Down The Drain

Hello, fine friends!
I hope this post finds you all happy and as pain-free as possible.  Unfortunately, for me, I've been battling severe leg/feet pain for so long now, I feel they are a part of me.  I am so tired of waking up and feeling like I'd been rolled over by a steam roller.  I'm so stiff, I have to sit at the side of the bed for a half hour before that first agonizing step.  And I always have to use the bathroom really badly, but I've got a "bladder" of steel and I can hold it until I can painfully limp to the bathroom.  When I was working as a floor nurse, I rarely had time to even breathe or have lunch, let alone use the bathroom, so I probably got my "bladder of steel" from that experience.

I guess I'm still "paying that piper" from when Frankie was in and out of the hospital this summer.  That really took it out of me and my mother-in-law, who has arthritis and fibromyalgia, too.  She has had rheumatoid arthritis since the age of 12! Poor thing! That is when all the fun starts with being a teenager and with running around town looking for boys (that's what I did when I was a teen, anyway!) and going to dances and just being active.  I can't even begin to imagine having juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. I've always told her I really admire her for getting so much done in her life (raising three children AND working a full time job!) with the limitations of arthritis.  Her hands/wrists are really bad and she has had surgery on her toes to correct them as they were laying on top of one another and posed a great infection risk.  Her feet look great! I wish something could be done about her hands, though. They are crippled from the arthritis and her wrists are fused. 

Anyway, we stuck it out because we love Frankie and would support him in any way we could.  I would CRAWL to the hospital to see him, he is that important to me.  Luckily, though, I don't have to crawl. We have a great car that takes us wherever we want to go...as long as we have gas in it!! :0) I'm just so happy that he is home and it looks like he is here to stay.  Today is the surgery appointment and the million dollar question is: will he remove the drain or leave it in?  We're not getting our hopes up this time.  That way, we'll be pleasantly surprised if he pulls it OR we'll accept it if he doesn't pull it.  What else can we do?

I took two pictures of my "patient."  The first one shows Frankie with his shirt up, to show off the drain so you can have a visual idea of what the heck I'm talking about when I mention his drain. The tubing goes to the little suction bulb hanging down his left leg.  He's healed up nicely from the surgery, as you can see the long incision down his belly.

The second picture is of Frankie doing what he loves most....the computer.  He still is very weak and somewhat pale, as you might be able to tell from the photo.  But each day gets easier and I think once the drain is out, he will feel a lot better.  It's almost like an anchor weighing him down, reminding him constantly of his recent surgery and staying in the hospital for so long.

Maybe today will be THE day he can throw that blasted drain "down the drain" at his appointment!!  Good riddance is what I say!  Although, that drain is what made it possible for him to be at home instead of in the hospital with a partial bowel obstruction, all hooked up to the IV nutrition and the NG tube down in his stomach.  But I think it's served its purpose, though, and he's had it in for two weeks now. Time to go in my humble opinion.

OK, enough talk about that.  You probably have noticed I've made some changes to my blog. I found some really cute backgrounds from "Cutest Blog On The Block."  The link for it is way at the top left hand corner, where their logo is.  Best thing about these backgrounds is that they are FREE.  My price!  And they have oodles to choose from, and not just backgrounds. They have blinkies and buttons for your blog, too.  So if you have a blog and want to spice it up some, head on over to "Cutest Blog On The Block."  They are so easy to use and their instruction page is easy to follow.  Heck, if I can install 'em, so can you! :0)

The second change I did was add a jukebox to my blog so you can listen to some great tunes while visiting my blog. If you really don't want to have it play, just take your mouse and hit the pause or stop button on the player.  As you can tell, I'm a HUGE fan of Michael W. Smith and the Irish boy band, "Westlife."  They ROCK!!  Makes me feel like a teeny bopper again....well, not quite.....

That'll do for this post. I really hope each and every one of you is OK and getting plenty of rest, eating well, all that jazz that we SHOULD do, but never quite do.  I know, I'm one of them!!  I'm sticking pretty close to my diet, but I never get enough rest.  My back is killing me and I can't lay on either side because then the opposite side starts in with the nerve pain that shoots down my legs.  So I'm stuck on my back. Thank God for the elevation wedge I got for my legs and it also takes pressure off my lower back.  If I didn't have that, I'd go nuts as I wouldn't sleep at ALL.   Ho-hum, the life of one with lumbar disc disease, fibromyalgia and arthritis.  It just keeps getting better and better!

God bless ya!
Until next post,
Missy

PS....Tomorrow we go to the seminar for the Lap-Band.  Yay!  I'm really excited to see what they have to say about it - how it works, how much weight you should lose, ect.  I just want to get on the road and start it already!!!!  I'm tired of waiting.....life is full of "hurry up and wait!"