Check this out…

7 weeks post op & nearly a year since I’ve been able to sit like this 😀

When you’re…

… too tired to type so here’s a summary of why…

School run, quick dog walk then dropped her at the pet salon for a bath. Straight to my 9.50 appointment with my surgeon. All good, but I need to work at strengthening my knee. She discharges me then spends the rest of the appointment asking about my boy’s school because she is unhappy with the public system. I then go to the mall to see if I can get better swimming bags for the boys, I buy scented candles instead. Then to Costco because believe it or not there is very little food left. After a MONSTER shop I head home. I walk through the door at 12.45.

I am wasting away so I eat leftover Kale & Quinoa salad & it tastes amazing because I’m so hungry. I check my email & find out that the swimming club will be selling club wear on Monday at the pool – I need not have gone for bags. I set to & put everything away. I stack all the meat in the fridge because I haven’t got time to put it all through the food saver. I finish up with everything else at 2.20. I make a cup of tea & strum my guitar for 15 minutes before going out again to pick everyone up. I am so glad that elder child has a lot of homework so he doesn’t want to play in the playground. We pick up Tessy on our way home. She sits in the back of the Mini with the roof down pretending to be a canine Loreal advert.

Home, drink, snack & homework. I put all the meat through the food saver while younger child moans & groans sat at the kitchen island at how mean I am making him do all his writing practice when it doesn’t have to be in until Thursday. I point out that it is club swimming tomorrow after school so there will be no time. He is not convinced. After the meat I have to start & make dinner. I discover that despite all the food I have purchased I don’t have enough fusilli or penne so it’s Mac & cheese. Hubby is very late…

We finally eat & the boys shower. After cleaning all the bits of kitchen hubby forgot to do when he washed up, I make lunches for tomorrow. I then discover that the boys have no clean polo shirts for school – GRRRRR!!! I put a white load in the washing machine & declare I am done, done, DONE!!!

I run a bath & start a new book. When I get out hubby asks if I’m interested in wine – Really dear, you have to ask?

And that was just a summary!

Routine…

I can’t live without it. I have my ways & means to get stuff done & I need to know where I stand, so having the kids back at school early this year is really nice. It was a little chaotic at school this morning; we have a new principal whom everyone was trying to introduce them selves to. I didn’t break my neck, he’ll know my & my rascals soon enough. Lucky for us we already knew which homerooms we were going to & both boys are happy (& so are we) that they have been placed where they wanted. I dropped off two very smart young men, chatted to few peeps along the way of course because everyone noticed that I don’t have a knee brace on anymore, then I was free to get on with a NORMAL DAY.

I walked the dog in the forest for the first time since my op & now at the end of the day I’m quite achy. I expect this; I’m using muscles that have been lying dormant for almost a year so I just need to be mindful if this. Then I had a trip to Sephora as I’m on scraping the bottom of several items. On the way back I snuck into Costco to by berries & milk (& of course other stuff because it’s impossible not to), so by the time I’d unloaded & put away it was only an hour & a half before I was back at school. How did that happen? I swear someone put the clock forward by an hour.

After a cup of tea & a strum on my guitar I was out the door again. Pick up was a little calmer, but honestly the shoes you see were only a part of the disaster that greeted me. Elder child appeared looking exactly the same as when I dropped him off, but younger child OMG! His shirt was covered in food stains (I don’t recall anything in his lunch box that could have caused so much mess) & of course it was hanging out. His sweater was stuffed in his bag along with his tie (also with food on it), & well, you can see the state of the brand new shoes after only one day – 6 hours to be precise – I don’t think those laces have been tied all day. Honestly, how this child won an award last year is beyond me. Still, he came home with everything he went with, which is a bonus. Let’s see what delights tomorrow brings…

The Dream…

I am one of those people who rarely remembers dreaming. Occasionally something will break my dream at some point in the day but I usually can’t explain the significance of what I’ve remembered. However, last night I had dream that was so vivid & real that I honestly thought it was actually happening. What was even stranger was the fact that it was very believable, in that nothing was strange – you know how some part of your dream is really bizzarre & clearly not real life. There wasn’t even anyone in the dream that I knew – you know how people you know pop up in a role that is very different to their norm. Maybe someone can explain this to me because your dreams are supposed to mean something…

I dreamt that I had found a lump & it was at a really advanced stage so I had to have surgery for a double mastectomy. The OR was real; the people were in their correct roles; the hospital staff were dressed appropriately & behaved like professionals – there was nothing to suggest that what was happening wasn’t part of real life. I can remember feeling emotional & scared, I was shaking as they took me into surgery. I even made them promise that my husband would be there when I woke up.

When I did wake up I must have been in very very deep sleep. I think I had been so tired that my body finally gave in & crashed. I didn’t hear my husband come in from work at half past midnight, or the dog barking at him because he’d forgotten his keys & was actually locked out. He then got up early to go for a bike ride – I didn’t hear that either, I was dead to the world! So inevitably the part of the dream when the anaesthetist was trying to wake me up after surgery was me actually waking up. The first thing I did was look for my husband, who of course wasn’t there. I looked around the bedroom dazed, wondering where I was at first, & then grabbed my chest to make sure they hadn’t really been chopped off.

After what felt like a few minutes but it wasn’t really it was probably only seconds I lay back & relaxed into the pillow relieved. Maybe it’s because I’ve had surgery recently & I’m now relieved that it’s all over & appears to have worked, I don’t know, but this was very realistic & believable. I’m sure somebody somewhere would be able to interpret it & enlighten me.

I am sooooo…

TIRED!

I nearly fell asleep eating dinner. A weekend of camping & a bad nights sleep last night – oh & not to mention the fact it’s only 2 weeks today since I had my surgery so I’m still healing  – has finally caught up with me. Therefore, it’s probably best I don’t try & write anything intelligent.

Ok, so I don’t normally write anything intelligent – leave me alone I’m tired!

9 days on…

I saw my surgeon & she is happy with the wound & my progress. She explained in more detail, & even drew a very bad picture of what she found. Essentially the extra bone growth was not seen on the CT scan she had on the screen while she operated. She kept poking around waiting for something to pop thinking there must be a cyst, but it was all solid. Then she stripped down the tendon & behind was chunk of bone sticking out of the fibula head – so she hacked it off! Obviously it was more precise & skilled than that, & she had to be careful how far down she took it because it was close to where tendons & ligaments insert, & she already had to repair the one that was blocking her view.

At the end of the day it just goes to show you that no matter how fancy the technology is you can’t always trust what you see on the screen, sometimes you have to treat the clinical symptoms & trust your instinct. It has always been a solid lump, & a simple ultrasound scan suggested it was bone growth sometime ago. The question now is; was it an injury that healed badly? Or; Is it disease related? The surgeon is inclined to think that it is the latter & not the former because this is something my disease does, however, it’s supposed to happen in my spine not in my knee.

The main thing is that hopefully now it’s sorted & if anything like this happens again she will have a lower threshold for intervening. Now that everything is looking good I contacted my rheumatologist to ask if I can start my injections again. It will be another 2 weeks before I see him so he agreed that I could, especially as I’m already stiffening up & the drug will take sometime to build up again – sadly not in time for our camping trip this weekend.

We are all packed up, just need to throw the fresh food in the cooler in the morning & we’ll be off into the wilderness to share some funs times with a group of friends… bring on the marshmallows!

Ginormous phone cookies!

I have no idea how this happened but I started baking chocolate caramel shortbread AND  cookies at 6.40pm. I had mentioned to the boys that I might do this before we go camping at the weekend because we are in a big group & we need to take things to share. Next thing I know the oven was on & the Kitchen Aid was out!

I’m not a baker, I just about manage the caramel shortbread & quite often even the dog won’t eat my baking – cookies are usually a disaster especially when they are flourless so I can eat them. However, I have to say that these cookies looked rather good & would like to say they were baked solely by my 7 year old, but he was closely supervised. He did watch them baking the entire time so maybe that’s the secret of his his success – don’t take your eyes off the cookies!

I have now collapsed with a glass of wine while surfing for a new phone cover for my ridiculously ginormous phone!

Stubborn or stupid?

I have just had my first painkillers of the day at 8.20pm. I am very uncomfortable. I have rested up a bit this morning & played my guitar, but then I sorted out the camping equipment for the weekend (yes I am going so don’t try & stop me, I found an axe in one of those boxes so be warned). Made lists – of course – then insisted on going with hubby to the store to replace a stove & gas cylinders. After that we went straight to pick up the boys from bike camp. Then I cooked dinner, sorted the boys out for camp tomorrow, which included doing some laundry, & then I collapsed in a bath. Now I hurt – quite a lot actually. Isn’t it good to get back to normal?

I also stripped down my wound dressing last night to expose it to some good old-fashioned air. I can see now that it is about 2½ – 3inches long but looks pretty good, & hopefully it will fade to just a line (wishful thinking I know). It wasn’t quite healed in a couple of places so I dug out some steri-strips (paper stitches) to cover those edges up for another day or two. I’m still not getting it wet, which is awkward, but I’ll do whatever it takes to avoid any risk of infection. My surgeon has also left the two ends of the continuous dissolvable stitch quite long so they are catching on clothing. I did chop one off because it was driving me mad, & hubby said that was ok to do so, & he should kind of know. Hopefully the rain & cooler weather will stay away now until it is properly healed so I can wear shorts/skirts.

Mornings are getting a little challenging now, it’s 5 weeks since my last injection & my body is starting to stiffen up. If the surgeon is happy with my wound & progress on Thursday I think I’ll get in touch with my rheumatologist & beg him to let me start taking them again, otherwise it’s another 2 weeks before I see him again.

Off to see my physio tomorrow, it will be interesting to see what he makes of the knee findings…

I’m back!

After a fun weekend in Birch Bay WA with friends. Good company, good food, too much alcohol, not enough sleep & fun memories. The kids are knackered after late nights & early mornings, hubby & elder child camped out in the new Stringray tent that is suspended between 3 trees – pretty cool actually but I’m not sure I’ll be ready for when we camp next weekend. Poor hubby lost his phone when the dads took the kids go karting & golfing – put a bit of a damper on the weekend but nobody died so it’s not going to spoil it too much!

Getting the boys ready for bike/swim camp this weekend & as I’m still unable to drive hubby is off again this week. I suspect a week of errands & admin (including buying a new phone) ahead of us…

Day 2…

I should write a blog but I really can’t be bothered!