Happy New Year!

Mr. Penguin wishes everyone a Happy New Year!

Best Christmas gift ever!

I reached a lot of big goals this past year - finishing school, passing my certification exam and becoming certified as a registered practical nurse, getting hired to work as a nurse in a hospital, getting my first taste of life no longer being a student, and going on a real true proper vacation for the first time in almost a decade! In comparison, the goals for this year 2018 are pretty simply. I hope to buy a car in the spring (granted, I need to pass my road test first so that I can finally drive without another licensed individual in the car) and am planning on applying to Nipissing University for the RPN to RN bridge program. And the main goal, of course: I want to fix my leg! That's been on the top of my list for the last three years (pretty much since the start of 2015 when I was told the bone infection had come back). My leg has been broken since my surgeon cut out 6.5 cm of bone. That was twenty-eight months ago. Almost two and a half years! Wow. That's a long time to have a broken leg. Hopefully this will be the year to see it fixed!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone is having a lovely day full of their favorite things (for me that mean a big mug of tea and comfy slippers)! Right now I am sitting in my robe (that makes it sound like I'm some sort of wizard), listening to the kettle boil and occasionally looking out the window to admire all the snow out there.

I have to work tonight and again tomorrow night (unfortunately, patients don't just get well and go home over the holiday), but I was lucky enough to get the last few days off, so I was able to spend some quality time at home with my family. My brother came over yesterday afternoon to have a meal with my mum and I, and he'll be coming over for an hour or so today before I head off to work!

Me, coming off of a night shift on Friday morning, ready for some time off before the holidays!

New really big mug after my lovely bird mug broke a few weeks ago.

I've continue my tradition of collecting cards and postcards.

 Here are my lovely little piggies - enjoying the small wooden hide house I got them.

 Christmas present from my brother - another one for the collection!

This month I took a break from working on my butterfly quilt. I'm about half way done the cross stitching part and look forward to completing it sometime next year. I decided to take a break from it for a while so that I could do some holiday stitching - something I've been meaning to do for years but never seem to get around to doing. I've had some lovely Margaret Sherry patterns sitting around for ages and am so pleased I took the time to make them now that they are done!

And lastly - always a child at heart XD

I hope everyone has a lovely day and is able to enjoy and appreciate the quiet days to come between Christmas and New Years!

Another One

Hello fellow internet users! It's been a while since my last post (over two months by now). Unless you count the pain that my leg has been causing on a regular basis since who only knows when (actually, I do know - since the external fixator came off), there hasn't been much to update about. Life goes on much as it always has - I read; I drink lots of tea out of really big mugs; I probably cross stitch  more than I ought to (ten bucks says I get carpal tunnel when I'm forty!). I also go to work. I do nurse-y things while I'm there. The twelve hour shifts are hectic, but I try to do everything I possibly can for my patients. If I'm lucky, I have time to make a patient a cup of tea. And then I go home, peal off my compression stockings, and wonder if my leg will hold up for another shift or if I've finally reached (or worse, crossed) that invisible line that's so hard to distinguish, always moving/never static. Have I over done it? Will a few days off allow my leg to recover enough to do a few more shifts? Should I call my surgeon's office? I think I'm getting pretty close to that line. I never do three shifts in a row anymore, and now even two is getting difficult. Which leads me to the point of this blog...

When I returned from vacation at the end of October, I started calling my surgeon's office because it had been over a month since I had signed the consent forms for yet another surgery but still hadn't received any information about it. I finally heard back from his assistant on December 4th. Apparently the hospital changed some stuff in regards to surgical times and the booking process for surgeries, hence the delay in information regarding surgery. I was offered a choice - either February 1st or 14th. I like to think I choose the former because I don't want to have surgery on the fourteenth because that interferes with this singletons plans to buy lots of candy at a discount the day after Valentines day, but in reality by leg hurts most of the time so I just want to get surgery over as soon as possible. Therefore, I opted for February 1st. About a week or two ago, I received an envelope from my surgeon's office with a letter confirming this date, along with a date for my pre-op appointment and a package of questions regarding my health to complete prior to that appointment. So that's my big news - my tenth trip to the operating room will be on February 1st at ten in the morning (thank goodness - most of my surgeries have been at eight in the morning, meaning getting up at four to get there on time, and that's an early rise even for a nurse!).

What does the surgery involve? The fibular osteotomy will happen no matter what. I know, I know, those are big words.... but what exactly is a fibular osteotomy? Basically my surgeon will cut out a chunk of my fibula to fix the length discrepancy between my fibula and tibia. My fibula is currently longer than my tibia and, because my tibia is broken and held together by a giant metal rod called an IM nail, all of my weight is being transferred to my fibula. The fibula is, surprisingly, a non-weight bearing bone. As such, mine is starting to bend (something called "bowing") under my weight, this pushing on muscles and causing a lot of pain. This will be happening no matter what. The fibular osteotomy requires making an incision (I'm told it will be pretty small, maybe an inch or two long) on the side of my leg, so I'm guaranteed at least one more scar before all is said and done. And then the second part is yet to be determined - I will either have the screws holding my current IM nail adjusted or the current one taken out and a new, smaller one, put in it's place. I'm leaning toward the latter (exchange intremedullary nailing). I'm not one hundred percent sure yet, but obviously still have some time to think things through.  Regardless of the two options, the two ends of my tibia will be smushed together and, a a result of said smushing, hopefully knit together like any broken bone would, allowing me to leave this fiasco in my past once and for all. And that's it - really quite simple, isn't it?

If it was possible to avoid this surgery all together, I would. Unfortunately, my external fixator came off over nineteen months ago and I still find myself in non-union territory. My leg is as broken as ever (albeit not missing 6.5 centimeters of bone anymore; I'm guessing maybe 4 millimeters now, but can't say for sure). I know that this surgery is very minor in comparison to some of the other surgeries I have had. The recovery will be quite quick and easy, even less painful this time around. I think there is just something very unsettling about needing ten surgeries to fix the same issue. I really hope that I can get off the carousel after this next round. Then I can get on with being super nurse! XD

Other than the surgery date, there's not much else to update about. I had an ultrasound of my right leg on November 1st to confirm that there is nothing major going on with the nerves and muscles in my leg (other than being pushed around my by bending fibula that is). My surgeon's office e-mailed me the results sometime in the first half of November. Behold my amazing ability to copy and paste the results: “may benefit from some physio focusing on her ankle stabilizing muscles”. The muscles in my right leg are quite weak and could benefit from some physical therapy. Given that my fibula is still pushing against all those muscles, and the fact that the bending fibula won't be fixed until surgery, I've decided to forgo having physical therapy until after surgery. 

Oh, before I forget, I also wanted to mention that I got shingles at the end of November/start of December. Seriously! Who gets shingles when they are twenty-five? On top of all the other health related stuff I have to deal with, I got shingle! Fortunately, it was a mild case. I say fortunately, because the rash I got on my torso (left side) was pretty minor and most of the symptoms went away after about two weeks. However, it still sucked. More than sucked. It sucked a lot! Moving hurt, coughing hurt, even laying in bed trying to sleep hurt... fortunately it is over now. I never want to go through that again. 


And that's about it. I had an amazing time in the Netherlands. I went to museums, historical sites, several markets, about eight different book stores (my inner nerd jumped for joy when I found the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit in Dutch). I also saw some of my family, something I was not planning on doing before I actually to Holland. Visits with them were last minute affairs, but one hundred percent worth it. And to top it all off, I was able to bring back a whole bunch of lovely glass Christmas ornaments in my carry on luggage (28/30 survived the trip)! I walked much more than I should have - by the end of the trip many outings turned into walking for 10-15 minutes and then having to sit down for a bit to rest, rinse and repeat. But it was worth every bit of pain and discomfort. Of course, I took my cane along with me as well and let me tell you! That piece of metal and rubber was the thing that got me through the trip. I only went out once or twice without it. I went for a walk without it one evening and not even five minutes in I was regretting it. Hopefully walking will be a much more natural, pain free thing to do the next time I do! That being said, despite the pain it was completely worth it!

Here I am, sometimes after a night shift in the middle of November (before the shingles filled shenanigans began).

Shingles... unbelievable itchy. Would not wish on my worst enemy (not that I have any enemies!).

Here are some pictures from my trip:

 

Quick Update

This is just a really short, quick update on how things are going. I saw my surgeon again on September 29th. We talked about a lot of things, including the muscle/nerve (?) pain I have been getting in my leg. We don't know what exactly has been causing the pain, aside from the nonunion itself, so that it a bit frustrating. But my surgeon said he has had patients in similar situations to mine who have had similar complaints, so it's not like the pain is some big mystery that we need to get to the bottom of it. That's some what of a relief. We're still going ahead with the ultrasound on November first. My surgeon doesn't actually expect to find anything, but he want's to make sure crosses all the t's and dots all the I's before... well, before surgery. Surgery number....? I'm starting to loose track of how many trips to the operating I have had. I'm guessing that this will be number ten. I signed the consent forms and should get a date soon. We've requested the first week of February. We're going to go ahead with the fibular osteotomy. I'm still undecided if I want to adjust the current IM nail holding my tibia together or swap it for a new one. I have until the day of surgery to make that decision. I still have some questions about everything so I'll be calling my surgeon's office sometime soon. In the meantime, I just keep plugging away at work.

And I'm going on vacation! I'm leaving this afternoon for almost two weeks in Holland! Vacation is a heck of a lot more exciting than surgery. A vacation I really need - a nice break from all the leg related nonsense, and being a new nurse. Nursing is exhausting. I'm sure I'm going to have a ovely time. I spent the last few weeks planning out everything I want to do. I'll post a proper update once I'm back. In the meantime, I'm wishing everyone a happy fall!

I think...

The universe is having a good laugh at me right now. The one thing I love the most in the world is a big cup of tea. I enjoy trying new brands and variations, but my absolute favorite is a flavor called Forest Berry made by Pickwick.  For quite some time, the little tags on the ends of the string on each tea bag have come with a different question printed on each of them. The goal is to give people things to talk about. Today's question was "Wat heb je altijd nog een keer tegen je ex willen zeggen?" And what does this translate to? In English, it reads "What have you always wanted to say to your ex again?" I was not expecting that this morning. Usually the questions are pretty light hearted like "What is the nicest thing someone has ever done for you?", "What important historical person would you most like to meet?" or "If you could travel in time, what age/time period would you most like to visit?" I was not expecting this particular question. What a way to start my morning.

In case you're wondering, the tea was delicious.

 And in other news, more books arrived! I word night shift tonight and tomorrow, but after that I have eight or nine days off. I'm looking forward to getting started on one of my new books. I actually challenged myself to read a book a month this year. I was a bit slow to start, but I am now ahead. I finished reading my eleventh book last night before bead and, when all the patient care is done for the night and I have to ride out the hours until the shift ends, I'm going to start the twelfth one - The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy.

Yesterday I also finally finished the grey parts of the fourth butterfly for the quilt I am working on. Working with all those shades of gray was starting to get a bit monotonous. I'm looking forward to adding some colour later this week.

Speaking of later this week, I see my surgeon bright and early on Friday morning. After this appointment, I don't have anything leg-related going on until the ultrasound booked right after I return from my vacation. As long as I can get through my remaining shifts at work before I leave, I think my leg shouldn't cause too many problems (read pain). Including tonight's shift and the one tomorrow, I only have six shifts left, so I think it's quite manageable. Finger's crossed for a quite night! The three days shifts from Friday-Sunday were quite hectic.