Crazy Busy Month

Once a month or so seems to be about what I’m updating right now. I intend to update more often, but life has been pretty busy so it doesn’t usually happen. Life is full of appointments right now and the days go by fast. I will try to post more frequently, as I know this is going to be a longer post.

Physical and Occupational Therapies:

We’ve had a pretty crazy month. I’ve continued to get stronger, and am doing independent physical therapy sessions twice a week at the hospital, and the rest of the days at home. For the hospital sessions, I am able to go to the rehab portion of the hospital and use their equipment to workout and strengthen my body. At home, we have several pieces of equipment I use most days when I’m not at the hospital sessions, and I continue to take walks regularly. These are mostly around our yard and neighborhood, but I am beginning to venture out a little further.

I started driving back in June to some extent, and have been increasing that slowly each week. The hardest part of driving for me is my left side, as my wrist gets tired pretty easily with the steering wheel and I struggle to get my left leg into the vehicle a little sometimes. I’ve come a long way, but the left side was really damaged so I still have a ways to go. I am hoping to begin walking at local nature preserves soon. My balance has improved greatly with a lot of therapy. I could still fall, but the chances of that happening have greatly decreased from where I was even a month or so ago.

Some of the photos I’ve taken either in our backyard, or while stopping to various lakes and side roads between appointments:

Internal Damage:

I’ve mentioned this previously, but there was a lot of internal damage during the accident. I was going to have a surgery for this in July, and it has been postponed until fall, likely October. We are hoping this will fix some of the stomach problems I’ve had, like stomach aches and nausea, but if not, I will need more tests. So far, all of the tests I’ve had indicate the problems largely stem from injuries in the accident, and that once those are fixed, there is a good chance they will clear up.

It took quite awhile, but we were finally able to get my records from the first hospital I was at. The doctors did a temporary fix after the accident, but my abdominal wall was greatly injured so they couldn’t fix things the way they need to be. We’ve had to give the abdominal wall lots of time to heal. Most of the time, I don’t notice a lot of pain until I’m more active and then I get twinges that sometimes get worse. Orthopedically, I’m now cleared to return to work, but with all of the internal damage, I will need to be off just a little bit longer. I am hoping to return to teaching by January.

Ben

As some of you may already know, Ben ended up with a staph infection in his leg after the accident. He has fought this infection since December, with it coming and going a couple of times. Last week, he noticed it was coming back. Within a few days, he noticed his big toe was also infected. He went to the emergency room where they told him it was a staph infection. They called in an antibiotic for him and told him to follow up with his primary doctor. When he followed up with his primary doctor, he sent us straight to the ER for more tests. They believe it may actually be MRSA. He ended up needing his entire toenail removed. I have shared some photos in the gallary, but I will warn you some of them are pretty graphic so you may want to skip past them.

Rainy weather:

August has been a pretty rainy month so far. It has led to some gorgeous skies! You can see some of the storm clouds moving in up above in the photos I shared, but here are a few more photos from our rainy days, and a video:

Native Plant Garden

We are really getting some pretty flowers in our Native Plant garden!

Quotes for this Month:

A vendor at our local Farmer’s Market makes awesome decals, and you can do custom made ones. I had some of the quotes that have meant a lot to me over this journey made into decals. Two of them, we placed in our stairway. The rest will be placed on objects, such as journals. She does a great job! You can find her Facebook page here…..

https://www.facebook.com/amandassoapessentials/