Rehab Day 1... again

I was going to apologize for my last very short post but it turns out that I never posted it so never mind on that point. This blog post is going to be a little down so sorry about that.

After my surgery last Thursday, I didn't take everything as seriously as I should have. I'm extremely independent so after letting people take care of me the first two days, I went back to being independent. I did everything by myself and that's where I went wrong. I really should have asked for more help.

A myriad of factors came together for my latest drama this week as I was put on antibiotics that we now think I was allergic to. This led to me getting spasms and shakes and in a total freak accident, a finger they repaired last week spasmed and the stitch holding the tendon together let go, putting the tendon in pre-surgery mode, only worse since it tore even more.

But even surgery and that tear didn't make me realize how much trouble I may be in until physical therapy today. I will be in my brace for at least 12 weeks with PT 3 days a week for the foreseeable future and that's only if there are no setbacks.

I am extremely lucky this time to have my mother here this week to (sorry for the term) wait on me hand and foot so I can't do any more damage for a few days. Since she flew in just for my surgery, I don't feel as bad about bugging her as I did the other people that have helped me over the past few weeks so I can be more dependent for a little while until she flies out again.

To be honest, having the reality hit me that my situation is serious has made me sit back and realize that I need to accept help and not act like a tough person. 

Last week, I figuratively got back on the work horse within two days of surgery. While getting back on the site and working distracted me and didn't do actual harm, it probably didn't help either. This time, I've taken a few extra days off at the request of my doctor and may even add more days depending on how I feel.

I'm definitely on a long road and all I can hope is that I recover as fast as possible even though I've already been told "slow and steady wins the race". But it has also given me a chance to think about some things I never would have thought about before and for that I am extremely grateful.

For those that want to see my hand two weeks after the initial injury...

3/22-1 week after first surgery, 1 day after second surgery, 13 days after initial accident.

Rehab Week 1

Hey everyone,

Welcome to my life two days after surgery. Surprisingly, I'm not in that much pain at the moment but I credit that to the pain meds. Surgery went well on Thursday, although there was apparently more damage than expected so the surgery took a little longer than scheduled. I can move everything so that's a big plus because I was really worried about that.

Yesterday morning was painful but when my mom reminded me I need to take two pills of the specific pain med I'm on for it to have an effect on me, life got a lot better. I also started physical therapy yesterday, it was massively painful but no pain, no gain. I've been doing exercises every hour and go back for both PT and my follow-up appointment on Monday morning so I'll have more updates on that later.

The block I use to keep my hand elevated when sleeping

I return to work tomorrow but will be working from home since I can't drive until the 26th. I'm definitely ready since I've been bored the last two days. ABR has been amazing about this whole thing so I really owe them.

And finally, I did my first bit of exercising today. It was just a walk down to the store because I didn't want to bug anyone to pick me up some stuff ( I have had some awesome people helping me and wanted to give them a day off) but felt really good. I haven't been able to do anything for two weeks, first because of being sick then this and I can't get my hand sweaty so just walking around makes me feel somewhat accomplished. I'm ready to get back to the gym though.

I don't have much more to say so I'll give you another update when I know more.

-Mel

Stupid is as Stupid Does

Sometimes you do stupid things and other times you do STUPID thing. Last night I did a STUPID thing.

I decided that one of my candles needed a hole in it to drain the wax that had been putting it out. About the time I decided that I should stop, the knife slipped. Because I never do anything at half-effort, I cut three of my fingers on my right hand. But I didn't just lightly cut them like some might do. Instead I sliced them open, cutting two tendons in my ring finger, one in my tendon, and nicking one in my middle finger in addition to cutting a bunch of nerves.

It's safe to say that I called 9-1-1, got a ride in an ambulance, and spent a few hours in the ER. There were also a few minutes when I panicked because I couldn't get ahold of either of the people in this town that I would call with this sort of info (that's something that had me feeling extremely alone here, I think my social life will definitely be something I focus more attention on in the future). Thankfully one of them called me back and NR was a life saver, spending time with me at the hospital, taking me home, and bringing me needed supplies this morning.

Unfortunately, this isn't nearly over. I have 10 weeks or so of recovery time in front of me, including surgery in the next few weeks. So forgive me if there's not much blogging in the next few months, timing with one hand is more complicated than one would think.

And for those that laugh about my "birthday month" curse (March 23 is my birthday), all I can say is it continues. I'll hopefully outgrow this some day.

For those that are interested in seeing the stitching job, I included a picture below. I'll save you from seeing the pre-stitch picture, that one is not pretty.

The stitch job

My lovely cast

Book Review: Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

Hello readers!

I've decided to do a bit different format for the blog from now on than how I used to do it. To be honest, my life is kind of boring and if I were to stumble onto the blog and read a few posts, I'd probably quickly click off. I figure if I get bored writing about it, you all probably get bored reading about it. Although, this format may be just as boring, but we'll see. 

If you remember back for my New Year's resolution, one of my goals was to read 40 books this year. I'm already eight books in but I thought it would be kind of fun to pass on suggestions of what I've read by doing a book review every time I finish a book (there will still be a little bit about my life if interesting stuff happens, don't worry). I figure people are always asking for suggestions on books so why not give them an honest review of ones I read.

The first book to hit this list is Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen.

It probably helps that I am in a running phase right now but even if I wasn't, this book is really motivational. It took a lot of time, and a little research, to convince myself that this isn't a fiction book. It's based around a tribe called the Tarahumara who live in Mexico's Copper Canyons but also talks about other ultra running events that led up to a group of Americans racing the Tarahumara over 100 miles in the canyon. The Tarahumara pretty much live to run, they'll run for hundreds of miles just for the fun of it and one of the big things in the book was that they don't suffer injuries, even though they only run in sandal-like shoes.

One of the major things I took from this book (other than the motivation to try and figure out how people can get in shape to run 100 miles over "ultra" hard trails) is the science behind the gear modern day humans use for so many things and how it can also be hurting us. Lastly, the author took a look back at our caveman days and found that after the ice age, we were built to be marathoners. While I don't think I'll ever be able to run 100 miles in a few days (or even want to for that matter), it amazes me that there are people fit enough out there to go that far and motivates me to continue with my jogging even though I'm slowly working my way over humps that aren't making motivation easy.

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. I will read it again at some point and couldn't put it down when I was reading it. Even if you aren't into running or even science, this book is an awesome story that you can definitely think of as a fictional tale. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a book to read.

In life news:
Like I said before, not much is going on. My life has massively settled down since the beginning of the month and that's a welcome sight. I am currently writing stories catching up with the Derby winners from the past 20 years that you can see on followhorseracing.com but that's about all I have for you right now.

Have a great day everyone. 
-Mel

Looking Forward Instead of Back

Two days ago when I started this blog, I was going to make it into a pity party. As that is not me, I decided to step back and wait for my emotions to calm down and I'm glad I did. All that I will say is that it has been a very bad few weeks and I have everything crossed that it is over. 

But today I made the decision that it just isn't worth it to have a pity party anymore. I can't change what happened and that's that. Instead, I focused on the positive and made some more decisions. For the positive, I have an awesome job and can afford to live in a place that not many people can (or are willing to try for that matter). I have a support team behind me and even though my personal life isn't exactly where I want it at this moment, that's something that I can solve if I put my mind to it.

Farther down the list, I have also decided that it's time to get ready to return to the part that got me into the equestrian world. I've set a goal of having a horse here by this summer and I intend to see it through. Horses are my sanity and even though I've been able to play with some of the top horses in the industry in past weeks (see below), I haven't been able to get on one or have goals for one in months.

Spending as much time as I want with PG has been a dream

I'll admit I wasn't a Brownie fan when he was racing but he's growing on me ...

This of course means cutting back on other things to afford not only to board a horse here but to possibly ship one here. Although, the possibility that the second part may not be as easy as it sounds has crossed my mind and I'm going to cross that bridge when I get there. While my student loans are also coming due soon, I have planned that as well.

First, I've cut out nearly all fast food from my diet (I do have a Subway addiction that I'm not willing to break but I've cut that back dramatically too) and it's amazing not only how much better I'm feeling only 5 days after my "last meal" but it's also been nice not to touch any plastic cards and see the money leaving my bank account with every bite. I still don't cook much but the meals I did buy when I went grocery shopping the other day are healthier than any meal I can get from Dairy Queen or Sonic and are leaving me with more energy and I'm not feeling bloated like I used to. Plus, as I am well behind on my 5k training, it's also making me more optimistic that I may be able to pull something off in three weeks.

Second, I've paid more money in the short term to save in the long term. When I started my job at Paulick Report, I bought a portable modem that let me have internet on the go. Since I was splitting bills with two other people at the time, the $50 a month wasn't a big deal. However, with my own apartment, that $50 was adding to the $45 I also paid for my apartment internet. It cost me a cancelling fee in the short term but that $50 will be nice in my bank account moving forward. I'm also working on cutting back on electricity to lower another bill but that is a work in progress.

Finally for the student loans... I am currently working on an application to consolidate all of them into one. If I get that, it will cut that payment down and make my life much easier. And easier is always better.

I'm a very goal driven person so hopefully all my solutions will work and I can reach this one... if not, there may be more bad weeks in my future.

Until next time,
Mel

Happy 200th Birthday Pride & Prejudice

When I planned my blog for this week I had no idea that we were approaching the 200th anniversary of Pride & Prejudice (bad me) so plans changed today when I was enlightened about the fact that my favorite book/movie/YouTube series is 200 years old (of course the movies and YouTube series aren't turning 200 but the book that made it all happen is).

Like millions of females around the world, Pride and Prejudice's story line sucked me in. I mean, who wouldn't want some ubber rich man with a house like Pemberley to fall in love with them? And here is where my blog turns into a thought provoking, yet probably rage inducing one sided discussion.

Jane Austen is one of my favorite authors and I have all of her books, both on my Nook and in paperback. But something that took me a long time to discover (I can be a slow learner when I don't want to see something) was that Jane Austen has screwed both men and women over. Women are waiting for Mr. Darcy to come into their lives while men are trying to overcome the battle with Mr. Darcy's image for the attention of women. 

As a woman, I won't lie, I have a romantic vision in my head of what my perfect husband should be and a lot of those characteristics include things that relate to Darcy (I personally prefer Matthew Macfadyen to Colin Firth but that's neither here nor there). Granted, I (nor any other woman, I would presume) don't want a man to tell me that he fell in love with me in spite of my family's fortunes but other than his snootiness, Mr. Darcy is kind of the perfect man. He falls in love with Lizzie despite all his insecurities about her and literally saves her family from that century's doom by paying for her sister's wedding to his arch nemesis. 

That's definitely perfect man material... it also gives false hope to all women that every man they find will be just like the fictional character. So thank you Ms. Austen for giving modern writers the idea of creating unattainable men with Darcy and your other male leads... and thank you for giving us men like Wickham so we know who to avoid. Now if only we could figure out how to create our own Darcys in our own real life stories.

And for those that are looking for a modern adaption of Pride & Prejudice that stays new and fresh... I present the Lizzy Bennet Diaries: 

Until next time,
Mel

Hola

Hey everyone,
 
I think it's safe to say that I had a blogging fail this month without even realizing it, as I just saw that I haven't posted on here since Jan. 1. For those that follow the blog for updates on me, sorry about that. 

Like usual, life has been extremely busy but there's not much to write home about as we're just gearing up for Triple Crown season at work and I've also been doing my communication internship at Three Chimneys. The internship involves a lot of press releases and research but I'm loving it. I'm currently only working one day a week there but if it gets especially busy, I may go to two days a week later in the season.

I also signed up for a 5k a few weeks ago but have run into a problem in my training. I thought that I'd be fine with 7 weeks left since I haven't gone the ~3 miles yet in training but now we're down to 5 weeks with the same problem. So I'm beefing up my workout playlist tonight and booking it around the track (or on the treadmill in my case right now) in the coming weeks with a no holds barred approach. I'm blaming most of my problem on a mental block so my goal is to get over that, which isn't as simple as it sounds.

And for my last bit of info... I have officially joined the cat lady club (I can hear my friends laughing now). In a move that I had been thinking of for a few weeks, I went to the shelter on Friday (with a friend that didn't plan on getting a cat when we went there but did) and brought home a 3yo female that looks a lot like my dad's cat. She's quite a bit nicer than my dad's cat (my mom will be glad to hear that) and is almost dog like and overall is pretty cool. And from all the comments I got about her from other racing people, it sounds like I'm not the only one in this club.

So without farther ado, here's Bella (although, she usually does not have that expression, haha).

Good night everyone.