Wow.

Can't believe July is already over. 2010 is just flying by for me.

It also means that I move back into Campbell in 15 days!

And major praise: My uncle thinks Mom and I should be able to borrow his truck that day to move all my stuff. We've asked everybody we know if they had a truck we could borrow and everyone said no, so thankfully he said yes! (It's a long story, but we just really don't like asking for favors from him/my aunt.) I am so ready for school to start, it's not even funny. I just need something to do!

Oh, and I did see Matt today. :) He came over and we all just hung out and talked for almost 2 hours. That kid makes me laugh harder than pretty much anyone else I know. He's also the fastest talker I've ever met. It's so hard to keep up with him! :) Seeing him was the only remotely interesting thing about my day, so I will leave you with this.

*jazz hands!*

Can't Wait for Monday!

I know I said I had to be grateful for my cast, but seriously, this thing is driving me insane. Even after my mom put bandages where it was cutting my skin and leaving raw spots, it's still rubbing me the wrong way, and I have to deal with the tape itching me. Gah. When I see my doctor on Monday, I am going to beg and plead that he makes the new cast at least somewhat shorter because this really is just painful.

Speaking of my cast, you wanna know what is just a brilliant idea when you already have one ankle in a cast? Twist the other ankle! Really, it's possibly the best idea I've ever had. Ugh. In all seriousness, though, I rolled my ankle while scooting my way around Duke on Wednesday. It's made moving around all today really suck. I tell ya, I'm just a freakin' genius.

I get to hang out with Matt tomorrow! :) He was supposed to come over tonight, but I learned a long time ago that he's not exactly Mr. Reliability. So I'm still not getting my hopes up about tomorrow, even though he promised. :P We'll see. He always makes me happy, though. I think it's actually a good thing he didn't come over tonight, because I'm pretty darn tired already, and it's not even 11:00.

Speaking of being tired, good night! :)

This cast o' mine.

This cast o' mine is driving me nuts.  It itches.  It's cut my skin. It bruises my other leg because I'm an uncoordinated klutz.  It bruises my mom when I don't think and accidentally bang her with it.  But it's helping my foot and heel cord heal, so for that I must be grateful for this cast o' mine.

My mom is actually reading my Western Civ textbook that I picked up yesterday.  And people wonder where I get my "nerdiness" from. ;)

Weird, slightly gross but funny story for ya.  My dog Heidi has been in heat.  That, of course, is driving Charlie completely nutso.  Usually, because Charlie is about 15 pounds heavier than Heidi and she's a neurotic wreck, she submits to him and lets him hump her all the time.  Well, today, Heidi was standing at the gate in the kitchen, and Charlie came up behind and tried to mount her.  Instead of just taking it, Heidi spun around and growled.  Charlie backed off, and Heidi turned back to looking out through the gate.  Charlie tried to get on her again, and again she spun around like she was going to bite his head off.  This went on and on for like 5 minutes, until Charlie finally gave up and went and laid in his kennel.  Girl power!! :)

I love my bed.

Possibly more than a human should love an inanimate object.
But that's beside the point.

Today's appointment went smashingly.  My neurologist said that my CT looked great and I don't have to go back till next summer.  It was also one of the fastest Duke appointments I've had...like ever.  So yay for that.

We also went to Campbell today instead of yesterday because someone (*cough*Mom*cough) wouldn't get their butt out of bed in time to go before we had to be at Duke.  Oh well.  The important thing is that I have all my books for the fall semester and I won't have to worry about that once I get on campus in August.

So yesterday, after my CT at Duke, we went over to our hotel.  Holy cow! This Courtyard by Marriott had the most amazing beds.  It was like falling into a giant cotton ball, the mattresses were so soft and fluffy.  What I didn't know ahead of time about last night was that Holly and my "Aunt" Julie and "Uncle" Darryl were driving down from Raleigh and Greensboro to have dinner with us.  (And aunt and uncle are in quotes because they aren't actually my aunt and uncle.  Julie has been my mom's best friend since they were in middle school, so they're like family.)  Yay!  But come on, once they arrived, their real motives became crystal clear.  Dinner schminner.  All they wanted was to see Blake. ;)  Really, though, I can hardly blame them.  I mean, have you SEEN that face?! :D  Holly hung out with us in our hotel room till about 11 before she got tired and headed out.

This morning, I tried Biscuitville for the first time.  It was the only drive-thru place we could find nearby.  Mom said that Biscuitville was my dad's favorite place, which shocked me considering how much I've always known he loved Bojangles.  It was good, though.

I do have one complaint about this quick "trip," though.  OH. MY. GOSH. It was so freaking HOT!!!!  Especially this afternoon when I was at Campbell.  I was literally soaked the entire time.  (And poor Mom, she had to be even worse off, having to help me and take care of Blake.)  See, people, this is why I don't like leaving the house during the summer.

So yeah, that's about it.  We got home just after 5:30 today and I basically haven't left my bed since.  Did I mention I love this thing?!?! :)

Off to Duke

(I'm writing this in advance because Tuesday morning is surely going to be crazy.)

By the time you all read this, I will be in the car with Mom and Blake on the way to Durham. I have a CT scan this (Tuesday) afternoon, and a checkup with my neurologist tomorrow.

We're also stopping by Campbell on the way to pick up my Fall semester books because my CT appointment isn't till 3:30, and I'll still be on my scooter when I get to school in August, so it will be nearly impossible for me to get my books by myself.

Now, I won't lie. I'm scared. The last "checkup" I had with my neurologist was last August, when I found out my shunt was failing and had the first of six emergency brain surgeries.

The rational part of me knows that there's no reason for me to be scared, that those surgeries fixed all the problems with my shunt, and that this is just routine. But then the worrywart part of me thinks "I thought that appointment last August was just routine! And my life is never that simple."

Gah. This is just Satan picking at my biggest fear - facing yet another medical problem. I know that. But still, if you guys could be praying that I'm not faced with any bad news, and that everything goes smoothly, I'd really appreciate it. I'm not bringing my computer with me, so I'll update Wednesday night when I get home.

Love you all. I hope you know that.

Nothing

Really, there's like nothing to comment on.
My day has consisted of sleeping, eating, watching TV, and sleeping some more.
Yay for narcotics, huh?
Mom's been in quite the weird mood today, very snappy, but nothing too out of the ordinary.
So there's really nothing to say today.
My foot's in massive pain, and so I'm worried about how I'm going to do when I run out of meds.
I guess we'll find out, won't we?

Halfway There

So...I know I said I would post these pictures yesterday, but I totally forgot amidst the seriously painful muscle spasms and aches I was having. I figured y'all wouldn't mind if I posted them today.

Yes, this is a picture I posted here in January, but it's the only clear picture I have of what my feet looked like before the surgeries.  As you can see, they were bad. 

Pretty incredible, huh?  The thing is, I didn't realize how swollen my foot still was till I looked at the photos we took on Thursday.  Forgive the dead skin still on my heel.  I'm trying not to take too much off at once to keep the skin from getting raw. 

I am so excited about the progress that's been made.  My next appointment is August 2nd, where I'll get this cast off, some x-rays taken, and a new cast put on.  I hope the new cast is just a little bit shorter because when I'm on my scooter it digs into my thigh and burns, and it's hard to get my cast cover all the way over it for showers.  Speaking of showers, I took one tonight, and it felt fantastic. :)

It's going to be so amazing to be able to walk around like a normal person and not be in excruciating pain just trying to get through the day.  At school this spring, it was all I could do to go to classes, get food, and get back to my room.  As much as recovery sucks, I am so grateful for modern medicine.  :)

Miserable

That's me.
I'm not trying to be all Negative Nancy on you, I'm just being real.
It's amazing how quickly your body can forget how much post-surgical pain sucks.
And I'm not talking about pain just right around the incision site - that pain is a given.
What really sucks is the fact that every single muscle in my body hurts. Like my neck (especiallly my neck!), my back, my stomach when I try to move, my arms,...oh, you get the picture.
*sigh* Just all part of the process, I guess.
And I keep trying to remind myself that the two days after the day of surgery are the worst, and then it gets better.
I'm just hoping tomorrow isn't any worse than today, because then I might cry.

Yay for no complications!

With the surgery, at least. :) The surgery went off smashingly. Dr. Pupp said he thought it went even better than my left foot. And he put three knicks in my heel cord to stretch it some. Given that, there is extra pain, but the pain is just kind of expected. ;)

The only thing that went wrong is that it took four tries to get an IV in. OUCH. The nurse first tried in my left wrist, and she thought she got it in, and then it moved or something. Then, she got an anesthesiologist, and that lady tried in both hands, but both times the veins rolled. So finally she gave up on my arms and she and the other anesthesiologist in the room decided they could put one in my left foot, because I apparently have huge veins there. What made it awesome, especially after three bad sticks, was that she gave me a shot of numbing medicine and after that, I didn't feel anything as she put in the IV. No pressure, no pinching, nothing. It was quite a relief, because the first three tries really, really hurt.

So yeah, we got home just before 9:00. Yay for not having to stay overnight! And yay for general anesthesia. Apparently sedation is just not strong enough for me, so my doc decided that he was not going to go through the hell I gave him last surgery when I was just sedated, so the plan for general anesthesia was set up weeks ago.

This cast goes all the way up to my knee, instead of just above my ankle like last time because of the work he did on my heel cord. It makes using my scooter a bit more difficult, but oh well, I'll figure out a way to get used to it. :)

Tomorrow, I'm gonna post a picture of what my feet looked like before neither one were fixed, and a picture we took on Thursday with the left one fixed. It's pretty awesome.

Surgery tomorrow!

I never ever thought I'd be so excited about surgery. :) We have to be there at 1:30, so my surgery probably won't be till 3:30. Not being able to eat is gonna suck, but oh well, I always deal. :) They're doing everything they did last time, plus stretching my heel cord to hopefully give me some more mobility because it is super tight.

Speaking of eating, we had frog legs for dinner tonight! Oh my gosh, there's only one restaurant that I've ever had them at, and I've never seen them in a store, but my grandma found them in a seafood shop. She and I both love them. Mom thinks they're gross. ;) It was a perfect "last meal."

Oh, and that paper for my surgery I told you about? The copy T faxed did go through. J's just a jerk. Even the nurse there in the office thinks she hates most of the people that go there and likes to make things difficult for the people she knows don't like her. Makes you wonder why she's a receptionist, huh? But anyway, T faxed over another copy today and J wasn't there, thank heavens, so the nurse C got it and got my doctor to fill it out. Matt came over for a bit today, and he drove me down there to get it. I was majorly relieved about that.

So yeah...that's about it. They're doing general anesthesia this time, since I had such a problem with the sedation last time, so (hopefully) nothing should go wrong to make me have to stay over. So as long as I come home tomorrow evening, I will update then. Either way, I'll update as soon as I possibly can. Thank you for praying for me!