3rd times a charm!

So several people gave my nephew Isaiah gift cards for his birthday. My sister asked for that because she wanted to purchase a large swingset as a birthday present combined for both my nephews once it got closer to Elijah's birthday. So that she did. I scheduled a time with the elders to come and help with assembly. Day 1: There were 5 elders plus myself. Since there are currently 5 kids living in my house we didn't want to open the boxes of swingset stuff because we didn't want parts to go missing. I got up early that day to prepare for them to come and went through the supplies. Some of the bags of bolts had gotten wet and were corroded :( So because we had to call the company and request replacements we couldn't do too much to start with. They got the glider and the ladder/rock wall assembled. We had worked for about 2- 2 1/2 hours

We waited and the following week we got the fed-ex package for the new bolts. We had 4 BAGS of bolts that were no good (there were a few more that were kinda messed up but not as bad so we used them), we got a package with exactly 4 bolts in it! So we called again and this time they next day air shipped them to us. We got all the bolts we needed. But with all the shipping time it took over a week before we had everything we needed to work again. The next week just two of the elders returned and we worked some more.

Day 2: Elder's Walker, Hall and myself worked for about 3 1/2 hours. I got the slide assembled and we got a good start on the fort/tower thing. They also got the a-frame and swing beam part done.

Day 3: We waited about another week for them to have a day to come back again. They were back on Thurs. They brought the other elders again so there were 5 of us working together again. We spent about 3 1/2 to 4 hours again in the smoldering heat (over 100 that day) and we finished it up! It still needs to be staked to the ground and my mom wants to get playground chips to place around it but otherwise it's done~ I have about 90 pictures in all from the total assembly process. If you are interested in seeing more, just let me know!

Aside from finishing assembling the swingset this week, last night I went and got my haircut again! It has been so hot lately and I have actually been enjoying wearing it down more since my last cut that I decided to lighten it up (by a cut not color)a bit so I can continue to wear it down frequently without feeling as hot! Don't mind the lack of make-up in the picture, I have also had a sinus infection most of this week so I wasn't feeling 100% well either but it's a fairly cute picture of the new do and it's shorter length. I decided to stick with the layered look for now! The picture was also taken on my phone and not the regular camera so the quality isn't as great either, but maybe that's a good thing considering the make-up free illness look! :)

Euflexxa Part 2

... Well Mon was my third and final Euflexxa shot for this round. I am hoping it is my final knee shot period.... but we shall see. This time since Adam was out of town (he is visiting family in Wisconsin for his parents anniversary) Dr Davis gave me the shot. Sorry for the disappointment but there are no pictures. I can say however that it hurt a lot. It was again a super strong pressure and I think as he injected me I made a sound and he questioned me. I told him it was because fo the pressure but I really thought I was going to cry. As I left limping (like normal) I barely made it out of the dr office and across the hall to the bathroom. I got inside and paused a moment. I took a few deep breaths and went to a stall to take care of business. I think I managed to not cry although I was uncomfortable. For the most part it settled down a little while later and that evening although slightly uncomfortable I wasn't in as much pain as last week which is good~!

ANyway my next follow up appointment is on Sept 21st. It is 6 weeks from the 3rd injection. In the meanwhile I went on Weds for a new knee brace. They had one that fit me but it wasn't the complete kind Dr Davis wanted so they ordered that size but with the hinged sides. It came in today (technically yesterday since it's after midnight) but I was in Ventura at the fair. So I will pick it up in the morning. It's not the brace I've been told about for activities post acl reconstruction but it is a support brace. I had asked Dr Davis about that activity brace and he said he wanted me to wait more. I asked him about getting a new neoprine brace, I told him mine was pretty worn out and the velcro didn't hold anymore. I assured him I wasn't wearing it frequently but usually just if I knew I would be doing more walking since that is what aggravates it still. So that's what it is. Except it's got "hinges" on the sides of the knee instead of just the support bars. So I hope it is not too awkward and uncomfy! I will need it for Sat! :) Well I should be getting to bed soon. I have lots to do tomorrow.

Euflexxa

Last Sept I had gotten the Euflexxa injections in my knee. It was to hopefully help make it feel better and I was hoping it was going to be successful. The Euflexxa injections are a series of injections. It is one injection a week for 3 weeks. Obviously it didn't help long term because I had surgery again this year in Feb.... so anyway as I am recovering from the ACL reconstruction I had back in Feb I am still having some problems. On the 4th I had a major issue with it. I had gone in the morning to the car show in Fillmore with some friends. I had known that during classes and such I was getting sore more regularly and so I prepared myself. I brought my cane with me, I took a pain pill before we went and I put on my knee brace. Than after I went to lunch with some friends and came home packed by swim stuff and went to a pot luck pool party at a friends house. I spent a lot of time in the pool and jacuzzi that afternoon/night. I didn't think much of it because it felt fine and I know that in the water there is less resistance. So I figured it was actually good for my knee.

Later on around 11 or so I was getting ready to leave. I had said most of my goodbyes and as I was heading to the door a couple of my friends S & K were sittin on the stairs chatting. I ended up sitting and talking with them for a bit and was sitting sideways on the step. When all of a sudden I got a sudden sharp pain in my knee, it literally felt like someone smacked my knee with a hammer!! I think I kinda made a sudden gasp noise and then just kinda stopped and then started crying almost immediately. It was so bad!! My friends noticed and didn't know what was wrong. The pain basically ended as quick as it came and I was sitting there and it just felt odd. I was afriad to move or to get up because I didn't want to trigger another pain. I was able to kinda explain what had happened to S and K after the initial shock wore off. Around that time one of the guys R from my ward came over and S said "she might need a blessing" I said I felt I was ok but I just wanted to wait to get up. I did turn around though so I was facing the other way on the step to have more knee support. More than anything else after the shock was gone was I was scared. I had never had a pain like that before and I didn't know why it was happening than! Than another friend K walked over. I think he could tell something was not right and was kinda looking at me a little odd. I told him to stop looking at me like that as I was wiping away some final tears. Several minutes later I decided it was time to go home. I planned to ice my knee when I got there and S said she would walk me out to my car. She took my bag of wet clothes so I wasn't carrying it and as I was slowly walking down the steps in front of the house towards my car it was hurting a little bit. We got to my car and I asked S if R and K were the only priesthood holders left. I also knew M was there and I asked if my home teacher B had left (He had) she said "do you want a blessing now?" I said "yeah maybe I should" and she said she would get R and K for me. I said I would come in the house too because I wasn't going to have them do it in the street or in my car. We went inside and she found the guys. Unfortunately though nobody had any oil. So we decided to drive to S& R's house. We caravaned there. K and R gave me a blessing. It was incredible!!! I remember it being incredible and being told what I needed to hear. I also remember during it R telling me to listen to the Dr's orders and obey them. I don't remember much else but that really stuck out to me because I can be pretty stubborn sometimes and I tend to over-do it a bit. After that we turned on a movie, I was pretty tired though and said I was and that I would likely fall asleep. I kinda did. While there and movie watching S gave me a bag of frozen broccoli for an ice pack on my knee. Since than it's kinda a joke between us that whenever we are watching a movie she gives me broccoli!

I already had a scheduled follow up dr appt for the following Mon. I told Dr Davis at that appointment about all that had been happening. I told him I was getting pain still going up/down stairs and how I was still hurting if I walked a lot. I especially told him about my experience on the 4th! He suggested I get the Euflexxa injections. He said that they couldn't do cortisone because it would destroy the graft which was still healing. He said that the Euflexxa would help with inflammation so that may make it feel better and he said it would also actually be good for the graft. I asked him about getting the brace I would be able to wear to be active again and play stuff and he said he wanted me to wait still to get that one. He told me that one thing that would really help my knee would be weight loss. I told him I am trying as best as I can to watch my eating., it's just hard when I cannot exercise much with it. After that appointment knowing I had been through the injections before I looked back on my previous blog post about them. I knew I had some swelling and pain issues when I got them but I couldn't remember the specifics. I started them again this time around last Mon. When I got the injection that day I immediately felt a strong pressure in my knee! It hurt so bad! It was a lot worse than I remember it being back in Sept. I thought I was going to cry, but I stayed strong! The pressure lasted for several hours and then slowly started to dissipate. I was mildly uncomfortable for a day or two and so it wasn't too bad. Than yesterday I went in for shot 2... I told Adam about last week and he said the feeling of pressure is common because of the thickness of the gel and that if the joint is already inflammed it can make it worse when you inject the gel in. So he went for shot 2. It was a strong pressure again but not quite as bad as last week. I left the office limping again. I went to take care of a friends dogs and then to lunch and it was starting to wear off fairly quickly compared to last week. I was actually feeling alright within an hour or so. I was a little uncomfy but mostly not too bad. I thought things were ok. Than in the evening I went to Wally World. I was walking around to get a few things. I wasn't even there that long really because I only looked at stuff on the list and I was getting some small increased moments of pain. It made me shop a little faster and came home. I helped finish dinner and went to FHE. While there I put my leg up on a chair. When I got there because I had been getting a little bit of pain I took a pain pill. I put my leg on a chair and several times during the lesson I was getting iuncreases in pain still. I was kinda trying to breathe through them i guess you could say. When they came I just kinda took a deep breath and clenched my fists a little and waited it out. After the lesson as people were getting close to my leg I was getting nervous. I was afraid someone would touch it and S noticed. I even started to cry a little. I took another pain pill shortly thereafter. A few of us went to the house where S is dog-sitting and were playing games. As we were there S was noticing I was doing my deep breathing again. She was noticing that it was increasing and knew I was in pain. Eventually she kicked me out and made me come home and ice my knee. (well she wasn't here to make sure I did ice or broccoli it) but I did come home and put ice on it. I also took another pain pill because it had been 4 hours from the 1st one. (I can take 1-2pills every 4-6 hours as needed) I usually don't take many pills at all but last night I was SORE!! After about 2 hours with the ice and the 3rd pill I was finally starting to feel better! Thankfully. I think I need to go back and check again what my reactions were last Sept. Because if I recall correctly the 3rd was the worst of them all and if so I am not looking forward to Mon! Anyway at my 2nd injection appt yesterday I took this picture.... it is not for the weak hearted... it is the needle in my knee while Adam was injecting it....

'bout time!

So I know I am late in posting! I meant to post forever ago and I am actually really glad I had written on a post-it what I was meaning to blog because I had forgotten so I needed to find my post it! I guess since there are those 3 things plus new stuff I will make shorter notes on them all to keep it short.

So a few weeks ago I finally got to enjoy the first mandarin from my tree. It had gotten as big as it was going to get and was getting more and more pretty in color by the day. I was kinda checking it from time to time, loosely touching it to see if it was ready to be picked and it wasn't coming off. So I was patiently waiting. Than one morning I was in class when my Mom texted me. She asked me if I had picked my mandarin and I responded that I had not. We couldn't find my poor little mandarin. It was kinda sad really :( but than I don't remember if it was later that night or the next day my sister found it somewhere. It turns out that my nephew Elijah had picked it. I peeled it's tiny little peel off and looked at the tiny little segments I was left with. I shared my tiny little mandarin with everyone. It was really sweet and pretty good. At least I think it was... it was so little I probably could've eaten the whole thing in one bite! I do have many more growing on my tree. So far they are all smaller than the first one. But so far they haven't started changing color yet so maybe they will become bigger than the first one was. I may even get to share whole tiny mandarins with my family this time instead of segments since I actually have many growing!

So in addition to the mandarin's growing on my tree I also recently was lucky enough to get my friend D to come over and help me install a ceiling fan in my bedroom. Several years ago my parents had purchased fans for our rooms but they were never installed. It has been sitting in the closet since than waiting for the perfect moment. Since Nov or so when I switched into the back bedroom again I have been missing the fan (there was one in the other room) and I was wanting to get it installed, especially since it had been so hot lately and it seemed like my room was the worst of it. Probably because I am in the back corner of the house and so I have 2 walls that soak up the afternoon sun! UGH! So he came over and checked a few things out, measured the length of wire we needed etc and we made a trip to the local Home Depot. We gathered the supplies and a few hours later I had a fan again! Woohoo! It's incredible. It really does help keep my room a lot cooler in the daytime. I still use my window fan at night to draw in the cool outside air and all day long the ceiling fan keeps the temerature down! It's incredible. The funny thing about my ceiling fan was after Dhad left I was readin on the box, I had known (as I mentioned) that my parents bought the fan several years ago but I couldn't remember exactly when. This was what the side of the box says:

If you cannot read it it says: "Elegant and efficient: Fan operates on less than ! cent per hour* *based on 1987 national average rate of 7.94cent per kilowatt hour. Actual cost may vary based upon local electric rates." ----I don't know if 1987 was when my parent purchased the fans but it couldn't have been too far after that because I'm pretty sure they update the studies pretty often for energy usage :) A few days after D installed my fan I went over and babysat his kids so he and his lovely wife A could go to dinner and a movie, It felt like a nice way to say thanks for what he did for me!

Also recently in my life, as you know about my heart attacking adventures... I was recently "attacked" as well. It wasn't so bad really. In fact it wasn't even hearts. I was woken up one Sun morning by my sister Rhonda who said "someone wrote all over your car". I got up and grabbed my glasses and checked what happened. They had tied toilet paper on all the door handles, wiper blades and the antenna. Then on all the windows were the names of Disney Characters. The back window said "A Whole New World" It was pretty cool. The only that kind sucked about it was on Fri I had washed and waxed my whole car!!! So I was hoping it would wash off pretty easy and it did! Thankfully! Although I wasn't too thrilled about washing all my windows again! :)