Avoid Migraine Medicine Late in the Day

Okay, note to self: do not take migraine meds (in this case the basic over-the-counter Excedrin for Migraines) late in the day. My migraine is gone, but the 65mgs of caffeine -- which doesn't seem like much to me -- has me totally wired. For the past three and a half hours I have been tackling a whole host of work related tasks. I started out just planning to do some quick project updates, but then I kept going, and going, and going, like the proverbial Energizer Bunny. I have, however, been extremely productive. But I might have also added a bunch of tasks to my Toodledo list. I will not look at it any more tonight and tackle it tomorrow instead.

I've got American Idol playing in the background, while I wait with baited breath to see who will get booted. I am surprised to say that the first two folks Ryan pulled out as in the bottom three where not from my list of poor performers. It is very stressful. LOL.

My elbow continues to improve slowly. I have a two-week hiatus between PT appointments while my physical therapist is out of town. I've been off-and-on with my stretching, but I am trying to remember to stretch the arm as much as I can during the day. I hope when I see her on Monday that there will be some improvement despite my minor slacking.

Hoping to see Watchmen this weekend. Will post a review if I do.

Update: oops, just realized I took two of those Excedrins, so that's 130mgs of caffeine! According to a Yahoo Answers! response, that's more than the caffeine in two cans of Mountain Dew and just a little less then that in two cans of Jolt! Eeek and Eee Gads! I swear I'm blinking only four times a minute right now! LOL. Please let my new SleepStream iPhone app work tonight!

Elbow Update

Just wanted to give an update on the elbow. Despite the ibroprofen setback, I'm still improving. Yesterday, for the first time, I was able to bend my arm back enough to touch my thumb to my shoulder! Last time I had seen my surgeon I told him in no uncertain terms that I was determined to do that, and I know can! I look forward to the time when I can do it without having my left arm help me on the way!

Straightening the elbow is better, too. At PT last week we got it within 5 and 10 degrees of being straight! Woo Hoo!

Pronation and supination is still tough, but we make progress. Both get pretty far now. I think at one point we got supination to 75 degrees!

So, progress continues!

To Hell, To Hell

Is there no justice in my world? Just when I get off the pain meds - no vicodin since Saturday - I get hit with a return of the acid reflux, thanks to the awesome ibroprofen I've been taking for my arm. Two nights of misery and sleeplessness. I just want to be normal again. Sigh. Whimper. Whine. Complain. I have until March 6 to recuperate from this, cause that is barrel tasting weekend and I will NOT be prevented from tasting!

On a pleasant note... kitties in a basket!!!!

Friday Acheivement

Woo Hoo!!! I tied my shoes all by myself today! Now if only I could collect change without dropping it all! But still... to be able to tie my shoes, well, that's just great progress.

Slowly but surely

I'll write more later this weekend but thought I'd throw this pic up that I just took while doing my nightly PT. No 90 degrees but it ain't shabby. At therapy we managed to get supination to 65 degrees! Still having quite a bit of pain but the meds keep it at bay.

Later: working hard on my PT, but frustrated because my wrist still hurts and is now starting to impede my supination progress. I'll discuss it with Dr. J when I see him Monday morning at the god awful hour of 8:30. Of course they schedule a follow up at 8:30 a.m. when I'm unconscious and unable to protest! I have no idea how I'll manage to get up. I can barely drag myself out of bed by 9:30 these days. Even when I go to bed early I can't seem to get up. Very frustrating, but I keep trying... have to get ready to go back to work full-time!

Master of Torture

I have come to the realization that orthopedic surgeons would make perfect Masters of Torture. Just think about it. They know all the bones of the body and how they relate to muscles, tendons and nerves. They have no problem messing around with the bones. They do it all the time, just usually when the patient is under anesthesia. Sure, I know that our new most awesome of presidents is, thankfully, working to close Guantanamo (and hopefully make more aggressive moves against the institutionalized use of torture expanded under W.), but just in case, we should keep these orthopedic surgeons in mind.

But perhaps I'm being a bit harsh. After all, when Dr. J tortured me yesterday I was soundly asleep and blissfully unaware of the pain he was inflicting upon my poor elbow. If I had been awake I am certain my screams would have been heard all the way to New Jersey and poor Dr. J would have been covered in bruises inflicted by my good arm and probably my flailing legs as well. When I woke up in the recovery unit (I was only under for about 30 minutes) my arm was a flaming mass of pain. One look at the nurse and he knew! He asks, "scale of 1 to 10?" No hesitation on my part, "7." I had to keep it in perspective with the actual dislocation which will forever be my measure for "10." It took several doses of morphine and some sort of anti-inflammatory before the pain was tolerable. I am currently having no hesitation in taking 2 vicodins (prescription says take 1 to 2 as needed for pain). Even now, the day after, my arm still hurts a lot. It sort of feels like someone grabbed me and flung me around while holding a vise-like grip on my wrist. Add to that my overwhelming anxiety about going back to the hospital and under anesthesia again, well, yesterday just was not one of my better days.

All was not in vain, however. This morning I went to do a "gentle" rendition of my physical therapy exercises (per my therapist's recommendation) and there was noticeable improvement in flexation (straightening of the arm) and supination (turning the wrist outward so palm faces up). I can definitely straighten my arm more then I could yesterday. And supination... well, for those of you who have seen how much I was able to turn my wrist outwards will be happy to see the improvement. For those who haven't, before and after pics...

Before... on my own power, approximately that much...

Now, on my own power, this much... and I can do more in the rack device I'm using to improve supination. In fact, I was able to move the rack thing's dial out another notch.

I wonder where all that broken up scar tissue goes. Does it float around in my arm like a whole lot of flotsam and jetsam or does it just sort of disappear slowly? Hmm, there could be some sort of parallel to life in that statement...

So, I suppose I should be glad I listened to Dr. J. I know the pain will fade and if I keep up the PT work the benefits should speak for themselves...

Oh, and did I mention how much my freakin arm hurts? LOL.

Yum Kale Soup

Managed 45 minutes on the rack today for the first time. Might have over done as the arm has been unusually achy today.

The day started out lazy as I went to bed late and therefor slept late. But I had to get to PT today so I showered, tortured myself, putzed around on the Mac (messed a bit with Facebook) and then headed to the PT appt. I managed 10 degrees supination today finally, which is a big deal. Hopefully it won't take as long to get to 15 as it did to get to 10.

I then took a good walk over to the Walrus Arms for dinner. Cheryl made her lovely and tasty Kale soup (pictured below) and we will, shortly, have fruity turnovers for dessert.

One more day before my return to work. I do feel a bit anxious about going back, even though I am sure I'll be fine.

Update:
Walrus Arms Review
Quality of Service: 4 stars
Quality of Food: 4 stars
Quality of Liquor: unable to assess, will require future visit

Blogger Slackness

It's been a while since I blogged so I will try to update a bunch of things today.

Sunday I had a house full of afternoon guests. My slacker bro came up to hang with me and then SP, Gabish and Joe came up as well. We chilled out, ate a lot of Chinese food, and then everyone went home :-) Expect me... I was already home, duh!

Monday, Joe (who was visiting from Texas), called me, as agreed, at 10:00 a.m. to plan some time sight seeing before he had to fly home the next day. SP had been sick with some awful virus so Joe ended up spending most of his vacation (plus the extra week) taking care of her. Much to my surprise, not only did he call me at 10:00, but he was already outside the apt! Talk about ready for the day. Being that I had, uh, just woken up when he called, I wasn't quite ready yet. But Joe's a patient guy. He came in, had some tea with me, and we chatted while I did my morning PT exercises. Then off we went for a drive around the city. We stopped at the Palace of Fine Arts first. It's undergoing a lot of construction, so we couldn't walk all the way around the pond, but that is a worthy sacrifice since the place was in dire need of repairs! We then drove down the crookedest street (Lombard) and went up to Coit Tower, drove through North Beach, along the Embarcadero and then over and around the city via 280 to Glen Park and up to Twin Peaks. It was a beautiful day, so the views every where were awesome. Then we had cheesesteaks for lunch and Joe took me to PT. All in all, a good day, though too short... I hope he'll have more time to do some serious sight seeing when he is back next time!

Tuesday Mr. Perry came up and we had lunch and got mani and pedis (it was Mr. Perry's first such indulgence and he seemed to enjoy it much) and then I got some sock yarn at Alteier. Yes, I'm going to give socks a try after I finish this little hat I'm working on. I found an online sock tutorial I'm going to give a try.

Wednesday I was a slug until 5:00 when Major's called and asked if I wanted to go to Stonestown with him. He had Abs with him so the three of us had a nice evening together. It was good to get dressed and out of the house! I don't like being a slug for so long. When I got home I then went next door to Amy's and we watched the second night of American Idol. Fun!

Today I had PT and my appointment with the chic from the Dynasplint company for my fitting. The supination device is quite the contraption. Let's hope it helps!

Now I'm just home chilling. Apartment is nice and clean thanks to Monica's bi-weekly visit this morning -- nothing like walking into a clean smelling and looking apartment.

Another Day...

Supination still only 5 degrees. It seems certain now that I will have to use some sort of rack-like torture device to push the arm further. My PT doesn't think it's the muscle but more the bones. Sigh.

I took cabs to and from PT today and had nice conversations with the drivers - the ride there was about politics, and the ride back was family and health. Nice gents. PT not so nice, but I just breathed deeply and let her do her thing with my arm.

Decided to give a different book a go. This time I'm trying "Size 14 isn't Fat, Either", by Meg Cabot. I read her first one, "Size 12 isn't Fat", which was a lot of fun. The series features Heather Wells, a former pop singer who's now working as an assistant hall director at a NYC college in the Village. She finds herself in the center of some murders and, in a charming and sweet manner, ends up working to resolve the crimes. So far it's keeping my attention and making me laugh, which is a good thing! In case you don't recognize the author, Meg Cabot wrote the Princess Diaries series.

Finally got my new computer speakers and managed to get them and the subwoofer all hooked up. Sounds good. I'm glad I got them and they weren't that expensive.

Gave WoW a try today. I could probably do some low level stuff, but anything my level will be hard because I can't really move that fast on the keyboard yet. Might have to play with the Slacker Bro for a while or expect to die a lot.

Waiting on my dinner... Chinese from "Joe's Excellent Chinese Cuisine". Think I'll watch some movies.

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.

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...

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.)

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)

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.

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.

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!

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....

My Friends Kick Ass

Thanks to everyone who has come by and called. Pain still intense so I am often in a daze. Was talking to a few peeps and had a little clear mind and needed to distract myself. Still two hours before I can take my next dose. Hence this minor post. I look forward to some improvement. Hope the surgeon will have good news next week.

Sent from my iPhone :-)

Ouch!

Picture of my dislocated elbow. All I can say is this hurt it a big way!