ΟstǝøʍyƜhat?: December 2017

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!

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!