diagnosis and updates

I was to the clinic today for a follow-up appointment and the correct x-rays, for the injury I sustained last Monday (Jul 28th). It seems I have a seriously torn ligament(s) beside and behind my left knee cap. No hamstring injury … YAY!!

He also said there was some fluid on my knee, but not enough to require surgery or draining. He said the fluid would be re-absorbed with no further intervention necessary.

He said it will take a minimum of 5 to 6 weeks for the ligament(s) to totally heal. Possibly longer, but he said he felt it would heal completely and fully, giving me no further problems. I’m to use the leg and knee joint more and more each day/week. I should not need physio.

I’m now able to limp around with out my crutches, for the most part. I do have it wrapped and that does help with being able to move more without the aid of a crutch. I generally keep one about, just so it’s there if I need it.

Other medical news:

Oh … the abscess.

The abscess has healed to the point where I’m no longer going to the clinic for 3 – 4 times a week dressing changes. I purchased the same basic products as they use, and I am changing it myself now every 2 days or so. It has closed fully up, and is just requiring some polysporin antibiotic cream, some gauze and a big square band-aid. I feel very blessed to have it healing so well.

Blood work

I’m to go in when we get home from vacation and have the blood work done then. This way all the medicines I’ve had in my system for the last 2+ weeks, will have time to be flushed out of my system. This way we will know that the results are false highs due to the presence of infection or meds.

Yet another injury …. to me.

Yesterday, Keara had a Novice Dive meet in town. We came early, settled in, and started to get comfy. Some one said, “I’m hungry”, so I headed off with a couple of the kids around the pool to the food sources. That was the good part of the day.

On my way back around the pool deck to the observation side of the deck, with my food in hand, I made the conscious decision to walk through a small puddle of water pooling at a drain, instead of around it. I thought the water would be warm on my tootsies. It was. However, it also had hidden algae in it and my left leg slid right out from under me, as I walked through it. This resulted in me doing the splits. When I was nearly completely down in my split I heard a “Pop” and saw the hamstring bulging under my left knee.

At this point, Keara had not dived yet. What’s worse is her group of 8 and under girls had 31 competitors, with another 17 for the boys!!!! That just boggles the mind. The lifeguards there were amazing, and were just so helpful and upbeat. They applied ice to my hamstring for the next hour, while we waited for Corbin and Izaac to get there from the place they had been working yesterday. This gave Keara time to do her dives too (she didn’t rank well, bless her heart). Due to the medical emergency, they had her do all of her dives, one after another. This was a huge blessing, as it took nearly 1.5 hours to finish the 8 and under category. Then they lifted this 224lb butterball up, chair and all, and carried me to my car. Izaac drove me to a sport physio clinic for an urgent care appointment the lifeguard staff had set up for me. Once we got up to their offices, which was no easy feat, they realised the injury was too significant for them to deal with, and sent me to the local hospital.

I fell at just shy of 5pm on Monday. I got to the hospital at 7:20pm, and checked through registration and triage about 8:05pm. I got looked at this morning at 6:15am. I finally left the hospital with my brand new crutches, two different medications, a hugely wrapped leg and severe pain washing up and down my body with every move I made. To top it all off, the X-ray tech, did the WRONG X-rays. He did my ankle, not my knee. The doctor has ordered me new x-rays, once the swelling has gone down in my leg. I go back to the clinic for both the x-rays and the follow up appointment next Tuesday.

I’m still dealing with my healing abscess site too. I was suppose to go in today for another dressing change – didn’t happen. I’m not sure it will even happen tomorrow or
Thursday either. :sigh

I’ve got a lovely cocktail of anti-inflammatory meds, percocet (pain relief) and antibiotics in me … I’m absolutely exhausted. I have to sit up though, because I can not get up from a prone position without horrifically intense pain washing over me. I’d rather fall asleep sitting up, thank you. Oh, and going to the washroom is just breath takingly painful. Who knew pivoting on the ball or heal of your right foot could so significantly move your left leg?

Blessings:
- All my sweet children were with me – this was a great comfort to me.
- Corbin and Izaac were just getting off work, and were able to come directly to help me. It did take them about 1 hour to get to me, as they were a long way out of the city when my call came in, and then they had to get to the garage and then drive to where I was, through rush hour traffic.
- the children were so well behaved, I was complimented on their raising by several of the other folks waiting, and even some of the staff at the hospital.
- the older boys’ boss, when informed of my injury, told the boys to take the whole day off today, “to be there for your Mum”, also told me he hoped “I healed quickly” Both boys were going to work today, even after being up all night for Corbin, and nealry all night for Izaac.
- Corbin was my ROCK. The Lord is my big amazing Rock, but He really blessed me with the love, caring, compassion and maturity of my oldest son, throughout this ordeal.
- Although my wait was long and frustrating, I met a lovely couple who loved the Lord, and we talked, read the Bible together and said little prayers throughout most of the evening with one another.
- I met some really sweet folks there, who didn’t know the Father, yet … but were a blessing to me nonetheless.
- I got a nice pleasant X-ray tech and a doctor who had excellent bedside manner and seemed truly to care about his patients. He apologised for the incredibly long wait too.
- the lifeguard staff at the Viking pool were absolutely wonderful.
- my friend, Sandie, got out of bed, at 10:21pm, when I called her after remembering my dogs were stuck outside, and needed to come in for the night. She woke up her daughter, drove from her place to mine (in her PJs) and let my dogs in the back door for me. Suffering through all kinds of Boaz indignities … jumping up, licking etc. and Kezi barking her fool head off the whole time!
- I had my Bible in my purse.
- Jesus sustained me throughout the whole of the mess, especially when I as most scared and in so much pain.

Lisa

no more sleeps until Denver comes home!

Denver has been away at Air Cadet camp for 3 long weeks. He has called nearly every night he’s been away. He’s had a lot of fun. He’s had a few not so fun moments, but over all has really enjoyed this camp.

I pick him up at, or around, 12:30pm!!!!

I can hardly wait to hug my young man!

Today’s stuff:
- must go to clinic to have my surgery site re-packed and bandaged – oh the joy!
- must drive to Laval to pick up Denver …. OH THE JOY!
- must come home and finally get that living room tackled. I can NOT believe how busy we were these last three weeks. Without an older brother to shuffle/shuttle the younger children back and forth to the pool – I’ve had to do it. It means long mornings, and afternoons too, of taking kids to the pool, and then waiting for them to finish their stuff (lessons etc.). A lot of time gone, that I had hoped to have for doing the housework and reclaiming work around here.
- must hug Denver lots!

Lisa

swim meet results for tonight

Well me and my Sugar Shack buddy, Heidi, are gimpy one and two LOL. She’s got a very sore knee, with some arthritis in it and constant chronic pain. I have this lovely owie on my tummy. What a pair we are LOL. We laugh and have fun though – makes the night go faster.

Keigan Michael did Backstroke and Butterfly events, and the boys relay. I only got to see his Butterfly event. He looked awesome in the water. He has a really affective dolphin kick which brings his full shoulders and chest up out of the water …. awesome form! He came in 2nd, I believe. It was hard to tell as he and the fellow right next to him were so close.

Keara did the same strokes as Keigan Michael, but in the girls categories – of course. Oh and she’s 8 and under group, where Keigan Michael is 9/10. Sadly, I didn’t get to see any of her events tonight. Due to a threatened thunder and lightning storm, and apparently the real threat of tornados hitting the area tonight, they just WHAMMED the events through. They combined as many events as they possibly could – running boys and girls of the same age/discipline strokes together as much as possible. I missed her. She didn’t do as well in her backstroke this week though, as we got her ribbon and it was a 6th place finish out of 7 or 8 girls. Oh well – there’s always next week.

I’m so proud of both the kids too … they really commit to whatever they’re doing in the swim meets and give it their all. It doesn’t matter to them whether they win, lose or land some where in the middle – they just push it to the max every time. I’m humbled by them, really.

It’ll be great to see Denver back at the meets come Sunday (dive) and next Wednesday (swim). I’ve missed having him around, and I’ve missed watching him do his thing too.

Lisa.

so … today was a bit better

Went to the clinic to have my blood work done – last night’s doctor FORGOT to put a requisition for blood work in my file … so no blood work done *sigh*

Today’s doctor was a sweety, and spoke English very well – as did the nurse. The repacking hurt, but wasn’t unbearable. I did my labour breathing throughout, and got through it – thank you Father! These two medical folks were rather surprised that the doc from last night didn’t give me antibiotics, especially if there was any question about the possibility of a Diabetes connection. They did a finger prick in their office today, and said that it seemed likely, at the very least, I was a borderline Diabetic.

Due in part to the comments from last night’s doctor, and my own morbid curiosity, I decided to check my own glucose levels, last night. I have a kit due to former issues with Gestational Diabetes and some sugar “issues” in 2005 that a doctor I had to see, while on vacation in Nova Scotia, wanted to monitor. So, last night, an hour after having a very rare ice cream and butterscotch treat, I took my sugars. It was 12mmol … or 216mg/dL (for my US friends ) That’s the highest reading I’ve ever had. This morning (at 11:30am) in the doctor’s office, after not eating anything since 9:30- 9:45pm the night before my fasting sugars were 7.1mmol (127mg/dL). They should have been no higher than 6.1mmol (109mg/dL) in a non diabetic person, after not eating for that long. Doc said it could be because of the infection and possibility of more bacteria in my system … but he wasn’t comfortable with “guessing” with something as serious as Diabetes – so I’m to do the tests. I’m in agreement with him. I want to know what’s going on too.

Dr. Williams – today’s doc, gave me a requisition for a myriad of blood work to be done – late next week. They want to wait for the “very strong” antibiotics they gave me, to do their work. They said otherwise I’ll get false high readings on most of the blood tests they want run. He even asked me what tests *I* wanted done. I told him I wanted my thyroid checked … he said, “Okey Dokey – it’s done!” Made me laugh.

He’s also running tests to determine if there’s anymore infection left, plus all kinds to check my blood for everything they could think of, I think LOL.

Glucose levels
Potassium levels
Amalyse
Cholesterol
Triglcyerides
HDL Cholesterol
something with a whole lot of acronym letters plus the word “risk” after it.
TSH and T4

oh yeah .. and a Urine analysis too.

Thank you – EVERYONE – for your prayers, hugs and just for being such caring friends. It means a lot to me. :bh

Hopefully they’ll get some information from all that blood – yeesh!

It would all be happening just 2.5 weeks before I’m heading out for a two week vacation … :sigh. I figure if I go towards the end of next week for the tests, most of the results should be before we leave for our trip.

Dr. Williams also said I only have to come back every 24 hours, for the next 2 days, to repack my wound. Not the two times a day like last night’s nurse/doc said. After that I can come every 24 – 48 hours until it’s sufficiently cleaned out to allow for it to heal up.

Lisa

had emergency day surgery today

Ow.

The thing on my belly grew significantly, over the last day. It started causing large vein like forks off from the main core wound and had a bumpy swollen look to it, for almost a 2″ radius on my belly, about 2 fingers up from my belly button. The main wound grew too, nearly over night from a respectable 1/4″ in height to nearly 1.5″ in height!!! It turned out to be an “incredible mal” abscess with an “La quantité incroyable de pus”. At least according to the Tiny French Doctor and the very French nurse I was in the room with. The dear nurse didn’t seem to understand or speak any English. The doctor could speak both, but mumbled English more so than enunciating it. Needless to say it was a difficult day linguistically, for me – among other things.

For those not in the know: “Incredible mal” = Incredibly bad” and “La quantité incroyable de pus” = Incredible amount of pus.

I HATE needles. Actually, to be very open about it, I’m terrified of needles – especially “freezy” needles. You know, those needles you need to numb areas so bigger more painful things can be done to them, to fix them – those needles! I had to have one of those needles today. I’m afraid I cried like a 3 year old. The nurse was very sweet, but I bet her poor fingers were aching for a bit after I left.

The deed is done.

Doc said there is now about a 1/2 deep hole in my torso, where the main core of the abscess was. Wonderful. NOT!

I now have to go back tomorrow morning between 7am and 10am, to have blood work done. They need to make sure there’s no residue infection in my system. I think they’re going to sneak in a glucose test too. The first question the doctor asked me today was, “are you Diabetic?” To which I had to honestly answer, “I have no idea.” He asked when I had last seen my doctor, and I said, “I don’t have a doctor here in Quebec. I’ve not had one since I delivered my last child, and that was an OB/GYN.”

Then I have to go back to have the wound re-packed at 11am, and then again at 8pm, for the next 4 – 7 days. I only have to do this until the wound is completely clean, and shows signs of healing. Should be really fun, especially as I do not heal quickly anymore.

Please pray that this icky thing heals quickly. It’s very tender, still, and has bled almost through it’s dressings already tonight. *sigh*.
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Denver called tonight. He’s sick. He has a bad cold. He wants to “tough it out” for the next three days, and complete his camp course. Pray for him, please. He was so sad and so worried to find out I had the emerg. surgery today. I know he’s worried about me too. I tried to put his mind at rest, but I know deep down he’s still worried about his Mama. Bless his heart. Please pray for peace of mind for him too.

Thank you all, we covet your prayers.

Lisa

updates

Well, Cornwall was a blast. We got home just in time for Denver’s nightly phone call. He’s at a three week camp with Air Cadets. He’ll be home this Friday at noon!!!! We have missed him, so much.
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I’m 99.99% sure that the thing on my belly is a boil. It’s a big boil too. I’m not exactly sure why I have a boil on my belly, but it fits all the descriptions and the photos I found online. I’m not sure if I should go to the clinic about it though, as they say that most of the treatment is heat applications, and then “lancing” or “popping” the “head” of the boil when it shows itself. Mine hasn’t shown itself yet, so lancing or popping couldn’t even happen yet. It also says that it could lead to surgery and antibiotics. However, it also says that antibiotics don’t help at all, at the stage mine is at *shrug*, and may not even be helpful after the “pus” has appeared. So, I’m leaning towards going to the clinic and having them take a look at it, and let me know what, if anything, I can do at home for it, at this point.

I’m a huge chicken, so the idea of “lancing” scares the curls out of my hair!
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Dive meet yesterday morning was interesting. It was some of the most loony, interpretive judging I’d ever seen. Now, normally at the community pool or ALPS level diving, there is a lot of leniency for the 8 and under kiddos, so they mark all dives, even failed dives with a mark 3 – 10. However, the older children, and most especially the 15+ category divers, are certainly old enough to understand, “I screwed up my dive so bad I failed it!” – so they’d get no marks. Until yesterday, all meets that I’ve ever been at, at this point in my Mum of divers career (7yrs), the judges marks are on a scale of 0 to 10. Apparently, the head judge at yesterday’s pool, wanted to preserve the fragile psyches of all the divers, regardless of age so she only allowed the other two judges to mark on a scale of 5 – 10. This is in direct oppostion to the ALPS (community pool) rules – so we’re not sure what’s going to happen there.

The marks were insanely foolish. When you tie the judges hands like that, the once coveted, 7, 7.5, 8, 8.5 + marks become greatly devalued when even the bad divers, or swim coaches who are filling out the dive team for extra points for the pool, are getting them. I mean, an okay/average dive would normally get about 4.5 5 or 5.5 as marks. Yesterday the okay/average mark was a 6, 6.5 or 7, and so on up the scale.

So …. it was a very weird and different, parallel universe kind of meet yesterday. Corbin was so so so sick. He ended up sleeping in the car for most of the meet, hoping to feel good enough to do his event, when the time came. Keara (8), who, bless her heart, usually gets a 4.5, 5, 5.5 or maybe a 6 on a dive … got 7.5, 7.5 and 7 for her first dive!!!! We all just kind of stared. I mean, it was a nice dive, but not a WOW dive. We knew then that it was going to be a very odd meet.

Eventually at the end of this very very very loooooooooooooooong dive meet (it went 2 hours longer than most dive meets go, with a lot less competitors than normal), the results are: Keara took 3rd place in the 8 and under girls category (securing her place at the dive finals on Aug. 10th). Keigan Michael took 2nd in the boys 9/10 category. Corbin took 1st – and remember he was running a temp, gastro issues etc.) in the 15+ men/boys category.

WeirD. WeIrd. WeIRd.
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Today is maintenance and living room day, in the ongoing house reclaiming efforts. I see the edges of the kitchen getting slightly frayed, and the dining room table is filling up again *sigh*. So we’ll tackle those areas first, and make sure the two younger children’s bedrooms are still doing well, and the bathrooms are continuing as they were.

Then we’ll head for the hard hat areas LOL, of the living room. It’s mostly clutter in there – it seems to be a great place to just drop things, because we are very busy these days, and don’t really use the living room much. So add that to the clutter that was there, and now it’s rather impassable!

If you don’t hear from me in a couple of days, perhaps you better call in the Clean Sweep crew from the Discovery Channel LOL. <-she laughs, but there is this sad grain of truth in the silly comment too *sigh*

Lisa

off to cornwall

We are off to spend the day in Cornwall, Ontario today. Soak up some local culture, do a little shopping, buy gas at an awesome price …. ahhh, the good life LOL.

Have a good day, all.

Lisa

Prayers needed, please.

I think …. I’m rather certain really … that I have a cellulites growing about 2″ above my belly button area. I’ve dealt with this twice in the past – once each with Denver (when he was 3yrs old), and Keigan Michael in 2006. I know it can get bad fast. It started out on Sunday as kind of a “blood shot” looking spot on my tummy, tender to the touch. Today the core is about 1″ in diameter, with a 2″ red zone spreading out from the core. When I got up this morning it was just the core area, which was sore, swollen and red. Now it is all red around it, and the core is very swollen and very sore. So, I’m going in in the AM.

I’m rising early tomorrow and getting to the medical clinic by 8am. Hoping if I get there early enough we won’t have a very long wait.

All prayers are coveted and appreciated.

Lisa

sound bites … or bits, lol

Swim meet
- Keigan Michael did wonderful today. He managed to come in first place in all three of the events he was in. He’s in the 9/10 boys section. He did the 50m Backstroke, and the 25m Butterfly stroke – there were 8 competitors in each of those events. Also the boys relay team (50m) he was on, came in 1st!

- Keara also did so good. Last year, and the year before it, she was almost always the very last swimmer in, no matter what stroke, or how many were in the field (unless she was alone, of course). This year she has consistently placed in the top three. She swam Backstroke and Butterfly, tonight. She’s in the 8 and under girls group, so they only do 25m events. She came in 2nd in Backstroke, and 3rd in Butterfly (6 competitors in the Fly event, and 8 in the Back event). There were too many 8 and under girls today, so she didn’t have to do the relay event too.

Other stuff:
- Visited my new neighbour and new friend, Stephanie for an hour today. My younger two, and all of hers (5 children, 13years – 4months) get along fabulously. So after my littles finished their chores, we all went over to play and socialise! It was fun.

- I did Keara’s hair up in 22 small braids. From the crown to the base of her scalp is all regular small braids. Then from the front to the crown is a series of 8 small reverse french braids. It’s very cute and makes for a really easy hair week!

- We drove the 50 minute, round trip, car drive to Lancaster to buy gas at $1.282/liter. Hmmmm that’s about $4.85USD per gallon. Why the long drive? Isn’t it just burning your savings? Well, this is why. In my area, currently gas prices are fluctuating between $1.429 to $1.489 per liter, or about $5.41 – $5.64 per gallon. Rather a large difference in price, hey? So it’s definitely worth the time, money and gas, to get there and back. Instead of costing me about $72 to &74 to fill my 2003 Cavalier, it only cost me $58.50 to fill up – and that was just about dead on “E” to “Full”.

House Reclaiming goals:
- Main bathroom, Keara’s room, Keigan Michael’s Room and Powder Room are done and continuing to be maintained, everyday.
- Continued to gain ground in our Kitchen and Dining Room areas. All we need to do tomorrow, is scrub the floor, pre-cook the week’s worth of meat, wipe down the stove and wipe the high traffic areas on the walls.
- Tomorrow’s goals: #1. Finish the Kitchen and Livingroom. #2. Start on the Livingroom. (Fold all clothes hiding out and lolly-gagging about in the room.

Moving on, and moving off to Bed! Goodnight all!

Lisa