Labor Day Weekend 2008

Happy 5th Birthday Quinten!!

Okay, so I'm about five days late in posting this, but for good reasons. Mostly, I wanted to put pictures up with the post, and I am having serious issues with photobucket. This is about the 5th time I've tried and it keeps freezing on me. So no pictures, I suppose (maybe later).

Anyway - so our Quinten boy turned FIVE on September 18th. I can't believe it. He's not supposed to be that big. My second born is five years old! Yikes.

On his birthday he had PJ day at school and got to wear some new Incredible Hulk jammies. Then he got to spend the next few hours at his cousin's house while I played in a company golf thing. After that we went to his favorite restaurant, Chilis, for dinner and he opened up one of his presents - an Indiana Jones whip!

On Friday we had his "friends" party at Fat Cats. We had Me, Matt, Blaine, Quinten, Corlin (well, and Maveri, but she didn't bowl LOL), and Isaac, Tanner and Dominic. We bowled, ate pizza, had cake, opened presents, mini golfed and played arcade games. It was a lot of fun!

THEN, on Sunday he had his "family" party at our house. He got lots of fun presents and lots of money. He even requested to use some of his money to go to Wendy's for lunch today!! Out of all the cool stuff he got, I'd have to say his favorite is his "buppy puppy", a little stuffed animal dog that plays "Happy Birthday" when you squeeze his belly, that he got from Brad and Savs. That thing has not left his sight except when he goes to school.

So there we go. Quinten is five years old. Amazing. I promise to try to post some pictures of the birthday boy at his parties as soon as I can get some to upload!

Happy Birthday my little doodle bug!

Okay, pictures - sorry if they're huge!

eating pizza at fat cats for his friends party


Friends and Fun at Fat Cats







with his "cool cake"





At his family party



the not so cool cake!

Brace yourself - for another month!

Urgh. So I went back to the surgeon yesterday for the grand removal of the brace, only to be told I have to wear it for another month at least!

Because of the blood clot, and where the blood clot is located (top of the calf, almost behind the knee I had surgery on) I was told to stop all therapy that put any kind of stretch or pressure on that spot. Well, just WALKING put some pressure there, so I had to basically stop ALL therapy. So, now I'm that much farther behind and have to keep wearing the darn monstrosity.

Oh well - maybe one day I'll be "normal" again!

Complications

So, we ran into a slight bump in the road to recovery this week. It started Wednesday night. When I got home from seeing baby Bentley I had what I thought was just a horrible cramp in my calf. That night and the next morning I tried everything from heat, ice, massage, icy hot etc. and nothing was giving me any relief. So the next day I called Matt's mom Lynn. She is a physical therapist and has an ultrasound machine at her work, so I called to see if she would u/s it for me to help break it up. Her reaction kinda freaked me out - she said no way, she wouldn't touch it until I had it looked at to make sure it's not a blood clot! Ummm - okay!

So I called the docs office (it was about 2 in the afternoon) and they said they didn't have anyone in right then, but to come in first thing Friday morning. So, I went to the doc (surgeon), both he and his PA say "i highly doubt it's a blood clot, it seems more like muscle, but the only way to tell is by an ultrasound"

So, off to the hospital I go to get me an ultrasound. I walk into the u/s room and the girl doing it says "hey, my best friend is a Cantwell, do you know Sally?" Turns out it is Bryce and Sally's next door neighbor and good friend Jess! So she does her thing,basically running the u/s from groin to ankle and compressing the veins in various spots to see how they react. She doesn't find anything but has to have someone "check her work" because of how new she is. The other lady comes in, said everything looks great - then scans thru the pics one last time and says "wait, that looks weird - let's recheck that". Sure enough - blood clot. Aparantly it's in a vein they don't normaly check - but part of it just happened to get caught on the picture (and it was where my pain was). They they do a bunch more stuff and then call the doc (i'm not allowed to leave until the doc says so). So, not only is it in a weird vein, but it's also very deep, whatever that means.

So they call the doc and he doesn't even know what to do! He's not sure if I should be admitted or not. So he calls one of his good doctor friends. THANKFULLY I did not have to be admitted, but I was sent immediately over to the office of this doctor friend (his office was in the hospital).

So, doctor friend tells me that I have to go on blood thinners - one is a pill that is slow acting (coumadin), and one is a abdominal shot that is fast acting (lovenox). Goes on and on about the list of do's and don't - no aspirin, no IB Profen, aleve, advil etc. Try not to bump or cut myself, don't rub it, no heat, don't stretch it etc. etc. Then he gets into the fun stuff like any numbness, shortness of breath, slurred speech etc. go straight to the ER. I can still do my therapy exercises tho, and can still walk on it (well, if you want to call it walking - i would call it more hobbling clumsily, but whatever).

I picked up my Rx at the hospital pharmacy b/c they have this Lovenox stuff in stock when most pharms don't. And i go over to my friend's new house (they moved out this AM) and she walks me thru giving myself my first shot. I'm such a wuss, but I did it! I also started the coumadin last night too. I go back in monday for a check of my blood levels to see if I need to keep doing the injections or if the pill will be enough.

Crazy stuff. So, here I sit, in horrible pain not because of any part of the surgery, but because I got a freaking BLOOD CLOT! That's not supposed to happen! I'm not old, or fat, or sitting around on my butt all day! GRRR. So anyway, this little glitch is one that will take a few months to fix, and in the meantime, I gotta be careful to not cut myself shaving or anything!

Welcome to the world Bentely Dean!

I have a new nephew! Matt's little brother Bryce and his wife Sally had their first baby in the early hours of yesterday morning. Poor Sally (and Bentely) and a really rough birth experience, but he's here and they're both healthy! 6 lbs 6 oz 19" and one of the cutest kids around!

We are so excited to have kids in that side of the family that aren't ours! And there's one more on the way - Yay for Brad and Savs and their new baby boy!

Now - if only we could work on getting some more girls in the family!

Oh okay, I guess I can wait a few more years!

4-6 more weeks!

I just went for my post-op apt today. I have to wear this stupid t-rom brace for another 4-6 more weeks! AAGGGHHH. I am supposed to "gradually wean myself from the crutches" but keep the brace on b/c i'm not allowed to bend past 90* for 4-6 more weeks because if i do it will pop out the stitch that is in there and we'll have to do this whole process over again! loverly!

So, that's the latest on me! Aren't you glad you know?

Crutches are NO FUN!

I had my knee surgery on Friday. UGH. Turns out there was one meniscal tear, in the back of my meniscus - which meant a little more, um, manuvering of my knee if you will. And because of where it was I now have a lovely T-Rom brace that goes from my ankle to almost my hip and only allows me to bend it to whatever degree the doc sets it at (which happens to be 90* right now, but I haven't gotten anywhere near that). It wasn't as bad as it could have been, because the MRI showed that there were two possible tears and my pcl looked "abnormal" but the doc checked everything out and only found the one tear. So, that's good. But - at the same time, IT FRIGGIN HURTS. My best friend Joan is an OR tech so she was explaining to me how they had to get to where the tear was, and what odd and inhuman angles I was probably bent at, and it's no wonder i'm so sore and swollen! No one should have to know what happened to them while they were out (i'm kidding!).

So anyway, I can put as much pressure as is comfortable while my brace is on, but absolutely NO pressure on it while the brace is off. I have to sleep with the brace on so if I need to get up in the middle of the night I don't put pressure on it, or roll onto it etc. But can I just say, I am absolutely HORRIBLE at crutches. I've never done them before, and it is no fun at all. I can't get up the stairs on them at all, and down isn't so good either. Good thing we have a rambler and my room is on the main level.

But I'm not all sure what is going on. I don't know if it's the meds or what, but when I stand up I get really light headed if I am standing/moving for more than about a minute. I'm on 2 Lortab every 6 hours, and honestly they don't do much for the pain. Today I have felt very nauseated and dizzy as well. So I took a nap and finally got up the courage to take a shower (with matt's help, of course). I can't put pressure on my knee, so I have to just basically lean against the shower wall for support and washed my upper body and let matt wash my legs etc. So there I was leaning against the wall of the shower and next thing I know my vision is starting to disappear from the outside to the inside, and I pass out. Not completely, I can still hear matt, but I can't hold my head up, and i'm just leaning in the corner of the shower. Matt gets me rinsed off and out of the shower and once I sit down for a little bit I'm fine again, just really tired.

Not sure what all that is about, but I guess I'll put a call into the doctor's office tomorrow. It might be side effects from the meds, but if Matt goes back to work I can't be on meds that are gonna make me pass out - but I also cannot be off pain meds and hurting so badly either. So I don't know what's going to happen...but either way, IT SUCKS.