So much to do, so little time!

It's been semi-eventful since I blogged last. The first week of August, I went to church camp. It's always an amazingly uplifting experience. And while I do dislike some things about church camp, i.e. their nasty bathrooms, not-so-great food, mice, and bees; it is still a great time of fellowship with friends I don't get to see as often. God blessed, as He usually does.

The following week I didn't really do much actually. I was still recovering! While I was very pleased to see that they had paved a good amount of the dirt road at camp, there are still hills. My hip doesn't like hills. It's hard enough to walk longer distances, but add in a hill here and there and it was very tiring! Sweetie carried me up the hill to my cabin the last night. I just couldn't take it anymore!

This past Saturday Sweetie and I got to go to a birthday party for Wifey's oldest daughter. There was a giant water slide, which I couldn't go on, but it seemed very fun! Sweetie took a dive at it a few times. It was funny. A great time was had by everyone. She walked away with some good loot. Then Sunday Sweetie and I went to a birthday party for his cousin's wife. So needless to say, Monday I spent most of my time recuperating!

Today, wasn't so great. I got a letter in the mail saying that since I was out of my PTO at work, they aren't going to be paying any more of my insurance premiums. Lovely. So for September I will be paying everything. Lets think about this for a minute. You aren't compensating me wages any more because I have no more Paid Time Off. I get that. I really do. But at the same time, Disability doesn't pay very much. Now you're telling me that I have to spend almost a full 2 week's check from EDD on insurance premiums. People do have bills. Now you add this too?! Lets have a heart people!

To top that off, my FSA told me that they don't have a new account for me even though my company has been taking the money out of my paycheck every pay period. That I was terminated. And that I wasn't able to access any of the money I put aside from Jan-April because of Sutter's restructuring. So combined with the insurance premiums that I'm supposed to pay for the month of September, I could be out $1,400.00. Yes. $1,400.00 As if a $20,000.00 surgery isn't enough. It was all a little much for me today. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. I've put some calls into the people at work. So we'll see when they call me back what we can work out. I know that God will take care of me in the end. Just need a little faith! He's taken care of me this far, and He'll show me through this trial as well.

Long Day!!

So today, unlike the past week or so, was very eventful! My car had been acting up. Since my pre-op appointment on June 25th, a light called the Vehicle Stability Assistance (VSA) had been popping on. Mom thought that she had accidentally done it when she made a very abrupt, not so legal, U-Turn to get to the doctor's office. For a couple of weeks it had been popping on at various times and then it decided to stay on all the time. THEN it decided one day when my dad took it to work, that it didn't want to come out of Park. Luckily Dad was the one who had it because I dunno if Mom or myself would have gotten it out of park! It had been finicky like that for a few days and finally we left it sitting in the driveway and I made an appointment for today, Mom's day off, to take it to the dealership that I like.

So, we got up early. Ok. I know 7:30 really isn't that early. But when you really don't have anything better to do and you're a night owl such as myself, you tend to stay up a little later and in turn sleep in a little later. Granted I really don't sleep in TOO late. Only until about 10 am or so. I can't sleep in past that or I just feel like I've wasted too much daytime. ANYWAY, I got up and did some online banking and got on the bicycle like a good girl, got ready and off we went to be at the dealership by 10am! We had to leave an hour early to allow for traffic. I don't take it to my local dealership because basically: they suck.

We decided that we would have the shuttle from the dealer take us to the local mall that was just down the street. They didn't really anticipate the car being done very soon. The woman said 4pm and mom pushed for 1:30pm. Since we had a few hours to burn, what better place for 3 ladies (LilSis came with us) than the mall!! And Sweetie had planned on meeting us there in case the car wouldn't be done today.

When the shuttle man came to get us, 3 other people also needed shuttling! He dropped off the first two. Mother and son. They lived up on a golf course in a local city. They're house was so HUGE that at first I thought it was a duplex because it had TWO 2-car garages on either side, with just one big door to the house in the middle! Must be nice, right?! We had taken the scenic route there, and ended up taking the scenic route to our next destination. There was a man on the shuttle who needed to go to work, and obviously, that's a priority.

So we're driving to the mall (FINALLY!) and the woman from the dealership calls! They figured out the problem. It was a broken brake light switch, fuse thing, or something like that. And it was causing both the VSA light to pop on AND for it to not want to shift out of park! Who would have thought?! She went on to say the price, and that it would be done in about 30 min. I let Sweetie know that we wouldn't be needing his assistance today and he was glad he could just do some school work that needed to be done. So instead of having the shuttle man leave us at the mall, which we weren't even at yet, and come back and pick us up and risk being taken on more scenic routes to God only knows where, I opted for him to just take us back to the dealership and we waited for, well, more than 30 minutes of course! It was closer to about...an hour. But we drank free coffee, that was actually pretty good! And Mom took advantage of their free tea.......for future use....hahahaha

Once we got the car, we headed off to the mall anyway! Mom had a store she really wanted to go to, so we did that. LilSis also needed to get some short-sleeved shirts. She didn't have any that really fit anymore. So we picked up some for her. We then had some yummy food at FreshChoice and went home. Mom cooked dinner, we watched the Tour de France, and I fell asleep. Mom then decided to wake me up because LilSis needed a couple more things. So I went back out to the store with them, and did a little more shopping.

I have to say, I actually feel pretty good! I'm not really very sore, but of course ibuprofen really helps if you use it as a preventative! So I'm pretty pleased with how the day turned out. Yeah, I had to walk slow, and I got tired out pretty easily. But I walked a big mall, and I'm not sore after. I'd say that's a pretty good accomplishment for the day! God is good :)

Uneventful

Things have been pretty uneventful lately. The most eventful part of last week was on Thursday. Wifey came to visit me! Yay!! We dropped her 2 sweet older girls off at her sister-in-law's house and kept the baby with us. We went by my work and she got to meet my Supervisor, Miss P, Miss J (who has been WONDERFUL at keeping me in the loop about the gossip in the office), and of course Miss L (who is my partner in crime at work!). And of course, she saw Doc again. They know each other well. The others have all heard so much about her, and she's heard so much about them. It was nice to see my work family!

I was off my crutches, and they were all teasing me about coming back to work right then. We got a couple of things and chatted it up. It was nice! Then we headed off to go eat some sushi! We were going to go to Shirasoni. However, they decided to close earlier than I thought to get ready for dinner. So we headed to a sushi place across the street and made it just in time! Very yummy!!

We got home and got into the pool! The first time I got to go swimming since the surgery! The water was a bit cooler than I expected, but it still felt nice in the 100+ heat! It felt nice to work my hip in that way. The weekend was pretty uneventful. Sweetie and I saw Public Enemy. It was good. Lots of guns...lol

The rest of the weekend and Monday were also pretty uneventful. Yesterday, was not. I was just waking up, and stretching, like all normal people do and... POP It was LOUD and it HURT. I cried. Not gonna lie. And just the other day, I was thinking that I hadn't popped at ALL since the surgery. Made it almost 3 weeks. Set backs? Well.. Maybe? It's a little more sore than it had been. Right after the surgery, it hurt SO BAD to sneeze. So yeah, it hurts a little to sneeze again. That had subsided, but it's back again. I seem to have the same range of motion, and no pops since then.

So this is where I'm at:

3 Weeks Post Op.
30 Minutes of cycling on the stationary bicycle daily.
No crutches, walking pretty normally.
Still hard to lift my knee in the air.
Having troubles putting on socks, shoes, pants, etc.
Post Op Appt in 3 weeks, will get a physical therapy regimen then.

Healing!

Things have been going very nicely. I kicked my crutches to the curb a few days ago. Only using them on outings where I might be knocked into. I don't walk perfectly yet, but it's getting better!

Since last weekend, I've been taking it pretty easily. Sweetie usually comes over on his day off and we just laze around. My first outing was with Sweetie last Tuesday to the Verizon store. His phone was acting up, so we went to Verizon to see what they could do for us. We alllllmost walked out of the store with a new phone, but decided against it. He's gonna try and stretch it out a tiny bit longer.

After the Verizon store, nothing could stop me! Wednesday I went to go see everyone at the Office and Doc took out my sutures. It was so nice to get them taken out! I had to tell Doc how to do it though. Dr. Sampson decided to do a continuous suture, and it kinda puzzled Doc for a minute. Then Thursday I went with Mom to the car dealership where she and Dad had just purchased a new car to go pick it up. That was fun! Who doesn't love the new car smell?!

Friday kicked off the weekend. Sweetie came over and we stopped by the office to pick up something for Wifey. We headed off to the post office to mail some disability stuff. After that, we went to Walgreen's to pick up a prescription for me. Then we headed out for dinner! We decided to go to Shirasoni. Which is a teppanyaki restaurant here. Sweetie is the Benihana king. So he was comparing everything from the ambiance to the menu choices to the actual taste of the food. He liked it all in all, so that was good! After dinner, I was tired and we came back to my house and watched a couple movies. It was nice!

Woke up the next morning and got ready to go to Wifey's. Sweetie got here early and I still wasn't ready. I forgot that I had to get on the stationary bicycle. I did 20 minutes that morning. I've had to add on 5 minutes every day as tolerated. We finally left for Wifey's and met her at a Starbucks to get my fix. I hadn't had one since before my surgery! We didn't do too much. She just made bows for her Sweet Pea Swank. We had a nice dinner that she cooked for us and relaxed and watched a movie!

Yesterday was lazy. I finished reading Wicked. I was glad to be finished. Sweetie and I went to see the play back in April and I really enjoyed it. I thought the book would also be good, but it wasn't as great as I thought it would be. I was glad I finished it though. Today, is also lazy. Seems to be a running theme. Lately, I've been sorting my digital pictures. I'll move onto my print pictures soon enough. Scrap booking is a goal of mine this next 10 weeks I'm off. So. We'll see what I actually get done...

Resection D Day - Day 3

Happy 4th of July!! Things have been going well! I went in with way more confidence in myself, and more importantly my surgeon. I had prayed that God would give me the courage and the confidence, and He did. I knew that God would be in control, and he difinitely was!

D-Day

We left our house bright and early at 7:30 am to be at the surgery center no later than 10:00am. Living in the San Francisco Bay Area you NEVER know what the traffic is going to be like! For once, traffic was easy! We made it there in great timing. I think we got there shortly after 9:00am.

We registered and they brought us back into a little pre-op room. So different than the huge, open room at the hospital I had my surgery at last time. We had a little heater and I changed into a hospital gown. The nurse took my vitals and marked my right leg. We joked a little. Then we waited.

My surgery ended up getting pushed back a little more, but we were fine with that, I mean it wasn't 3:00pm or 4:00pm like they first thought! Finally Dr. Sampson came in and said hi. We talked about the procedure and he asked if we had any questions. We didn't and he left to go have some lunch before my surgery. After he came in, the anesthesiologist, Dr. Levi, came in. He put in my I.V. himself and asked me a bunch of questions. We also joked around, every one was fun at the surgery center.

After he had a quick lunch break they took me from my mom. I didn't cry this time. Probably because I was walking to the room. And mostly because I was confident that, yes, I was going through this whole ordeal again; Dr. Sampson will fix the problem. The were getting me ready and sticking things on my chest and we were all joking again. Mostly to get my mind off of what was going to happen next. The anesthesiologist had a HUGE syringe of white stuff in it. He said that I would feel the burning in my arm, and a nasty taste in my mouth and it's normal. He then started to push it in my I.V. And I did feel it burning in my arm, and I did taste it in my mouth, and my whole face when prickly. For you twilight readers I totally thought that it must be 100 times worse turning into a vampire......and then I was OUT.

I woke up shivering in recovery. I wasn't really cold, but I could NOT stop shivering. I tried to stop but I couldn't. They turned the heat up on my blanket and I was trying my hardest to wake up. I finally woke up a little bit. I was in more pain than last year. Which I felt was a good sign, since he said pain was good. I woke up enough and they took me to the pre-op room that I was in with Mom. She came in and they brought us tea, and it felt so good! I was STILL shivering. Luckily the tea made that stop. Getting something warm INSIDE my body is what I needed! I ate some cheez-its and some animal crackers and I was feeling really good! Last time I was nauseous.

We finally got the ok to leave. It was a long drive home. Just about 2 hours with traffic. It sucked. I'm not gonna lie. I went to the bathroom before I left, but I thought my bladder was going to explode! Really. It was THAT bad. My Sweetie came over once we got home and we spent a couple hours together before I went to bed.

Day 1

The first night was absolutely awful! I fell asleep around 11:00pm and I woke up at mightnight. I went back to sleep and then woke up again about 1:30. I went back to sleep and woke up about 2:45. I stayed up for a little bit on my computer and then I fell back asleep around 3:30. I woke up again at 5:30. I fell asleep again and then I woke up a little before 8:00am. I knew the first night was going to be awful.

I was sick the entire freaking day the next day. I woke up ok, and started eating. By about 12 pm I was feeling really sick and I had vomitted. I ended up just sleeping and vomiting the entire day. It was horrible. I thought that the percocet was what did it last time. Apparently I would just be a horrible drug addict because I only get sick....lol I only woke up every 2-3 hours that night. Better than the night before.

Day 2

Day 2 was lazy. I didn't really do much. Mom had to work so she left and Grandma stopped by a couple hours later. I got to take a shower and then Sweetie came over and spent the rest of the day with me. We just sat on the couch and watched "Top 100 Songs of the 90s" on vh1 and "The Office" The Office is one of Sweetie's favorite shows, and I never watch it. So he brought over seasons 1 and 2 for me to watch. He left, I popped a lovely little sleep aide, and went to bed. I slept all night! It was so great!

Day 3

Today, wifey stopped by with her family and saw me. I love seeing the girls and they are getting so big!! Sweetie will be by later and now I need a nap! We'll have the weekly family dinner and look for fireworks! But before I go, I will leave you with a list of the work my wonderful surgeon did:

1. Acetabular Rim Trimming - Yes, I had this done the first time. But according to the pictures not nearing enough.
2. Femoral Head Trimming - Apparently the head-neck junction wasn't competely normal shaped either. Something Lazzarini missed.
3. Labral tear repair - Remember that labral tear we found back in December that Lazzarini didn't think was a tear? Yeah. There was a tiny tear.
4. Psoas muscle release. He shaved off some bumps so that this muscle would not "snap" over the joint like it had been.

Lots of work and lots of pain. But it's getting better. I see my surgeon back in about 5 weeks and we'll see what he says then!!

Surgery time!

Tomorrow morning is surgery. I've been so busy lately!! It's a lot different this time. I'm leaving poor Doc with someone who really isn't trained for him. Last year when I had surgery, Doc still had his private practice and we already had another girl working for us who knew how to do the things the way he liked etc. This time the girl who is covering for me has only worked with him a couple of times. Luckily, I got to train her a little bit last week when I went in for my Pre-op.

Speaking of my pre-op, it went very well! Once again, Dr. Sampson has reassured us. I believe that he really is the best surgeon for my case this time. It was also nice to see where I was going to have my surgery tomorrow. We got lost for my pre-op appointment! Luckily, Mom and I know that we're gonna get lost, especially driving in The City, so we allowed time for getting lost!

I got a nice call today! Mary, from the surgery center, called. Originally my surgery was supposed to be about 1:30. I was the second case after someone doing bilateral hip surgery (yuck!) But, Mary called and asked me to be there at 10! It was a wonderful answer to prayers! I was just praying this morning, as were several other people, that my surgery would be sooner, and over quick. And God answered my prayer! They moved my surgery up!

It was sad leaving work today, I'm going to miss my girls. I've become quite close to Miss J and Miss L, who work in the "back office" with me! I get along with everyone though, and I'll miss them all! Especially Doc! I feel bad. I worked late all last week and the week before getting ready for the girl who would cover for me. I ried to make it as easy as possible! Nice and organized!

I'll be better about blogging on my time off this time ;) Wish me luck! I'm so ready for it!

Surgery? Consider it Scheduled.

So I finally called today during lunch to Dr. Sampson's office. I told her that I had seen Dr. Sampson and that he had wanted to do a Right Hip Arthroscopy on me. So she said she was scheduling into July right now and I told her that was perfect. I wanted it in July. Early July would be nice.

So she gave me...... July 1, 2009 at 1:30 pm.

I've got mixed feelings, but who wouldn't after having one surgery under their belt? I think that the risks definitely out weigh the benefits. I feel very confident in my surgeon. More so than my previous one...

Now, I am awaiting a call regarding pricing and what my benefits actually do cover. Thank you Sutter for giving me CRAPPY benefits. Luckily, I've been told Dr. Sampson is very flexible. Thank God for this nice long weekend I have ahead of me. Fun plans with great friends can make any one's day a little brighter!

Hmm...

Ok, so..yeah.. It's been a little while. I've been busy? That's my only valid excuse. Working from 9-6 has its advantages, but one of the disadvantages is that after I get home around 6:30-7:30 depending on overtime I eat dinner and just lie down on the couch. My poor computer hardly gets used by my anymore.

But I have an interesting update. Last weekend, was the anniversary of my first hip surgery....and I got rear ended. It was a wonderful day...can you hear the sarcasm in my typing? haha Sweetie and I didn't get hurt too bad. We're still sore and I'm experiencing persistent headaches. It's awful. I get to go see my doctor again to complain. I can't carry my purse on my shoulder for too long, it starts to hurt :(

ANYWAY, enough poor me.

I saw my new surgeon today. I LOVED him. He's Dr. Sampson in San Francisco. He was very nice and personable. He was basically complete opposite of Lazzarini. Not just in personality, but it approach. He was explaining to Mom and me that many surgeons will resect the labrum and it has been shown that sometimes this isn't the best approach. Also, many surgeons don't take a look at the femur to make sure that it's completely fine. In my case, it's not. It kinda flattens out and still causes impingement, leading to persistent pain. This should be corrected, he said, much like shaving off the acetabulum trying to make it as natural looking as possible.

He explained that there are different feelings and ways to do this, but he assured Mom and me that if he were to go through with the surgery with me, he wouldn't just do what Lazzarini did. This obviously did not fix the problem. He explained that he would shave off the flattened part and also look inside the hip joint capsul and make sure that everything is normal. He told me that he would check the anchor that Lazzarini put in to see if I was having a bad reaction or not.

He seemed very competent. He's older than Lazzarini and was saying that he's done over 800 hip arthroscopies since 2001. He regularly attends conferences, gives lectures, and keeps up on the latest news. It comforts me that he isn't going to just do what Lazzarini did. That he has a different approach and noted that especially with resections that need to be revised such as mine. He even said I might end up on one of his lecture slides!

As far as scheduling another surgery goes, I need to figure out work. It won't be as easy this time since Doc isn't in private practice anymore. At least I'll have some Paid Time Off and Extended Sick Leave to help supplement State Disability. Sampson did tell me that it is up to me as far as scheduling. Wish me luck...

Two Words:

TIME FLIES!!

Yesterday, toward the end of the day, I realized something. I was talking with a friend at church and we were discussing school and my plans etc. And it hit me. I was officially NINE, yes NINE, months post op!

Of course, I wasn't feeling the greatest yesterday. I was tired, and my hip was sore! But I must say that over the past month, I haven't been as sore at all! So I'm hoping Lazzarini was right in that I just needed more time. I've also been doing this wonderful thing called: Wii Fit! If you have a wii, wii fit is a MUST get! I LOVE the yoga for my hip! It has a lot of other cool stuff on it.

So other than that, life has been pretty boring. Work consumes my week. I'm starting to be excited about even the thought of going back to school! I'm still sticking to my updated plan of not going ahead with the scope on my right hip. So far, I think it will be more trouble than it's worth.

All in all right now I am pretty happy with my hip. It hasn't been giving me too much trouble, lets hope it stays that way!

Time Flies...

Time certainly is flying! I feel like I don't have any to spare! So, I decided to post the post below that was unfinished and write another one. I'm not going to church today. I'm pretty sick. I pretty much have no voice and coughing up lots of nice green stuff. So I'm going to try to NOT talk for the majority of the day...we'll see how that goes!

So I saw Lazzarini before he left for New York. I waited for a freaking hour! He came in and was like, didn't they tell you I was going to be late? I said yeah, but I have a job and can't just leave to come see you whenever. He was said, "Oh, sorry." YEAH YOU SHOULD BE SORRY!

He took a look at the films, which he was very displeased they were on CD, and said he disagreed with the radiologist. (Big surprise!) He told me that he saw where the radiologist thought there might be tearing, but he didn't think it was. AND it wasn't in the same spot as my pain has been in! That was kind of a relief. He told me that he thinks I just may take longer to heal and to be patient. I was ok with this answer for now. It gives me time to find a new surgeon, if I so choose.

After talking with Mom, I have decided to forego the surgery on my right hip indefinitely. Honestly, my right hip was never as bad as my left. And it really worries me that I won't heal properly like my left hip. I'm also worried that my left hip won't be strong and stable enough for quite some time! My loved ones all seem to agree with this, so that's comforting! Doc is THRILLED! He didn't want to lose me for another 12 weeks...lol I'm just glad no one has said, "You're stupid, get the surgery!" Even Lazzarini said that my case was mild enough I probably didn't need surgery on my right side; and we all know how cut-happy surgeons are!

Christmas was nice, I was a little sick then too. That's what I get for working with all the sick kids! I got a lot of stuff for my wii. It was a smaller Christmas than we're used to as a family, but no one minded! We love each other and celebrate Christ's birth regardless of presents.

New Years was fun! Sweetie and I went to Wifey's and hung out with her family. We were supposed to go to their church, which was having a function like it normally does for New Year's, but her girlies caught the bug that is going around. We had fun just hanging and wii'ing!

The following weekend Sweetie and I snuck away to....DISNEYLAND!! It was crowded, but I am SO happy to report that on the drive up and down, which is a good 6 hours, my hips were fine! I hurt a little bit in the park after going up a ton of stairs and walking up inclines, but all in all it was a pretty pain-free trip! I can feel that I'm getting better!! Here's a link to our pictures :)

Hopefully 2009 brings better tidings than 2008...