News from the Orthopaedist

So today I went to the orthopaedist.  Just to add another doctor into the list of doctors I've seen this year, today I met Dr. Putnam!  He's the third doctor I've seen in the practice and I joked that I'm secretly trying to see everyone at Moore Orthopaedics.  Back in my cheerleading days, I saw Dr. Locke.  He handled my knee problems and he even took a cyst out of left hand!  Then after my car accident I saw Dr. Scott for my back.  Now we're on to Dr. Putnam to handle my ankle.  

I saw another orthopaedist this summer at the lake.  If a little catch up is needed, I was on crutches, no weight on my foot for 4 weeks in a boot; then 6 weeks walking in the boot; and now I've been in a smaller brace for about 5 weeks now.  Needless to say, after all of this my ankle hasn't gotten better!  I'm still in constant pain without much relief.  I want more than anything to be able to just wear heels once or just not have to wear a brace on my foot.  I set out for some answers and Dr. Putnam definitely had some for me!

Since Dr. Parrish (homeboy I saw this summer) never had me do any Physical Therapy, all the scar tissue has just be chillin' in my ankle.  I realize I know nothing about medical terms so I'm not even going to try to go there.  All the scar tissue is in my ankle and only causing more pain because well, it isn't supposed to be there.  First thing we did was get some new x-rays...good news is still no broken bones or anything!  Next we did a nice little injection into my ankle.  All I know it they sprayed lots of cold stuff on my ankle and then there was a lot of pressure and a couple minutes later, Dr. Putnam said we were all done!  Praise the Lord I didn't have to watch him do that. I like to think I'm big and bad and can totally handle that...but I won't say that because I definitely could not have handled it.

After the injection, I had no pain!!!  I could walk without a brace and I could even point my toes!!!  You don't even know how bad I've been wanting to just point my toes, former dancer in me.  Too bad the injection couldn't just last forever or it would have been the best day everrrrr!  So after Dr. Putnam saw that the injection worked like he wanted to, he came back into the room and said, "So, when do we want to do this?"  Ahhhhh!! It just hit me that he's talking about surgery here.  So I started freaking out a little bit and my mom asked for the details first.

This will be a simple ankle anthroscopy where he'll just scoop out the scar tissue...no big deal, right?!  It will be a 20-30 minute procedure.  They only do these on Thursdays so that rules out the other 4 business days of the week.  I'll be in a splint for 10-12 days on crutches, no weight on it.  Then I'll get my stitches out and I'll be in a walking boot for 6 weeks along with Physical Therapy.

So...surgery it is!  Keep me in your prayers that this does the magic touch!  I'm ready to not be in pain every single day.  I'm also ready to get to actually exercise so I can keep losing this weight.  I will say when I had to tell the nurse how much I weighed today, I felt proud for the first time to say how much I weighed!!!  I'm not quite proud enough to post it on the internet...but when I reach my next goal, I might be brave enough!  Its taken a lot to get to this point and I'm hoping 2013 will not be the year of doctors.  I don't even know how many doctors I've seen this year for everything from my car accident, thyroid problems, new medical problems, and my ankle!  All of that is on top of the fact that I've been more sick than ever this year.  I'm so ready to say goodbye to 2012 for many many reasons, mainly because I'm tired of doctors without answers.  I feel like they get paid enough, they should be able to tell me what's wrong with me...not just keep shoving me off to the next doctor.  Sorry if any doctors or future doctors are reading this, just speaking my thoughts!  

Thanks again for reading my blog!  I'm trying to get back into the swing of blogging on a regular basis!  Loves ya :) 

The only thing that could have made today perfect...

Happy Fall Break!!

I've been home since Friday and absolutely loving fall break.  Last week as I was thinking about fall break and all of the things I just couldn't wait to do, I realized something.  This is the first fall break (and its my fourth) that I'm actually doing what I want to do and not worrying about what other people in my life want me to do.  The past three fall breaks I've had have revolved around my love life but this year I get to just do whatever I want; no visits, no traveling, just me at home!  With all of that being said, today has been my favorite day so far!  

If I could have a favorite meal in the whole world, it would be my Nana's stew. Not just any stew, just my Nana's.  I remember so many Saturday nights when my Nana would babysit Sarah and I and she would make us her stew!  I'm so thankful for all of those Saturday nights when we were little just getting to spend time with Nana and Aunt Laura.  I'd give just about anything to get one back.  Nana always was the one to make stew growing up, I just thought my mom didn't know how to make it.  Nana didn't even have the recipe written down.  

For those of you who might not know, Nana was diagnosed with Dementia in March 2008 and then finally diagnosed with Alzheimers in September 2008.  So its been a while since my Nana has really been "with" us.  She is with us physically but her mind has been gone for years.  A year or two ago, I asked my mom if we'd ever get to have Nana's stew again.  I thought she'd say no but she told me she knew the recipe!!!!!!  I couldn't contain my excitement.  We might not be able to bring back my Nana but at least we get to have some of her stew.  

Last night when we decided on stew, my mom said she would only make it if I helped her out.  I've definitely never helped make stew before, I don't really help make many meals at home, much less Nana's stew!  But it was so much fun getting to help and learning the recipe myself.  Our family still hasn't written it down so here's to hoping my mom can remind me for years and years to come!  I'll get the hang of it one day, hopefully before I'm a Nana myself!  My mom and I were having so much fun cooking together but the whole time all I could think was how much I wanted Nana to be the one making stew, just one more time!

Today came and I've been looking forward to Sunday so badly.  I haven't been home on a Sunday since the beginning of August.  

Sunday's mean church with the people that know and love me.  

Sunday's mean getting to spend the day with Aunt Laura.

Sunday's mean visiting Nana.

Sunday's mean getting to go to the grocery store.

I never know what else Sunday's might include but these are necessities that I always look forward to.  In this case, I've been looking forward to a Sunday like these for months.

Again, a little catch up for some people who might not know all the details of our Nana/Aunt Laura situation, you'll learn a lot in this blog post.  Aunt Laura lived with my family from September-May of my senior year in high school.  One thing I miss so much from that time was having Laura wake me up every day for school.  She would come walking into my room singing "Rise and Shine" or just being her happy self trying to wake me up.  This is just one of the reasons I love Sunday's because Laura comes over for the day.  She still comes to wake me up saying, "Good morning Rachel, its time to rise and shine Apple Cheeks!"  (Apple Cheeks is my nickname only Aunt Laura calls me)  Laura is very persistent and doesn't go away until she sees I'm actually waking up.  She's like my personal alarm clock you can't quite turn off!

Once I got ready for the day, it was time for church!  Again, I haven't been to my home church in months so I was so excited to be there today.  No matter where I go, Union will always be home.  These people have seen me grow into the person I am today and I know they'll always be there when I go home.  I was running late (typical) and had to slide in during the first song of worship.  I sat right next to Laura to really get the most of my time with her today.  The most comforting part of church was during Pass the Peace, I looked down the row and had a couple ladies just waiting to talk to me!!! Dawwww, it just made me feel so special!!! It didn't matter that I hadn't seen them in months, they're still waiting to talk to me and see how I'm doing.  That's what I love so much about my church.  There are so many sweet and precious families that have been so wonderful to me and I know they've got my back whenever I need it!

After church, we came home to have some stew!!!! FINALLYYYYY!  Laura loved it so much!  I'd like to think she's missed having her mom's stew as much as I have.  My mom has kind of stepped in as the mother to Laura since Nana got sick so it was fitting that my mom was the one to make the stew.

Usually when I get pictures of Laura, her eyes are alwayssss closed but today I got really lucky and go to take a bunch of adorable pictures so here they are!

 

With my favorite person in the world, Aunt Laura

After lunch, we headed out to do one of my other favorite Sunday afternoon things...Open House!!!  This is only a sometimes thing but my mom and I sure do love Open Houses.  We absolutely love houses and especially houses for sale.  One day we want to have a house-flipping business, "Fogle Flips".  No one else in our family really understands why we loves houses so much...but that's okay, its our thing!  So we rushed off to two Open Houses in Irmo/Ballentine!  They were cute houses, but its just that awkward point in my life where my parents would actually be downsizing.  Up until college, we always looked at bigger and better houses and then I went to college and the realization that one day it will just be my mom and dad set in.  That was also the point where I realized if we bought a new house, I wouldn't get the biggest bedroom (besides the Master) anymore.   That was a sad day!  Being the oldest, I always pictured myself in the best bedroom of every house we looked at.  Being the college kid, Open Houses started to make me sad!  All of that being said, I still LOVE Open Houses.  I can't wait for the day I get to buy my own house and my mom and I actually get to buy a house we look at and loveeee.

After the Open Houses, we stopped by McDonald's for two reasons: 
1. They have ice cream and Laura loves ice cream!
2. More importantly, I believe I will win McDonald's Monopoly one day and I was hoping today would be the day!

Well, I didn't win the big bucks, but we did get some ice cream and a couple new Monopoly pieces!!!  These are all more wonderful reasons why today was so great!  Here's a picture of Laura looking so adorable eating her ice cream.  I realize she's 49 years old, but I sure hope I can be that cute when I'm 49!  Who wouldn't love a face like that?

After our stop at McDonald's, we headed over to Agape, the assisted living facility Nana lives in.  She didn't look good, but my mom says that's the best she's been in months.  Even though she's been eating pretty well lately, she's sooooo skinny.  Its so weird to see her just skin and bones.  Nana hasn't ever been fat or anything, but she definitely had meat on her bones and all that meat is gone, that's for sure!  She was in and out of it but wide awake our whole visit.  Again, she hasn't been this alert in a very long time, according to my mom.  Nana even remembered me most of the time!  Aunt Laura has had to grow up so much during this experience but getting to watch her take care of her mother is so rewarding.  Nana took care of Laura for 45 years and Laura never had to take care of Nana.  For the past 5 years, Laura has been learning how to take care of her mother just like she's always done for her.

Towards the end of our visit, Nana seemed to be going in and out of it more and more.  Some of the things she was saying made sense and others just seemed so far out there, we didn't know what she was talking about.  As we were saying goodbyes, Nana started crying.  None of us wanted to see Nana crying so all of us were crying soon.  When I was trying to say my goodbyes, Nana looked at me and said, "I used to love myself, but now I can't even love myself anymore."  I totally broke down.  We've known that if Nana could see herself now, she wouldn't be able to stand it!  Her brain is so far gone, she doesn't remember how to walk, and she has to stay in bed all the time.  This is the part that hurts us the most because she was always on top of everything.  It was like her old self was back for a minute and was so scared to be trapped in her brain or her body any longer.  I always thought I hated cancer the most but now that I've seen Nana suffer through Alzheimer's, I hate this the most.  I wish no one else had to go through this but I know plenty of people in the world are fighting this.  Who wants to watch the people you love forget who they are?  I pray my family doesn't have to fight this disease again and I'm really praying they find a cure for this terrible disease.

All throughout the day, all I could think was the only thing that could have made today perfect was if I got Nana back for one more day.  I have a dream almost every week that Nana is back and normal and helping me out in life.  I'm so grateful for my first 16 years with such a wonderful grandma.  I would love for her to see me now and see all the things I'm doing.  I'd hope that I'm making her so proud.  I would love to pick up the phone and have her pray for me whether it was for medical reasons or for a big test I didn't quite study enough for.  I'd love to go back to her house and get to play the organ right next to her.  I'd love for her to offer me a Little Debbie cake in my first 10 minutes of being at her house.  I'd love to cure this awful disease.  Unless some miracle cure to Alzheimer's is discovered in the next few months/years, none of these things can come true quite yet.  I would absolutely love a miracle but a miracle could also be that she gets to meet Jesus!  Either way, I can't wait for the day when I see Nana's smile again and hear her sarcasm.  I can't wait until I get a real hug and not just over the hospital bed.  I can't wait for Nana to remember how to walk!  I especially can't wait for Nana to make us her stew.  Until then, we'll just keep loving her as she is on Earth just like she's loved us all these years.  

I went digging in some old pictures and found some of my favorites from when I was little with Nana and Aunt Laura.

4 Generations 

 

I've still got 2 wonderful days of Fall Break! I've still got a lot of work to do because who deserves a break over Fall Break?!  Not education majors, that's who!  Also, I go to my orthopedist on Tuesday for my ankle.  It hasn't been getting better and I've hit the 3 1/2 month mark so I'm hoping for some new answers!  Keep me and my family in your prayers, if you will.  As always, thank you for reading! :)