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Hi guys, 

I have been mostly off of the grid these days, not for lack of desire to contribute but just because I do not have enough hours in the day to read and write.

So much has happened over the last 6 months that I don't know where to start.

Firstly, I have been fighting like a champ to deal with the horrible, debilitating pain that I have from the slip & fall last August.

I spent 3 months this summer doing intensive, daily rehab, chiro, massage, water exercises etc trying to get my body and muscles back. Although not near perfect I am much better.

In September I went back to work double time and a half...full-time university teaching is considered 20hrs/week...I am doing double that.

I have 15 classes of up to 40 kids, write the books for each class and I am moving!

Yup, finally, I am moving.

Found my dream apartment in a 'flat' town where I will no longer have to climb hills to get to the subway, have shops and services around the corner, public transportation is less than 3 minutes away and No stairs in the apartment!

I am installing 2 pouch-friendly bathrooms with sinks beside the toilets (not French at all but 'that is what I need'...new sentence for me...'what I need' people are not used to hear me saying it, but it is about time) , a kitchen where I will have drawers instead of doors so that I can reach my pots and pans with the need to bend or stretch and an office where I no longer need to climb behind or under something to reach it!

This is a huge change for me but it is for the better and for my pouch...I have learned that I need to construct my world around the needs of my body and not try to get my body to fit into my world.

I am still in pain, taking mega doses of NSAIDs daily, and popping stomach acid pills as well but I am off of the Tramadol and codeine (not pouch friendly at all!) and doing what I need to do to move on with my life...And dragging hubby with me...he grumbles and complains but has been a good sport throughout the whole process.

Moving is scary, even when it is for the best, lots of hard work..oh, the packing...The packing is a nightmare...but we will be in our new place in less than 2 weeks.

So, if I am off the grid for a bit longer, please forgive me...I will be back soon...to tell you that life does continue....

Sharon

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Thanks guys...boxes and boxes and more boxes...I have learned a valuable lesson...wear a back belt...Even for the little stuff...Especially when you have a k pouch...no use hurting your back or abs while filling boxes...I am also learning to say yes to anyone willing to come and help...hired movers too...Even if it is only a few miles away...no longer lift heavy things...put the empty boxes on the full ones to fill so that I do not need to pick them up and move them once full...anything to save my back.

My pouch is being good right now...except for 2 things...

Thing one, when it fills up (at night while sleeping usually), it reaches a certain capacity and then the pain yanks me out of sleep...feels like the muscles that hold it up are ripped to pieces (in the last MRi they showed that during the slip and fall I did rip some of them and that they are not healed yet...1 yr later)

Thing 2...it is on an angle and if overfull I cannot fit the tube in so I need to get up and empty regularly to prevent the problem.

Other than that...all good.

Dinners are now light meals, usually an artichoke and some fruit or a light meat meal.

Lunches at work are fruit, yogurt and a few bites of a whole grain bun with dried fruits in it...I take a few bites at 10, 12, 2 and 4...keeps my blood sugar levels even and allows me to not have 'dips' in my energy or blood sugar.

So for now, back to the boxes...and facing forward towards a better life.

Sharon

 

Thanks Bobish,

I believe in looking on the bright side of life whenever I can...but ask my hubby and he will tell you that when I blow-up...I go nuclear!

But life is too short to hold grudges, hate or hang on to negative thoughts...I prefer to act and move forward than to stagnate and steep.

I have a rather specific diet in the evenings when I have to work the next day...no carbs, they create too many problems with thickness and emptying the next day...a little meat, fish or chicken if I like but usually it is just veggies and artichokes turn into mush when you cook them for 20 mins in a pressure cooker...you don't eat the leaves just the little bite-sized soft part at the bottom of the big leaves...the advantage is that it takes time to eat them and I have to slow down...I am usually a speed-eater...never take the time to chew or taste (hereditary!) so this is my way of slow-eating.

They are gas forming but they run through me in under 2hrs so I can sleep easy.

My yogurt lunches are the same idea...I eat for my geographic situation...meaning...when traveling I stick to mostly proteins, work is low residue, staying home for the weekend? I let myself enjoy food.

Sounds complicated but it works for me.

Sharon

Back to the boxes!

 

Hi TE,

Yup, your little Energizer Bunny is hoping to it...1 week to go...back and ab belt in place and the girlfriends are lining up to help schlep and carry.

I have a couple of days off of work next week to do the unpacking so I should be fine...then back to life.

I cannot complain, this is all of my making but I am insisting on an improved quality of life...these last years need to be good ones.

How are you doing? How is your health and the ileo acting? Have you gotten accustomed to it? Has it gotten accustomed to you?

I have realized that no one at work has the slightest inkling about my health (in the new job) and I have no intention of telling them...maybe if the pouch stays happy I will too and they will never need to know...only 9yrs to go before retirement.

Hugs to all...anyone care to help me pack?

Sharon

 

 

Hi Sharon,

I'm going to book my ticket to come over and help! I wish I could.

I'm doing better than with my sick j-pouch. Thanks for asking. I still can't eat a few things, like salads, but get plenty of fruits and veggies in my morning protein smoothies. 

Why should your co-workers ever know?  You are one busy lady. My daughter is teaching what is considered a full load at 16 in-class hours at a university. You really are carrying a full load with 40.

Congrats on your new home. I'm glad you are getting K-pouch ready restrooms. 

I am feeling like a new mom with this apt...

I go in every day and admire the new toilets...just stand there and stare at them (that's all that I can do, they aren't hooked up yet!) and I watch the progress as it goes...this is so big for me...I have never really done it before...not like this...

I get frustrated that I am not the person that I used to be, not able to paint or carry stuff, have to ask everyone for help but I guess that that is just life and not just poucher life...

I was so tired and exhausted with this life, the pain and frustration, the anger and not being able to go to work, to walk up the hill (am still doing it and arrive at work in a puddle of sweat, a world of pain and exhausted before the day starts) or just go out somewhere for a coffee without having to deal with transportation issues...now I will be able to pop out and pop in at will...go grocery shopping or to the market without hurting myself.

Change is hard, not changing is harder.

Sharon

1 month + post move and I am still staring at boxes. 2 broken forearms/elbows that just won't heal...maybe because I am not wearing casts but doing the work...massage, ice, anti-inflammatories, pain meds...the works...but I cannot bend either elbow completely or straighten out my arms flat...off for a scan this Sat...Something is very wrong...

So my career as a house mover is really over.

My pouch is getting used to the new bathroom, it isn't perfect but it functions...just not so well with 2 gimpy arms. 

Intubation is still a nightmare, not able to push or pull out the plunger and plugging the sink (it is a push-down sink plug and hard on my arms) but I get by.

I am not ready to give in but things are really rough...time, I know, time heals all wounds but couldn't us pouchers get a break?

For now, I pray for the pain to go away and the range of movement to come back into my arms...my pouch depends on it.

Sharon

I just had the CT yesterday and it is official, Both elbows are broken! Yup, when I do things, I do them right. 

They don't cast elbows, too difficult once they uncast them to get the moving agian...so they are not planning on doing anything other than sending me to an ortho specialist and having PT done once I stop screaming in pain every time I try to move them. 

All in all  I am not as dumb as people think. I did the right thing all along, instinctively. Held them close to my body, massage, ice packs (did I mention that there are some spiral rips of the muscles...that I think is the part that is hurting most) and anti-inflammatory meds plus pain meds galore.

Like they said, not much to be done but they do want a bone density test done...I laughed at them...if I had fragile bones, I would have exploded both arms and wrists with the impact instead of fracturing 2 elbows. They fractured when the bones shot up into them at warp speed. She was amazed that neither the wrists nor the forearms had damage...

I Keep taking those supplements!

So, for now, it is keep up the good work and and get an appt with my GP, Orthopedist (what for?) and pray that this stops happening to me!

Sharon

 

 

i refer to falling as free bone density tests, and indeed best way to know,  although rather inconvenient when breaking something.  recently failed mine when i broke two ribs.  nothing that can be done about it, but suck it up.

never knew they can't put elbows in casts.  can't imagine what you have been going through with the pain.  i can imagine the inconvenience w intubating as i had the worst time when my arm was in an immovable cast following the shoulder replacement.  the nurses poking my catheter in is what caused the hernia--i'm quite sure as that's when it first appeared.  so be careful!  i know you are.  janet

Thanks Janet, 

Doing my best...being more careful since I got the diagnosis...just realized exactly what I have been doing with 2 broken elbows...nobody would have believed it.

What bugs me the most right now is that I am now scared to walk around...watching every step, walking like an old lady...too scared to pick up speed.

Darn I hate being frightened.

Sharon

Dang it Sharon, when you do something you do it with gusto! I'm glad you finally got testing done. I know a guy that fell off of a roof, he is a general contractor and was inspecting the roofer's work, and fractured both ankles. They set one during surgery but just put the other in a boot as it was worse and they couldn't fix it like the other. Just stroll and take longer to get places. Smell the roses or people watch. Who cares what people think. 

How are you working with all of this? I can't imagine how I would empty my ileostomy without elbows so imagine your bathroom trips are taking longer....plus you are getting use to a whole new home! 

Thanks for the update. 

Funnily enough, you manage and find tricks to make it work...I don't think that I have worked this much in ages including 1 week out of town...teaching sort of makes me forget my pain so it is a good thing.

Pulling up socks and boots are the challenge lately...

That and a k-pouch friendly diet is difficult...for the rest I am doing my best.

Sharon

Just an update on the update...I saw the orthopedist today...he is pleased with my healing process, I am starting to calcify in and it is looking good.

He showed me the x-rays and scans...amazing...the radius(s) (radis?) were pushed up into their heads...sort of like a pool cue being pushed up into a billiard ball...the whole head was practically broken off on the left side and is slightly displaced but not enough to require surgery or a re-break...on the right side there is no displacement at all...he said that "in my bad luck, I was very lucky...by pushing the radius up into the ball of the decapitated head it did not fall off"...Not sure at all how to take that sentence! No matter, it is healing and he says that with intense physio I should get most of my range of movement back.

So I am now the lucky-unlucky clutz!

Sharon

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