The Road to Recovery

Today was a very big day in our house.  Nathan finally got the pins out of his toes!  They were originally supposed to come out last week, but x-rays at that time showed that his toes weren’t quite healed enough.  So today was the big day.  He is now pin-less, in a new walking boot, and only using crutches as needed.  Needless to say, he is very excited to finally be moving around a little more and seeing some progress.

This last month has been quite a learning experience, for both of us.  As Nathan put it, he will “never take his toes for granted again”.  (He probably will also listen to his wife when she tells him that hopping on one foot up stairs is not a good idea and certainly will not lead to anything good.  That is, unless you consider face planting to be “good”.)  Obviously the “in sickness” part of our wedding vows came unexpectedly and much earlier than expected.  It was certainly challenging and stressful at times, but I feel like I have grown as wife.  Not only that, my brain cells have gotten smarter!  Thanks to this experience, I now know several new things:

1) It’s a good thing that I am not a nurse.

Because I would really be terrible at it.  I have not had any professional nursing training, so I can’t be sure, but I suspect that good nurses do not repeatedly bump the broken bones (on accident, of course).  Or kick them (also on accident).  Or drop sherbet cups on them (again, an accident).

2) How to connect the sprinkler to the hose.

And where to place it in order to water the lawn.  Also, that the hose is possessed and will spray water all over you when you attempt to turn it off.

3) Where to find painter’s tape at Home Depot.

That would be the second paint aisle. Not the first.  And apparently, it only takes a salesperson one glance to realize that I do not belong in Home Depot.

4)  The secret to Nathan’s homemade pizza.

One part of the secret is the ingredients.  Another part is the process.  And the final part is not overdoing it on the cheese, unless you want to fill your house with smoke and be forced to open all of the windows in ninety degree weather.  Obviously, I learned this the hard way.

5) How to take out the trash.

It seems like this would be fairly obvious and straightforward.  But it turns out, there is a method to the madness!

6) I can cook new things without using recipes!

Ok, fine.  One new thing.  But when you go from cooking two dinners a week to cooking seven dinners a week, you realize that you quickly run out of meal ideas.  Last night, I was feeling creative.  And tired of eating my same old garlic bread with premade Johnny’s Garlic Seasoning.  So I got creative with some butter, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, and mozzarella.  And voila!  I had cheesy garlic bread.  EDIBLE cheesy garlic bread.  SUCCESS!!!!

7) It is possible to take back our pop cans in a timely fashion.

Those of you who know us know that our garage is filled with bags, bags, and more bags of cans and water bottles.  My dad got tired of it and “tricked” (Nathan’s words, not mine) Nathan into taking back pop cans one day.  I have never been a fan of returning cans, especially alone.  But with some helpful nagging from my dear old dad, I went alone to take back cans one day.  And guess what?  It wasn’t so bad!  The trick is to go to Costco’s can return, and get there when they open.  Their machines always work (hint, hint, Safeway), and they even have a call button for when the bins get full!  I have made twenty bucks in the last two weeks.  (No matter that I probably still have forty bucks more in the garage).  PROGRESS!

8) My parents rock.

They took Nathan to doctors appointments, ran errands for me, and took back some of my cans.  They even installed a special showerhead in the now non-leaky master shower so that Nathan could take a shower easier without getting his foot wet.  I don’t know what we would have done without them.

9) My husband helps me a lot.

I knew he helped me around the house before.  But I don’t think I fully appreciated how much until he physically couldn’t help me.  He couldn’t kill the spiders, make dinner, carry laundry upstairs, or unload all the groceries from the car.  And that’s just the tip of the iceberg with what he helps me with.  I will never take his help for granted again!

10) And finally, my husband thinks I am a terrible driver.

See, normally he drives everywhere.  But for the last month, he has been at my mercy.  Apparently my tendency to drift, speed, and not use a blinker scares him.  I believe his exact words were, “You are the worst driver I know.  I never thought I would say it, but you are worse than Erika.”  (I am really not sure who should be more offended, me or Erika.  Erika says me.  But I am not offended.  He will eat his words when I become the next Danica Patrick.  You don’t need blinkers in NASCAR!)

* * *

Yes, the last month was challenging, but I am really grateful that we had this experience.  I think we will appreciate things more, and be better prepared to handle future challenges.  We still have a little ways to go on the path to recovery, but I am looking forward to things slowly getting back to normal!

Fourth Of July Fun

Yes, I know July 4th was nearly a week ago.  As you may have noticed by my lack of blogging, I am a little behind lately.  Besides, my neighbors are still shooting off fireworks.  So if they insist on doing that, I insist on sharing our 4th of July a few days late.

The past several years, the more ambitious members of my family have started a tradition of running a 10K called the Butte to Butte on the morning of July 4th (the less ambitious members of the family, aka my siblings, have always managed to find a reason to stay in bed).  First it was me and my parents, then Nathan joined in.  This year Nathan had to sit out due to all the broken toes, but my Uncle Rob joined the festivities.

For all you non-runners, a 10K is slightly over 6 miles.  The first mile of this race is all uphill, the second mile is downhill, and the last four are flat.

I love doing this run, but I am setting a disturbing pattern of being in worse and worse shape every year when it rolls around.  I don’t think I had run any farther than 4 miles since LAST July 4th!  This year, I ran the 10K in a little less than an hour, and only ten seconds slower than last year.  Not bad, except that I felt about ten times worse this year.  I felt great through four miles, but miles five and six kicked my butt.  As evidenced by this super flattering photo of my finish.

If it looks like I am running about two miles an hour at this point?  That’s because I probably am.  Nothing like pain to motivate me to actually attempt to be in shape next year.

Luckily for mom and dad, they photograph just as great as me.

The upside of this run is that it is a TON of fun, you totally get your money’s worth out of your entry fee (this year they even had barbecued hot dogs at the finish line!), and you get such a good workout that you feel no guilt whatsoever when you stuff your face later on in the day.  The downside is that you have to get up at the crack of dawn, and it hurts to move for several days after.  But that is a small price to pay for enjoying this later in the afternoon:

Ingredients: 3

Minutes to Prepare: 5

A Beautiful, Delicious Dessert: Priceless!

I would give you my secret recipe, but then I’d have to kill you.

The other great thing about July 4th was that summer finally arrived!  We had one glorious day of comfortable weather, and we enjoyed a fun, relaxing barbecue that afternoon with some great people.

Since then, the temperature has skyrocketed and I am contemplating a move to Alaska.  I am also contemplating using Nathan’s crutches to knock some sense into my apparently unemployed neighbors if they don’t stop setting off fireworks on a nightly basis.  Wish me luck!

Tale of the Toes

For those who don’t already know, Nathan had an accident last week involving a seventy pound fork from a forklift and his left foot. 

I got a call last Wednesday night that he was being taken to the ER by ambulance.  I met him at the ER, where the doctor diagnosed him with three broken toes on his left foot (the 3rd, 4th, and 5th toes).  Apparently this is a pretty impressive feat – most people don’t manage to break this many toes at one time.  Apparently before I got there, one random nurse came by and remarked, “I’m not on this case, but I heard there was an impressive foot that I needed to see.”  His foot looked so weird, the 4th and 5th toes were just limp and hanging out to the left, and the 3rd toe was off to the right.  In the 4th toe, the x-rays showed that the bone had been completely sheared off.  At the ER, they buddy taped everything together and wrapped it up in a makeshift cast.  They gave him pain meds, a tetanus shot, crutches, and instructions for follow up care.

He has had a pretty miserable past week.  The official diagnosis may be broken toes, but he might as well have a broken foot.  He can’t walk because he can’t put any weight on it at all.  He is stuck on the couch, and is in a lot of pain despite constant elevation and ice.  It’s ironic how sometimes we get so busy that we just wish for a weekend where we could sit on the couch the entire time if we so choose . . . but forcefully being stuck on the couch is unbearable.  The crutches bruised his underarms, and the tetanus shot didn’t do much to help the arm situation.  He has been up the stairs three times – once for a shower, once to keep me company while I folded laundry, and once just to prove that he could do it.  Going up the stairs is slow and tiring though, so we are trying to do everything downstairs.  Despite all of this, he managed to stay in pretty good spirits.

Yesterday, my mom took Nathan to see the orthopedic surgeon, which was his first major follow up appointment.  The first important piece of information from this appointment was that he actually has FOUR broken toes.  The big toe is broken in two spots as well.  I am not sure how the ER missed that one, but at least it explains the constantly changing color, bruising, and sensitivity of the big toe.  The orthopedic surgeon thinks that the big toe protected the 2nd toe from breaking.  The second important piece of information is that the big toe and 3rd toe will eventually heal on their own over time, but the 4th and 5th toe will need to be surgically repaired.  The third important piece of information was visual, as the surgeon unwrapped the bandage-cast that Nathan’s foot had been in for 5 days, and they got a look at how his foot is doing.  I warn you now, this is a pretty bad injury, and this picture is pretty gnarly.  If you don’t like to see colorful bruising and gross injuries, well . . . don’t look and keep scrolling.

  My mom was gracious enough to take pictures so that I could see how his foot was doing, since I couldn’t be at the appointment in person.  The color and bruising seems worse than when we were at the ER last week, but his toes are at least not so far in the opposite direction.

Nathan will have surgery this Thursday afternoon to insert pins into the 4th and 5th toes.  This will help them to heal properly and in line with the other toes.  He may not retain full mobility in them, but he will be able to do regular activities like walk and run.  Luckily, your 4th and 5th toes aren’t as crucial as the other ones.  After the surgery, they will give him a walking boot, but it will still be another week or more of no walking, and even then he may still be on crutches for a while.  They will take the pins out in July, about three weeks after the surgery.

The stinky thing is that the surgeon unwrapped a lot of the gauze that you see on Nathan’s foot in the top picture, because he wanted Nathan’s toes to get some more air.  Unfortunately, this leaves all the injured toes partially exposed and provides a lot less protection against sensitivity.  This makes it more painful for him to even get up on the crutches to go to the bathroom, change clothes, put on ice packs, etc.  To add to that, they have some pre-op instructions that we have to follow to avoid staph infections, which includes showering the night before and morning of with special soap.  Unfortunately, both our showers are upstairs, and that’s a lot of travel and stress for a sensitive foot.

This whole ordeal has been stressful and scary, but I am just glad that he did not get hurt worse.  We said our wedding vows, “in sickness and in health”, and the sickness part just hit us a little earlier than expected!  But I like being responsible around the house and taking care of my husband, even if I may be a little overprotective of him at times.  My mom, dad, and brother have been a HUGE help since I don’t have vacation time at my new job yet.  They are taking him to all of his appointments, helping me run errands, and just get things taken care of.  Monday night, I even made the homemade pizza that Nathan cooks for me every Monday (all on his instructions, of course.  I am not the cook in this family!).  It wasn’t nearly as good as his, but it WAS edible (and for me, that’s a pretty big accomplishment).

So, send some positive karma out into the universe on Thursday that his surgery goes well! (And also, that we have two successful trips up the stairs on Wednesday night and Thursday morning for the pre-op showers.)

Total (Immune) System Failure

I have come to the conclusion that my body is a breeding ground for the common cold.

Somehow, I managed to avoid the gazillion nasty flu bugs that have been circulating this winter, only to be knocked flat on my butt by a pesky little (ha!) cold that came on Saturday out of the blue.

I consider myself a relatively healthy person.  I exercise regularly (okay fine – regularly enough), I don’t smoke, and I don’t eat fast food.  I take a multi-vitamin every single day and I wear sunscreen.  I don’t even get sick very often.  TMI alert, but I have not thrown up in nearly 11 years, and I think that is pretty good track record.  My body protects me relatively well – until it meets a cold virus.

I envision the journey of a cold virus into my body to be something akin to going on a vacation to a five star resort, complete with free spa passes and complimentary room service.  The cold germs enter my system, and are immediately taken to meet and greet with my white blood cells.  “Wow,” my white blood cells must say, “You are so glamorous and wonderful.  We bow down to you, Mr. Germ!  Now, let’s show you where all our secret hiding spots for a vacationing germ to hide from the paparazzi are.”

You may think I exaggerate, but my husband will assure you that I do not.  The common cold takes a vacation in my body 2-3 times a year, on average.  The problem is, a cold that lasts three days with a normal person lasts three weeks with me.  Normal people go to work and go about their daily lives with colds.  I, however, spent my first full weekend without plans in who-knows-how-long laid up on my couch, running a fever and hacking up a lung.  I was too tired and in too much pain to read or even watch TV.  Do you know how BORING that is?  And really, I actually did have big plans for my Weekend of Nothing prior to the Supergerm.

Nathan was fantastic and took excellent care of me.  Which was good, because I complain a lot when I am sick.  I am an incredibly big baby when I don’t feel well.  He thought a hot toddy would help Sunday afternoon.  I had never had one before, but I was willing to try anything.  It did help, in as much that it soothed my throat and quieted my cough enough to knock me out for a solid few hours.  But then I woke up.  I slept so much Sunday that I could not sleep Sunday night, outside of some delirious feverish sleep.  This is one of those weeks where I could not miss work, so Nathan woke me up for work Monday morning. 

He went to make me coffee while I attempted to wake up, and when he came back upstairs, my feverish self was singing the “This Little Piggy Went To Market” song to my fingers, and informed him that I found it somewhat disturbing and slightly carnivorous that a pig would eat roast beef (this after I realized that the third pig has roast beef – at first I was singing that the pig had root beer).  I think he thought I had lost my mind. 

Somehow, I managed to get dressed for work, which was a bit of a miracle in itself (I made up another song to help me get dressed, which involved singing, “My shoes are on my feet,” over and over.  It would appear that running a fever makes me a little loopy.)  An even bigger miracle was that I managed to drive an hour to work and make it there in one piece.  Once at work, a thermometer verified that I was indeed running a fever, and some Tylenol managed to bring my temperature and my brain back down to earth.

Until I got home that night.  At which point I informed Nathan that I thought my head was like planet Earth.  He just looked at me (probably wondering where this was going).  I elaborated.  “With Earth, you drill to the center and you find a core of lava. With my head, you drill to the center and I bet you would find a core of mucus.”

My husband’s answer?  “Don’t you think they might find your brain?”  Pffft.  I drove a half an hour on the freeway in fourth gear that morning before I even noticed.  I think we all know the answer to THAT question.

It is now Tuesday, and thankfully my fever and crazy delirious comments seem to have gone away (Ha! Mostly.), but the hacking cough and suffocating congestion remain.  I am really hoping the vacationing germs suffer some sort of sunburn and have to go home early, although that seems highly unlikely considering it snowed here today.  Perhaps the pool at the resort will break and they will have to seek shelter elsewhere.  Because I have now developed a large painful lump on my jawline, which is either an angry lymph node working double time, or the beginning of the biggest underground zit in the history of mankind.  And either of those options (are you listening, slacker immune system)?  Are just not cool.

A February Weekend

Believe it or not, there were more exciting happenings this weekend than the Unfriendly’s jumping into a first place tie with Macy’s on my List.

As I mentioned in the previous post, Nathan & I missed all the fire hoopla next door because we went to a gymnastics meet on Friday night with my mom and my cousins Amber & Mary.  We had tickets to the Pink Out at Oregon State University, which is an annual gymnastics meet in support of breast cancer research.  My grandmother was a breast cancer survivor, as well as two of my aunts.  I know several more women who have been affected by the disease; some have beaten it and some have not.  You would be hard pressed to find a person who doesn’t know a woman affected by breast cancer.  Breast cancer awareness is so important, and there are just too many women out there who do not make their own health a priority.  Every woman should know how to do a monthly self-exam, but so many don’t.  Or they know how, but they just don’t do them (I confess, even knowing all the risks, I am often guilty of this, and that is the kind of habit that we women need to change).  The more awareness we can raise and research that we can fund, the closer we are to a cure.  And I support any organization that supports that.

 

One of the most amazing highlights of this gymnastics meet was that we made the big screen fan cam not once, but TWICE!  We actually did not see it happen the first time, I only know about that one because my friend Stephanie texted me from the other side of the arena to tell me that she saw me on it.  I was so disappointed!!!  Those who know me know that it has been my goal to get on that screen for the last four years.  I couldn’t believe that it had finally happened, and I MISSED it!!!  Luckily, during the next rotation of warm-ups, the fan cam caught Stephanie and her boyfriend, and as we cheered for them the fan cam turned to zoom in on us next!  I credit our fantastic pink outfits and pom poms!  I am still waiting for my call from Hollywood, but never fear, it will come (someday).

One thing I had really been looking forward to at this meet was that UCLA was competing, because they have a gymnast from the 2008 Olympics on their team named Samantha Peszek.  I was really looking forward to seeing her compete, because how often to do you get the chance to see an Olympic gymnast perform in person???  Pretty much never, at least in my world.  I came away majorly disappointed though.  She only competed in one event (beam), and she fell off.  Her routine was great (and difficult) up to the point that she fell, so it’s not even so much that she fell, but more that she didn’t do any other events.  Seriously, she’s an Olympic gymnast and you’re telling me the only event she is good enough to do for UCLA is beam?  Yeah, right.  She could probably dust their other gymnasts on every event.  BUT, OSU came away with some great performances and tied for the win with UCLA, and that was good enough for me.

The other exciting thing from this weekend was a trip that we took to Portland on Saturday, to see the most magical Disney musical of all time:

I bought these tickets in December, and I am so glad that I did.  My mom took my sister and I to see this when we were little kids.  13 years and several musicals later, it still held a place in my heart as the best I ever saw.  When I found out it was coming to Oregon, I had to buy tickets, even though it was a major splurge.  I am so thankful that I did, because it was just as magical as I remember, even though I am all grown up.  I had been concerned about our seats being off to the side and far back, but they turned out to be fantastic, and the performances were amazing.  I particularly liked Lumiere (the enchanted candle) and Gaston, but all the performers were fantastic.  Belle had the perfect voice, she sounded so much like the Belle from the movie.  I walked around the whole next day singing “Be Our Guest” to myself.  If you have never seen this musical, do yourself a favor and find a way to see it.  The traveling Broadway tour is presented by NetWorks, and you can find tour dates and information on their website here.

I hope everyone has a fun rest of the week.  I will be spending mine working, harassing Macy’s, and trying to run off this excess holiday weight.  Ladies, in honor of breast cancer awareness, let’s all do ourselves a favor and make sure to do a self-exam this week.