I am still here…

Hey everyone. Yes, I am still here. I had a ROUGH week. It became apparent that I was allergic to the pain medication. I was severely nauseous (and I mean SEVERELY) and it made my skin itch so badly that I thought I was going to scrape all my skin off my body. So pain medication stopped and the actual pain set in. Lovely. I then proceeded to develop insomnia only sleeping about 2 to 4 hours a night. Needless to say I have seen my fair share if infomercials. Did you know that you can have rock hard 6 pack abs by using the Ab Shaker Belt? Hum…who knew? 🙂

Things are getting a little better. The pain is lessening and the nausea only lasts a few hours each morning. I actually convinced myself I was pregnant due to waves of nausea but a pregnancy test quickly proved me wrong. Thank you Lord! I have been to two PT sessions already and the exercises are excoriating but worth it. It has been determined that my body produces close to no scar tissue so that has helped with the swelling but the downside is that it makes the possibility of retearing that tendon greater and therefore my recovery may take longer than originally expected.

I feel like there are stages of grief no matter how big or small a tragedy may be. I will admit that this has been hard on me and on my family. Keith has been amazing but he is tired. He works, he cooks, he cleans, and he takes care of me. My mood swings have been out of control and yet he just rolls with it. He has loved me every step of this process, he never complains and when I cry he just holds my hand, rubs my head and tells me that he will always be here and that I am doing great. He cheers when I can move my fingers and makes me feel like I have just completed one of those long ago 10 mile runs.

My entire hand has been affected and actually the only finger that actually works with normalcy is the thumb. I am in a splint that stabilizes my entire hand and wrist and I am only allowed to take the splint off when I do my PT exercises. Everything takes twice as long with one arm. Making oatmeal takes sufficiently more time. I need multiple trips the table. Take bowl to kitchen table. Come back for spoon. Come back for coffee. Go back for a napkin, etc…you get the idea. I have now decided that sometimes eating standing up in my kitchen isn’t so bad.

Simple everyday things I took for granted:

• Tying my shoes
• Putting my hair in a pony-tail
• Spreading PB on a piece of bread
• Shaving my underarms
• Putting on a bra
• Grocery Shopping and pushing/steering a cart
• Blogging

And the list could go on and on and on. All of those things are a lot harder or actually impossible to do with only one hand. I have said before and I will say it again: I am humbled.

I want to tell you all thank you from the bottom of my heart. My house is a florist (thanks for all the flowers) and the cards (Anna and Christina…both made me smile) and for everyone that cooked for us. Oh my gosh…having meals made has been a lifesaver. Special thanks to Hilary and Lindsay for running errands for me and Keith and just basically being willing to help out in any way. Thank you. And Hilary…just so you know when I cry, Keith always says, “I need Hilary here to make you smile.” You do girl! 🙂

I also need to especially thank Katie and Sarena. The daily emails have been awesome. I know they aren’t always cheery and you two have definitely heard the worst of it, but I feel so grateful to have two people whom I have never formally met be such amazing friends. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay well I need to jump off as my right hand/wrist literally ache from one-handed typing. For everyone who went to HLS this weekend, I hope it was awesome and I am so sad I couldn’t be there to meet so many of you in person. But I am sure I will be reading update after update for a few days. 🙂

1 week down…11 to go! 🙂

Advertisement