Merry Christmas!!!!

To all those still reading.

The month of November was a busy time for me. I was on ID consult and I had one day off a week and many nights I was rounding till 7, came home, put Landen to bed and went right back to work on charts. The month of December hasn't been that bad. I have been on acute care clinic so I get the weekends off. I have biopsied, stiched, and aspirated joints this month and my left hand hasn't limited me much at all. The thumb is progressing still. I am able to now pinch the thumb between my index finger and middle finger. Something I wasn't able to do in the past.

Landen went and visited Santa but did not like him at all.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I start my Cardiology rotation in January so I will be spending many hrs in the hosptial next month so maybe I will check back in in February.

Happy Halloween

Hope you all had a safe and happy Halloween. Landen was dressed as a lizard but we didn't take him around trick or treating because he is still too young to eat a lot of candy so we didn't think it would be right to take him around so we could eat the candy. He had fun answering the door and hand out candy. Here is my little lizard.

As for work, I have finished one month now. Things have continued to go great. I have still not had any back pain. This next month I have infectious disease. Bring on the swine flu. I still have not got vaccinated because the hospital does not have any vaccines. They have a few that they are only giving it to pregnant workers and if they have vaccinated all pregnant workers, and still have some left then they are giving it to pregnant patients. They have plenty of the nasal vaccine but that is a live vaccine and with my recent splenectomy, I do not feel safe with a live vaccine. I called the health clinic and told them my situation and asked if I could be considered for the injectable vaccine since I am high risk but they didn't think so, so I remain unvacinated because I refuse to put myself at risk by getting the nasal one. This rotation will be more busy with me being on call and all and having to work weekends. Hope my back remains to not hurt.

Landen's 1st birthday.

We had Landen's party on Saturday and it went great. He got lots of toys and clothes and he absolutely loved his cake. He ate almost the entire thing.

Work Update

A brief update on how work is going: I havent had any back pain at work which is very good and I am still able to come home and cook dinner and take care of Landen when I get home without any pain. I do wake up in the morning stiff and a little sore but I am using muscles a lot more than I use to so it is like the same as if you go to the gym, the next day you are stiff and sore. I am able to type with my left hand and do so fairly well. The only finger that wont type is my pinky. It doesn't have enough strength to push down the key. I don't type as fast as I use to but I do fairly well. My arm is tired and sore at the end of the day from typing but it is good therapy for it. As for other parts of my life, my hawkeyes are doing great. 6-0 start, best start since '85. I dont go to the games but I do go tailgating before the games. Yesterday was a cold game. We tailgated for about 5 hrs and then came back here to watch the game. I froze outside, I had tons of clothes on but the wind was strong and since I still cant drink because of my meds, I didn't have any beer to warm me up. My hand gets really stiff in the cold. Friday Landen turns 1. I cant believe how fast this last year has gone. He is still not walking but I know he will soon enough. He gets into everything now but he is adorable. His new thing is throwing all his food on the ground if he is done or doesn't like it. The 1st time was cute and we laughed and took pictures, now it is getting quite annoying.

My updates will be few and far between from now on. I am not a blog person and dont really have the time to start. If I liked having a blog and telling people all about myself everyday, I would have started a blog earlier. I will updated periodically if anything changes but the only big thing left in my healing is my arm and it will be a very slow progress so there won't be much to post about each day. Sorry for all of you that check this site daily looking for an update, but with work now and taking care of an active child, I need to spend my extra time picking up the house or studying. I will post some pics after this weekend of Landen's party. I really hope he smashes the cake into his face.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's back to work I go.

Well the time has come for me to return to work tomorrow. I am a little nervous but I am ready for my life to try to return to normal. My program has been so understanding through this process which I am so thankful for. I am starting on Rheumatology which will be an easier rotation but it is also what I think I want to do with my life so I need to perform halfway decent so that maybe I have a shot at a fellowship here. There are some days where I wonder if I suffered a little anoxic brain syndrome (brain lacking oxygen) because there are times when I am asked something that I should know and just cant think of it and then after thinking about it for a while, it finally comes to me. Hopefully everything comes back to me when I start back.

The Flu, Swine or not, it still sucks.

Just for a quick update. I'm still hanging in there, not much new to report. We are struggling with the flu in our household currently. Landen started with it, I got a very light bout of it, and now Tim has it pretty bad. I guess I get to take care of him now. I am shocked that with my problems that I got off the easiest of the 3 of us with the flu. Mom's don't have time to get sick right?

Update: So my light bout of the flu was just a teaser to the hell I would endure last night and am still enduring. I have stopped counting how many times I have thrown up. My body aches all over. It is hard watching landen when we are both sick.

Weight

So my weight is really starting to drive me nuts. Some of you that havent seen me since the accident still remember me at my normal weight of 145 lbs. What do I weigh now, a whopping 125lbs. I am 5'7'' and weigh 125lbs, that is not right. I use to think I would always love it if I weighed 125lbs when I was 145lbs and now that I am at this weight I absolutely hate it and would give anything to get back to my previous weight. Of those of you keeping track of my weight gain since leaving the hospital, that is a total of 0 lbs gained. None of my clothes fit, not even my bras fit. I am sick of wearing a belt with my jeans just to hold them up and then see them bunch up in front and back. I refuse to buy new clothes because I am determined to put weight on. My body use to be happy at 145. I could eat almost anything I wanted and my weight would vary only slightly up and down. Now I was still active and worked out but I never had to work out consistantly and watch what I ate to maintain my weight. Bad thing about this was my body never allowed me to lose much weight when I tried either, which I thought I always had wanted to do until now. I feel right now that I am constantly eating and its not doing anything. I have this weird thing with my body that when it gets hungry, it doesnt just growl, I get this pain in my left side just below my ribs that travels around to my back and just gets worse if I ignore it and dont feed myself. It is something I have had even before the accident but only came on before if I was absolutely starving, now it comes on with the slightest hunger so I am having to constantly eat. I finished off an entire bad of cheesy quick tators from Schwans in less than a week by myself (oh so yummy). I dont eat healthy by any means. I think I have had more donuts since the accident then I have had all last year alone. The only thing I dont eat much off is fast food, 1) because that would get expensive & 2) I dont feel the greatest after eating it. There are days where I think I shouldnt work out because then I will just burn off anything extra I ate that day but I know I need to continue to work out to build my muscles back up and get my cardio back up so I am not worn out just walking up and down stairs. I always wondered when people said they couldnt gain weight, I thought it had to be easy, you just go crazy eating anything you want. Well I feel like I am doing that and my body has other things in mind.

On to another topic, I have now finished the 3rd book in the twilight series and am desperately waiting on the 4th and final to arrive in the mail, hopefully today. I also taped the new series on CW called the vampire diaries and will watch it today. It is based on the books and I am hoping it is good.