Magic Legs

This is my new motto! I went to Dr. K today and he has released me to walk. This is a little more exciting for me today for the simple fact that I figured I would be walking with crutches for a little while as I am getting used to putting weight on my right leg again. Apparently, Dr. K had other ideas and thinks I am Wonder Woman or Sheerah or something because he let me walk right out of his office-no crutches!!!

Yesterday was 6 weeks since my surgery and I have literally counted down the days to this moment. It just so happens that I woke up yesterday with horrific pain in the back of my leg around the knee area. I could have died when I realized that I had so much pain and in the back of my knee. I had no idea how I could have done something from the moment I went to bed the night before to getting out of bed that morning. I went to physical therapy and as I was fighting through tears, the physical therapist was examining the back of my leg. It turns out that I had pulled my hamstring in the process of trying to build my leg up to walk again. We have been adding weight lately to my exercises since things were getting a bit easy as well as the plain and simple fact of holding my leg up while on crutches to walk for 6 weeks straight. Apparently I "stressed" my hamstring which doesn't surprise me since the rest of my body was stressed along with it! So, I cried the whole way back to work thinking that I have waited 6 LONG weeks to finally get to start walking on my own two feet again rather than one foot and my magic legs. Alison assured me that if it was hurting my leg more to hold it to keep from walking on it, then there was no way he would continue with that process. And luckily for the rest of you, only Alison and Chad had to witness the complete meltdown yesterday. But sure enough, she was right. Dr. K said that at this point it was ok for me to start walking on it and actually told me that if I wanted to walk out of his office with no crutches, then I could. So, being the stubborn, hardheaded person I am, I was determined to do so. I think I held my breath all the way to my car!

Needless to say, it is still quite a process from here, but I literally got to make a step in the right direction today. I am crutchless and I can't say that I have felt anything better than the peace of mind that goes with that in a very long time. I still have to wear a new brace that they gave me while walking and I have to continue physical therapy 3 times a week, but from here on out, it is on my own two feet. Woo-hoo!!!!!!

I have had enough!

Ok, so I think I have had all I can take with this injury thing that my husband and I have going on. So, I am just going to let it all out here for a minute. This might offend some people and it might make others laugh. I decided before I started this blog that I am not going to apologize for anything that I am about to say.

I am pretty sure I am going through a bit of depression. There are a lot of factors contributing to this so I am not even going to try to blame this on any one thing. I do, however, have to say this: I have had enough! To be honest, there are several things about this that have contributed to me being in the place I am right now. We will start with the obvious: I CAN'T DO ANYTHING ON CRUTCHES. I can't cook, clean, get dressed standing up, carry groceries in, carry anything in for that matter, feed my animals, walk my dog, upkeep our lawn, upkeep our house, take out the trash, make the bed, wear normal clothes (and by that I mean anything other than freaking sweat pants that I have LIVED in for the past 2 3/4 months), go ANYWHERE without being stared at the whole time I am there, and most of all I can't go shopping. What's the one thing a girl needs when she is depressed? I will go ahead and answer that for you-Ben and Jerry's and shopping. Neither of which I can accomplish without help.

Which brings me to my next point-I have had enough of asking for help. There is only so long that a person can go without being able to do anything on their own before it starts to eat away at their ego. Supposedly on this Tuesday, I will be able to start bearing some weight on my right leg for the first time since surgery 6 weeks ago. Even then, I will have to work my way off of crutches. I will be able to walk with both crutches for a few days, eventually converting to walking with one crutch, and finally walking on my own. Two weeks ago I got my hopes up that I would already be through this process because the dr. tells me that I would be able to walk in 4-6 weeks. Apparently he didn't really mean the 4- part of the 4-6 weeks and really all along meant the 6 week mark. It gets old after a while having to say every other sentence, " Hey, would you mind..." or, "Hey when you get a minute, could you...." People have got to be sick of helping us as much as we are sick of asking. Our poor friends have taken the brunt of our injury and I feel so bad for anyone that knows us and we are comfortable with right now because they have truly been punching overtime on their friend cards.

To go along with the asking every 5 seconds for help, I think I have had about all I can take of the pet names that people so graciously have come up with for Chad and myself. I think if I have to hear the words, clutz, clumsy, gimp, or gimpy ever again, I will scream. I don't know why people after 11 weeks since my injury still feel the need to call me Gimp or Gimpy, but I think I am going to punch the next person that I hear say those words. Ha, ha, ha, laugh, laugh, laugh, chuckle, chuckle, chuckle...WE GET IT. Along with that, let me clear something up for the world-NO, MY HUSBAND AND I DID NOT GET IN AN ACCIDENT TOGETHER, NO, WE DID NOT GET MAD AT EACH OTHER AND BEAT EACH OTHER UP, AND NO, WE DO NOT SIT AROUND AND GET ANGRY WITH EACH OTHER AND FIGHT WITH OUR CRUTCHES WHEN WE GET MAD. I hope I have eased everyone's curiosity with those three grueling questions that seem to weigh on every person's mind and come out of their mouth with a half smile and a chuckle when we cross someone's path.

The last thing that is really getting to me is that everyone and their mom (including my own) seems to feel the need to be sure that Chad and I are finished playing sports for the rest of our lives. Never again will we play sports for the fear of getting hurt ever again...yeah right. How ridiculous can people be? I get that we aren't getting any younger-thanks for that reminder-but that doesn't mean that our lives have to stop. We are still in our 20's. There are professional athletes that are older than us that if they got hurt, they would get better and go right out there and play again. There are college athletes that we personally know that have had the same surgeries multiple times because they go out and keep playing. If I were in college and tore my ACL and meniscus, would my mom have asked me to stop playing and forfeit my scholarship money? No, she would not have. But since I am not young anymore (thanks for the reminder world) we are supposed to give up everything we love. My boss even asked me to quit playing sports in my free time. So, does that mean that everyone else that I work with has to cut out their recreational activities (and we won't go into what some of those are!)? Why just me? Because I got hurt for the first time in 28 years of playing sports?

And I wonder why I am depressed.

I do want to take a second, however, to say thank you to all of our friends and some family that have been punching that card overtime lately. We have some wonderful people in our lives that have been so kind as to go grocery shopping for us, cook us meals, go with us out to eat and get stared at along with us, tend to our lawn, help feed and give water to our animals, and clean our house. I have to say that I can't imagine what my state of mind would be without our wonderful friends and family. You guys have truly been a blessing to us and you still help us every time we ask for help and you do it with a smile on your face. I am sure we still have months and months of the, " Hey, would you mind..." or, "Hey when you get a minute, could you....".

My favorite nephew ever!!!

Ok, so he is my only nephew, but he is still my favorite. My sister-in-law, Andrea, came to spend some time with us and brought the most precious boy with her. He has grown so much in the past few months since we have seen him. He is trying so hard to crawl like a big boy and he has this move where he is gearing up to try to start crawling. He gets up on his hands and knees and sways back and forth. He is literally days away from crawling. Of course, by now, he is probably crawling but we won't see it until next time. I have posted under every picture so you know who my awesome family is.

We met my Aunt Heather, Uncle David, and Aunt Dorothy (my great aunt) at Uncle Julio's in Addison so that they could spend a little time with Kaden before he left. 3 generations of aunts to spoil him. Those are some good looking women if I do say so myself! Lucky kid...

Kaden posing with his two favorite aunts! Isn't he the most precious thing ever with his John Deere shirt on? His daddy would be so proud!

Kaden with is great great aunt Dorothy. She is 88 years old and still loves to spoil her family including the "big" kids. Thank you for a great lunch, Aunt Dorothy.

Kaden with his coolest Uncle David. Kaden was proud of this picture. He loves his Uncle David!

I think Kaden's mommy has gone CRAZY!!!! Do you think that mommyhood has gone to her head already???

Kaden "Smash" McDonald

Kaden loves him some Biscuit. They are best friends every time Kaden comes, and Biscuit always thinks that Kaden is here to see her. They have so much fun together.