Limitations

Everyone goes through times where they realize their limitations a little too late to do anything about it. If you’re lucky, it’s a trivial thing when you notice, others, it could be life or death. Today was one of those trivial times for me.

Heather decided to do something with the girls to burn off some energy today, so I called my parents to see if we could bring them over to swim in the pool. Of course, they said yes and we headed over there. We all got in the pool. Riley decided she wasn’t going to be a water baby today and Heather had to take her to the park to play while Ansley and I stayed in the pool. After a couple hours of playing it was time to get out and head home. I got Ansley over the ladder and she got out. I reached up and realized I couldn’t do that. During my surgery a few weeks ago, my Doc had to remove a large muscle the runs from shoulder to shoulder off of my spine to do his work. The majority of my healing is that muscle reattaching itself to my spine. For the time being, I can’t lift any more than 5 lbs, I can’t use my arms to pull or lift anything while they are outstretched. So, as I looked at that ladder, I realized I couldn’t pull myself out of the pool. I waded over the shallow end and checked the height of the pool top to see if I could “jump” up to the top and sit myself out. It was too tall. My parents’ pool doesn’t have a set of steps going out of the shallow end either, so that wasn’t an option. And, there was no one there to lift me out. Crap. I felt like an idiot not being able to get out of the friggin' pool!! Finally, I asked Heather to go get a lawn chair or something out of my parents’ garage to help me get out. She found a small step ladder and brought it out. I used it to step out of the pool and all is well.

Limitations are ok, if you remember them before you cross them. :)

The Last 9 Months

Wow.. Have I really not written anything worthwhile since September of last year?? I have really gotten slack about this.. And, it’s not like anything interesting hasn’t happened over the last 9 months. To the contrary, too many things have happened over this time, and I think because of the severity of some of them, writing was the last thing on my mind.

On the good side, both Ansley and Riley-Kate are growing up fast. Riley has been walking since December (11 months old at that time.) She is talking up a storm and is showing some good smarts. (Must be from her mom) Ansley has been in dance class and had a “practice” recital back in December and her first real recital last weekend. She did awesome in both of them!! Heather has started running and biking. She has run a couple of 5K’s and even placed 5^th in her age group in one of them. She is working her way up to a triathlon and, later, a full marathon. That’s awesome and I’m proud of all of three of my girls..

We’ve had one real dive trip. We did our yearly manatee trip to Crystal River back in December. We had about 12 people in the group and we all had another great time.. I also did a two week TDY to MacDill AFB in Tampa back in March. We had tried to make a trip to Venice Beach during that time to do some megalodon teeth hunting but got weathered out. So, we made an impromptu trip to Crystal River and dove Rainbow River again. Another good time and I had my first raw oysters, ever, during that weekend. (Thanks Dee) And, I got a new tattoo back in October. I have the girls’ infant footprints surrounded by angel wings on the upper portion of my back. Ink done by Les Collier of Atomic Tattoo in Warner Robins, GA.

On the downside of things.. My sister’s cancer has returned. Her breast cancer has metastasized and has shown up in her brain and a couple of other spots in her body. They have been doing radiation treatments for her brain since the cancer is in an area that cannot be operated on. After three weeks of daily radiation treatments, the legions were less than half the size they were when they found them, so she will now a “surgical radiation” procedure tomorrow. They will pinpoint the legions and zap them that way. The radiologist is saying only one treatment is needed and they should be gone. She is still going through chemo for the other spots in her body. She is scheduled to go through that until, at least January 2011. Her fight is there and we are all optimistic the Docs will have her healthy in time.

On the same cancer note, Scuba Kat, our beloved dive buddy from Covington, GA lost her battle with cancer on 23 May 2010. Rest in Peace, Kat. You are dearly missed. Dive Buddy Dee and I made the trip up to Covington and went to Kat’s funeral. We got to speak to her mother again and meet her son. We wish the family well in their grieving.

On my personal note, I thought I was healing up pretty good from my neck fusion surgery. However, back in February, the Doc noticed two of my ten screws were not fusing to the bone like they should, so he said he was going to have to go in through the back and add more hardware to get the screws to set. So, on 7 May 2010, I went under the knife again. The surgery went well and after a couple days in the Hospital, I came home for 4 weeks of recuperation. Everything went well and I had my first post-op meeting with the Doc last Wednesday. He pulled pout my staples, cleared me to start driving again and told me I could take off my neckbrace, but I had to VERY careful not to pick up anything heavy and to especially not straighten out my arms while I had any weight on them. He had detached a muscle in my back from my spine to do his work and that muscle had to have time to reattach itself before I could really use my arms. Easy enough. Of course, that VERY evening, I was carrying something very light up the stairs and as I lifted it a bit higher to get over the baby gate, I felt a “rip” in my neck. I came downstairs and asked Heather to look at it. She said part of it looked a bit sunken in, but other than that, no big deal. I didn’t worry about it, but, as I was taking my shower the next day, I felt the sunken area and it freaked me out. It was “huge.” So, I called the Doc’s office, I told them what had happened and they had me come in today. The doc wasn’t there so I saw his PA. After some tests and finally, some x-rays, we figured out what had happened. During my surgery, to get all my new hardware to fit, the doc had to remove the “spinous process” from my C4 and C5 vertebral bodies. What is a spinous process you ask? “The bumps that can be felt down the back are the spinous processes. They are bony projections that arise at right angles (perpendicular) to the midline of the lamina. Each spinous process is attached to the spinous process above and below it by ligaments. Sometimes these processes are absent or bifid in the cervical spine.” (Link where I got info) So, after all was said and done, I did no further damage to my neck area and even went to my first Physical Therapy session today. I hurt afterwards, but I know it’ll help me out in the long run. I’ve got 4 weeks of that to go.

So, in a nutshell, that’s what has been going on for the last 9 months. I’ll try and do better with this writing stuff again. I enjoy doing it. Finding the time to do it, that’s the problem.