December 2015

 December started off with Kaleb's school Shakespeare play. He did a great job memorizing all of his lines and it was fun to watch.

December 1, 2015

I was scheduled for surgery for my hip the last week in February but they had a cancellation and since I wanted to get in before the end of the year I took it. That only gave me just over a week to get everything done I needed to since I would be laid up in bed after. Thankfully I always get my Christmas shopping done early and had already ordered Christmas cards. That just left the Ward Christmas Party I was in charge of that was the Friday before my surgery on the 4th. I wish I had pictures but I was running around like crazy all day that day and didn't even have time to run home and change before the party started. We had chicken cordon bleu, with a homemade white sauce, rice, veggies, homemade rolls and a cheesecake bar for dessert. The decorations were amazing and I'm so sad I don't have pictures but Matt made long, skinny wood boxes that we stained and filled with lights, greenery and pine cones for the tables and we had a really cute Santa picture station, ornaments for the kids to decorate, an appetizer table and Santa came too.

Long story, sort of shorter is that after hurting my hip digging at the cabin for our water line break the pain never went away. I couldn't rotate my hip back or very far forward for a couple weeks. We tried physical therapy, I tried steroids, they gave me a shot in my hip (that made it hurt worse) and basically I had hip dysplasia (shallow hip sockets) and also cam femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) (bone growths on the head of the femur) which can only be corrected by major surgery. Most people are in their 20's or 30's when they first learn they have dysplasia because that's usually when it starts bothering them and it's usually hereditary and more common in women.

The surgery was a periacetabular osteotomy (PAO) and anterior debridement. In basic terms the first part, PAO, is to treat hip dysplasia where you don't have enough coverage of the hip socket. They cut the hip socket away from the pelvis, rotate it to give it better coverage and then screw it back in place and your bone fills in the gaps left. 

This picture shows the cuts and how they rotate it. And then I had 5 screws put it to hold it in place.

The anterior debridement is to correct femoracetabular impingement (FAI) and is where they surgically dislocate the hip and shave away any bone growths and bumps that cause pain because if you don't have a smooth circle and socket then it hits and bumps the extra bone as you rotate within the socket.

My x-ray looked like this picture below with a bump where the neck of the femur should curve in and then there were a couple other places inside the socket they had to shave down.

I was told 6-8 weeks on crutches and then about a 6 month recovery, 1-year until you're back to all activities. I was not excited for that part of it.

Matt was sure to get a picture to document before the surgery. 

December 8, 2016

We had to be there at 6:00am. The only other surgery I've had was in 2nd grade when I had my tonsils out and all I remember is laying down and they put a mask on my face and started telling me a story and I was out after probably 5 seconds. I was nervous just not knowing what to expect but knew everything would be okay. I sat on the operating table and they put stuff in my IV to relax me and make me fall asleep. I started getting really hot as they laid me back so they checked my blood pressure but everything was fine. From there I was in and out of it while they finished prepping stuff I could hear them say my blood pressure was fine and I looked around once or twice and then I was out. I just remember waking up in recovery and Matt and the nurse were there. I was surprised how with it I was when I woke up. I still remember everything and was able to stay awake. I remember the nurses having a conversation about which room they were taking me to and so as they wheeled me down the hall and my parents were there I told them which room I was going to since I overheard them talking about it earlier. I was definitely tired and wanted to close my eyes but I felt fine. The actual surgery went from 9am-12:30pm.

After surgery I had to have oxygen on for a couple hours. That night they were going to have me try to stand up but my blood pressure was too low and as I would sit at the end of the bed I felt like I was going to pass out so we had to wait until the next day.

December 8, 2015

I was happy get back in regular clothes the second day and was able to walk around the halls with a walker. The nurses were always so surprised that I never needed any Percocet or heavy pain killers but the Tramadol I was taking seemed to take the edge off enough I didn't want to take anything more on top of that unless I had to. The kids liked coming to the hospital mostly to raid the family snack and drinks area.

December 9, 2015

Matt bought me a coloring book and markers to color while I was in the hospital and at home since laying in bed was going to be about all I would be doing.

Olivia liked to climb in my bed with me. I was feeling well enough that I was able to go home on day 3. I was ready to sleep in my own bed. I just had to show them I could do stairs with crutches and they discharged me with my ice machine that costs a pretty penny. [Months later seeing the bills it's crazy to see how each screw was almost $100, the ice machine was $1200 and how every saw blade and screw bit is accounted for!] Also, my awesome mother-in-law came in town to take care of me and the kids which was a huge help. And bonus, in the time she was here she potty trained Olivia for me, how awesome is that! Olivia was more of a struggle than the boys were though, I think she was being more stubborn than anything.

December 10, 2015

That night Matt took a picture of his mom and Olivia putting window stickers on her window.

Our ward was amazing and brought in meals for the first couple weeks and continued bringing meals a couple times a week even after I returned to work. It was such a huge help and we really have the best ward when it comes to things like that. One dinner came with a supply of gingerbread cookies, frosting and treats to decorate them with for dessert. The kids loved it.

December 14, 2015

That night Matt took the kids to the park to go sledding.

Not surprisingly Olivia made new friends and had a blast making snow angels and sledding.

Kaleb starting building a fort.

Olivia would join me in bed since that's where I lived and one day she took a nap with me after watching a cartoon.

December 15, 2015

Matt was a champ putting up with sleeping in the same bed as me. I had my ice pack machine going 24/7 and probably 8 pillows around me so he didn't have much room. And our bed was on the floor because I couldn't get in and out with it on our bed frame, it was too tall. He even moved a tv into our room temporarily for me. This view was all too familiar.

December 16, 2015

This is the list of medications I was on and they would write what time I needed the next dose so that we could keep everything straightened out. 

One night we headed with my aunt and sister to see the Christmas in Color drive thru with a million lights synchronized to music. I was worried sitting in a car that long but it wasn't too bad.

December 17, 2015

I thought this was the cutest candy nativity and Olivia made it in nursery. (with lots of help I'm sure)

December 21, 2015

We had Christmas Eve at my parents house and I pretty much stayed on the recliner couch. The kids were excited to get their pajama's from my sister and lots of presents.

December 24, 2015

We got home and they left apple cider, string cheese, apple, and cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. I know I took a picture of the note they left because it was hilarious. They said that will all the cookies Santa gets they left a healthier treat out that would be better for him than just cookies. 

Matt and I may have gone to bed after Santa came. :) Around 3am. I wasn't as much help as I usually am and may have slowed us down.

Olivia was excited but still tired but she quickly got into the present opening.

December 25, 2015

This picture is funny because the boys both opened a game for an Xbox One which we don't own. And then I made them take a picture. You can tell Kaleb is like, whatever and Ashton is thinking and wondering why he has this game. They kept saying they don't know why they got a game they can't even play. We just kept smiling at them and then they ran downstairs and found an Xbox One set up that we bought from my brother. 

And next to it was a new kitchen and table for Olivia. She was so excited and started "cooking" right away. Almost a year later and she still cooks all the time and loves using her kitchen.

We had breakfast with my mother-in-law, my parents, sister and my brother stopped by too. We had Christmas dinner at my aunt and uncles house like we usually do. I was exhausted by the end of the day and was actually happy to climb back in bed.

Olivia came to me and had me put on a storm trooper mask and she was in a Darth Vader mask. She was a cute Darth Vader running around.

December 26, 2015

*Other surgery info: I only took 2 weeks off of work, they told me to take off at least 4 weeks if it was a desk job but I knew I couldn't swing that but luckily my job is easy going and Matt set up a bed at work for me so I could lay down if I needed to since sitting is what hurt since I would get stiff. I never fell down with the crutches even with all the snow and ice (horrible time of year to be on crutches) but I did slip twice on ice shortly after I was off of crutches and it hurt. I also started trying to get around the house without crutches around 3-4 weeks in without putting too much pressure on my leg and I think that helped because by week 4 I was down to 1 crutch most of the time and by week 5 I was completely off of crutches. I still had physical therapy to do to get my muscles strong again but I was very happy with how quickly I recovered. And my doctor who is one of the best in the U.S. at doing this surgery couldn't believe how well I was doing and walking at my 6 week check-up appointment. He allows his patients to be 50% weight bearing on the operative leg right away whereas other doctors don't allow any weight bearing for 6 weeks. That means you're on crutches close to 12 weeks and it takes so much longer to recover. Overall I'm glad I had the surgery and I don't have the pain that I had before. I wouldn't even know I had surgery if it weren't for the 7-8 inch scar I have.

Well, that's December, Christmas mixed in with my surgery which isn't as exciting but we really had a great Christmas month!

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