So Far So Good

I'm in day 4 of recovery and things are going well.  SOOOOOO much better than the first time.  Besides the fact that I'm going crazy from being confined to my bed.  3 more days...I keep telling myself 3 more days.  I actually got up today and took a shower.  Oh lovely shower how I've missed you.  The sponge bath the other day just didn't quite cut it although I couldn't have asked for sexier help.  He does a really good job at washing hair.  I couldn't lift my leg into the shower nor could I hold myself up but as long as my hair is clean I feel clean.  I got smart today I slid down my 4 flights of stairs and got into my walk in shower and that proved to be a lot better.  Hubby lifted me into the shower and I could at least balance myself against the walls enough to get the job done.  He lifted me out over the little threshold and I'm good as gold.

Some of the differences I've noticed are I'm not in near as much pain as the first time.  They put a nerve block in and I didn't feel the worst of the pain.  It still hurts trust me but nothing as bad as I remember.  Also,  I have this cool little machine called a CPM that is constantly moving my leg up to 50 degrees.  I noticed that when I was doing my exercises I can pull my leg into almost 90 degrees and still be okay pain wise.  Before I was so stiff after the first PT visit I couldn't even get to 30 degrees motion.  Also, I have this other cool little machine and hoisery called Ted Hose that keeps down my swelling in my legs.  They have been wonderful!  My knee doesn't look grotesque and mutilated.  Cut up yes but not bad at all.  I got so frustrated last night because as of yesterday I could only do half my exercises.  I started crying because I felt so defeated.  Today I was able to lift my heel up just a quarter of inch and I shouted for Matt to come take a look and he looked at me funny but he has no idea how much it takes to build back muscle.  For a guy they just look at weights and their muscles bulk up for women it's not that easy and add surgically putting in a new ligament well it's seems darn near impossible sometimes.

I'm hopeful things will continue to improve over the next few weeks.  Gotta get back because my family needs me.

Third Times a Charm

I like to hold my cards close sometimes and didn't want to talk about this until after it happened.  Just had a pretty major surgery yesterday.  I'm feeling pretty good.  About 17 years ago I had injured my knee and since then have had problems with it.  I've known for a long time that I have needed to do the surgery over again.  I had a second surgery to clear out the scar tissue and it just wasn't enough when I was 18.  I had scheduled the surgery 2 years ago but things fell through.  Finally the moons had aligned and I was able to get my ACL replaced again.  I was extremely nervous before hand and didn't want to be reminded of it over and over again so I only told a hand full of people.  Hence, all the freezer meals...to make it easier on my family.

So far so good.  I don't remember much and SO glad I didn't wake up during the surgery.  At the surgical center they were telling me stories about it that was freaking me out.  I felt a little silly because when I was waking up out of anesthesia I was whimpering audibly because my leg ached.  So, I'll be bedridden for the next 7 days and after that will be able to start my physical therapy.

Dad Murdock has been here helping and made some venison stew yesterday.  It was some of the best stews I've had in a long time.  Everything tastes better when it's made by someone else.  My sister was joking that it took 2 grown men to run the household and between the 2 of them it's still been chaotic.  I'll be sad to see Dad go on Saturday but have appreciated his help so much.  He's a good man.

I have a long road ahead of me to recovery.  Your body heals a lot differently when you get older.  So hopefully I will up to the task.  I'm a very stubborn person so this can't keep me down too long.  It's been so frustrating over the years being limited in my exercise.

I got 2 blankets to crochet this week and work on my kids scrapbooks.  Matty transferred everything to a network so I can access it from the laptop.  It will be nice to get Macey's and Mason's first year completely finished.  Better late than never right?!?!

Let the Freezer Meals Commence

I feel like a little squirrel gathering nuts for the winter.  I have a list a mile long of freezer meals.  My goal is 20 meals but if I go over sayyyyy 30 I will be happy.  I noticed on my list I'm totally favoring the chicken.  I've taken a lot of my own recipes and made it possible to freeze and found a TON on pinterest, six sister stuff and pioneer woman.  So hopefully some of them will be winners.  If any of you have any thing other than chicken let me know I would be more than happy to try them out.  So I guess there is a science to freezer meals.  My sister in law used to have freezer meal clubs.  Each of them would cook the same thing 6 to 8 times (however many people were in the group) then they would have a meeting place and keep one of the meals and swap the other ones.  It's a freezer meal swap.  Or other times the group would just get all together and they would all be in the kitchen cooking a weeks worth of meals.  If only I had the gourmet kitchen of my dreams to do that.  I'll keep dreaming and be happy with my little but useful kitchen.  Maybe I'll have to start a freezer meal group one of these days.

In other news I finished my bedroom.  It looks gorgeous!  Sorry still lazy to take pics.  Maybe after I get my window coverings installed.  I still need to decorate but I'll leave that for another day.  So the paint ordeal.  For people who know me it takes me forever to make a decision when it comes to picking a color to paint my walls.  So it literally took me 1 year to pick out the perfect color.  I get the paint and come home and notice it's not really the right color.  So I tell myself it's just probably because it's not on the wall and it's wet.  So I paint the walls and nah it's not anything close to what I picked and the trim color seemed off.  Don't get me wrong it's a pretty color but not what I picked.  So me being the super anxious everything has to be perfect when I choose something type of person goes back to the store to confirm if I'm crazy or not and come to find out the manager thinks the pump is going out and lucky me was the one to make the discovery.  I know in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter but my heart sunk from my expectations.  So the guy at the store said we can either replace the paint (mind you I have already FINISHED) or we can refund all your money.  I asked him to repeat that last statement and yes we would refund your money.  I guess I can live with the wrong color if that's the case.  I did end up re buying the right color for the trim because I couldn't sacrifice on that because it's going through out my whole house.  My husband said that I'm resolved of color picking duties for the other rooms.  I told him I'd rather be mad at myself for picking the wrong colors then blaming him for something I don't like...and he said GOOD CALL.  Boy, this really paints me as a really uptight person but don't worry I only have expectations for myself no one else so no worries.  And don't worry we're not moving just finally fixing up our house.  You don't know how much little things weigh on you until you get them fixed.  And that goes figuratively too.

I'm becoming one of THOSE people

With the start of a brand new school year we have ventured out in the unknown and the girls our starting dance.  Not only that but my little Macers started pre-school this week.  For the last 3 days I have found myself running here and running there and feeling like I'm not accomplishing anything.  The only benefit I see from this is it's forcing me to schedule out my day a little better.  So I'm becoming one of those mom's who is so busy it's hard for people to get a hold of me and running from one thing to the next.  We'll just see how long I can keep this up.  My little Buddy could have started pre-school this year too but the little man refuses to get potty trained.  Also, I'm not ready to send my baby out in the world yet.  That will all change once I put on my drill sergeant hat next week.  I had a frank talk with him.  I told him this is the big leagues now and it's time to throw those yucky diapers away and wear big boy underoos.  I got an okay mommy while he was putting his head down.  I asked him if he would like to pick out some more underwear on his own and that peaked his interest.  Mason loves talks.  Every week we put him in nursery Matt has a talk with him.  This past week Matt forgot and Mason politely told Matt he wanted "THE TALK".  Matt said, "oh, okay...go have fun!".  Mason told him NO NO NO tell me no hitting, be nice and remember to share your toys.  This kid loves boundaries so I'll have to use that to my advantage.

I'll have pics in a few days but I FINALLY finished painting my room in between living my life.  It's so hard to get things done as a mom because you have to stop and make lunch, stop and solve a crisis, stop and pick up the kids, stop and make dinner, stop and go to a dentist appt., stop and help the hubby and so on and on.  The whole paint thing turned into a disaster/blessing.  I didn't get the color I had wanted that took a year to pick out but I'll have to write about that later when I have time.  It's a little involved.  But the baseboards are fancy and it's nice to not have the yucky paint job from the previous owner anymore.  I'm saving the doors for another day because I've ran out of steam and I miss my bed.

And last I have some of the most awesome friends in the world.  I was kidnapped last week and taken hostage to go have fun for my birthday.  For a long time I have wanted to go to the Alpine Slides for my birthday.  My friends surprised me and forced me to go have fun because I can be kind of stubborn.  My favorite part of the trip was when we were looking up at the ski lifts to take us to the top and my friend's 3 year old daughter said "I don't trust that".  We were able to get her through her nerves and she did great on the slide.  So much fun!  Thank you girls!  And thank you for not giving up on me...I appreciate it more than you'll ever know.