Can You Hear Me Now?

Hello, yes, I am back at home now. I haven’t been updating because a) my mom’s computer keyboard/monitor is set up differently than mine and it wasn’t comfortable for me to work on, and b) I’ve had nothing to talk about except how much I’ve been hating my life at the moment and who wants to hear that?!? Except for how great my mom and Bob were when it came to taking care of me, I was very much in the feeling-sorry-for-myself zone.

The surgery really set me back, all my MS symptoms are 10 times worse. A couple have improved in the past few days so there is hope, but overall my understanding is it is a long recovery after being pumped so full of all those drugs. I’ve heard anywhere from one to three months, and to “be patient”. Yes. Patience is, of course, my middle name.

I’m all registered with Home Care so they will be in to shower/dress me every day (EVERY DAY! YIPPEE!) and I have use of both my big 4-wheeled walker and a two-wheeled one we borrowed from Home Care in Strathmore. I can’t even walk a few steps without a walker right now. But, I am getting around my apartment, so that is good. The O.T. will be visiting next week about getting me a stripper pole beside my bed, and I also start physio over at the hospital on Wednesday.

My cats are sooooooooooo cute!! They have been all over me and I love every minute of it. They are so much bigger, but not too big. I would be very happy if they stayed where they’re at now. When they both curl up in the top of the cat tree, they barely fit. If they get any bigger they won’t fit in there together anymore and that would be DRASTIC!!

Rob called and he’s a couple hours away. My folks should also be here soon, so they can help me with a couple things before Rob gets here. We’re eating out and then it’s his show and eeeeee!!!! that should help me feel a lot better. I don’t know what we are going to do this weekend, but it won’t be much!! I may drag him to visit some of my favourite old ladies from the care centre. He would totally do it, too. He’s so sweet.

My pants fit, so I didn’t gain any weight while I was gone. Whatever I gained at the care center came out with my gallbladder and the starvation/liquid diet that surrounded it.

My wrist is killing me. I may need to leave the typing for “work only” stuff. I have soooooooooo much to do but I’ll worry about that on Monday. Have a great weekend!

My lovely friend Lisa has been my main kitty-sitter over the past couple of months, for which I am so grateful. She posted an entry in her blog with a whole bunch of pictures!! Now everyone can see how much my babies have grown. I think I need to get two new kittens to watch grow, since I missed out on so much of this…

This One’s For You Donna

I am still at my mom’s trying to regain energy, strength and move past the pain. It’s amazing how only a couple months of not walking much (not that I walked much before, but more than I have been!) can send your muscles into atrophy and it’s a long road back. Without a solid wrist to depend on while using my walker, my walking is very shaky and I can only do a few steps here and there. At this point I wonder if I’ll ever be able to use just a cane again! I know I will, but it’s gonna be awhile.

Have I mentioned, that since the surgery, I have not had, or even wanted a cup of coffee or a latte??? I am sure it’s a temporary situation.

• Normal people come home from one hospital and stay there; I head to another one the same day.
• Normal people get painkillers like morphine or demerol or at the very least something with codeine to help them control pain after surgery; I am on a medication I chose to treat my MS that I recently discovered blocks narcotics, so I simply had/have to suffer through the pain. Advil can’t do much for you in these situations.
• Read that again. SO.NOT.FUN.
• Normal people have veins that are easily found and punctured for giving blood and IVs; I have veins that either can’t be found, collapse or jump away from needles for whatever reason. Four nurses making several pokes each and the IV was finally inserted, just to have my hand turn into a balloon by the next day because it couldn’t take it. We won’t even discuss the daily blood withdrawals for the lab and the bruises left behind.
• Normal people have gallbladder removal surgery these days and it is a fairly simple laparoscopic procedure that takes about an hour, and they can leave the next day; I had a “very messy” gallbladder that required more cutting and work and was in surgery for several hours, and needed to stay in the hospital for a week.

It’s nice to be considered special by the doctors and all that, however I would rather be on the easy side of that “special case”. Add my MS symptoms and a healing broken wrist into that mix and I do believe I had more nurses shaking their heads in disbelief…

Anyway, it’s been a tough few days. I’m at my mom’s recovering now and hopefully this will all be over soon and I can get home for REAL and enjoy my kitties who are almost CATS and Rob Szabo’s arrival for his show August 11. BTW vote for Rob’s “Breaking Even” video, he broke the Top 10 the other day - Click Here and scroll down the page.

Thanks for all your well wishes and thoughts, I’ll check back soon with a real entry. My last few days at the care facility were nice and Shawna being here right at that time was a Godsend, so I’d like to talk about that more. For now, it’s back to the La-Z-Boy.