Waiting for spring....

"Waiting for the fish to bite or waiting for wind to fly a kite. Or waiting around for Friday night or waiting perhaps for their Uncle Jake or a pot to boil or a better break or a string of pearls or a pair of pants or a wig with curls or another chance. Everyone is just waiting." -
-- Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss)

On this, my and Dr. Seuss' birthday, I sit and nurse my painful but hopeful new knee and watch yet ANOTHER snowstorm out the windows!

Thick, wet, heavy snow is falling again... for what? The 3rd or 4th week straight?! Perhaps it's been longer than that, I don't know. I've been in an Oxycodone induced coma for almost two weeks now!

This, in some ways was a good thing, but others, not so good. I decided it was time to stop the controlled substances and just go with the Tylenol 3's on Saturday. So I took my last heavy duty med on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning I had a splitting headache, bordering on migraine status. I purged out both ends a few times and then I went back to bed. I had the cold sweats, aches and pains that hadn't been there before, fitful sleep and the weirdest dreams I think I've ever had. I eventually emerged from the dark little cocoon that is our wonderful new bedroom and felt like a new woman! I was CRAVING a cheeseburger like mad and Nancy came to my rescue with Burger King. It tasted like another!! Then we had Pizza Hut for supper!! *happy dance*

Yesterday was a very good day! Friends came over bearing gifts with their cute little puggies, Brutus and Ozzy. Brutus sang Happy Birthday to me! Thanks Brutie!! I love you!!

This morning I had physical therapy and it's with the amazing Dana! He got me through my shoulders and now he's working with me on my knee too!! He put me through my paces but didn't let me overdo! I got bent my knee back to 100 degrees!! Two weeks out!! He was amazed and pleased at how well I'd done on my own. He said it's nearly unheard of for someone to go past 85 degrees this early! I even "rode" the stationary bike for a bit. Really, it was just swinging the pedals back and forth, but it was good, a "good" kind of pain. Wednesday afternoon I get the stitches out and I'll be zooming right along soon afterward!

Boss at PetSmart says I can come in and "work" customer service for an hour or two as soon as I can stand without pain for that long. So, yay!

So, while it's snowing outside, my sweetie has to work 10 hours on my birthday and I'm still in quite a bit of pain, but I'm very hopeful and most assuredly on the downward slope!!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes, get well wishes, gifts and encouragement from everyone!!

♥ Nancy ♥

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So, rumors of my demise have been much exaggerated...

I had big plans for work while laid up from my surgery. *sigh* What's that they say about the best laid plans??

Everything went fine with the exception of pain management. At the hospital and here at home. I have to say though, today I'm finally feeling somewhat human again. I know, I know, I'm NOT going to overdo. I promise to be good. I hope I can sit up in my studio for a while this weekend though. I have 12 bugs on my work table waiting patiently for their legs!!

Yes, if you were wondering if that big bluish, purply-ish, pinky blob over there on the left is my leg, you would be right. LOT'S of bruising!! Remember that animation I posted about them opening up the leg, moving muscle and tendon, cutting bone, hammering and gluing the new portion in??? I have felt the results of all it this week!!

I can already tell though, it was worth it!!! Nancy might disagree with me at this point, because she is the one who worries and has to deal with the stress of my pain, and she doesn't do that well, but she is such a trouper!! I love her so!

I'll get back to work in my studio again soon enough, for now it's naps with my lil' black doggie Nero and my old man kitty Henry, my cryo/cuf (ice) and HGTV in the background... oh, and the laptop on the pillow next to me! Techy geek that I am!

Oh! Speaking of tech!!! Great news! My new lappy is being made, just for me, as we speak!! It's a Pink Dell Inspiron 1525 with an expected delivery of March 11!!

Thanks Mom!!!

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Wordless Wednesday - Knee replacement, fun and frustration!

Click the pic to see a bigger pic!

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“Just think how happy you would be if you lost everything you have right now, and then got it back again.”

So,

Yesterday I had my second opinion appointment with the surgeon. The surgeon who did my gastric bypass almost three years ago. I continue to trust this guy with my life. After all, I allowed him to operate on me when I weighed 430 lbs!

He (and we - Nancy and I) wish that the circumstances of my bowel obstruction had been different. Not so acute, and not having escalated quite so quickly! If we'd had more time and had our wits about us, we would have called him, in Portland, and been life flighted. Had this happened, the guy who knows all about my altered innards could have taken care of the bowel obstruction laproscopically, instead the old fashioned way. Now I have this painful belly incision that is taking a while to heal. It hurts, I have a big piece of scar tissue that aches deep down inside.

But, hindsight is always 20/20, right?

In the end the guy that did the surgery saved my life and I will be fine. I need to wait a few more weeks for my muscles to heal.

Today, I had an upper and lower barium GI thingy. It was gross, the stuff I had to drink. This was to make sure that everything is running smoothly through my gut.

I feel nauseous and yukky today from the chalk drink. ;-(

I see the gastero intestinal guy next week to get the results of today and if everything is OK there, I'm going to go ahead and get myself back into the knee replacement surgery loop.

*sigh*

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Copyright © 2008 by Constance Pelkey.

This bloggy feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this content in a news reader or on a website related to Constance Pelkey, then where you are reading it from is in violation of copyright!
Thanks!! Connie

Emergency Surgery, Anyone??

Monday started out like any other day. I went to work until 10AM and then it was time to take Mom to her monthly lunch meeting of blind and low vision folks. We got back home and the rest of the afternoon was normal too.

Mondays are Nancy's long days at work so she wasn't due home until 8PM-ish.

As the evening went on I was feeling more and more terrible. I was having cramping in my belly that started to radiate around into my back. It got worse and worse. Eventually the only place I could find any sort of relief at all was flat out on the floor on my belly. Even that wasn't too comfortable at all.

As soon and Nancy got home she called 911 and I was brought to the ER.

Eventually I was diagnosed with a pretty major blockage in my intestines. Seems that once you have had abdominal surgery a couple times your innards get "tacky" and can slip and twist more easily. In the last 10 years I've had a hysterectomy, gastric bypass and my gallbladder removed. I had a large section of intestine that was just black on the ex ray. So, at midnight on Monday I was headed into the surgical wing.

The surgeon found that about one third of my large intestine was twisted up and inside itself and was getting no blood supply. Once he got things untwisted and organized again they pinked right up and everything was fine. I was brought to my room around 3AM and don't remember a whole lot of what went on until Wednesday. I was so sick and out of it.

I came home yesterday afternoon.

I'm feeling a little better today. I'm very sore and tired. I have about a 9 inch incision running from above my belly button to my pubes with staples holding it closed and I have a belly band with Velcro that I have to wear.

I'm fine and thanks in advance for the well wishes.

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Copyright © 2008 by Constance Pelkey.

This bloggy feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this content in a news reader or on a website related to Constance Pelkey Designs, the you are reading it from is in violation of copyright!
Thanks!! Connie

Painting the bathroom.

Here's a few shots of my work from today. Tomorrow morning I work until 10 and then it's up to Mom's. She's been feeling poorly, the humidity is really kicking her ass this summer and she's been having bronchial troubles.

I work again Wednesday morning until 10 and then I'll work some more on the walls in here in the afternoon.


The bathroom - looking in the door, after texturing, before painting.


Standing at the toilet, looking out into the dining room.


Cutting in the sky blue ceiling.


More ceiling and some of the unfinished shower surround.


The sky is blue... and still wet.


After cutting in, rolling and then touching up the ceiling - twice! - it's acoustic tiles! - AKK!! - my arms were waaay too tired to do any detail work, so I just rolled out some of the fields on the walls. My shoulder is doing soooooo well, but working over head is VERY tiring, still!!


Looking back out to the dining room.


Close up of the texturing. Before you judge, be certain to wait on the final effect. The color looks like baby poop smeared on the walls at this point! There will be a darker color glaze wiped on and then off for an antiquing faux effect.


Here's the ugly tile surfaces (in the pictures above and below this text) that will be covered with polymer clay tiles of suns and Saguaro cactus and then 2 part epoxy resin will be poured over them to make them water proof.


All the trim work and cabinets will remain the lighter color with no faux-ing on them. I'll also cover the door knobs and drawer pulls in polymer clay to match the colors.

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Copyright © 2008 by Constance Pelkey.

This bloggy feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this content in a news reader or on a website related to Constance Pelkey Designs, this site is in violation of copyright!
Thanks!! Connie

Weekend

Yesterday I went to work again. I worked from noon 'til four. It was good. Good to get out of the house other than errand running or going up to Mom's. I was tired out after getting home last night!! I'm vastly overestimating how quickly my shoulder is healing. Don't misunderstand... it's healing wonderfully and my physical therapist, Dana, say that it's leaps and bounds ahead of my right shoulder, which was repaired by the same surgeon last summer. I'm being impatient. Because it's doing so well I want it to be better, completely. NOW! Dammit!! I'm tired of being in a sling, I'm tired of being severely limited as to what I can do. I'm tired of it hurting. I'm just impatient.

I'd put some turkey cutlets in the crock pot yesterday morning along with some crushed Italian tomatoes and paste and some Italian veggies and mushrooms. What makes them Italian veggies as opposed to... say French veggies I'll never understand. *G* It was delicious when I got home and we ate. I LOVE no fuss yummy meals!

While I was gone, Nancy worked some more upstairs... details. DETAILS! The old saying "The devil is in the details" makes perfect sense to me. These rooms are taking much longer than we'd anticipated. She scraped and primed the crown molding in the bedroom and touched up ceiling spots in both rooms.

This morning after leisurely cups of coffee and home made banana walnut muffins on the front porch, we went upstairs and worked a bit more. She painted out the crown molding in the trim color while I finished caulking and trimming out the two windows. She then moved into the dressing room and scraped and taped the crown molding in there. I also vacuumed up all the loose paint chips from the painted floor and we realized that it was chipping. Easily. Ak! So, that will get another coat of paint and then a final coat of satin finish polyurethane. Hopefully that will stop the chipping.

This afternoon we are being deck dogs again. It rained yesterday and today it's a mix of clouds and sun, but nice and warm... so here we sit, me putzing on the laptop and her doing her Sudoko and reading her book. The dogs are lazing in the sun too!

Tomorrow is back to reality. Nancy goes back to work and I have a big day with Mom. It's our monthly go-to-lunch-with-the-the-low-vision-group and then I'll do her groceries.

On Tuesday I'll get back to trimming out the dressing room.

Connie

~ Life's too short to use cheap beads! ~

Very exciting morning, boring afternoon.

My morning today turned very exciting last evening when Nancy got a phone call telling her the new windows had come in and they'd be here to install them at 9AM - this morning - today - the day after I drove to and back home from Canada - 8 and a half hours - with only having been 3 and a half weeks out from surgery. You know? The day I was going to spend it on ice most of the day - recovering.... ow!

EEEEEhhhhhh!!!

Not so!

I have workmen coming to the house! That means not only is furniture moving, cleaning, room dismantling and reassembling the downstairs double living rooms, but Dilly's crate, her "room" has to go upstairs and she shut into it so she doesn't take a guys leg off has to happen too!!!

OW!
Nancy did most of the moving (kisses to you, sweetmeat!) and such this morning before she left for work, but I ran the vacuum and dusted and put things away as best as I could after they were done.

They did a great job, by the way... I was so much more impressed with these two guys than I was the idiots who installed the new furnace when we first moved in!!

Those guys where baaaad! Ew!

This afternoon has been VERY low key spent with many acetaminophens and an ice pack.

*smile

Connie

~ Life's too short to use cheap beads! ~

New pics - shoulder PT

I have been working on setting and resetting my stores, PayPal, Etsy and eCrater. I made a Flickr badge with the new pics and I'll be adding all the items to my store, eventually.

I have PT on my shoulder today and I'm really pleased at how well it's been feeling! Anxious to get rid of the sling, but that won't happen for another 3 weeks! Ak! *smile*

www.flickr.com

Connie

~ Life's too short to use cheap beads! ~

Sure sign of spring - IN MAINE!!!!

OMG!!!

Spring is here!! It was just a couple of weeks ago that we were having the ice out of Mt P guessing contest and here is the first small lilac bud on our wee tree!!



Lilacs are my favorite flower! I love the smell of them!! *sigh* A co worker of Nancy's gave her a couple twigs from her bush about 3 years ago. Last year we had two very small flower clusters that came late in the season and this year we already have at least 4 flower cluster buds!!

On our first outing, Nancy cut me a bouquet of lilacs!! *swoon*

Now if the weather will just warm up a wee bit so I can sit out on the deck and convalesce my shoulder some!

Connie

~ Life's too short to use cheap beads! ~

My partner, Nancy rocks!!

My partner, Nancy rocks!!

We had a wonderful 5 days when she took off for my surgery. I admit Wednesday wasn't the best day ever, but the rest were just great! She saw to my every need, my every whim and desire. We did very little except lay about and watch TV. She did groceries and bought me all sorts of fun things like puddings and granola bars and ruby red grapefruit juice and sushi for lunch!!

YUM!!!

It was tough on her and me, her going back to work yesterday. Mondays are her long day and she left around 8AM and didn't arrive back home until a little past 8PM! I missed her terribly!

She is certainly a keeper!

Connie
~ Life's too short to use cheap beads! ~

Surgery, pain and healing

I had my shoulder surgery last Wednesday. Things went well, no real surprises this time around. I had a large rotator cuff tear and a LOT of arthritis. He went in and repaired the tear and scraped out the arthritis. LOTS of pain upon awakening in recovery. Apparently they've had a lot of trouble with the pain pumps leaking and not working correctly, so they aren't using them any more!!! The nurses were telling Nancy that they've had a TON of trouble with folks coming out of surgery in huge amounts of agonizing pain. After pumping me full of narcotics that did very little to relieve me, the anesthesiologist gave me a pain blocker in my neck artery. Knocked me out for hours! We finally got home around 5PM, we arrived at the hospital at 9AM. It was a long day!!

Sweetie was a champ though it all!! I am a total bitch when I have unresolved pain. I can hear the little sane censure voice in the back of my head telling me to keep my mouth shut and be nice, but the drugs sap my patience and make me say the the most mean things to sweetie and the poor nurses who are all doing their absolute best to take care of me. All the while, my mouth is running on and on, spewing sarcastic comments and malevolent statements aimed at whomever happens to be within earshot. Immediately upon saying them, I'm apologizing for them!

*sigh*

Because of all the drugs I had on board, they were very concerned about me sleeping and told sweetie to pay attention to my breathing that night. We all slept downstairs on the couches, and I was awake practically every hour on the hour!! Sweetie got very little sleep, I was in agony and poor Dilly had no clue what was going on except she knew I was not right and she sat and stared at me most of the night.

Bone surgery is the most painful kind of surgery there is! Ow!

More later... typing one handed sucks.....