Oooh - don't get me started, Rosie Perez

I had the TV on for background noise last night as I checked e-mail, etc. Unfortunately, Entertainment Tonight was on - normally, I would have changed the channel, because ET, Mary Hart, and everyone associated with that show are really grossly mistaken about how much the average American is interested in their "Entertainment News" items. Ever noticed how, after most of the stories, Mary or her male counterpart will "ad lib" to the other one something along the lines of "and we all can't wait to see how that turns out!!" - Well, yeah, actually, most of us don't give a shit.

But I digress. And I couldn't find the remote.

Last night, ET kept "teasing" this "top story" about Rosie Perez, and some injury she allegedly suffered on the set of Law & Order, SVU, (*waves @ Chris Meloni*) and the horrible nightmare she is now enduring. Each tease made it sound more and more dreadful; in fact, I believe the words "wheelchair-bound", "confined to a wheelchair," and "horrific" may have even been used.

So finally the story starts, and you see Rosie being pushed, in a wheelchair, with dozens of people behind her, and many in front of her, flashbulbs lighting up the interview. And it's a poor poor pitiful Rosie story - how she was doing her own stunt on the show, and got shaken too hard, and suffered:
"2 slipped discs, 1 bulging disc, 3 strained ligaments, and a severe pinched nerve".

And she's wearing some designer hard cervical collar to protect her neck, and frailly flailing her arms around, until the big reveal: she opens up her black and white designer cervical collar to reveal the "HORRIFIC SCAR" that she is afraid will end her career. Well that, and the fact that she may never DANCE again (when was the last time she had to dance in a role? And ever heard of make-up?)

So then she tells about the dreadful surgery, and the horrific scar ("but it will heal...."), and how she is under strict doctor's orders NOT to walk more than 2-3 blocks a day; hence the wheelchair. And BTW: "confined to a wheelchair" & "wheelchair-bound" mean you can't get out of the wheelchair. Period. It doesn't mean you get pushed around in it for photo-ops, and then get out to walk your "2-3 blocks a day."

Rosie's "Horrific" scar

Now here are SOME of my beefs with the above:

1) There is no such thing as a "slipped disc". Period. That is a layman's term for I don't know what. But it doesn't exist, medically.

2) I had the exact same surgery on 6/24/10.  Or really, I suspect, not the exact same, because I actually had 2 ruptured discs, 1 of which had acutely herniated, causing a large disc fragment to become embedded in the nerve roots supplying my Left arm, with associated severe pain and loss of strength in my left arm and hand. No strained ligaments that I know of, though. Whew!

3) I was discharged from the hospital less than 24 hours after my surgery, and the only wheelchair involved was the one they mandate carry you from your room to your ride. My doctor had released me to full, normal activity that morning, except I was to avoid lifting over 15 lbs, and I was NOT to do any overhead work. But walking - quite fine with him, as long as I felt up to it. And as a small business owner, I was back to work full time on 6/27/10 -- I was on pain medicine, and I got awfully tired, but you do what you have to do.

4) Rosie's surgery was, in my educated* opinion, well before 6/25/10 - and I am basing this on my professional* observation of the "horrific" scar she unveiled on ET last night - it looks a hell of a lot better than the way mine looked on 7/12 when the doctor took off the last of my steristrips - mine is STILL considerably swollen, both on the outside and the inside (per X-ray), and I still have no audible voice (a rare complication from the amount of scar tissue the doctor had to scrape away during surgery.)

My swollen, formerly swan-like neck - red from the allergic reaction to the dressing, 21 days post-op.

So I am baffled as to Rosie's wheelchair, and non-plussed by her "horrific" scar - and suspect this is all part of some impending lawsuit against SVU. Or just some badly needed publicity for her sagging career. My opinion, of course.

*Yes, I have a professional degree that allows me to formulate educated medical opinions.

Doctor's visit, and a New Bracelet

And the two have NOTHING to do with each other.

But 1st, the weather. We are having the MOTHER of all thunderstorms right now. Big booming thunder, pouring rain (that sideways kinda rain), low rumbling thunder, and lots of lightning. So far, the power has only gone out once, and that was brief.  It has been very overcast all day (but still 96 degrees, of course) - but at 4:30 I noticed that there was suddenly no light at all in the bedroom except from the bedside lamp (and the computer, and the TV...) - I looked at the windows, and it was just pitch black outside. And one minute later, the storm just seemingly came out of nowhere, full blast. Naturally, Bailey is now in hiding in my closet.

OK - Now the story about the new bracelet:

Future bracelet, 10 AM, Sunday, 7/11/10 - these are 16 gauge sterling silver rings made from square wire:

Bracelet, 3PM, Sunday, 7/11/10. This is the tryzantine (trizantine) pattern, a variation of the more well-known Byzantine pattern, using 3 rings at a time instead of 2 (that's a fairly basic over-simplification). I love how just changing from rings made from round wire to those made from square wire can completely change the look of the finished piece. And those of you who know me well know that my motto (for almost everything) is "the bigger the better" - so I am always going for the heavier gauge rings, and the wider weaves.

Different view of my new bracelet: There is no clasp yet, because I forgot to bring any home with me from the shop. So I will add a clasp tomorrow, and tumble it, and as they say on Etsy, "wallah!"**  I will have a shiny new bracelet!

I learned this weave in school last month - but it was a really quickie lesson, and I only made up one tryzantine unit, and packed it away with the rings, waiting for the opportunity to start in on it when I felt a little better. And I had left the handout directions at the shop - because who needed them? Well, I'll tell you who: ME. Because I am no longer 22 years old, and evidently can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday, much less directions to a new chainmaille weave I briefly worked on 5 weeks ago. So I spent about 2 hours on the computer yesterday trying to find a free tutorial, and finally, "wallah"! And I was able to make the bracelet.

Oh - and speaking of Etsy - I have many, many new listings in my shop - things I have made over the past 2 years and never gotten around to photographing (ugh) and listing. I spent all day last Saturday (7/3) photographing the stuff, and most of 7/4 and 7/5 doing the listings, and I have been gradually adding 1-3 items a day to my shop. Still have about 40 things to add!

I saw the THHS (Tall, hot, handsome surgeon) for my first post-op visit this AM (cue the tiny violins: he was in Cancun, lying by the pool, last week. And yes, I was eavesdropping as he was telling one of the nurses about his vacation as he was running between rooms, seeing patients. What of it?)

THHS says I am healing wonderfully, but he is very concerned about my persistent laryngitis/hoarseness. On the day after surgery, as he was discharging me from the hospital and explaining stuff, and telling me he would be putting off my normal 1-wk post-op visit until 7/12 because he was going to be "on vacation" blah blah blah He told me that I would be hoarse for up until 3 weeks, and not to worry. So, I haven't been worrying, because the 3 weeks isn't  up until 7/15.

But upon hearing, or NOT hearing, as the case may be, my voice this AM, he told me that he was concerned, and that in all the years he has been doing this surgery, he has only had 2 patients who had ultimately required cortisone injections INTO THEIR VOCAL CHORDS to restore their voice.

Excuse me - into their vocal chords? And as he is telling me this, he is miming a giant needle going in through the front of the neck - so I guess it is done under fluoroscopy? Who knows...

Then he says, and I am NOT making this up: "Why does everything weird always happen to YOU?"

Gee,.. THHS thinks I'm special! ♥

So he started me on high dose steroids to try to reduce the inflammation (woo-hoo - here comes the mania again!), before we start driving needles into my neck, and is standing up to leave -- because he is so far behind because of having been on vacation last week, boo hoo hoo ... and I told him that I had a few questions -

So he sits back down, and answers all my questions - one of which was about returning to my daily walks. Because Bailey and I had been walking 3 miles a day every day up until the day of surgery - and while I am not ready to do 3 miles tomorrow, I wanted to know if I could start walking again.  Except that last week, I suddenly developed this killer pain in both my heels - it's there when I get out of bed in the morning, but only when I step on the heel, and goes away after I have been up and walking for about an hour. But OMG, it is some bad pain - and stairs are the worst.

So he diagnoses plantar fasciitis. Great - that little devil can be a real bitch.

But he tells me that I developed it because I had been really working out my feet on those long walks, and the inactivity for the last 2 weeks is the cause, and that we have caught it early, and that the high dose steroids he prescribed for my voice will also fix the plantar fasciitis. And that I should wait one week, and then very gradually start building up my walking again.

And I am to call him in 2 weeks if I still have either the hoarseness OR the heel pain.

THE END.

**Yes, I know how to spell "voila".

Gross surgery photos

Yeah, they're graphic.

If they bug you - don't look!

I had my anterior cervical fusion (repair of the ruptured disc in my neck) on Thursday, 6/24.

Discharged from the hospital 6/25-

This is how the incision looks today (6/27) - lots of swelling, a little bruising, and a lot of allergic reaction to the dressings.

These are just the steri-strips ----

When I was sent up to my hospital room from the Operating Room, I had a much larger "hypoallergenic" dressing covering these strips - which the doctor and nurses swore I could not possibly have an allergic reaction to.

So when it started to itch and burn at around 6PM that night, they refused to remove it.

You can clearly see the big square red blistery reaction I am had to this dressing.

And over there on my left shoulder  (on the right in the photo)- NICE blistering from the dressing!

The nurse (it was a different nurse by now - the morning shift) actually freaked a little when she saw it when she took the dressing off to change it when they were discharging me.

Unfortunately, I couldn't talk her into just leaving the steri-strips, and she put another, different, "hypoallergenic" dressing on this mess

Which I removed as soon as I got home.

And fortunately enough, I guess, the most pain I'm having is from the dumb allergic reactions. I am also madly itching under these steri-strips, so I know there will be a hot mess under there when they come off a week from tomorrow.

Surgery over, and I am fidgeting at home

Just received a nice comment from my buddy PD, and since I am up and fidgeting around, I decided to go ahead and post.

Surgery was Thursday, and went well according to the doctor.

He discharged me from the hospital yesterday at 7:30 AM, but the nurses didn't get around to actually getting me out of there until 11 AM. We had to go to the hospital to get my meds filled, and were home around noon.

I have a real sore throat - partly from the breathing tube, but according to the doctor, mostly because a lot of scar tissue had accumulated around my windpipe from the previous surgery, so he spent a lot of time in that area vigorously cleaning out the scar tissue, so I may have a sore throat for up to 3 weeks. I know I have an unbelievable case of laryngitis - no one can hear a word I say, and it feels to me like I am screaming at them.

My fried Kathy has been staying with me - it was her husband who came down (with Nummy) and took care of me when I was really hurting last month. Kathy taught a few classes at my shop earlier this week, and then went into caregiver mode for me, but I am so used to being on my own, that she is pretty bored! I know she's ready to get back home, too. She'll be heading back to the mountains tomorrow.

So not a whole lot to report yet - I'm taking my steroids (to reduce the inflammation) and dilaudid for pain, although I'm not really having much, other than a slight headache. And I am putting cortisone on all the allergic reactions I am having to the dressing they put on my neck, that they swore to me was hypoallergenic and could not possibly be burning me in the middle of the night on Thursday after surgery. So they refused to remove it, and when the nurse took it off at 10:30 yesterday AM, it was blistered and red everywhere, and looks like a bad poison ivy today. And feels worse.

But I shall live to blog another day -thanks for everyone's thoughts and concern, and thanks for asking, Pam!