surgery

I'm leaving around noon today for Boston. The surgery is tomorrow morning around 7:30am.I'll be back around Sunday night.
Ahh.. here we go again..

quick update

* I am in Florida right now enjoying some sun, shopping, fun restaurants, walking, and my gradmother. I've been here for a week and I leave on Sunday. It's been a relaxing time, and I've enjoyed it.. I'll be ready to come home on Sunday evening though, because I'm starting to miss everyone.

* April 15th me and my family will leave for Boston. The morning of the 16th I have a bone scan on my neck scheduled (this is our last resort to figuring out what is wrong with my neck), and x-rays planned for my left femur because I scheduled a big surgery on it for June 29th. This Monday (April 6th) will mark one year since I fell and broke my femur. I cannot believe that it has been one year already.

* When I get home I will have a brand new room. I've lived in the same small room my entire life, and I've finally upgraded to a bigger room downstairs. Last week my dad painted it and had carpet put in, assembled a brand new desk for me & painted the moldings. What a great guy :) I'll post some pictures when its completely finished. All I need are closet doors and to arrange everything. The walls are bright pink, the comfortor set is zebra, with black curtains, and all white furniture (With the mirrored closet doors like I have in my room upstairs). The change will be nice.

See you all soon!

unexpected

Today I got a very unexpected phone call.

About 2 years ago I applied for SSI benefits, and after a long process I was denied. I reapplied in July of 2007, and then never heard anything back so I assumed that i was denied for a final time. I gave up on this and to be honest comnpletely forgot about it. This morning, a woman from SSI called and told me that my claim has been approved! She is setting up a phone interview with me on March 3rd to get my information, so they can start sending the checks. I am in shock and cannot believe that this is happening. This will be such a great opportunity for me to give my tired body the rest that it deserves, by not having to work for awhile. This came at such an appropriate time :)

trying..

At the New Year's Eve service Adam Conn came up to me and said "You know, you're my wife's favorite blogger. She loves reading your posts". So Shel, this is for you..

I haven't updated in awhile. I've had many blog-worthy things to write about (a trip to Boston, a trip to new york city for Christmas, and a day trip to Syracuse) all within a week and a half's time. Since my last post, there's many many tears, laughs and fears. The only thing I can blame my lack of posting on is discouragement. My trip to Boston did not go as well as I had anticipated it would. I actually left with more questions than what I went with. I met with my hip surgeon & we concluded that something definitely needs to be done with my left hip (because the nail head is sticking out of the bone and causing constant pain). The unsettling news is that he hasn't decided if it'd be to my benefit to take out all of the "hardware" in the whole leg (there are 2 screws in the hip socket, one large nail going from the socket to just above my knee, and a screw laying perpendicular to the large screw, to hold it all in place), or to only remove the screw head that is causing the most pain. The first would be a larger surgery and recovery time, but would possibly give me more peace of mind. However, if I fell again right after surgery, my leg would be destroyed. That worries the surgeons. We also did not decide on a date for a surgery.

Aaaand... onto my neck. This is the discouraging part. I had a very extensive MRI done on my neck and after reviewing it briefly, my neck surgeon said that it did not look like a structural issue. I was suppose to stay in Boston for a few more days and meet with a neurologist and a pain management doctor, but there was a huge storm approaching the next morning, so my surgeons requested that we leave right then. They gave me a prescription for an anti-inflammatory, and they said that it should work within 3 to 4 days. It has now been 16 days that I have been taking it and I have noticed no difference in pain level. This rules out structural, and possibly arthritis. So, what is it? I have no idea, and Boston doesn't either. I have to go get a bone scan done at Canton-Potsdam Hospital very soon and mail Boston the results. After that, I'll probably have to go back again to meet with a pain management team to try to relieve some of my pain, while they try to figure out whats wrong with me.

I was hoping that we'd get this settled before my neck semester starts, so that I won't have to deal with constant pain on top of going to school full time and working part-time. Oh well, I guess that won't be happening.