Pre-surgery soup

I was feeling pretty fancy, with my new blog and all, until I couldn't figure out how to create additional posts. Which would make it both very uninteresting and not a blog. But now I am writing Post #2, so we're cranking on all cylinders.

Went for a slow walk today and did very well. I don't think I'll be feeling too wonderful after surgery tomorrow, so it was good to go out while I could. I saw some folks on segways and just had to look away; made my stomach too upset to relive my ride from last week.

On a much lighter...and unrelated...note, I was in multiple rooms in the hospital. One day, my brother asked me if I needed anything and I said earplugs to drown out my roommate. Among other tirades, I listened to no less than an hour on how she had ordered rye bread for her sandwich and how come she couldn't get wheat bread and why couldn't they get it right and...

Don't get me wrong...hospitals are not the most wonderful of facilities. But I was so tempted to chime in, "Look lady, I would be thrilled to eat ANY kind of bread." Then someone came to transfer me to the neurosurgery ward (I was out of ICU and on the cardiac ward, since that was the only bed available) and she chimed in, "How come she gets to move floors? I've been here longer. It's not fair!"

But I digress. Tomorrow I will undergo about 4 hours of surgery. First the physician will do his magic to reset my jaw. Then he will work on the fractures in my nose. Then back to the jaw and wire it shut. I imagine I will feel pretty lousy for some number of days and then things will start to improve.

There are other facial, neck, and rib fractures and I'm not sure which of these will be addressed when and how. The surgeries tomorrow are necessary to ensure that the bones don't set incorrectly and then have to be rebroken. My face currently looks like it's skewed right...my jaw and teeth and nose are out of alignment and swollen and discolored. Actually, my entire face looks like this ("I feel pretty...Oh so pretty...") but the lower half is the worst.

I have discovered that you can use only a mini-coffee maker to cook canned soup and make jello. I will start to work on the cookbook and book tour in the near future.

In the best of all worlds, we'll go home later in the week. I doubt that will be the case. More likely is we'll look for more of a "residence" type of locale and go from there.

This experience has really shown me in spades how blessed I am to have such supportive family and friends. And this has even brought out the best in strangers. It's a nice change from the negativity that I can sometimes become enveloped in.

I will try to update this Monday or, at worst, Tuesday.

--Karen--

February 21, 2010

Hi everyone. I've never created a blog before but thought I'd try this. I can't recall who knows what. By writing a blog, I won't have to bore folks by repeating the same story and confusing others when I leave out key pieces, thinking they've already heard it.

Before proceding...I want to emphasize that I feel extremely touched by the outpouring of support and offers of assistance. Even from strangers...the staff at the hotel couldn't be nicer (and, from what I understand, everyone knows me). I am grateful too that all this support helps ease Jake's burden, even just to know that he can lean on friends and family if needbe.

What happened and where things stand...

Jake and I took the boys to FL for their February break and decided to try a segway tour. Here is a segway, for those of you unfamiliar with this device.

http://hastyruminations.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/segway11.jpg

See how the gentleman looks like he could go flying forward at a moment's notice? I clipped something I didn't see, and that's what resulted. Landed face first. It happened so fast (you travel about 13 mph) that I didn't put out my hands to brace the impact. I was later told by Jake and my brother Al, also with us, that they thought I was possibly dead as I was lying in a huge pool of blood and didn't move. I wish I had had the fortune of passing out but I remember everything and recall being in severe pain.

Some nice doctors from Spain happened to be jogging in the area and helped calm everyone and get me to a very nearby hospital. X-rays showed that I'd broken my jaw, nose, occipital bones, and several other facial bones, a vertebrae, and a rib. I am extremely fortunate that I survived and that I am not paralyzed.

I was in the hospital for three days (they don't keep you long anymore). The kids were sent home to their mother. Jake is still here in FL with me. There are several doctors involved, but the main doctor with whom I've been working is a facial surgeon. He will be doing 4 hours of surgeries on Monday (outpatient). It's too unsafe for me to travel and if I wait, I will have to have the bones rebroken and reset. No thank you.

I don't have a good understanding yet of all that will be happening or how long we will be in FL (at least another week or longer). I do know that my jaw will be wired shut for roughly 6 weeks. Not being able to talk for that long should qualify me for disability payments. :-) I've been looking up with to eat and how to cope and it is amazing how much information is available on the Web.

The pain and swelling have lessened daily, though I suspect that will change with the surgeries Monday. I am currently limited to liquids and soft foods, restricted to only liquids starting tomorrow. I took a short walk yesterday, which I know is good for faster healing and maintaining a positive mental state. I was thrilled to be outside but surprised how exhausted I was at the end of this two-block adventure.

I'm being uncharacteristically patient with this process so far. Who knows? Maybe I'll learn a little while I'm going through this....

--Karen--