I'm back ...

I've been a little bit scarce over here the past couple of weeks. On the 7th of September I had surgery ~ a  left lumbar sympathectomy.. This is ultimately supposed to take away a majority of the pain in my foot so that I can wear a regular shoe again, sleep in my bed again, and basically have my life back again. Since I injured it last October, I can't even let the weight of my blanket rest on that foot without having terrible pain. Well, I honestly didn't know if it was going to be a laparoscopic surgery or not {meaning there would only be a couple of little slits cut into my back} but I certainly didn't anticipate waking up with an incision that ran from my left side all the way over to my belly button! And in addition to the pain that I'm having from the incision and the work that he did, I'm dealing with a lot of hip and back pain on the left side, which is just as bad as the surgical pain itself! Yesterday the two pains were working against each other and I couldn't get comfortable at all because if I tried to move my leg one direction the hip pain was horrendous and if I moved it another way my left side {where he did the actual surgery} hurt too much. I was in a no-win situation. The doctor sent me home on my regular home meds, which would normally be fine. However, right at the moment I can't function on my home meds. I already have back pain and other chronic pain that I take a low-dose pain med for. When I got home, my "normal" pain said "Yeah!! We get our meds back!" and it had absolutely no intention of sharing them with any new pain. So when I needed something for the "new" pain, my "old" pain was hogging it all. By about 10:00 that night I was miserable! Luckily Mom had some Tylenol in her purse. The next morning Jon brought some Aleve over and Mom bought me some Tylenol and I've been using Tylenol to supplement my pain meds ever since. It's not the ideal situation, but it's better than nothing. We'll see what happens when I go in for my follow-up appointment on Monday. 


I did make it out of the house this morning for the 1st day of release time. Let's just say, I think it's going to be a very interesting year. By the time I got home, however, I was wiped out. It's been a long day! Monday is going to be a long day!

So if I'm a little bit scarce over here for a while, you now know the rest of the story .....  =)

Another new recipe to share ... "Pumpkin Ice Cream"

This recipe is another Gooseberry Patch recipe that was borrowed from the "GOODEness Gracious" blog. It looked so good and so simple that I had to share, especially with fall just around the corner. After all, who doesn't like ice cream? And you don't even need an ice cream maker to make this!


PUMPKIN ICE CREAM
1 qt vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt, softened
1 c canned pumpkin [from 15 oz can]
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
gingersnap cookies for garnishing


Directions:
1.  Combine pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice; stir in ice cream until well blended.
2.  Freeze until hardened. Serve with gingersnaps. 

RIP Gail

This morning I learned about the loss of a dear friend of mine. Gail was diagnosed with cancer much too young around Christmas last year. She's had kind of a rough road. She spent a lot of time in the hospital, had several surgeries, and like me, ended up staying with her parents here in Canby so they could help care for her. While she was here this past year, she and I became kind of close because we had so much in common ~ things that most people don't even think of. We were both disabled, we were both kind of "forced" to come back to our hometown in our middle adulthood so our parents could help take care of us, neither of us was able to work so we were both feeling a little bit bored and in need of something to do ... Gail is a turtle lover and about a month ago I brought my little turtle purse to church. Gail wasn't there that particular Sunday, as she was in the hospital, but her mom commented on how she would just love that purse. I had my wallet, cell phone, and sunglasses inside, and I took them out, gave her mom the purse, and told her to please give it to Gail. I told her that it would mean so much to me to know that the little turtle purse would bring some happiness to her. Her brother Mark told me later that she was just tickled by that little turtle purse. I now know that I did the right thing.


God bless you, Gail. You aren't in pain anymore.