I'm not sure how I feel about 2010, to be honest. In one respect, it's all a blur of doctor visits, bone scans, IV meds, surgeries, and days I'd just as soon forget. On the other hand, like I said in one of my other posts, this year has made me more grateful for what I have and has made me anxious to start living to the fullest again.
I don't know what 2011 is going to hold in store for us, but I do know this: I have an amazing family who dropped everything to be with me and help me through this year. I have amazing friends who support me and pray for me and will be taking me out for drinks when this is all over ;) I have an amazing husband who has done more than his share around the house while I've been out of commission. I have an amazing daughter who asks me daily if my leg still hurts and tells me she will help me if I need it. Most importantly, I have an amazing God who has brought me this far and will carry me through whatever 2011 brings. I think I'll close out 2010 by sharing the prayer I've been praying each night for the past few months. It's apropos to my situation, but I think it rings true for anyone going through a hard time or feeling like there's no end to the pain and suffering. (Before I get credit for my wonderful prose, I'll let you know that the prayer is from a book- I didn't come up with it)
Lord Jesus, who patiently and willingly suffered deep pain for the salvation of the world, thank You for understanding what I'm going through. Give me strength to accept my weakness as I recover, and remind me always of the place you've prepared for me in heaven, where there will be no more weeping. I know this pain is temporary because of Your perfect life, death, and resurrection. Amen.
Amen! Happy New Year!
Friday, December 31, 2010
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Progress
Since I'm devoting my Facebook statuses to the Christmas story this week, I wanted to share some news here...
I am officially PICC line free!!! No more IV meds! No more having to stay up late to do the last dose or wake up early to get the morning dose done in time. Ahhh. I can't believe I made it 6 weeks. It seemed like such a long time at the beginning, but it actually went by pretty quickly, mostly because I've been focused on Christmas.
The plan is now to wait 2 weeks and do a blood draw to make sure the infection is gone. Then in 3 weeks I'll meet with the surgeon to learn the results and (hopefully) schedule the last surgery. As long as the bloodwork is clean, I should be getting a new hip some time around mid January.
I can't stress again how much I like this new surgeon and how blessed I am that I was led to him. I believe he will do his best and has my best interests at heart.
Well, since I don't have to do an IV, I'm going to bed! Merry Christmas to me :-)
I am officially PICC line free!!! No more IV meds! No more having to stay up late to do the last dose or wake up early to get the morning dose done in time. Ahhh. I can't believe I made it 6 weeks. It seemed like such a long time at the beginning, but it actually went by pretty quickly, mostly because I've been focused on Christmas.
The plan is now to wait 2 weeks and do a blood draw to make sure the infection is gone. Then in 3 weeks I'll meet with the surgeon to learn the results and (hopefully) schedule the last surgery. As long as the bloodwork is clean, I should be getting a new hip some time around mid January.
I can't stress again how much I like this new surgeon and how blessed I am that I was led to him. I believe he will do his best and has my best interests at heart.
Well, since I don't have to do an IV, I'm going to bed! Merry Christmas to me :-)
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Online Shopping
So, since I couldn't very easily go Christmas shopping this year, I ordered pretty much everything online. Here are a few tips I've learned about online shopping...
1) Best sites to order from:
Walmart- Yeah, yeah. I know. Screw the corporate giant. But I'm too poor at the moment to protest. They had the cheapest prices, free or next-to-nothing shipping, and everything got here within a few days looking like what I expected.
Amazon- The trick I learned here is to sort by price and then look for the Amazon deal. A lot of times they can't list their price because of some legal reason, but if you click on the link, you'll see it's a lot cheaper than most of the others. And it's easy to return directly to them. Bonus- the item was here in 2 days.
Terry's Village- I like this store for Christmas decorations mostly. They are very good at sending replacements if anything is broken or not to your liking. A couple of the items I received just looked poorly made and they sent me replacements with no questions asked.
2) Sites that need improvement:
Kohl's- While I like shopping in their stores because you can get a good deal (especially with the coupons), the online experience has not been so great. I am STILL waiting on an order from Dec 4th to get here.
ToysRUs- First of all, half of the stuff I wanted was out of stock online. Most of the items got here quickly, so I'll give them credit for that. However, one item was listed as "located in stock" for over a week before it actually shipped. Still waiting on it to get here.
2) Don't order hard novelty candy through the mail. It WILL be broken. Every last piece of it. Yes, they'll send you a replacement, but it will probably be broken too. Just send the husband to the store to buy it instead.
3) Read the dimensions. Otherwise, you will end up with a 6 foot tall plush cardinal bird for your 90 year old grandmother. On the upside, it does jingle when you shake it.
4) Read what the item is made of. You'd think this would be a given, but I learned my lesson when the snowman frame I ordered turned out to be made of cloth, not wood. Who makes frames of cloth?!
5) Order EARLY, especially if you want Christmas novelty items. Apparently stores only order limited amounts of these things and when they're gone, they're gone. I ordered the weekend of Dec 4th and still couldn't find a couple of the things I wanted.
Having said all of this, I again apologize for any random gifts my family may receive this year and for the disproportionate sizes in which they will come. Happy shopping!
1) Best sites to order from:
Walmart- Yeah, yeah. I know. Screw the corporate giant. But I'm too poor at the moment to protest. They had the cheapest prices, free or next-to-nothing shipping, and everything got here within a few days looking like what I expected.
Amazon- The trick I learned here is to sort by price and then look for the Amazon deal. A lot of times they can't list their price because of some legal reason, but if you click on the link, you'll see it's a lot cheaper than most of the others. And it's easy to return directly to them. Bonus- the item was here in 2 days.
Terry's Village- I like this store for Christmas decorations mostly. They are very good at sending replacements if anything is broken or not to your liking. A couple of the items I received just looked poorly made and they sent me replacements with no questions asked.
2) Sites that need improvement:
Kohl's- While I like shopping in their stores because you can get a good deal (especially with the coupons), the online experience has not been so great. I am STILL waiting on an order from Dec 4th to get here.
ToysRUs- First of all, half of the stuff I wanted was out of stock online. Most of the items got here quickly, so I'll give them credit for that. However, one item was listed as "located in stock" for over a week before it actually shipped. Still waiting on it to get here.
2) Don't order hard novelty candy through the mail. It WILL be broken. Every last piece of it. Yes, they'll send you a replacement, but it will probably be broken too. Just send the husband to the store to buy it instead.
3) Read the dimensions. Otherwise, you will end up with a 6 foot tall plush cardinal bird for your 90 year old grandmother. On the upside, it does jingle when you shake it.
4) Read what the item is made of. You'd think this would be a given, but I learned my lesson when the snowman frame I ordered turned out to be made of cloth, not wood. Who makes frames of cloth?!
5) Order EARLY, especially if you want Christmas novelty items. Apparently stores only order limited amounts of these things and when they're gone, they're gone. I ordered the weekend of Dec 4th and still couldn't find a couple of the things I wanted.
Having said all of this, I again apologize for any random gifts my family may receive this year and for the disproportionate sizes in which they will come. Happy shopping!
Monday, December 13, 2010
Merry Christmas
When I first heard I'd be hipless at Christmastime, I was disappointed to say the least. What about shopping at the mall? What about walking around looking at lights? What about decorating our yard? How would I do these things without a hip? I actually tried to have the surgery pushed up for these very reasons. The surgeon didn't seem to think Christmas deprivation warranted an early surgery, so here we are.
Once again, turns out God knew what He was doing. The Christmas Season has been a welcome distraction for me and has made the past 4 1/2 weeks go by pretty quickly. (I can't believe I only have 1.5 weeks left on the IV!) And I get to look at a pretty tree and decorations as I sit here all day as opposed to the normal drab that is our house.
It's also forced me to focus on the important things this Christmas. Since I couldn't participate in the usual stress filled, pre-Christmas shopping at the mall, I ordered everything online and I'm done. Now I just get to enjoy looking at the gifts until they are opened on Christmas. I'm enjoying creating Christmas games and fun things for Laurel to do when she's home. I'm enjoying watching the excitement of Christmas through her eyes. And, I'm enjoying the fact that someone else will have to clean up all the decorations after Christmas ;)
Merry Christmas!
P.S. Test results came back NEGATIVE for a secondary infection- holla!!!
Once again, turns out God knew what He was doing. The Christmas Season has been a welcome distraction for me and has made the past 4 1/2 weeks go by pretty quickly. (I can't believe I only have 1.5 weeks left on the IV!) And I get to look at a pretty tree and decorations as I sit here all day as opposed to the normal drab that is our house.
It's also forced me to focus on the important things this Christmas. Since I couldn't participate in the usual stress filled, pre-Christmas shopping at the mall, I ordered everything online and I'm done. Now I just get to enjoy looking at the gifts until they are opened on Christmas. I'm enjoying creating Christmas games and fun things for Laurel to do when she's home. I'm enjoying watching the excitement of Christmas through her eyes. And, I'm enjoying the fact that someone else will have to clean up all the decorations after Christmas ;)
Merry Christmas!
P.S. Test results came back NEGATIVE for a secondary infection- holla!!!
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Really, God?
So, I've been feeling a bit down the last few days. I've been nauseated beyond belief and it's made it impossible to do anything. For the first time EVER, I didn't get to go pick out a Christmas tree. I didn't hang the lights. I probably won't do many ornaments. And, while I try to stay as positive as possible, some days I just want to punch someone in the face. Today was one of those days.
I learned today that I may have a secondary infection in my intestines, caused by the antibiotics used to treat the initial infection. Awesome. Two infections for the price of one. How lucky can one girl get? I don't have the results back yet, but I've read the symptoms and, based on my luck this year, I'm assuming it's what I have.
I know this is only temporary. I know I'll get through it and life will go on as normal at some point. I know at some point I'll probably forget how awful this all was. But not today. Not when I didn't get to get a tree with my little girl because I was curled up in a ball in bed, too nauseated to move.
At times like this I think about that old saying (and I'm paraphrasing here)... I know God won't give me more than I can handle. Sometimes I wish he just didn't have so much faith in me.
I learned today that I may have a secondary infection in my intestines, caused by the antibiotics used to treat the initial infection. Awesome. Two infections for the price of one. How lucky can one girl get? I don't have the results back yet, but I've read the symptoms and, based on my luck this year, I'm assuming it's what I have.
I know this is only temporary. I know I'll get through it and life will go on as normal at some point. I know at some point I'll probably forget how awful this all was. But not today. Not when I didn't get to get a tree with my little girl because I was curled up in a ball in bed, too nauseated to move.
At times like this I think about that old saying (and I'm paraphrasing here)... I know God won't give me more than I can handle. Sometimes I wish he just didn't have so much faith in me.
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