New Years Eve 2010

We spent New Years at my dads house. We had rock band on the wii upstairs and football and call of duty downstairs. We had family and friends and tons of food… It was a fun night. I was not doing the best as far as my knee was doing so I just found a spot and sat so I did not take many pics. Fireworks out in the snow that I took with my phone through the window. All in all it was a great party. Bailee had made decorations and I did not get a pic but they were so cute. Her and Carter had a fun time together.  Out with 2010 and in with 2011. Can’t wait to see what this year brings!!! Hope it is all good…

Happy New Year !!!!

 

Christmas 2010

Clints guard unit had a family Christmas party that we were able to go to this year. We usually miss it because it is always the same weekend as Bailees Nutcracker. But this year they were not. Just a few pics of us with Santa.

 

Then the following week was the Nutcracker. I had my surgery three days before so I was lucky to get to the Nutcracker to watch this year. I was in a wheelchair so I had to sit in the very back and could not get any good pics so here are some bad scanned ones that they had taken. She was a snowflake and a Russian sweet this year. It was wonderful and I am so glad that  I did not miss it but I am sad that I have not pics of the performance like I usually do. My friend Julia took some for me but I do not have them on this computer for the post but I guess I do have a few after all…thanks Julia for saving me on that…

Then it was Christmas Eve…

We did Christmas a little different this year and it was nice. Usually we do Christmas Eve with my family and then drive home in the middle of the night and do Christmas morning with Clints family. But this year we went to my dads on Christmas Eve and stayed overnight and Santa came to Grandpa Joes house. Below are a few pics of the family party on Christmas Eve.

Grandma Jerry hugging her stocking…so cute!!!

  

Bailee’s cute apron that my dads house keeper Peggy made for her.

Tired out before the night was through..

Bailee and Hunter Christmas morning… it was fun having a big sleep over and waking up together for presents…

Pics of opening presents…

Hunter and Grandpa… Hunter LOVES to take of  Grandpa’s glasses and then laughs… he is so cute!

I put this scary pic of me just so I can remember what a site I was this year for Christmas.

Grandpa bought Bailee a little laptop…she was so surprised!!!

My sister gave me my favorite present and it made my whole Christmas. She made me and Cole quilts out of our moms clothes. She used her jeans, post office shirts and other clothes that we all remember dearly. I will cherish this forever and it was a really special gift.

 

It was a very nice Christmas… After we spent most the day at my dads we went home and did Christmas with Clints family that night. By then was sooo beat and hurting that I did not take any pics.

A new knee…

 I am putting out a warning about this post…

It is a little graphic. It is mostly just for me so I can have the story and pics in my book when I print my blog. So if you dont like pics of surgeries and things than please dont read on!

On Dec. 15th 2010 I finally got my knee fixed that has been having trouble for a long while. We had a arrived at the surgery center at 3:15 p.m. as instructed. I was not very happy about having an afternoon surgery but did I really have a choice? No! I did not. Well after being taken back to pre-op to get ready the nurse  blew right through my vein giving an IV and caused it to look like a murder seen. Blood everywhere! Did not know blood could do what I saw it do that day but I have the large bruise to show for it. After cleaning it all up the second try was a success and I was left to wait.

I had not been able to eat or drink since midnight the night before, it is now 4:30 p.m. and I am starving. And to make matters worse the nurse was drinking a Diet Coke right in front of me.  Well time passed, and passed and passed and at about 6:30 p.m. I was taken to the OR. Came out of surgery about 8:00 and was in recovery until 11:00 p.m. then they let me go home and we had to fill prescriptions and we arrived home about 1:00 A.M. It was quite a day…

A totally reconstructed knee… I am so excited to see if it works. Here are a few pics of it about a week after surgery. I have two incisions about 3 inches long and then about 6 little tiny ones. I received two donor ligaments from an organ donor and was given info to write and thank the family of the person that I got them from. I thought that was kind of neat. I am going to do it for sure.

                                          My bruise from the botched IV. I should have put a tape measure to it. it was 3/4 my arm from wrist to elbow.

 

Because I have had a blood clot before, they treated me with blood thinners that I injected at home the two weeks following surgery. Well on day 14 I had a Dr. Apt to follow up and I bet you can’t guess…Yes I had a blood clot. So the day of Dec 29th was spent all day at the Dr. trying to decide what to do about it. But after much debate and argument by me, they decided to let me go home because it was below the knee. So more mega dose  blood thinner shots and coumadin for me… Now I get to have a blood clot on top of it all. 

Jan. 3 I went back to work and I start physical therapy on Jan. 7th. After 3 weeks on crutches I am so excited to start using my knee again. It has been two months in a straight brace and I cant wait to be able to use it again and walk. Right now I can bend it almost 45 degrees on my own but have a long way to go. It is all so tightly put back together that now it needs to be all stretched back out. There was a lot of damage that they saw once they got in there. I will not bore you with all that but I have  pretty much been rebuilt, repaired and have two extra parts added. I had the best surgeon ever and I really love him a lot. He has been great through it all, even the clot which is not his field. But he forced me to get it checked out when I was POSITIVE that  I did not need to because I did not have a blood clot…He followed his gut and it was right…I just love having caring and friendly Drs.

My family and friends have been so great to help me so much and I don’t know what I would do without them. Clint has had to help me do everything…I am not a dependent person and it has killed me to need help so much. I just thought that I would still be able to do things just a little bit harder. But I was useless…when your leg does not work at all and you can put NO weight on it you rely on help a lot. He has been great through it all. I never want to be that useless again in my life!!!!