The Injury Saga Part II-- The Diagnosis and Treatment

On the left is my foot a month after reinjury. Its swollen, as you can see, and creased since its at an angle. I made a journey to the orthopedist, a Dr. Womack, who seems excellent. I have two torn ligaments on the right side of my ankle--in fact they're the ligaments that run downward in a "Y". I have several severly stretched ligaments as well, some torn tendons, a gap in between some bones, and a bit of fluid trapped.

So how do we fix this? He gave me two options since I've developed a "trick" ankle. I could keep wearing a brace and hope it gets better, or I could have surgery on it. So, Thursday, I'm having reconstructive surgery on my ankle, which is an outpatient procedure.

I should probably state that I'm nervous. I've had oral surgery to remove my wisdom teeth as well as emergency surgery to stop bleeding. In the latter surgery, I was almost dead and kept losing consciousness so I made a mark on the paper without reading it.

However, Monday at the appointment, I read it. Death, clots, and amputation were mentioned along with infection. It made me a tad nervous. But today, the hospital called for pre-op information. It made me really nervous to discuss whether or not I needed a chaplain, had a living will, whether or not I had a do not resuscitate order, and all sorts of fun things. And I realized, the truth is that I'm really scared about this. What if I'm the one in the million case where the anesthesia is wrong and I'm paralyzed but can feel everything? What happens if I have a random clot? Or something forces them to amputate? Or I die?

Such thoughts are really scary for me to think about. And like I said, I've never experienced scheduled surgery. And I have to admit to being a baby and not wanting the pain to be worse than it is now as well as not wanting another scar. But I know I have to suck it up and do it. And to make matters worse, I suddenly have a random cold/sinus infection that I have to shed in a few days or else surgery is postponed.

So that's it in a nutshell. Wish me luck!

My Favorite Vampire Reads

October is often one of my favorite months because I'm a self admitted horror freak. I love cheesy horror movies, horror novels, paranormal stuff, and haunted houses. I love the atmosphere of Halloween. And this October, I'm pretty much laid up for a while with an injury so I have the chance to watch all those cheesy horror movies on syfy and read tons of books--which seems like a pretty great thing to me.

I may be an avid reader but there are tons of books I haven't read. Doing a search on Amazon or B&N will yield a plethora of vamp books. Unfortunately, some of the newer ones I haven't read--like the one "Let Me In" is based on, or the one where Lincoln is a vampire slayer. But out of the many ones I have read, here are some of my favs:

6. Bunnicula
Yes, you heard me. This is a book I was fond of as a kid. I loved Bunnicula.

5. Salem's Lot
Steven King really is the master of horror. Salem's Lot is a pretty creepy book and its a book that all Vampire-freaks MUST read.

4. The Historian
Elizabeth Kostova's book was not intended to be a horror novel. Rather, its a eerily written detective/historical novel. It weaves folklore of Dracula, Vlad Tepes, and plenty of mystery together--enough to satisify vampire lovers. Its a bit long, but well worth the read.

3. Dracula
Dracula is a classic that belongs in everyone's library. Its a great tale and the father of vampire tales.

2. The Southern Vampire Mysteries
These are the books based on True Blood. And they have elements of mystery and romance to them. They're also very amusing. Its not your typical romance series and isn't explicit. The vampires still retain a bit of nastiness to them. They're very tame compared to the third season of True Blood.

1. The Vampire Chronicles
Anne Rice is one of my favorite authors. The series is expansive and wonderful and very gothic. I began reading them in my early teens and have reread them. They may not be straight up horror, but they're wonderful books. Interview with a Vampire is a great book for anyone to read and the Vampire Lestat is even better.

There are probably some other books that belong on my favorite's list like the Vampire Tapestry or The Strain, but they're on the "want to read" list. But thus far, these are definitely, by far, my favs.

The Injury Saga Part I--How it Happened (long and amusing version)

*Note: That is not my ankle but looks eerily similar to what it looked like a few days after injuring it

One of my childhood best friends was married back in the middle of march of this year. I was honored to be one of her bridesmaids. My friend insisted on wearing silver shoes in her March wedding. It was almost impossible to find shoes that were silver, let alone in a wide width, in a size 8.5, a few days before the wedding, that weren't outrageous. So I found a cute pair of open toed silver heels that were narrow, even if they were only 2.5-3 inches. I have issues walking in tennis shoes, let alone anything with height unless its a platform tennis shoe or chunky heel. I'm not graceful. I've fallen in downtown randomly on the sidewalk just walking in tennis shoes. So my first thought was literally "Oh God, I have to walk in front of a church full of people, in a short dress, in heels, please, DO NOT let me fall!"

And I did not fall. I managed stairs, running around, pictures, everything in my little heels. Sure my feet hurt by the end of the day, but I had survived. So when Kendel came back from her honeymoon a week later, I called her up. Turns out, she had to have all the stuff moved out of her place earlier than previously mentioned. I offered my help. She accepted.

I drove out to her place in the middle of the country on a bright sunny morning the last weekend of March, prepared to help box things up and move. I succeeded in helping box her son's toys. However, as I was carrying said box down to my car, my ankle gave, sending me sprawling down the steps, box flying, into the gravel below.

I moaned in pain. When my ankle folded underneath, I could feel the tearing. And I laid there in the gravel, face down, laughing because it hurt so bad. Eventually I rolled over, and Kendel sat on the steps appologizing that I sprained my ankle while I muttered a few curse words and appologized for injuring myself on the first trip. She checked for broken bones by prodding my swelling ankle. I told her not to give up her day job because nursing was not in her future.

We were faced with a dilemma. My mountaineer was loaded to the max and her husband was expecting us any minute. I decided to try to stand, and possibly drive the few short miles to her new abode. So, I did what any self respecting bigger girl would do when her tiny friend and short friend was unsure of how to help without causing pain--I crawled in the grass to the porch as Kendel laughed and tried to stand. Eventually I made it up after a few tries. And it hurt like a bitch.

Somehow, I made it to my car. And practiced driving in the field next to her house (did I mention its my right ankle?). And we decided that as long as we went slow, I could make the drive.

And I did, by some miracle. We arrived at the cabin like hunting lodge and I made it out of the car. Only to be greeted by steps of wood that were someone large. I grabbed the rail and hauled myself up. Her husband was amused but led me inside to his prized recliner and made me sit. And prop my leg up. It was rather nice.

Her sister entered and sat down next to me as did her cousin. While we were talking, a few friends were carrying things up the stairs to the loft area of the hunting like lodge--the place was adorned with several deer heads, including the SC record breaking Buck above me. And suddenly, it crashed down behind my head--missing me by inches. This was obvouisly NOT my day.

Eventually, I had to have her sister drive me home because my foot was insanely swollen and looked bad. It was a grade 3 sprain and the doctor thought I had ligaments torn. But, I had no insurance at the time so I couldn't see a specialist.

But it slowly healed, or so I thought. I was able to go to the gym and build it back up, while wearing an air cast. And I was able to wear a special sock at other times that provided stability. So everything should be healed right?

Wrong. Turns out I reinjured it a couple of weeks ago when I tripped over the cat and further injured it while cleaning house. It finally gave a loud pop and its been hard to walk since then. Another trip to the doctor and an MRI later (I now am insured) showed that I have fluid build up in my ankle and not one, but two torn tendons. Now they're throwing words like surgery and cast around. I guess I'll find out Monday what it will be when I go to see the orthopedist. Its still swollen from the injuries but its not severe. Unfortunately, I'm under doctors orders to stay off of it. This makes for boring days and a lack in social life.

Oops.

Guatemalan Apology

Recently, a medical researcher uncovered evidence of experiments that gave many prisoners and unfortunate subjects syphillis in Guatemala during the 40's. So the US issued an apology to Guatemala, who basically said, it's cool. After all, they were a bunch of societies unwanted that were experimented on against their will and often times not offered medical care.

The 40's were a different time, and many atrocities in the name of medicine were performed by many different countries, both during war time and peace time. I suppose we should be thankful that we have the knowledge that resulted from such acts. But the whole thing reads like something out of a horror movie.

I'm not typically a conspiracy theorist. I believe we landed on the moon among other things, but one has to wonder where this is happening in the world today. Sure, there are rules about it now, but I'm sure not all of the world follows those rules. After all, its a big and scary place and plausible deniability is all the rage these days in politics.

But could you really imagine anything more terrifying than being tested on unwillfully by something even more deadly? It's truly a scary notion.

A Return To Blogging

In truth, I forgot about having a blog. Oops. I thought that I might give blogging another shot considering it's been a year. So what's been going on in a year? In short, nothing spectacular. Seriously, its been pretty boring. Perhaps I'll keep up with it this time.