One last look

I had my final ultra sound today....unless I go over my due date and Dr Russell orders another one. Our little boy still looks great and is moving around less because he's getting so big. Most of the movements now are kicks, punches and stretches. I met with Dr Russell after the ultra sound and she reassured me that everything is looking good and the baby is developing fine. I'm down to weekly appointments so not too much longer!

Since I'm off of full-time crutches, I figured I would treat myself to a massage. It was nice to get those mid back muscles worked over. It was very relaxing.

Tomorrow I'm treating my work buddies to lunch for all their help while I've been on crutches. They've gotten me lunch, water, my printer paperwork....etc. They are wonderful and good hearted people. It is a pleasure to work with them.

8 weeks really is 8 weeks, not 9

I decided about a week ago to change my ankle doctor's appointment up a week. They said 8 weeks non-weight bearing. To my calculations, July 6th to September 6th is 9 weeks. I moved it up to August 30th.

I went to the doctor and they took the cast off. I couldn't clean up my foot very well because my mid section is so big. The x-rays showed my ankle has healed well. I can start walking on it but only with 50% of my weight. That means I need to support myself with crutches but that means I'M UPRIGHT! They put me in the boot cast that I can take off to bath and shower. NO MORE PLASTIC BAGS!

I did a little shopping on my way home from the doctor. Target and Ulta. I also walked the dog down about half a block. It was nice to get out but I was exhausted. I took a long bath. My parents called on their way and I told them to come through the garage because I would probably still be in the bathtub. I had just gotten out when they showed up about an hour later!

Today at work, I walked in with my crutches and didn't use the scooter. The golf buyer, Bill, almost didn't recognize me. I said to him, "You didn't know I was this tall, did ya?" I think my coworkers are going to miss the scooter more than I will. It was definitely very helpful to have it. Thanks, Tracy.

Shooting up

I think I might be enjoying this injection thing a little too much. I tell people I shoot up twice a day and they look at me like I'm crazy. My stomach has little purple bruises all over it. It's a good thing. I'm just getting sick of it.

What does it look like now?

I had an ankle doctor appointment today. They took x-rays. She said it looks like it is healing well. It was so nice to get the cast off even for a few minutes. My mom went with me and shaved my leg and cleaned up my foot really good. The doctor was going to put me in a boot cast but I still can't bear weight on it. I told her that a boot cast is too tempting and she agreed. So back to the hard cast it is. I chose black this time. I was getting tired of the blue one.

Only one more month of non-weight bearing. This has been so hard on me emotionally. I know it's only temporary and that's what I have to keep telling myself. I feel like I'm missing out on so much. I will never be in this position of life again....expecting my first child and all the fun that goes with it.

so many colors to choose from...not!

Today I had another ankle doctor appointment. The doctor took the stitches out and I got a hard cast put on. I got to choose what color of cast I wanted. Options were black, blue, pink, purple and white. WoW! What a selection. I chose blue obviously. It would have been cool to get orange. Oh well.

I also got another perscription for Lovonox. It's a blood thinner that I have to inject into my stomach twice a day until I get off crutches. What fun! But it's better than getting blood clots and losing the baby. That would be horrible!

Back to life...not reality.

I went back to work today. People were surprised. My response to them...you go sit on your couch for three days and only get up to go to the bathroom. You can't clean or get your own food and drink. Tell me how worthless you feel. At least at work, I can function somewhat normally. The most difficult part is getting to my desk but that will soon become easier because my boss is getting me a wheelchair/scooter. It's good to be back but I'm exhausted. I'm only going to work about 6 hours a day this week. Next week I'll get back into it.

If you don't have any food for me, don't ask me how I'm doing!

I had an appointment with the nurse practioner to check on the baby before I go under the knife this afternoon. I was hooked up to a fetal monitor and given a thorough exam....just when I thought I wouldn't have another one of those. The baby was moving around great and his heartbeat was back up to 160bpm.

On to the hospital for surgery. My surgery was scheduled for 2pm so they took me back to the room at 12:30 to get the local anethesia started. Reminding everyone that I couldn't eat or drink anything after midnight. It's now twelve hours later, on one of the hottest days of the year, I can't take any drugs for the pain nor can I have any water to drink. When your pregnant, you're supposed to drink as much water as you can expecially when it's hot. So with that being said, the next time some one walks in and asks me how I'm doing, I'm telling them exactly how I'm doing.....I AM PISSED! I AM HUNGRY!!! I WANT A CHEESEBURGER!!!!

The anethesiologist put a blocker in the back of my knee and then started the deadening meds. For everyone's understanding, the reason they don't want you to eat after midnight is so that the anethesia doesn't make you sick when they put you under. Because I'm pregnant, I'm not going under. SO I COULD HAVE EATEN!!!! Anyway, off to the operating room I go. The entire time I'm in there, there is a nurse keeping her attention on the baby.

It was an outpatient surgery but because I'm pregnant, they want to keep me overnight. They want to make sure I can deal with the pain once the anethesia wears off. They also want to make sure I can deal with crutches...I've been on them for three days now, I think I got it down. I had no contact with the outside world because I didn't have my cell phone. Nathan came and got me around noon.

And the survey says?

Surgery Friday, July 6th.

Since yesterday was a holiday and no one was in the office anywhere, we finally got a hold of my obgyn to get a referral to an orthopedic doctor.

We went to Rose medical plaza and met with Dr Vidal. What a wonderful experience. She definitely wants to do surgery and for my sake, she wants to do it tomorrow instead of Monday.

I soaked in the bathtub for quite a while tonight. This will be my last full soak bath until September.

Camping isn't a bad thing when you're pregnant....

...just falling and breaking your ankle when you're pregnant is! That's right, I fell and broke my ankle while camping. We were camping with the Franks at Jellystone in Estes Park. We had everything set up for the three day adventure. We were eating dinner and I was walking to get the dog untangled.

I was walking down a slight incline and down I went. As I fell, I turned to my side so I wouldn't hurt the baby. I heard my ankle pop a few times. I knew it was broke instantly. I decided we should go to the emergency room to reassure that the baby was ok and get some crutches to continue the shortened adventure on.

After taking a quick tour of Estes Park, we finally found the hospital. After explaining what happened to everyone who worked at the hospital, I finally got hooked up to a fetal monitor and the little man's heartbeat had dropped to about 140bpm....It was still a steady beat so that calmed me down. Only to get a nurse to lecture me about wearing flipflops. I wanted to yell at her. It's 99 degrees outside, I'm six months pregnant and I'm not supposed to wear flipflops....that woman has a lot of nerve telling me that!

The xrays showed a crack all the way through the fibula (the little, outside bone) and some severe ligament damage around my ankle bone itself. Well now we know what we are dealing with. Surgery!