Surgery Coming

Sooooo….I didn’t sleep very well last night.  It was my first night in my new house, alone.  Dad and Heath have been there the other nights….I have a cot and an air mattress set up upstairs where it is not currently construction.  J  Turns out, I do need surgery.  I have not been doing any exercising beyond daily construction labor at my new house and daily work activities, therefore, my hip pain has been minimal.  I had kind of dismissed the idea of surgery after pursuing all these routes.  After yesterday, I now know surgery is in my near future. 

Decision to Pursue

I got up and went to the gym this morning for an hour long swim.  I was kind of testing the waters because my hip hasn’t been hurting real bad due to lack of daily exercise.  I did a full hour in the pool just general swimming, no real laps.  I used water weights and the aqua jogger.  After the workout, I remembered why I hadn’t been working out very much.

We went to Bridgeport and worked with the bin building crews as they dried and oiled each piece of our bins.  When I got back inside, much to my surprise, I had an email with a second opinion from a hip specialist out of Colorado Springs.  Just to get this email was a blessing because originally I thought that I would have to take a day off work to travel down to Colorado Springs for the opinion.  The next HUGE blessing was the fact that he told me the exact same thing my trusted surgeon told me.  J  Torn labrum with the ability to repair it and clean up any damaged tissue.

Moving Forward

I called Trinket today at Storm Mountain Orthopaedics to see if there was anything that I could do to help with tracking down my insurance to get a pre-approved authorization number for the surgery.  To my pleasant surprise, she had already taken care of it!

Water?

We woke up and Heath cooked for us again!  Eggs and buckwheat pancakes!  Dad headed over to Menard’s and then to my house as Heath and I headed for early service at church then Sunday school.

By the time Heath and I made it to the house, Garry pulled in right after us.  Dad had already removed all the staples from the bedroom and pulled all that nasty tack board from the old carpet.  He had cleaned up the house too…a definite work in progress as we are doing major renovations it is increasingly important to keep it semi-clean so we don’t step on sharp objects or trip over stuff in the middle of the night.

He was making sure the ourdoor bonfire (of limbs and yard trash) was burning and under control (with the permit) as we had added a few things to it.  After Garry got there, Heath and him began working on the well.  After pulling the 50 feet of pipes, wires, etc. twice, replacing the well pump with a brand new one, and several hours later, much to all of our surprise....two wires were crossed.  I went out to check on them to see if they needed anything and I noticed that there were a couple of wires crossed that led to the barn.  Turns out they had been hit by a limb as we placed it on the bonfire.  All we had to do is untwist them and ta-da, done.  :)  Afterall, I did get a new water pump out of the deal from Daddy.  Thank you to all involved!

W-A-T-E-R!

Saturday

Dad was here and we all worked outside mowing, trimming, cutting down dead trees, brush, and burning ditches.  It was a full production day as Garry, Heath, and Dad were all here helping me out.  We got a lot accomplished!

When I went to get some water for the dogs, out of the faucet, I found there was nothing.  Noting that, I went inside to use the water and still nothing.  Just about that time Garry was coming up to the house to get cleaned up for his supper plans.  I told him about not having water and he immediately redirected to the well house and started taking stuff apart.  Let me give you a visual of this well house…..crawl in a hole, mouse poop, dark, possible snakes, creepy….this is a project in and of itself for another day at another time.  Garry hopped right down in there and started checking stuff.  After a little while he decided he’d have to come back tomorrow with some more tools to work on it more seriously.

 For the evening, since no water, Dad, Heath, and I loaded up and went over to Heath’s house.  Heath made us a wonderful supper in which Dad was super impressed.  The boys were at their mom’s so Heath changed the sheets on Justin’s bed for Dad.  He took a shower and hit the sack in that nice, dark basement.

Confident to Pursue Surgery

I spoke with Dr. Sarin today and after reviewing my scoliosis x-rays; he felt confident in proceeding with surgery.  He said that he would work with my insurance to make sure I could do the surgery in Steamboat Springs.  They could do it here in the valley, but my surgery is rare and our hospital here does not have the proper equipment and Dr. Sarin would have to fly the equipment here for my surgery.  He is comfortable with their hospital there.  He also said their hospital in Steamboat is private and they tend to work with people and their insurance.  He would see what he could get done so I wouldn't have to chase them down.

Second Opinion

I mailed out my records (x-rays and MRI) to Colorado Springs for a second opinion, hoping that I could get some answers through a phone conversation.  John had a friend who recommending this doctor, Dr. Huang.  He has been very helpful in my process.

Saturday

I just have to write real quick about today before I go to bed.  This has been quite a week of unexpecteds at work when Heath was out of town.  He got back in town late last night and we agreed that we both need to go in this morning to take care of a few things.  He picked me up and we went to Bridgeport this morning so that he could check in with the guys and I could work on my safety meeting stuff for our Monday meetings.  (On the way there, I got to speak with my WONDERFUL and BEAUTIFUL 89 year old grandmother in Pleasant Hill, Illinois.  What a truly wonderful blessing to have her.)  We left around noon to head to Silver Spur Feeders for some compost.  It's a feedlot that uses this really cool machine to "cook" their manure and somehow take all the smell out of it.  I am really impressed by it.  They sell it for $25 a pickup load.

We got it back to the house and Heath started working on that and Dad and I went into Melbeta to get some things to start burning ditches.  We need to get all the trash-weeds, dirt, dead things-out so water will run smoothly through them this summer.  We have to hurry and get them cleaned out because my wonderful farmer neighbor offered to help pull them for us.  He has a two week window between planting different crops.  Irrigation water is coming sometime in June although no date has been established because this is an "allocation" year.  I want to be ready!

My friend and roomie, from the House on Highland, came over to visit today.  I put her to work as we set the cinder blocks up around my garden that Heath was tilling.  Mr. Delton and Carol Herman, previous owners, dropped off the tiller for me to use just out of the goodness of their hearts.  By the way, today is their 50 year anniversary!  Congratulations to them for being such a great example to us all!  :)

Once Heath got done with the tilling, he looked at the line we were creating with the blocks and wondered if I was ok....apparently it was not straight and for a man that worked in landscaping for 10 years, he noticed....surprising because I am the anal one!  :)  So we decided to get the right tools tomorrow and finish it then.

Amy and I headed into Melbeta again to get some more supplies for Dad to continue to burn.  He stayed and babysat the fire (and the dogs).  When we got back, Heath was in painting a sample in my bedroom to see if I would like it in the sun tomorrow!  He then suggested that Amy take me to Home Depot and pick out colors of paint for my wall in the living room and dining room so we can continue to work on the hardwood floors.  We are currently waiting to sand them and make them nice until I get colors decided on for the walls.

  

We stopped by Liz's house for some advice and to look at her newly painted house.  I really like the way the white trim just pops out at you as you drive by, it is beautiful!  They showed us a program on the iPhone that you can take a picture of your room and then "paint" it with different samples with your finger on the touch screen.

Heading to Home Depot was a really good choice because Miss Amy kept me on track extremely well and helped me actually make a decision.  It was a productive run and I purchased 3 samples of paint to see if any of them would work.  We went with a light, medium, and dark kind of tan colors...thinking very neutral for now and then deciding later on other accents once I get everything else done and my furniture in place.  So exciting!

We got back through the rain!  Blessings!  Wonderful since the just got done drilling my seed last night!  Anyway, we painted all three samples by a wooden door frame.  We have taken all the light fixtures down, so we will have to wait until tomorrow to actually see the difference, but we both agreed on the lightest one we picked out.  Made the beautiful wood trim "pop" and was a warm/neutral color to start with.

More tomorrow on other decisions....so much fun!  Got to call Mom on the way home today and tell her all about this crazy color picking out and progress we are making on the house.

Daddy's First Day at Work!

I tried to sleep until 7 am today to get some rest and let my hip rest.  I was up a lot just checking on the dogs (Miss Mya is staying to play with Grandpa during the days).  When I had stared at the ceiling long enough, I got up and fixed breakfast and got ready.

Dad and I went into get all his paperwork taken care of so that he could start helping me at Stateline.  While we were waiting on places to open, we got a few more supplies for the house at Menard’s.  Once back at work, I got Dad started on the dock floor.  We went over to Johnson Cashway and got him supplies and he worked the rest of the day on that floor.  It looks fantastic and is 100% safer as there are no longer any huge gaping cracks/crevices for Auntie Liz to fall into.

Heath invited us over for supper tonight and made a wonderful supper.  We all got to eat together with the boys.  After supper, Dad helped Andrew work on a napkin holder for his grandma.  They were super cute out there working together.

Hip Injection

I slept in and did not get up to workout today.  I was awake a lot during the night.  Anyway, I got to work, in Gering, and started preparing for my safety meeting as it is the first Monday of the month. 

At 9:15 am Heath and I headed up to the hospital.  The radiology department was able to get me in very quickly for my injection (just since Friday).  This was a very quick and simple procedure.  I was in and out very quickly.  They got me into scrubs and I sat and talked with the radiology nurse for quite some time as we waited for the doctor.  She then got me up onto the table and untied my scrub pants.  Pretty much just flopped me open right then and there.  She did the surgical scrub deal and then covered me up like they do in the movies so that everything was sterile.  I had a boy doctor this time, so the nurse was super sensitive to get me all covered up before he came in.  He first numbed the hip with a local anesthetic and then started injecting dye into the hip joint (deep).  This was the cool part.  In order to know that he was in the joint, he injected the dye and we saw on the t.v. screen as we watched the x-rays of my hip with the needle (metal) and dye being injected.  Once he found he was actually in the hip joint, he injected a non-steroid short lasting pain reliever.  As soon, as we were done they got me up and said…. “Ok, how does it feel?”  I’m like “are you kidding me, you just stuck 3 needles into me and you are asking me how it feels?”  You have got to be joking.  Nope.  She had to write down how it felt immediately afterwards on a scale of 1-10.  Well, hopefully it will feel better in a few days.  I am supposed to call my surgeon’s nurse on Thursday, three days after the procedure to see if it took the pain away, even for just a few hours.

Now it was time to change back into my clothes from the scrub pants.  Wowwwzers!  I wasn’t really expecting it to work quite like this….I reached down to put back on my unmentionables and I couldn’t do it.  Exactly….I couldn’t put my own ______ on.  Ok, so I kinda started to cry kinda laughed, and then I just stood there pondering my situation in this tiny little dressing room at this hospital in Scottsbluff, Nebraska.  My leg was kind of numb so I was unable to lift it upwards in a forward motion and it had a catch in it when I bent down to try that way.  I was definitely a sight to see.  I contemplated pulling on the little string for the nurse to come help me, but he was a guy from church, so I didn’t really want to ask him for help putting on my pants.  Eventually I figured it out.  This was a wakeup call that if I do have the surgery, I will probably be totally incapable of a lot of things right away.  Oh, boy.  What a humbling experience for Kinsey.

Heath was super sweet to sit out in the waiting room and wait for me.  He was doing his favorite thing in the world when I got out….chitchatting with some woman who wouldn’t stop talking to him.  He helped me to the car as my leg felt just a bit weird.  Pretty similar to the dye they injected for my MRI a few weeks ago and we headed back to work.

I had everything ready as far as information goes for my meeting, but I had technical difficulties at Bridgeport and they were totally unable to hear my safety videos.  L  Humiliating for me, but a free lunch and break for them!

After work, I went over to my new house where Daddy had been working all day!  He had completely removed all the popcorn off of the ceiling in the big living room area and was starting on the bedrooms downstairs.  He is awesome!  Just curious, have you ever raked your living room?!

He was really concerned about my hip so he told me to relax.  Well, we all know me and that didn't happen.  I got myself a pair of pliers and sat myself down on the floor.  DISCOVERY 101:  WOOD FLOORS UNDER CARPET.  I grabbed a few extra tools and started ripping up the carpet and tack boards.  BEAUTIFUL!  Well, definite potential!  How awesome!  Now, wood floors in big living room and kitchen....what's next?!

 

On the way home, I cried because my hip hurt so bad.  I don’t know if it was more of a “they stuck needles in me sore” or if I was just half hoping/half expecting that to make it feel better” so they could proceed to surgery to help get this show on the road to recovery.

Made it home and it is just so nice to have someone to talk to and somehow all my dirty dishes  seem to disappear!  J

Popcorn Removal

I got up relatively early this morning and made breakfast for Daddy.  Then, I headed over to Heath’s house to load up some of my totes that were in storage at his house.  We loaded them up and headed to Sunday school and church.

It was really cool because Wayne, our Sunday school teacher, had his family there from England. His mother and two brothers were here this weekend to celebrate his graduation from Frontier School of the Bible.  They surprised him completely with coming!  How awesome!

We celebrated Mother’s day after church with Barb, Garry, and the boys.  Dad wants Heath and I to get away next weekend to Colorado, so we celebrated early. 

After church I met Daddy over at my house and Heath helped us unload the totes and he headed to help someone with their sprinkler.  Dad and I started the big undertaking of “popcorn removal.”  At first we were not sure how it was going to turn out.  After we got the concept of soaking down, it came off much easier.  We did, however, decided that we wanted to both be working at the same time to increase efficiency (he raised me!).  We took a little break and headed to Menard’s to purchase a really nice 7’ step ladder for my new place.  It’s yellow too!

Heath came back after he dropped the boys off to youth group.  He helped take down the rest of the fixtures on the ceiling to help us move along faster (and to cut us off because once it got dark, we didn’t have any lights).  Dad and I finished the kitchen eating area.  We decided that the best method was to just leave it on the floor in a big heaping mess until it dried because it was pretty heavy.

Good Help

~S~L~E~E~P~

I got lots of sleep last night.  I felt so much better.  Needless to say, I didn’t make it to Wayne or Travis’ graduation from Frontier School of the Bible.  Dad and I ate buckwheat pancakes and eggs with veggies.  I loaded up the pickup with totes and headed up to the hospital to see Connie as she had just had back surgery.  I got to visit with her and Ernie.  For those of you who don’t have the pleasure of knowing them, they are a wonderful couple with whom I have shared several Bible studies.

I met Dad over at my house just in time for lunch at the Melbeta All Around.  He had been looking forward to another hamburger from there ever since his last visit.  We loaded up the dogs and headed over there.  Turns out we had just missed them, it was 1:50 pm and the cook leaves at 1:30 pm.  So, we settled on going back into Gering to get Subway.

Dad and I knocked out all of the cabinets on the east side of the kitchen to open it up.  WOW, what a huge difference it made!  Heath stopped by after Andrew’s track meet in Alliance to help us with the heavy part of the removal.  This looks great and lets in a ton of light!  We also took down the 6” drop ceiling and removed the big box enveloping the refrigerator and moved it along the south wall.

I went with Heath to church for the hog roast and really enjoyed the meal and fellowship.  I brought some home to Dad as he wanted to work on the painting in Tiny and Trav’s house.  It’s really coming along nice.

Doctor's Appointment

I got up and went to my last day of spinning classes for this session.  The class was going for 2 hours today, but I only went for the standard 45 minutes and called it good.  That is extremely hard for me to do, but I was also able to take it easy in class.  I just had to know that I was fortunate enough to be in class and not be crippled yet.

I worked out of Bridgeport until about noon today.  Once paychecks arrived, I was out.  I quickly stopped by my new house to talk with the well guys.  Today is the day they are replacing the well lines from the house to the well house.  This is a super special thanks to Mr. Delton and Carol Herman.  I added a line and faucet at the garden myself.  I figured while they had it all dug up already, there couldn’t be a better time to do it.  By the time I bought hoses to reach the garden from either the house or the horse tank, this would be a better decision.

When I got to Gering, I had a 2,100 pound tote of pea seed to unload and boxes of paper goods that we had cleaned out of our closet there in Bridgeport.  The guys helped me out tremendously, and I was out the door to my doctor’s appointment.  Heath was in Denver today with his endocrinologist to check on his diabetes.

Luckily, my doctor was running a bit behind.  I had been waiting for this day for three weeks and one day (since my MRI).  I had been praying for answers of any kind, just answers.  My doc is awesome!  He is from Steamboat Springs, Colorado and he comes here to Scottsbluff, Nebraska every two weeks.  He flies from Steamboat airport to Scottsbluff airport in just a few short hours.  Anyway, he is confident, not cocky, extremely well-spoken, and has great bedside manner.  I feel very confident in his opinions.  After showing me my MRI on the computer screen and explaining what he saw happening, I agreed.  He said that the MRI and the physical exam all led him to believe it is a torn labrum.  However, since I have bad scoliosis, he wanted to do one more procedure to be sure the pain is localized to the hip.  They are going to give me a hip injection with short lasting pain reliever directly into the hip joint.  If this completely takes away the pain, even if for just a few short hours, we will know that it is a hip problem and proceed to a labral tear repair in the next 2-4 weeks.  If the injection does not take away the pain, we will then proceed to back MRI’s and go in that direction.

Me and My Buddy!

I worked the rest of the day from Gering.

When I got home, Dad had worked a ton on painting Tiny and Trav’s house.  He is sooo awesome!  He could tell I was exhausted, so I made supper and somehow he convinced me to go to bed.  Yes, I fell asleep at 7:30 pm, and yes, it was still light out.  I didn’t get up until 8:00 am the next morning.  That is 12.5 hours of sleep.  It was well worth it!

Answers to Prayers

Yesterday, I had the answers to alot of prayers.  I closed on  my house and I finally have some answers to my MRI that I had almost three weeks ago.

I have been praying about the house and how if I should buy it instead of renting.  It has been a great transition with sweet Delton and Carol (the owners) and Farrell (our realtor).  I feel like I can share this house in so many ways!  My Daddy is coming tomorrow to help me start working on it.  I just love doing stuff like this.  We will get to bond and he can teach me soo very much about remodeling!

My doctor called me today too about my hip!  He is still pretty adamant about  it being a labral tear, but wants to conclude that with more x-rays during my in-person appointment on Friday.  Depending on what he sees, he might pursue a full back MRI to see that my scoliosis isn't affecting anything.  Good news is that surgery for the labral tear is a repair with only 4-6 months of non-weight bearing compared to a full reconstruction which is 9-12 months of non-weight bearing!  WOW, with all that time to be on crutches and focus on my upper-body, my arms will be in great shape!  :)