Blog Candy and Hospital Bits

There is a lot of gorgeous blog candy being offered by those near and dear to me. I've been remiss in sharing the good news. Forgive me, sleep and basic tasks have taken precedence over internet fun.

Papergrace, a truly top drawer, lovely lady is celebrating her birthday with a gorgeous giveaway. CLICK HERE for all the details. Here's a peek:



My fellow Bombshell, Gabby, is also celebrating her birthday with a giveaway. You can read about it HERE. You only have until tomorrow though so hurry on over there :-) Did you see, she's giving away Bombshell Stamps. Yippee!
Peek:



As for me, I'm recovering, slowly. Some missteps have really put me in my place. For example, I was sitting on the couch feeling pretty good and I decided to get myself a cup of coffee. I walked over, noticed no spoons in the drawer and bent to pick up a teaspoon. Then I spent the next ten minutes in a weepy, writhing puddle on the floor. Sad. Yesterday I read that Plaid had screen printing ink. Since I've been needing some for a project I'm desperate to do I thought we'd "zip" into JoAnn and pick some up. Fun little outing. I felt strong and left the wheelchair in the car. The fabric paint aisle is two in from the door and the trip reduced me to a sobbing mess and 18 hours later I'm still feeling it. Not so nice. So when Dr. Awesome says "rest" he wasn't just talking about the wimpy people.

A few more bits from the hospital, on day one I had some major irregular heart beat issues. As a person with a heart condition it was unsettling. I had them again a few days ago. This is the push we needed to get me back to a cardiologist and possibly have my heart repaired. The days of saying, " it's no biggie. Who cares." are behind me now. I also failed a bunch of the neuro tests where you follow the nurses finger with your eyes. Instead of smooth motion my eye jerks in several steps to the finger. It comes and goes and it's been annoying me at home. I have a lazy eye (it focuses slower than the other) and I think it's shorting out from all the spinal cord trauma.

Speaking of nurses... why are they so mean? I have nurse friends who are nice... but not so much at the hospital. My recovery guy said I was going to have to be assertive about meds as I was on a lot before being admitted and they would have a bias against me. No kidding. Before the surgery I was taking 10 mgs of a med every 4 hours. In the hospital I was offered 7mg every 6 hours - for surgical pain. I explained very politely the situation and they said, " That's what happens. If you weren't making yourself so "comfortable" (said sarcastically) at home then you wouldn't be so uncomfortable here." I heard similar quotes from almost all my nurses. One said, "serves me right for taking so much pain meds at home and I wouldn't be suffering after surgery if I had used less." That really bugged me.

Also, watch out if a nurse says, " We're giving you something for your stomach." I expected Zantac or Tums. Instead they pulled up my gown and rammed a needle in my stomach. Twice a day, for clots. And I mean rammed. I have six purple and dark green biscuit size bruises with big black centers where the needle went in and it's been ten days. When I got home I held a heating pad to my belly as it is so sore. Each needle made a spasmy knot. OW.

Other than those blips, I did really well at the hospital. Everyone was surprised by my mobility, my drive to get up and go home and how polite I was. I'll cherish that always.

Home has been tough, I have a lot of headaches and I really can't do anything. We rented a wheelchair and it has been the best thing ever. Not having cabin fever makes this all so much better. Two days ago they took me for a walk in the park along a river. Here's some pics. The angles are a bit off as I was sitting but at least you can see us :-)




Love, love, love and more love to all of you. Sorry I've been really slow replying to comments. I'll get there :-)