Happy New Year!

Keiko and Katja wish you all a snuggly, warm and happy New Year! May 2009 bring you fewer hairballs, cleaner litter boxes, extra bouncy toys, juicy mice and lots and lots of bonito flakes!

Oh These Kitties

Yes, I was wondering the same thing. How did that awkward, clumsy Keiko manage to get on top of the bedroom door without falling splat on the floor? Katja I can see... But Keiko?

I can SO Relate!

This poor little Cute Overload kitteh and I are so on the same page... someone send him some flowers and maybe a catnip face mask!

My physical therapist, Mary Edna, says I can go ahead and try a little knitting. She thinks doing some things that will get me back to a more natural habit will be good help in loosening the muscles. She did note that I shouldn't, uh, promise any finished projects anytime in the near future, though. Heh. I found a simple seed stitch hat pattern that I'm going to give a try, provided I can get a good gauge. M.E. also suggested trying some other natural movements, like splashing water on my face. That one didn't go to well since I couldn't really get my hand close enough to my face. I did, however, manage to butter and jam up some toast using my right hand! You may scoff, but if you had seen me in the beginning trying this with my left hand you'd be happy to see my progress with the right. :-)

Overall the day has been boring. The slacker bro was supposed to come up for a visit, but his back is bothering him so he had to pass. Instead, I've been pretty much doing nothing except thinking about the organizing of my living room and looking for some easy knitting patterns to try.

Belated Birthday Posting

I meant to post this ages ago. Well, at least 2.5 or so weeks ago. Suie called me up to wish me a happy birthday and sang me this special birthday song.

Happy birthday to you!
Your elbow's askew,
Although you are broken,
We still all love you!

We really doooooooooooooooo!

Okay, is that not the cutest?

Desk Placement

Thanks to Lisette and Ebru for furniture rearranging. After several machinations we settled on the set up in the picture. We moved my short but long red bookshelf into the bedroom and put it against the north wall, adjacent to the foot of the bed. We then moved the tall bookshelf along the west wall of the living room closer to the living room entrance and put the desk in the corner, flush against the west wall. Lisette used her super human strength to relocate my enormous iMac onto the new desk. I will have to get all the pictures re-hung and there is still a bunch of junk I'll have to find a home for that is currently littering the living room, but progress was made.

Lisette and Ebru also took me shopping and we had sandwiches together. It was a nice afternoon, but as always the visit with them was too brief.

Those Silly Furniture Showrooms

Even after measuring the desk and trying to show that measurement in my apartment, the desk still looks so much bigger then I thought. The mind is easily deceived by the use of space. I can't decide, now, where best to put the new piece, though it is quite lovely. Maybe I'll move my short, but long, bookshelf into the bedroom and put it opposite the foot of my bed and then put the desk against the wall in the living room. Sigh... When I figure it out I'll post a picture.

Now to my morning arm exercises... blech and double blech...

The Day After Christmas

I am back at home now after my little visit to the Humphries Household for Christmas. Boy, did we have a great dinner, a la Suie. Roast pork, veggies, crunchy potatoes, salad. Ian even cut my meat for me! I am totally spoiled!

Sue took me to PT today. Bits of improvement of some things... Can bend the arm to about 125 degrees, straightening is still in the 130 degree range per the doctor's request, pronation at about 80 or 85 degrees. Supination still the struggle. Managed 5 degrees on my own, but not much further with Mary Edna doing her magic. Maybe by next week I'll get it out to 10 degrees. I got copies of my disability paper work in the mail and in the section of physical impairment Kaiser checked me off as Class 5! That's, like, the worst. "Severe limitation of functional capacity; incapable of minimum (sedentary) activity (75-100%)." Yikes! Class 4 is "moderate limitation of functional capacity; capable of clerical/administration (sedentary) activity (60-70%)." I guess Class 5 is on target for my current state, even though it sounds so awful. If I had to go back to work right now, it would be seriously hard. I'm not even sure I could get through a full day. As it is, even doing little things part of the day, like going out to lunch or socializing, is exhausting. But I think that will start getting better soon, as I try to do a bit more each day. My mood has been pretty good this week. Some little rough spots just before time for pain meds, but overall okay.

Tonight I am off to the Walrus Arms for dinner. I'm really looking forward to it...

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas, everyone! Today's blog is brought to you via the wonderful typing skills of one of the guys in the featured photo. No, no, not the blue three eyed alien blob, but the guy, our precious Ian. Iam spending Christmas day at the Humphries Household. I had the adventure of taking the B.A.R.T out here and Suie picked me up at the station. We had a nice exchange of gifts and now we wait patiently for dinner!

One of the prized gifts of the day is the alien in the picture with Ian. Suie made him just for me and there will never be another like him!

Another highlight gift was the Roku box that John got for the fam. Apperently my slacker bro and I started a Roku trend. Steve got one for Christmas, too. Ian made out like crazy with over $200 in gift cards. Ahh, to be young again.

We attempted a walk before dinner out at the Martinez marina, but it was too cold and windy. Instead we are just staying indoors and keeping warm. Perhaps after dinner we will take a drive around the 'hood to see the Christmas lights.

I hope everyone has had a great day and I send out much love.

Bad Bad Kitten!

Some how the devious little Keiko managed to find a way to get into the cabinet with the dishes. Imagine my horror when I heard clinking glasses behind me. I though, yikes, how are those glasses clinking? I turned and saw the cabinet door barely open. I was just about to get up when suddenly I noticed a tiny bit of calico tail peaking out at the bottom of the cabinet door! Thankfully, I was able to evict Keiko without any incidences of broken glass...

Some things supination is good for:
Writing
Bowling (will I ever bowl again? boy, if not, this will be the best excuse ever.)

What is this?

David's lunch beverage.........

Update at 8:45 pm:
A nice day out today. Went to Park Chow for lunch... I walked down there and met David. Later, back at the house, David moved the furniture around to make room for my new desk. It should be delivered Saturday. Living room looks funny now when the first thing you see is the couch... I may have to start looking into getting the pillows re-stuffed!

Be One with the Paw

Update: just had my butt beat at scrabble. Mr. Bill took the game with QUIETER on a triple word score, using all his letters and making two smaller words in the process. Oh the shame, the humility!

Just a Little at a Time

Good day so far. Despite not wanting to get up, shower and dress, I did. Edwin picked me up for PT and it went well. Painful, of course, but good. She managed to push the supination of my wrist to 5 degrees!!! Woo Hoo!!! Didn't even cry this time, though it was close -- did make my stomach turn a bit. So work this week will be to keep it there and perhaps move a bit more. Work continues on bending and straightening the arm as well. She even said I could try to do some typing with my right hand, and I am!!!! Feels funny, but also feels like progress. But only a little at a time or ouchies.

Edwin and I then went for a quick bite to eat and then took a walk in the Arboretum. Very relaxing and refreshing. Hoping for some company for dinner tonight, too, so all in all a good day.

Yesterday was good, too, cause I went to brunch at my friend's house and then the Slacker Bro and Mattster came by. The company really helps keep my spirits up.

Until later...

Update: current degree status for PT
Bending arm in: 125
Bending arm out: 130
Pronation: 75
Supination: 5
(all done with PT therapist force)

New Member of the Household

Thanks to the most generous Brother Slack, we have a new member of the household. Met Murry the Murlock. He may look harmless... that's cause he is. Murlocks are not generally harmless, which is why Murry is here. He wasn't tough enough for the Murlocks of Azeroth. So, Keiko will take him under her paw and he'll do just dandy. Hopefully he won't disgust Pierre. Penguins don't normally care for Murlocks.

And a new blog for you all to check out... Sue's Paprika Craft & Sass. It's spicy cuteness!

Vampire Fluff

Beware the Vampire of Fluff. She will hypnotize you with her golden eyes, suck your blood and then cough up fur balls.

Patience Must Win Out

Those of you who know me well know that I am not the most patient of peeps. I tend towards spontaneity, want to finish things once I start them, can't stand slow drivers, etc. PT today was a painful - literally - reminder of how I am going to have to find some way to achieve patience in my elbow's recovery. I'll need reminders.

In an earlier post I said I'd find out how many degrees of supination I have... well, not enough to measure accurately. If the doctor thinks I'll get 45 degrees back, at least, then the less than 5 degrees I have now makes achieving 45 feel impossibly daunting. That said, I really have only just begun. Who knows, by the end of next week perhaps I'll hit that first measurement.

I told my Uncle in an email this week that I could see some positives in this whole miserable accident, and I do. But today it's harder to appreciate.

Bear with me as I go through this. SP and I have talked about acknowledging one good thing we do each day... mine today was taking a short solo walk. Seems funny to say that's my one good thing worth noting, but after nearly 4 weeks, it's something.

Crafts anyone?

Katja has offered to work on some of my craft projects while I'm out of commision. Though she's willing to take on some of the sewing, she refuses to do anything as mundane as hems or attaching buttons. She plans to start on the lace scarf this weekend despite the complexity of the pattern. Oh, she adds someone else will have to do the blocking.

That Pesky Elbow

I'm trying to be PT tough with my elbow. I have a few things I have to do. Bending up towards the shoulder (not supposed to try straightening it yet), rotating the wrist inward - pronation, and rotating the wrist outward - supination. The last is the most painful. When you rotate your wrist so your palm faces up that is 90 degrees supination. My doctor anticipates I'll get 45 degrees back! Totally lame. But she wants us to try for 60 degrees. Not sure what I'm getting right now, but I'll ask my therapist on Thursday. Ultimately, though, anything beyond 45 degrees will be a great result. I'm having a hard time thinking of the kinds of tasks that will be affected by this. Brushing teeth, passing a dish of food to someone,holding stuff? All three of these exercises are passive, meaning my left arm provides the energy. The only thing I'm doing actively is hand exercises; making a fist, wiggling my fingers, and moving the hand up and down.

On a positive note, in between reps while doing my exercises I'm rubbing my arm (to help reduce swelling) and saying, "This is my arm. It will heal and be strong again." Power of positive thinking combined with hard work!

Some kudos for Kaiser. I can get a decent amount of PT - starting next week 3xs a week. I also like my therapist.

Keiko says...

...what do you think you're looking at? What, huh? Well, like,
whatever!

Bob & Thuy

Here's a picture of Bob & Thuy, the newly weds. I've known Bob 20 years now! I'm so glad he's finally found the love of his life!

Ewwww...

If you think this is gross imagine what it looked like over the last few weeks. It is a mere 4" incision. My first physical therapy appointment was today. It will be a lot of work. For now all exercises on the arm will be passive - meaning my good arm will do the work on the bad arm. That will be the case, I think, for about 4 weeks. Then we shall see.

RoboBeth

I'm on my way to becoming RoboBeth. Finally posting some x-rays from my doctor visit last week. The first one shows the pin before they yanked, twisted and pulled it out. Not fun. My understanding (which doesn't say much) was that the pin was there to provide support to keep the elbow from dislocating again because of damage to the soft tissue. The second and third pictures show the plate they put in pretty clearly. The plate was put in to replace the smushed part of the radial head. I start physical therapy Friday. I am both looking forward to and dreading the PT.







DP visited yesterday and was a great help. Took me out to lunch and to Walgreens, clipped the girls' ginsu sharp claws and stood guard while I showered. Big accomplishment of the day was managing to get my arm fully wrapped on my own!

Leave it to Sarah & Larry

Note Baby's furry little self in the pic. Do kitties have the vote yet?

Ya Gotta Have Friends, la la la laaa friendsssssaaaaa

Bette Midler had it right when she sung how you gotta to have friends... as did the Beatles and all the others. I don't think there's been a day since my accident when someone hasn't come by or called to check on me. So, I send a big lopsided hug out to all of you with my thanks. I believe that all this love and attention will make me heal all the faster! It is keeping my spirit up!

So, thanks everyone -- you are the bestest. I look forward to the chance to thank all of you in the proper fashion!!!!

Coming soon... a icky picture of my arm and some x-rays...

Now back to my yummy salmon via Ms K....

Traitorous Feline

So here I am stuck inside and on the couch but does Keiko give me the love? No, of course not. But she has no problem given it to the Big L. And let's be clear. That love is paid for in big handfuls of fish flakes.