The little things really help while I'm sitting here!)

I LOVE my readers!!

Be blessed, Jan

IT SUCKS TO BE ME

IT SUCKS TO BE ME .....oh, that's silly!
I never think that.
Oh, wait, I thought it on Monday.
But just for a moment.
Okay, I had a few moments. *I'm smilin'*

So, here's what happened, yet another chapter in the Medical Adventures of Me. And, this Medical Adventure has a title, IT SUCKS TO BE ME.
You'll understand in a moment.

I think most of you know I have colitis. If you didn't know that and don't know what it is, well, you're just gunna have to google it - I'm not going there in pen.
(And, if you didn't know it and never wanted to know it, oops. But it explains the whole IT SUCKS TO BE ME.)
I have been in remission for a couple of years or so and then about a month ago I had a flare-up. It's still going on but I'm on a steroid that works hand in hand with my daily C. meds and it's been going pretty well; much better.
Well, I made a *really stupid* decision that I shouldn't be eating, just drinking Gatorade and water to stay hydrated. It made sense to me ("Not one word, Annette." :o)
So, for four days I did that. Oh, I had my moments of feeling a bit faint when I would stand up, but I chalked that up to my diet (I have wondered a bit about the contestants on Survivor - do they get faint because they don't have  food for a few days except for maybe a bug? Should I have been eating a few bugs?).

Everything was rockin' along until Monday and when I was walking to the bathroom...hurry, hurry...I became really faint so I leaned my forehead against the wall to wait for it to pass.
The moment didn't pass.
I did.
I passed out
It's an odd sensation.

Well it's me we're talking about and you know I don't do anything half way, but the fact that my right ankle swelled up like a balloon wasn't a big concern for me. I simply thought, ah, heck, I'll bet I bruised my ankle bad.

So I hobbled around the rest of the day. My ankle hurt so I KNEW that bone was bruised pretty badly. The pain radiated up the side of my calf and down to my toes. Ouch! Finally, bedtime and time to get off of my foot.

The next morning God nudged me and told me that perhaps xrays would be a good investment of my time. (He's so much smarter than me. lol) So I called my doc, Debbie, got her to do a lab request, got the xrays and then saw debbie in the exam room.
The news wasn't good. In fact, Debbie (and several of the smart mouthed nurses *said with a smile*) couldn't believe I had driven with my right foot.

What's the big deal??
They couldn't believe I'd been walking around on that foot.
What was I thinking??
Well, I wasn't thinking my foot was broken.

Debbie sent me to a really good ortho' surgeon in Kerrville and they fit me in that afternoon. Dr. Mitchell looked at my xrays, spoke to me in tongues and told me he was sending me to a specialist in San Antonio.
In this...

That sucker weighs as much as a small turkey, I swear.

And there was no color chart - just black.

Talk about adding insult to injury.

Off to the specialist in downtown SAtown we go the next day.

His office is in a beautiful hospital, Nix Hospital, built in the 30's.

The outside of that building is a dream.

So, I spend 5 1/2 hours sitting in a wheelchair (I was told by Dr. Mitchell that under no circumstances was my foot to meet the floor) that had a board for a seat (not really) waiting....Waiting for the appointment...waiting in the exam room for the doctor...waiting for the CAT scan...waiting for the doctor to explain the CAT scan...waiting for the scheduler to tell us what time to be back on Monday.................no food................no drink...................no water. We were exhaused, it was such a long day.

The Tank (staged picture) in the exam room

I loved everyone at this Foot and Ankle Center of South Texas. My doctor is Dr. Casillas, whom I really liked, and his P.A. is Ryan, who was wonderful.

P.A. Ryan and Dr. Benavides (Dr. Casillas had disappeared and I needed a picture so Dr. B. stepped in)

Okay, so here's what I learned...

I had fractured and dislocated four of my metatorsals (at the base).

That's the long bone connected to the toe bone or something like that.

The base of the metatorsals is in the middle of your foot.

Three of them were fractured, with one being "pulverized" (not my term) and two were displaced.

I also have a spiral fracture of that smaller bone in my leg, right above my ankle.

It was starting to make sense.

The fact that I was sent to be treated by these brainiacs was making sense, too.

I really destroyed my right foot - they considered the fracture above my ankle no biggie. *holding face in hands, screaming*

I was sent home with a splint that goes from my toes to the back of my knee and wrapped up like a cold mummy.

I cannot touch the floor with my right foot.

I must keep said foot elevated so that the swelling will go down and they can OPERATE. *I had been forwarned by Dr. Mitchell so I didn't cry*

I have to use a walker to get from my chair to the bathroom, to my bed, to my chair.

Oh, my gosh, no wonder I can't beat up my mother. I have no muscles.

On Monday, I return to the Nix to see if my swelling is gone, which they're anticipating, and if it is, I will be admitted to the hospital, have surgery on Tuesday and be sent home Wednesday or Thursday.

I'm thinkin' the real fun will begin after surgery.

Love you all,

Jan

P.S. Dad, I tried to call you, got your machine but wasn't allowed to leave a message and now it's today.

MY MOTHER, MY FRIEND

I've been wrestling all day with sharing some things with y'all - before I get into all of that, look at this photo. It's my mother. She has always thought that she looks like a boy in this picture, but I think she looks like, well, like 'her'. And, look closely - you can see that she's holding the locket on the necklace around her neck.
Of course, I love this picture. I adore it.
What I've been wrestling with is sharing with y'all how bad yesterday really was for me. I have been skimming over my feelings about all that has happened to my mother when posting because
I am quite aware that I'm not the first one to deal with an elderly (she would kill me for using that word! LOL) parent's health issues.
So, why should I give what I'm going through credence by blogging about it, by telling y'all?
I decided that I should because, first of all, there are those of you that haven't dealt with aging parents and health issues and maybe what I'm going through can help you in some way.
And, also because this is my blog, my diary of sorts, and I can write about what I want to write about - ewww, a little attitude caused by stress. LOL

Yesterday was hard in that it was another day of watching my mom act like she's on morphine.
Which she is, I know that.
I'm not THAT stressed.
Watching her doze, see things that aren't there (a bug - oh gosh, if there really was a bug there, please let it not be a june bug), doze, refuse to eat, doze, drink very little, doze, and for some reason, yesterday she had to go to the bathroom (or felt like she did) at least 12 times during the day.
It was an exhausting day though not that unusual of one since I got here on Tuesday night.

So, when the night nurse got here at 10:30, I went to bed very willingly.
I read for a long bit (Water for Elephants - it's soooooo good), crunched my nightly glass of ice as I read (pure heaven), finished reading, turned out the light and settled down into the soft bed under the fluffy comforter (remember, I'm in Michigan where it's already winter).
Ohhhh, it felt so good.
I said my nighttime prayers which I usually fall asleep saying and laid there thinking about the day and all that my mom had been going through.
It was then that I started to sob.
I just started sobbing. No warning. No toilet paper.
I cried for what seemed like forever, but, in reality, just long enough to soak my pillow, puff my eyes completely closed and impact my nose with snot.
I was so sad.
It hurts me so badly to see my mom not be my mom. Does that make sense?
And, I am well aware that I'm not the first, nor will I be the last, adult child to go through this. . . .so, when your best friend, or a person that goes to your church, or a neighbor, goes through something like this, pray really hard for them.
Pray for them, cook for them, why aren't you cooking for me?, help take care of their family, hug them, and do favors for them without having to first be asked.

Y'all have been so wonderful to me - your post comments and your emails.
Thank you for caring enough about me to care about my mother.

love,

MONDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2008

MOM UPDATE:
mom is doing so much better today! she actually did quite well yesterday, also. She's been eating some (praise God), focusing, watching a bit of television(we just finished watching The Price is Right - it reminded me of the boys when they were young - they loved that show.), visiting, had a bath, and is wearing clothes instead of p.j.'s today!
I'm so excited about how she looks and is acting.

Praise God and thank you for praying.

And, after I finish this post p.s., i'm going to find that paper and glitter i brought with me! woooooooo hoooooooo!!!
I am so blessed with my family and friends. All y'all have been so darling. I cannot thank you enough for your prayers. Just keep on prayin'!

xoxo, jan

"pleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease"

"pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease.", was all I could whimper.

". . . . . .I am glad that God promises that his Spirit interprets for us when all we have in us is prayers like these. . . . ." (Jay Dozier, my friend and pastor)


I will pray for you at any time for any reason.
If you've got something sad, hard, depressing or tough, I'll be right there with the right words and the right spirit.

Until my precious mother fell backwards, knocked herself unconcious and literally, for real, cracked her skull and incurred a hematoma. A hematoma is blood between the skull and the brain causing pressure that gives you a killer headache estimated to last for approximately two weeks - that's the way this was explained to me).
This happened last Wednesday and landed her in ICU two thousand miles away from me.

Then, all I could pray, all I could whimper, was "please" and at times, "nononononononononono...".

Jay said it so well when he said, "Our individual cries for help are perfectly suitable. And when we link our cries for help with those who love the Lord, we are more able to see him working all things out for the good for those who love him."

I'm asking you now, if I haven't asked you already, to pray with me for my mother. My heart bleeds to hear my sister(s) tell me how she whimpers in pain, how she begs for more pain medicine.
It's been so hard being so far away.
I've not been afraid for my mother's healing because I know God is taking care of her, but, I am suffering along with her because I am so, so far away during this horrible time.

It's been scary news, bad news, then good news, then bad news, then good news.
We're back to the bad news.
Mom started out in ICU, was sent home, her headache was totally unmanageable and she was taken back to the ER in the early hours this morning.
She's been re-admitted to the hospital and will probably be there through Tuesday. They've changed her pain meds *yet again* and hopefully this marriage will work and she will receive some relief from the excruciating pain in her head.
If that happens, she'll get to go back home *under 24/7 care*.

If it doesn't, ohhhhh, this is so hard to say.
If it doesn't, she'll very likely be put in a nursing facility (I will not say "home" because the only way I am going to let her go, is fighting tooth and nail) until the pain is manageable, gone,
whatever.

Jean, Eileen and Joan have been there with mom since last week. They all have committments and jobs and families, so I am flying out on Tuesday (this Tuesday) and unless something changes and I need to stay longer, I'll be with my mom for two weeks.

I have custom orders to fulfill and holiday pieces to create, but I work well under pressure:) I should be back by November 4th, so I should be okay with "my job". *giggle*

So. There you go, dear friends. I'm counting on you to be praying for my sweet mother.
Oh, and for those of you that don't know what caused her to black out, it was her blood pressure. It dipped and she lost it.

If she had my butt, it would have hit the floor first instead of her head and we wouldn't be going through all of this. That's how I see it.



XOXO,