Holy hardware, Batman!

Well hooray! Surgery was a success yesterday, at least so far anyway. It's not as painful (so far) as I'd feared it might be, but to be sure it's not exactly a cake walk either. However, compared to the first surgery, it's a breeze. It doesn't seem like the swelling will be anything near what it had been and overall the rehab isn't quite as aggressive right off the bat. No "cannonballs" and heel slides every hour, but when I do do them, the pain hasn't been as bad. Granted, the epidural was turned off only a few hours ago, I'm on one IV, three oral, and one transdermal patch for pain management, but hey, it's working :)

My shin bone is like swiss cheese and my hip is only slightly better off, so I'm 50% weight bearing for a few weeks with modified exercise. I'm looking forward to getting back to rehabbing in the pool and I really can't wait for the more acute recovery to be over so that I can really put my new leg through its paces (Ha! Pun totally intended!). I've tried to run a few steps prior to this hardware removal and besides the pain, I was at a total loss for how to do it. The new leg moves so differently from my hips to my toes that it's difficult to coordinate. The exercise physiologist I've checked in with recommends not even trying to learn how until the other leg is corrected. I think she's right. So in the meantime, it's swimming and biking for me.

For the millionth time I've got to say (and with no less enthusiasm), this new leg is awesome. Of course it's not perfect and I don't have the finished product yet (I've been told people continue to improve for up to two years), but if the course so far is any indication, I have a lot to be thankful for.

Also... I've got to say, I'm a little proud of my hardware (and perhaps a little sad to be unable to claim bionic status anymore)! I could feel two plates and several screws through the skin, so I'm glad they're out for that reason as well as for the discomfort they caused, but they're still cool- ten silver, four blue, two green, two silver plates, and one yellow plate for a total of sixteen screws and three plates!

Yes siree Bob, they'll make a great wind chime!

PS- If anybody reaches this blog by searching derotational osteotomy, I'd be more than happy to pass along my research and experiences. I'd like to "pay it forward" since I finally started getting answers last year from others who'd gone through the same or very similar types of surgery.

Ouch, only 12 out of 100.

To follow the NPR (US National Public Radio) meme, copy this list, putting in Bold those you have read.

1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
3. Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card
4. The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert
5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin
6. 1984, by George Orwell
7. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
8. The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov
9. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
11. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
12. The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan
13. Animal Farm, by George Orwell
14. Neuromancer, by William Gibson
15. Watchmen, by Alan Moore
16. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov
17. Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein
18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss
19. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
20. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
21. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick
22. The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
23. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King
24. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke
25. The Stand, by Stephen King
26. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson
27. The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury
28. Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
29. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman
30. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
31. Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein
32. Watership Down, by Richard Adams
33. Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey
34. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein
35. A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller
36. The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells
37. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, by Jules Verne
38. Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keys
39. The War Of The Worlds, by H.G. Wells
40. The Chronicles Of Amber, by Roger Zelazny
41. The Belgariad, by David Eddings
42. The Mists Of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley
43. The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson
44. Ringworld, by Larry Niven
45. The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin
46. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien
47. The Once And Future King, by T.H. White
48. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
49. Childhood’s End, by Arthur C. Clarke
50. Contact, by Carl Sagan
51. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons
52. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman
53. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson
54. World War Z, by Max Brooks
55. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle
56. The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman
57. Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett
58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson
59. The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold
60. Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett
61. The Mote In God’s Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
62. The Sword Of Truth, by Terry Goodkind
63. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
64. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
65. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson
66. The Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E. Feist
67. The Shannara Trilogy, by Terry Brooks
68. The Conan The Barbarian Series, by R.E. Howard
69. The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb
70. The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
71. The Way Of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson
72. A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, by Jules Verne
73. The Legend Of Drizzt Series, by R.A. Salvatore
74. Old Man’s War, by John Scalzi
75. The Diamond Age, by Neil Stephenson
76. Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke
77. The Kushiel’s Legacy Series, by Jacqueline Carey
78. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin
79. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury
80. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire
81. The Malazan Book Of The Fallen Series, by Steven Erikson
82. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde
83. The Culture Series, by Iain M. Banks
84. The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart
85. Anathem, by Neal Stephenson
86. The Codex Alera Series, by Jim Butcher
87. The Book Of The New Sun, by Gene Wolfe
88. The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn
89. The Outlander Series, by Diana Gabaldan
90. The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock
91. The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury
92. Sunshine, by Robin McKinley
93. A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge
94. The Caves Of Steel, by Isaac Asimov
95. The Mars Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson
96. Lucifer’s Hammer, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
97. Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis
98. Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville
99. The Xanth Series, by Piers Anthony
100. The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis

Yikes, I guess I've got some reading to do! Thank goodness for free classics on the Kindle!

Passion for a passion

Oooooooh! As if the hibiscuses weren't cool enough, one of my favorite flowers is growing right down the street!

The passion flower is another one of those things attached to some vivid memories. There are two particular scenes that come to mind. The first is a simple snapshot of standing in a Seattle summer drizzle in a bright lime green slicker at the Ballard Locks. I was on my way through the small botanical garden to sit on the hill to watch the boats pass through. Man, I miss that.

The second memory evoked is in front of the same plant but on a warm, sunny day. A fellow Midwesterner and I were taking a pit stop to enjoy the locks and fish ladder. After this rather unfortunate view of one of the salmon counters, the flower was a nice contrast ;) We were hot, happy, and lighthearted when we finally got to Ray's Boathouse to watch the boats weave around Puget Sound.

I've never seen the flower anywhere else besides the Ballard locks and had no idea they could live here. This Redneck Riviera passion flower is on the street beside a driveway that I drive past every time I come and go from our neighborhood. We must have walked by it a million times, but I never noticed it- probably because we were trying to keep Beast Two from strangling himself with the leash. I've never been here in the summer, so I maybe they just weren't blooming.

The lady there has a nice garden that she obviously puts a lot of effort into from spring to fall. I feel like I should go over there and tell her how much I enjoy seeing her garden every day and how I especially love her passion flowers.

It was a dark and stormy night....

The weather here is kind of strange in that it's pretty focal for the most part. Down at the beach, just four miles south and two miles west of the house, they will have no rain and be watching the storm clouds dumping rain on our abode. I took this picture last night at dinner. One mile south, no rain, one mile north and it was pouring. I think it's neat, but it creates jealousy when I'm so close and yet so far from the rain.

On a somewhat related note (weather... Redneck Riviera... allergies), I noticed that my allergy nasal spray has a warning on it telling people not to use in the eyes. Is this really necessary? I mean, I know I'm a nurse and all, but I'm pretty sure "nasal" isn't medicalese and is in general, everyday language. Am I wrong?

Glasses and books and awkwardness

I realize that there's not a whole lot of substance to recent entries. Bear* with me as I recover from blogatrophy.

I realized that my new glasses are exactly like Peleke's. Oops. I think they're unisex but still. I don't think people have noticed yet, and perhaps they won't, but I feel like they're screaming for attention. Awkward.

And speaking of glasses... reading... books! I just finished two books and am going through that withdrawal you get from a really good read. Check out The Pillars of the Earth and The Help.

*Did you know that "bare with me" means "get nekked with me?" Yeah, hmm. Wonder if I've every accidentally written it that way. Awkward^2.

Diagnosis Wenckebach

Don't hate me for this, but I have to post it because it's both horrible and hilarious:

I watched it a few years ago and it still cracks me up.

And yes, it's also annoying.

Blorf

You know how sometimes everything is really ok but it feels like it's not? Yeah, it's been one of those weeks. Nothing serious, just multiple days of feeling powerless about most things going on around me.

I'm feeling crabby, frustrated, and lonely. Well, lonely in that the-AF-owns-my-husband-and-I'm-here-because-they-say-so-now-where-did-they-put-him? sort of way. I miss my girlfriends.

End pity party.

As the saying goes, if you can't say anything nice... post a funny picture (or eight). Something like that.

Right, that about sums things up.

These ain't your grandma's Crayola colors!

In perusing one of my guilty pleasures, I got the inspiration I was looking for. We've been discussing paint colors for our place, but neither of us is particularly, um, decoratively inclined. So it's been slow going.

Enter Damn You Auto Correct and voila! I think we'll go with effervescent shitstain and smoker's teeth. Yup, that'll do 'er.

But seriously, do these people not proofread?

Random question of the day

When people hear beeping noises, especially alarms of any kind, why do they often feel compelled to mimic them?

Joey, your name is mud. Again.

He ate my glasses. I get that it's too hot to go outside* and that they're bored out of their little minds. I just don't know what to do with them, and so we figure these sorts of things will happen. Arg (heh, not to be confused with ARG).

Anyway, I went to the Walmart optical center to find some new frames the other day. None of them jumped out to me, but they're just glasses, right? I decided on a style different than the old pair. Now the ones Joey ate probably weren't the most flattering on me (they were kind of bulky and I have a small face), but I liked them. I went with a finer frame and slightly different shape.

Why do I feel like I look so different? Like a haircut, I'm sure nobody is really paying attention and I'll get used to it quickly. Still, it's weird.

*A few weeks ago, I took the dogs to our usual beach. It was so hot out and the water was like bath water. Guess who drank half the Gulf of Mexico and proceeded to vomit and diarrhea all over my car. Yeah, Joey, that's who.