More To Come… Probably

We arrived safe and sound (at least physically) from the “happiest place on earth”, although I would beg to differ on a few occasions. I have many tales to tell and absolutely no energy to do it. Tomorrow, perhaps. Maybe the next day. Rest assured that I will fill those of you in who have, I’m sure, been on the absolute EDGE of your seat waiting to hear about the details.

You May Want To Remember…

And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.

– Dr. Seuss

Now More Than Ever!

Months ago I wrote here and here about my journey into becoming a bone marrow donor. If you haven’t looked into it, I think you should ask yourself why. And if you are able, do it! You never know, you or someone you love may be the one in need some day.

Go to this link and learn how you can join the BE THE MATCH registry.

It was really simple, painless, and if you use the code truelife2010, it’s free! (I’m pretty sure that code will work throughout the year… hurry!).

At this Christmas time, give the gift that money cannot buy, and nothing can replace. I can’t tell you how good it feels to know that I’m a part of something so much bigger than myself, with a potential to change and save someone’s life. Who knows, maybe I’ll never be a match. But I want to at least be an option for someone.

This post is dedicated to a certain amazing, wonderful, inspiring friend… I LOVE YOU!

Merry What?

Christmas happens to be my favorite holiday. I don’t love the commercialism of it, or the getting gifts. I love all of the wonderful childhood memories I have of the holidays. I love the traditions that began when I was young and have continued with my own children. I love the Christmas “spirit” that I seem to feel each season.

Most of the time.

This year our family is going to Disneyland for Christmas. WOO HOO! We leave next Wednesday and don’t return until the following Tuesday. We’ve rented a condo near the park with THREE swimming pools and a playground, for optimal child entertainment. While I SHOULD be super excited to embark on this adventure, I must admit I have a few concerns, reservations, as well as a little bit of dread. Long drive. Kids who argue. Doing “the death walk” (my orthopedic surgeons name) on a still somewhat crap-tastic knee for 12 hours a day. Boo hoo, right? I’m going to Disneyland for hell’s sake! I know it will be fun when it’s all said and done, but there is still a lot to do to get ready (and yet here I am, blogging).

The problem with Christmas this year: because we’ll be gone for the week, we didn’t decorate. ANYTHING. No tree. No lights. NADA. I didn’t want to go through the pain of decorating if we weren’t going to be here to enjoy it. It’s a lot of work for only a few weeks. And because our Disneyland trip IS our Christmas present this year, there really wouldn’t be anything to put under a tree.

The lack of decorations and missing my family celebration (a super yummy dinner and gift exchange at my parents on the 23rd each year) makes it seem like there is no Christmas this year. It just doesn’t feel the same, and therefore I’ve been a little humbug-ish. Not really against the holiday, just not into it. So it only seems appropriate to pass on this email I received from my dad.

ENJOY 🙂

 

When four of Santa’s elves got sick, the trainee elves did not produce toys as  fast as the regular ones, and Santa began to feel the Pre-Christmas pressure.

Then Mrs. Claus told Santa her Mother was coming to visit, which stressed Santa even more.

When he went to harness the reindeer, he found that three of them were about to give birth and two others had jumped the fence and were out, Heaven knows where.

Then when he began to load the sleigh, one of the floorboards cracked, the toy bag fell to the ground and all the toys were scattered.

Frustrated, Santa went in the house for a cup of apple cider and a shot of rum. When he went to the cupboard, he discovered the elves had drunk all the cider and hidden the liquor.. In his frustration, he accidentally dropped the  cider jug, and it broke into hundreds of little glass pieces all over the kitchen floor. He went to get the broom and found the mice had eaten all the straw off the end of the broom.

Just then the doorbell rang, and an irritated Santa marched to the door, yanked it open, and there stood a little angel with a great big Christmas tree.

The angel said very cheerfully, ‘Merry Christmas, Santa. Isn’t this a lovely day? I have a beautiful tree for you. Where would you like me to stick it?’

And  thus began the tradition of the little angel on top of the Christmas tree.

Not very many people know this.

I’m Just Saying

If you’re going to have a large sticker located in the back window of your car with a picture of Jesus along with the text, “Powered by Jesus”, it might be a good idea to drive more than 30 mile per hour in a 45 per hour zone. I don’t think Jesus would appreciate the implications.

And In Layman’s Terms?

I hope you aren’t a betting man was the first thing that came to mind after hearing the results. Five days earlier, the orthopedic surgeon stated he was 90% sure that my knee pain and swelling were a result of a torn meniscus. He was so sure that he was even willing (although didn’t push for) to forgo an MRI and take me directly to surgery to repair the tear via arthoscopy. Luckily we took the middle road and had an MRI performed to see exactly what was going on with my crappy knee.

I’ve had knee trouble/pain for years, but nothing that kept me down… nothing ice and knee “bands” didn’t take care of. After my volleyball game last Tuesday, my left knee was hurting more than normal, and it felt, well, weird. The pain continued to get worse and when I awoke in the middle of the night, the pain was so bad I wondered if I could even talk to the freezer to get the only thing I could think of that might help… an ice pack.

Fast forward. Yesterday I met with the orthopedic surgeon again to go over the MRI results. First off, I have to say that the majority of the report may as well have been in Chinese. I am pretty savvy on medical lingo, but this was soooo over my head. Luckily there was a “summary” that was dumbed down a little, although I think a double dumb down could have been in order. I still had to google most of it all. Anyway, the results showed that there was no torn meniscus, but I do have:

1. A partial tear of my proximal posterior cruciate ligament, aka PCL (think ACL, but in the back of the knee).
2. A tear in my Popliteus (a small muscle… google it if you’re interested).
3. “Patellofemoral tracking abnormality suggested with patellar cartilage thinning, fraying/fibrillation and fissuring associated with subchondral marrow edema”, which pretty much means my kneecap is screwed up as well as the cartilage around it. It also means I have arthritis.
4. “degenerative change with hyaline cartilage thinning and fissuring over the lateral and posterior medial femoral condyle”, which pretty means the cartilage between my knee and femur is all thin, arthritic, and crappy too.

To put it simply, my knee sucks. And I’m pretty sure my right knee has similar cartridge problems (not sure about the PCL and Popliteus).

On the upside, NO SURGERY… yet. The doc gave me a cortisone shot and a brace, and we’re going to wait until after Christmas to see if things improve. If not, we’ll try injections of some lubricating fluid stuff, and if THAT doesn’t work… at this point I’m just counting on that doing the trick. I am also supposed to do a ton of physical therapy, avoid high impact stuff, and “ALWAYS WEAR KNEEPADS!” when I play volleyball (which I heard about 2934 times from the surgeon). I have every expectation (hope) that I’ll be in top volleyball shape when our new league starts in January. Now if I can just make it through walking Disneyland for 4 days at Christmas, I’ll be all set.

I’ve known that I’m growing older, but it’s only been the last 2 years where I’ve truly started to feel it. I’ve had aches and pains here and there, but the last few years my neck, back, shoulders, hips, and knees have had some sort of trouble. The surgery on my shoulder last year was an incredibly painful and difficult recovery, and a wake up call that seemed to scream, “damn, you’re getting old”. When the doctor was showing me the MRI images of my knee, he said that there was too much wear and tear for a person my age. It really made me think about how I’ve treated my body. I’ve always thought of myself as being strong and in some ways indestructible. REALITY CHECK!

I can’t say that I regret being active and a physical person, but I’m becoming more committed to taking care of this body. The doctor also told me that knee replacements are in my future (sniff), but it should hopefully be a ways off. Until then, I still want to play hard and enjoy life, but do it with a little more protection and padding :).

Definitely WITH Children

Hee hee.

http://FunnyOrDie.com/m/4yj6

 

A Nice Surprise

There are many reasons why I fell in love with him, married him, and love him still.

Him surprising me with these little gems is just an example :).

 

Filet Mignon Day!

If I cared more and were less lazy, I would have posted earlier. But I don’t and I’m not, so this is what you get.

The Thanksgiving holiday and vacation ended up being just like the movie The Land Before Time, except there were no dinosaurs, we didn’t actually get whisked away to a different land OR time, and a hot shower was, I’m happy to say, a part of each and every day.

Greg and I planned to leave Wednesday morning, which happens to be the morning that I realized my thoughts from Tuesday night were true… I was getting sick. UGH!!! Seriously?! The trip I had planned and been looking forward to for over 3 months and I was sick?! Yes, yes I was. But fear not… there was some phlegm involved, as well as some post and pre? nasal dripping, but luckily the copious amounts of snot didn’t keep me down.

Here are a few highlights of the trip/random thoughts, in no particular order:

• I love that for the past 5+ years, my parents have made cooking a filet mignon roast as part of the Thanksgiving feast. Um, YUMMMM! Screw the turkey, give me the beef!
• My lemon cookies took 2nd place in our cookie contest, although I may demand a recount.
• I beat Greg for the first time in ping-pong. It was a special day (although he spent the rest of the night in the fetal position, weeping).
• We visited Vegas where we, 1) visited the infamous Gold & Silver Pawn, which is the pawn shop featured in the t.v. show Pawn Stars. 2) Went to Joe’s Crab and Steakhouse in Caesars Palace and ate a very good steak and possibly the best crab I’ve ever tasted. Mmmm.
• Greg and I still are undefeated when we partner at HAND & FOOT (I pretty much carry him).
• One of the best parts of family gatherings are having other adults around to play games with.
• We saw the movie Unstoppable. It was good, but let me assure you, it IS unstoppable.
• There is something über enjoyable about sitting in a hot tub when it’s cold outside, under the stars. The night sky is SO much better in southern Utah.
• Watching an entire football game while sitting upon a hard wooden chair is something I may not do again.
• I missed the kids, but I noticed that this was a much more laid back trip. Yippy!

Yahoo for Thanksgiving!

I also want to say how proud of I am of my dear husband. You rock!