I Made A Time Lapse Movie

I have a lot of time on my hands (or "hand" in my case) and was looking for something fun to do. It's hard to be very creative with only one working arm, but I came up with something:

Thought Points for This Day

Things I am thinking:

• When things take two to three times longer to do, time passes quickly.
  



• I do not think it is possible to put a pillowcase on a pillow with one arm.
  



• The site coordinator where I pick up my food on Fridays sent me a get well card. How can someone with whom I chat 10 to 15 minutes once a week, pick out a card so perfect for me that you would have thought it came from my Mom, daughter, or best friend?
  



• I was given 5 more exercises to do by the physical therapists and I like one of them so much I will probably do it for the rest of my life.
  



• I can drive just fine with one arm.
  



• Although My Sweetie can barely crack an egg or make a ponytail, he has been extraordinarily helpful.
  



• I no longer sleep wearing my sling and I can't begin to say how much I enjoy sleeping without that strap on my neck.
  



• I feel I am progressing very well and for that I am grateful.

first physical therapy today

my thumb has been achy so i'm not going to stretch my hand out doing shifting for caps. I just realized I can hit "caps lock" each time. Anyway, I discovered that i do not care for typing with one hand. my first physical therapy will be at 3:00 this afternoon. i have stopped taking all the pain meds excepy for my regular anti-inflammatory i was already taking for my thumb.
~
i wanted my hair up on sunday so my sweetie did it for me and it was hilarious. i can't wait to show a picture. we laughed so hard our ribs hurt. also he has been doing most the of cooking with my instructions/supervision and that has been fun.
~
i'm looking forward to finding out what the PT has to say. i hope i'm in good shape. i should be out of this sling on March 2nd. yay! more later.

A Fantastic Day!

Tuesday was a really great day and I can tell you: I certainly needed one. I got up and got as ready as I could and then My Sweetie came home and helped me finished getting dressed. There are a lot of things you can't do with one hand such as: hook your bra, tie your shoes, button your jeans. Also he brought me beautiful flowers because it also happened to be Valentine's Day. It felt good just to have on real clothes.

After we got in to see the doctor, a nurse pulled off the remaining bandages from my shoulder and snipped out the stitches. The doctor was pleased with my arm and told me I could remove the cushion part of my sling. That was great! The cushion part is the big bulky thing that also has the horrid waist strap. Taking that part off made me feel like a crazy FreeBird. I was so happy.

~

We left the doctor's office and went for lunch at one of our favorite TexMex places. We had a terrific lunch and of course I had a Dos Equis. As we walked out, the gloom had broken and the sun was shining and it was mild and pleasant and I was so overjoyed, I looked up at the sky and beamed a "Thank you God for lifting my spirit!"

~

I should back up a bit here and tell you that the weather has been HORRIBLE since my surgery. My mother has the weather data of everyone she knows on her home page and she told me that one of the last few days it was colder here than in Alaska (my niece lives there.) And cold is way worse when it's always dark and gloomy.

~

Speaking of Mom, when My Sweetie brought me home, he went back to work, and after talking to my neighbor for a while, I called Mom. We had a long pleasant chat and I helped her with her crossword puzzle. I really enjoy things like that. It's tough seeing Mom only once or twice a year.

~

My Sweetie came home and we had a nice simple dinner and watched our Detroit Red Wings make NHL history. After My Sweetie had gone to bed, and just before midnight, I had one last great thing: The Cranberries performed a new song from their first album in 10 years. I will have to get that CD when it comes out.

~

So anyway, after 11 days of pain, gloom, irritation and sometimes exasperation, I had a really great day. And I will savor it for quite some time.

another post surgery update

I love that illustration that came on the sheet regarding my exercises. It looks like a Leaning Demon from "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" or something. I mean, I'm not bald and do my exercises topless while wearing white jazz shoes. Nor is my left arm as long as my legs. I don't know why, but I'm sort of fascinated by that picture.

~

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned before how I do not like being "bound" in any way: How I remove my bra and shoes once I enter my house. And my jeans. I wear T-shirts and loose cotton house pants or shorts at home. So try to imagine my extreme discomfort of having this sling on for 223 and 1/2 hours. Not only is the thing on my neck and back, there is also a waist belt. And I still have 2 weeks and 2 and 1/2 days to go.

~

And I'm tired of sleeping propped up. So, basically, I'm going through a phase of just trying to be cool about the little things that are starting to drive me insane. Other than that and the creepy black bruises, everything is good. I have my post-op appointment Tuesday morning. Yes, that is Valentine's Day. We are going to go out for lunch afterwards and that will be my first day out since the surgery. I'll let you know how all of that works out. Meanwhile, I will work on trying to ignore all these straps.

Post Surgery

I was in a pain/drug fog until Tuesday. That was the first day I felt like myself again. The surgery went well. They did three things: reattaching the one muscle that's the main rotator cuff thing, the distal clavicle excision and moving and reattaching my bicep.
~
I have adapted pretty well. I have these little exercises that I have to do three times a day. I appreciate those because I understand the importance of them. I am able to take a careful shower. My Sweetie, as well as my daughter, has been very very helpful.
~
For the last two days the shoulder blade behind the surgery has been very sore. I get
My Sweetie to massage it and I moan so much it is making our cat uncomfortable. I don't know why, but that amuses me a lot. And sleeping has not been an issue. So that's good.
~
Anyway, I'm chugging along. Everything's okay.

Today They Cut Me

I guess we'll be leaving in about 30 minutes to go to the hospital.
How odd, but I can't think of anything at all to say.

Just Days Away...

Later this afternoon is my pre-op at the hospital. The surgery is Friday morning. I spend most of my time doing preparedness things for my four weeks with one working arm. I did get a wonderful early Valentine's gift from My Sweetie. It's the gift basket pictured above featuring Covington Strawberry Ale. Yum. I am having my second one as I type.
~
My daughter is coming over Thursday to help me do all my last minute things for the surgery. I really can't wait to get this fixed. I just hope nothing weird happens like I get a flesh eating bacteria or something. Hospitals are creepy places. But my procedure is being done in an outpatient part of the hospital so hopefully everything will go fine. The surgery is supposed to last two hours and then after I wake from the anesthesia, I can come home. I expect to be home by eleven or noon on Friday. I'll probably not post for several days after that, but I expect I will be reading and commenting (with one hand). Wish me luck!

Farewell to the Chief

The guy on the left, "Chief" died last Thursday morning. That's my dad on the right. I knew Chief before he was called that. I don't want to use his real name here. We first got to know each other in 9th grade.
~
In 9th grade my junior high school started an experimental science program with Duke University called Q.P.S. That stands for Quantative Physical Science. The room had the two-seater desks in three rows. I ended up front and center with Chief as my partner. It was a strange class. I've often wondered if there were not more to it than trying to teach us science. First of all, the teacher never smiled and owned 5 outfits. Yes, 5 outfits: one for each day of the week. Second, Chief and I were very smart and the whole rest of the class were dumber than rocks.
~
Chief's and my test grades were typically 98 to 106 while the rest of the class averaged about 62. It was very strange. Chief and I made a great team because he did the math stuff and I did the word stuff. We moved onto high school after that, so I don't know if they kept up the Q.P.S. experiment or not, but I'm sure our classroom confused whoever was keeping the data.
~
In the middle of 10th grade I collected a high school boyfriend. He had a best friend and the three of us hung out and I guess word got out that our apartment was a cool place to hang out. (Dad smoked pot and we always had booze. Also there was a basketball court just steps away from my front door.) So by the time we all graduated, there was a pretty solid twelve of us. They were all guys except me.
~
I'm not sure when Chief joined the group, but I think it was pretty early on. There was a running argument about how Chief got his nickname. My high school boyfriend claimed that Chief walked in the door one day and he said, "CHEEEEEEEEEE." And I think he meant it as an insult as in "Cheap." But with everybody being stoned or whatever, people heard "Chief" and then called him that all night. And then pretty much the rest of his life.
~
Back when we were 18 or 19 we were joking around about who would be the first one to die and everyone simultaneously yelled, "Chieeeeeeef!" Of course at the time we all imagined it would be just a few years away in a car wrapped around a tree. Well, he was the first one to die, but he lived to be 50 and quite frankly we were not really as surprised by his death so much as that he lived this long.
~
I've mentioned Chief before on a post way back in 2005, before I really even had any readers. It's my jail story. I have another goofy story with Chief about a stupid road trip, and then another Chief story about another road trip and a few more but they are stories more suitable for bars. He really was a character. I last saw him when Dad died. I imagine they are having a beer and some laughs together in the great beyond. If I could say something to him I would say, "May your spirit soar and be peaceful and for God's sake, stop saying 'Like I said' before every sentence!!"

My Apologies

First I want to apologize to VioletSky because I was going to post some New Orleans cemetery picures for her. What happened was, I think my three favorite pics are the ones I have in a three picture frame hanging in my my hallway and it overwhelms me to think about taking them out of the frame and scanning them and all that because of my shoulder. However I googled "New Orleans cemetery" and clicked "images" and a bunch of the pictures looked just like my pictures.
~
Second, it may seem like I may use my shoulder for an excuse for everything but it hurts like a bitch. Except for little things, I am pretty much a one-armed bandit over here.
~
Third, having an extreme injury makes your body produce some sort of natural opiate and it has made me really stupid. For instance, I will read a blog and formulate a comment in my head and think I posted it and when I check back it's not there. Or maybe it was wanky and they deleted it. I have no idea. On the opposite end of that, I've read a post and got all excited and went to comment to find I had already commented the day before. I'm glad I do not have to take any sort of I.Q. test right now.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I am spending a lot of time getting ready for my post-surgery existence. I have finally figured out how to get my washcloth good and soapy in the shower with one hand. And how to towel off with one hand. I haven't gotten that perfected yet, but have figured out that I can use my blow-dryer to finish off the spots I couldn't reach. I'm really ready to get this surgery over with and get my arm back. And typing hurts. And only being able to sleep in just two different positions is exceptionally tiresome. But now I am good and sleepy so I will go try position #1 (right side).

10 Things I'll Never Understand

1. Why people cover themselves with tattoos
2. Why women do that 70's frosting to their hair thinking it looks more natural that way

3. Why people order spaghetti at Italian restaurants
4. Why women think Johnny Depp is attractive
5. Why poor Americans vote Republican
6. Why network TV executives are so clueless

7. Why some women dress like cheap tricks for Halloween
8. Why any man would wear a tank top
9. Why any overweight woman would wear a tank top
10. The popularity of country music

80/20

Well I found out today what that 80/20 on my insurance card means. It means we pay 20% of the surgeon's fee. 20% of the anesthesiologist's fee. 20% of the fee for the surgical facility, ad nauseum. Oh well. At least I'm getting my arm fixed. My surgery will be on February 3rd. After we get all the bills in the coming months I will add them up and call my arm "The Two Thousand Dollar Arm" or whatever the total figure turns out to be. In the meantime I have a lot of pre-planning to do. I have some good ideas.

New Orleans Jan 2012

When we planned our trip to New Orleans we had no idea it was going to be during the BIG Football Weekend. By Saturday, all the football hoopla was starting to get on my nerves, but I must admit, I did like this balcony.:

The "girl" is a mannequin and we thought it was pretty clever. I took that picture from our balcony. Our hotel room was my very favorite so far. I stay at a different hotel every visit and I think I will certainly have to break that rule. This next pic was taken in our hotel courtyard.:

On our first night, Thursday, the 5th, we found a place to have dinner. It was a special place. We sat on a balcony overlooking Bourbon Street. It was the first place that Loretta and I had a meal in New Orleans way back when. Except that was lunch and there were no leftover Christmas decorations that time.:

I thought this van was funny.:

We went to Harrah's to gamble and I had a killer day on that Friday. I was winning at everything.:

This was our balcony.:

I love this last picture, because when I posed for it I was just thinking I was posing with a stuffed bear. I had not read the sign.:

We had a really good time. We had bad luck with the cemetery, but I will pull out my old pics and post them later for VioletSky. My Sweetie had a pedometer and we walked from 12,000 to 14,000 steps a day. He told me later that we had walked 21 miles over the course of our stay.

~

One of my favorite moments was sitting on the wooden steps that go right down into the Mississippi River and thinking, "There's the river that inspired Mark Twain." And at the same time a man was playing some sort of horn nearby. Maybe a saxophone. It was very Zen and I was wishing I had a hammock.
~

There's not a whole lot to tell because mainly we just walked around and stopped in bars for beers. 21 miles of that apparently. I loved it.

Tired, Sore and In Love

While I was in New Orleans I fell madly in love with this ale:
It's not very sweet and I love that. I don't know why most brewers think that a fruited ale has to be ridiculously sweet. Real fruit isn't. That ale actually tastes like strawberries. I could not get enough of it. And now I want more. I've been too tired and lazy though to look for it here.
~
I just downloaded my pictures but am too tired and lazy to go through them, crop and/or resize them. Why am I so tired and lazy, you may ask? Well part of it is genetics. The other part is my freaking sore shoulder. I finally get to see the real actual shoulder surgeon on Tuesday. Apparently being in constant pain keeps me in a sort of state of uhm, what's the word for feeling tired and lazy? Is it languor? Torpor? I'm too tired and lazy to google it.
~
The good news is tired and lazy works just fine in New Orleans and I had a great time. I'll post more about that after I get my pictures organized. I wish I had a Covington Strawberry Ale. Man, those things are good.

Ready to Party in New Orleans

There is no one thing I love about New Orleans. I love everything about New Orleans. I love the sights, the sounds, the food, the local accents, the attitude. And one of my favorite things about going to New Orleans is that I always stay at a different hotel. Hopefully I will run out of French Quarter hotels eventually, but I haven't gotten there yet.

~

Tomorrow, we will be staying at the Hotel St. Marie. I have booked us a room with a streetside balcony, and that is what you can see in the above picture. I plan to have my morning drink and smoke on one of the tables up there. I love the location of this hotel and I may just break my rule and stay there again this Halloween.

~

My Sweetie has not been to the grand old cemeteries in New Orleans so taking him there is something I am really looking forward to - as well as the music and the food. It's been years since we've gone together. I've been there with two or three other people since our last time. And the weather looks excellent. Highs around 69° and lows around 55°.

~

I'm almost ready to go. It seems like a great way to start this New Year. Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Missing The Sparkly

I usually wait until My Sweetie has gone back to work to deChristmas the house, but because of my bad shoulder, I needed help, so we did it on Sunday, New Year's Day. He did all the up in the air stuff as well as the heavy lifting and it went by very quickly. Now my living room seems rather dull.
~
The one bright spot, and I mean that literally, is my friend sent me a glass block full of white Christmas lights and it has Duke stickers on it. So now I have my shiny Duke light to go with my Duke tiffany style lamp from last year. I do miss the colored lights and all the red, green and gold, but it's nice to have it all done. And now it's time to see what 2012 will bring. I'm looking forward to that.

Stupid Shoulder

It was weird looking at the inside of my shoulder. Some pictures make me think of steaks and pork chops and others remind me of a big slice of roast:
I made an appointment and while it's at my hand doctor's office it is with another doctor. Apparently my hand doctor is a hand doctor after all. The appointment is at 10:40 am tomorrow (Thursday). Yuck. I will have to get up very early. Anyway, I had to go pick up my MRI from the imaging place to take with me.
~
Not only did I get to look at all the images, but there was a detailed written report. It's looong. Apparently there is a lot more going on than the one tear. My Sweetie looked up most of the words and apparently of the four rotator cuff muscles, I have tears in three of them, as well as some other irritated and swollen things. And there were some early signs of osteoarthritis also. Yay me.
~
Not all of the report was horrible. There was no atrophy of something and something is intact. But those were two short sentences in a very long paragraph. Anyway, so I've been having a little pity party for myself for the last couple of hours. Having thoughts like, I won't even be able to tie my shoes! Now I'm going to make a list of things to ask and tell the doctor because nothing is more irritating than remembering something you forgot to ask. Well, maybe not being able to tie your shoes.

The MRI and Christmas

I pretty much went through the list in the previous post without a hitch, except the neighbor visiting was moved from Thursday to Saturday and the Friday kitchen part took about 10 hours. I was starting to feel like some sort of kitchen prisoner in hell.
~
Of course that was the point: to have everything done the day before. On Christmas eve, it all went pretty easily: basically displaying things on platters and trays. We had ten guests, which may not seem like that many to some of you, but to me it felt like a million people were here.
~
There was a lot of fruit left over, and that surprised me because that's what I eat at parties. I had blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, grapes and blueberry craisins. In fact I am finishing off the strawberries right now.
~
Christmas day was supposed to be a rest day but I seemed to be busy until about 7:00 pm, so I will use today as my rest day.
~
Thursday's MRI was very interesting. My main concern was that I would fall asleep. To try to keep myself awake, I made up things that the noises sounded like. Some of them were amusing. But I caught myself almost dozing off FIVE times! And in case I didn't mention it before, I didn't want to fall asleep because people move and jerk when they fall asleep and you are supposed to stay perfectly still in the MRI chamber. It went by pretty quickly actually, and she showed me the video. It just looked like some 1974 hippy acid video except it was in black and white.
~
My doctor's nurse called on Friday and said that I did in fact have a tear in my rotator cuff. (I knew that.) She gave me two referrals for orthopedic surgeons and one of them was my hand doctor, so I picked him. I called his office pretty late on Friday and left a message. I have no idea when I will hear back. It was odd that it was my hand doctor, because for some reason I thought my hand doctor was just that: A hand doctor. I don't know why I thought that. Anyway, he struck me as a competent fellow when I used him before, so I'm good.
~
Now I am looking forward to January 5th. My Sweetie and I are going to New Orleans. Also I booked the beach cottage for May. We've upgraded to a five bedroom so everyone can be there at the same time. Yay! Wow it's almost 2012. It seems like I waited forever fo my 50th birthday and now that was 8 months ago. Time flies.

Wednesday ~ House cleaning, neatening up

Thursday ~ Visit neighbor, go for MRI and drinks with daughter, grocery store

Friday ~ cooking, prepping food

Saturday ~ celebrate Christmas Eve with family, go out to play

Sunday ~ Rest

I think I have this down.

The Best Laid Plans....

I kind of wanted to talk about this sweet little thing I bought:
And how I plan to use it for my finely grated provolone and horseradish spread that I plan to make for the roast beef sliders that will be part of my Christmas eve finger food and how I have a strange fascination for spreaders:

(The steak knife on the right was for size reference). But I guess I should (ha! "should" almost spells "shoulder!") get to the nitty gritty about what's going on.

~

I have two little pills left of the Prednisone and there has been no change in my shoulder. Whenever I've taken this before, I got instant relief. Everything I've read online about torn rotator cuffs describes my symptons exactly. The good news is the Prednisone has been great for my poor thumb. My right hand is doing a lot more work because my left side is so pathetic, but I have had no thumb pain at all. And because I had to eat low fat, low protein in order to avoid a gall bladder attack, I actually lost a few pounds. Which was weird because I always thought this was all beer fat, and believe me, I have been drinking a lot of beer.

~

So when I wake up today, I will call my doctor and I guess he will either hook me up with a specialist or send me somewhere for an MRI. I really don't want to get surgery before my January 5th New Orleans vacation, but I'm also not sure if I can take this for 21 or so more days. I'm sure I'll have a better idea of everything in the next few days.

~

So that's where my shoulder stands. I do have a great menu for our Christmas eve and I'm also happy we are having it in the afternoon, so our night and our Christmas will be free. Oh, and I am SO SO VERY happy that my gall bladder held up, but I sure am craving some cheese.

~~~UPDATE: MRI is scheduled for Thursday at 3:30 CST.~~~