December 10

This blue chair helped me wash my blues away

1.  I slept until 9:45 am
2.  I took a real shower after 2 weeks and 2 days - since I now own a blue shower chair that I assembled all on my own in less than 10 minutes.  I felt like a new person and it washed away my blues.  Yes, I have been a little down the last few days.
3.  Did a small load of laundry all by myself (BH has been doing it for me the past two weeks when needed)
3.  Physical therapy was awesome - thanks for the idea to take some Tylenol beforehand
4.  Worked a full day
5.  In nightgown and in bed before 8 PM
6. I may or I may not get some Christmas cards done - I am kind of tired and need some Netflix time
7.  I blogged about today at the end of the day.

I feel accomplished, thanks to my blue chair.

Getting a shower chair reminded me what a blessing Visiting Teaching has been in my life!!!

As most of you know or maybe don't know, I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints aka The Mormons.

I started learning about the church when I was in junior high thanks to my dad.  I didn't join until many years later. 

One of the programs the church has is called Visiting Teaching, which is part of the women's organization commonly knows as the Relief Society.

Visiting teaching is an organized means whereby the women of the Church receive regular instructional and compassionate service visits-usually by personal contact in the home-from other female members of the Church. The purpose is to promote sisterhood, present inspirational messages, and note instances of need wherein the temporal and spiritual resources of the Church might be helpful.
The need for such visitors was recognized soon after the founding of the Relief Society in 1842. At the second meeting of the society on March 24, Emma Smith, wife of the Prophet Joseph Smith, suggested appointing persons to wait upon the poor. On July 28, 1843, a Necessity Committee of sixteen was named "to search out the poor and suffering, to call upon the rich for aid, and thus as far as possible, relieve the wants of all." The original functions of this committee were twofold: "to ascertain the condition of the families visited, and to accept contributions for charitable purposes" (General Board, 1942, pp. 43-44; 1966, p. 68).

I will be the first to admit Relief Society was not my favorite part of church but it certainly has become one of my favorite meetings because of great teachers like DAF, LJS, AW, SH, SW, JT, JFB, JAB, DAS, HWH, CW, ASH and oh so many more (I try not to use peoples name's on my blogs and often refer to them by initials so if you have been in a ward with me you are probably guessing away and you probably know some of them if you are reading this).  The picture on the top are some of the ladies who have known me since 1989 and are a few of the RS women that have taught me and hold a special place in my heart and the only reason I posted is because this pic has been on FB.

Last night I wont lie I was a bit sad as I realized how painful my PT was going to be - my inability to drive for a while.  So I reached out to my current visiting teacher DP.  She willingly offered to help me run errands to find a shower chair, Trader Joe's and give me a ride to church.  I met her gosh over 5 years ago when we both went to Girls Camp and her youngest daughter was in my cabin.  She has always been kind and I have watched her serve and be a great role model.  I now get to be a recipient of her willing spirit to serve and show me what we should really be like.  Most important these days - because of her service tonight I now get to take my first real shower in a little over two weeks.  THANK YOU DP!!

I don't know that I have always been the best at visiting teaching but I have tried my best.  I do know one thing some of my closest friends or individuals I look up to are because I have served them or they me and I think the quote below expresses my feelings about visiting teaching even better than this post.

“Visiting teachers sincerely come to know and love each sister, help her strengthen her faith, and give service. They seek personal inspiration to know how to respond to the spiritual and temporal needs of each sister they are assigned to visit. …

"The purposes of visiting teaching are to build caring relationships with each sister and to offer support, comfort, and friendship. In visiting teaching, both the giver and receiver are blessed and strengthened in their church activity by their caring concern for one another."  - Relief Society Handbook, 202.

Physical Therapy

Tuesday I woke up and had to prepare for a conference call for work and try to find a physical therapist.  I wanted and hoped to find someone close by that someone had used or that I may know.  Unfortunately, that was not in the cards.

I found someone and verified they had a contract with my insurance and scheduled an appointment for PT at 2 but needed to be there at 1:30 to do paperwork.  

Brenda to the rescue accepted the task to drive me probably a mile to the provider I found.  We arrived about 5 minutes early as they were out to lunch.  Once I got settled in we agreed she should come back around 3.

Leslie was my Physical Therapist and we talked - I was super nervous but she helped me relax.  We talked about what I was feeling, she did some testing etc.  Laying on my back I am at 20 degrees from being completely straight and flat.  She did some other examination and said my leg looked good as there was no swelling etc. So off we went with her assistant Matt.

We started with a warm blanket on my knee - it felt good and cozy.  Than the exercises and while I felt the pain I also felt frustration.  I knew the movement was very tight and not as good as it should be.  

• Calf Stretches painful.
• Quad set with a towel underneath and ankle pumps by far the easiest. 
• Heel slides at a seating position and against a wall were painful and frustrating. Self assisted slides were painful but easier since I could keep my other leg there pressuring it down.
• Half circles on stationary bike - I love riding a bike and as I sat there in pain doing these circles I wanted to cry but that also helped me want to just push myself.  

We finished with some icing and it felt good and it helped me reflect on the following things.

One of my other angels of service that was waiting to take me home - BH.  I have known her for at least 23 years.  My friend PL lived with her for a while and she is the mother of my friend DL  She helped us clean up a spare room when PL was moving out of her place and to the home I grew up in, she made Thanksgiving dinner for us one year when I had to work the day after and couldn't go to Vegas to be with family, and if I am not mistaken she went to my dad's funeral and as of recently opened her home to me and because of her saying I needed to just have my surgery done now while I was at her home (a ground apartment is hard to find in Redondo Beach) and she would help me that I am recuperating.  She has been very attentive and diligently put ice on my ice machine to keep my leg iced.  I am so grateful and I don't even know how I can ever begin to repay all she is doing for me.  Other than to continue to be a good friend to her and her family and help them whenever or wherever they are and need help.

Also as I sat there laying at the ceiling tiles I realized I was getting PT in the section of where one of the two theaters for the Cypress Family Twin Cinema.  I grew up going there when I was a little girl and there were no Regal or Edwards; and if there was I was not aware because that was just the theater you went to when you lived in Cypress.  So as much as my hometown has grown - it was once a small town and as big as it is people who are long time residents still have that small town friendliness. 

Although I felt truly blessed I did get a bit discouraged and overwhelmed but that quickly turned around.

POST OP appointment 12/7/2015

I woke up early Monday morning and started to get cleaned up and ready to go, only to realize I would be ready about three hours before my ride would be here.  So what to do?  go back to bed.

I finally left around 10:15 am when one of my many amazing friends came to drive me to UCLA.  MBN was kind enough to drop me off and pick me up for my surgery.  Mind you this amazing, lady lives in Aliso Viejo which is about 40 miles south of Cypress.  I have known her since high school and met her in a math class.  I remember I enjoyed knowing her than and we would do silly things and laugh in that class.  We may not be teenagers but we sure do laugh.  I was simply in awe that she offered to take me.  We were talking and she offered and said it's on my calendar and it was settled.

One of the first stops was to go pick up some treats for the nursing staff.  We went to the Great Dane Bakery but just so you know it is closed on Mondays.  So we were going to head over to Edible Arrangements but we weren't sure about traffic so we opted to just head up to UCLA.  I was like a little kid on a car ride sitting in the back seat.  Proof that I was back there soaking in the sun and taking pictures and just staring out the window.

We arrived at UCLA in about an hour or less; MBN assures me she was going 65 or less. We decided we would park in the emergency patient drop off and pick up while she took the thank you cards to the two nurses who took care of me pre and post op.  

When we drove up we drove right past the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house that has provided such great service to 12 year old Lexi Brown (Lexi has sacorma and the cancer has spread to her lungs). They responded to a sign on her window requesting pizza and she had no idea what great service she would receive

When I saw the house, I did get that warm feeling of imagining how much the service this fraternity has done for Lexi and probably touched her heart in a way we can only imagine. As I type I am getting teary eyed. Her name is on the roof of the house and I saw it which gave me chills.  I finally can say I saw one of the places that is part of a viral FB post. Most important it is a reminder and lesson to me and others - no matter how scary things are in the world we live in - if some young college fraternity boys can be kind - why can't we? Michelle came back and told me while she didn't get to hand the cards to the nurses - they were both there and the lady at the front desk went back to provide it to them.  

We then headed to our final stop the medical plaza.  We still had an hour so we had lunch at the UCLA grill.  It was fun to watch people.

Appointment time well they took the brace off and the dressing (which was gross) and he started to remove the stitches.  I tried to watch but opted to lie back down and wait. This what I saw when the dressing was removed.  The fellow said my leg looked good.  I didn't have much flexibility but it looked good with no swelling. 

Dr. Hame came in a few minutes later and showed me my pics of my knee.  They are kind of cool.  She tested my bending another way and I did much better.  She started to ask me about degrees and I told her I didn't know I needed to increase the degrees to which she said yes 5 every day.  I looked at her funny and said how.  That is when we realized I did not go home with a CPM machine.  I was very sad to learn I cant drive for a while.  I was given my RX for PT and asked to come back in 4 weeks.  Oh the fellow also said i was doing better than average since I can hold my leg up.

One Week

I haven't been as diligent about blogging because nothing is really happening.

Saturday - I was lost on my days.

Sunday - I cleaned up, tore the bedding down - Brenda made bed with new clean sheets; had visitors:  Wendy, Sharon, Cindy and my new home teachers.  A lot of laughing and mind you I had not washed my hair since Tuesday morning.  See different sheets.

Monday - nothing worth excitement.  Worked remotely in the evening.

Today - Worked remotely.  Lisa came over and washed my hair YAY!!!  See leg looks the same and my hair looks clean.

Friday, November 27

Photo of my leg now on the left and the initial day of injury two years ago in the ER.

As you can see the posts are shorter.

Today I woke up at the same dreaded 4 am time and went back to sleep.  I think I finally got up at 9 and had some yogurt.  

I took some Tylenol.  

Watched a marathon of Bones.

Wanted to go to sleep at 4 but thought that would be a bad idea.

Lisa brought me a grilled cheese sandwich and we did an overview of LDS temples and then she went home.  It was nice to have someone visit. 

I went to bed shortly afterwards but had a hard time falling asleep.  I seriously thought I could take a percocet to sleep but I thought that would be dumb. 

I managed to sleep until about 6 am and then just layed in bed dozing in and out of sleep. until this morning.

This is a memory from MCL surgery

Thursday, November 26 - Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year.  Why?  Well, it is the only holiday my immediate family and I have in common as they are Jewish and I am Christian.  It is a day to be with them, laughing, shaking heads at silly jokes, enjoying each others contributions to the feast and the company of family and friends.  I knew having this surgery would keep me from partaking of this holiday this year because I would miss this but getting healthier at this time is even more important and I did miss them.

I woke up and felt fine less groggy and hungry.  I had yogurt for breakfast.

I did not feel any pain so I skipped the Tylenol and just rested.  I think this is the day I blogged I can't recall to be honest.  

Brenda had ordered Thanksgiving dinner from the Katella Deli and she picked it up at 12:30.  I think we made sure I had all my needs taken care of as we were not sure how long she may be gone.  

That afternoon I had some yummy mashed potatoes and stuffing and turkey.   I did decide to take some Tylenol as well.

I felt good and just kind of let myself rest and sleep and eat.  I am appreciative of all of those friends who checked in on me with texts asking if I needed anything or inviting me over for dinner or games that evening.  How lucky I am to have so many individuals who are so kind hearted.