Saturday, August 14, 2010

Hanging in There

Being laid up is not a whole lot of fun, but with a positive attitude, lovely parents/nurses, movies and pain meds - I've made it work.

The docs were very happy with the work that they did. It was textbook the way the operation went and I recovered rather nicely in recovery. No major upsets, except for my tummy on Thursday night - you can get the picture.

The docs were really impressed with my mobility the next day after my surgery and my 'chipper' attitude. Folks, I don't have that long until classes start up, so I'm doing the best I can without pushing it too much. I have a few friends that would be down my throat if I hurt myself more by just trying to get better faster.

It's been nice to spend time with my family though through all of this and I'm really excited that Ben and Eva are up here for the weekend as well. Ben is preaching at church in the morning and mom and dad are giving their witnesses or faith stories. I'd love to go to both services, but my little jaunt out to Blockbuster and GFS wore me out enough today, so I think one service will be quite enough :)

So I'm taking 'each step' rather slowly these days, on my way to full recovery!

Sunday, August 8, 2010

The Black Knight has Returned

After a much awaited re-appearance of the Black Knight, she has finally returned. After a long summer of craziness with her third summer with John Deere and being nervous about how the summer would turn out - the Knight is back! (Quick note - The Black Knight came as a nick-name from my girls in Ireland when they were on a Monty Python kick as for some reason I was invincible like the Black Knight was as he kept on going after his hand was cut off.)

Here's how:

1- Rocked out the rest of the summer at Harvester Works. I learned so much about the John Deere STS 70 Series combine, how it is made and a pretty good history base of John Deere. My final tour, a handful of my friends hopped on the cart and I was pretty nervous as two of them were engineers and one was a life-long farmer. I got the thumbs-up approval from all of them though so that was wonderful!

2- I am a real-life hero now according to some. To me, I just reacted as others would have, I just was somehow faster than the rest, even with a torn ACL. After our final presentations in Kansas City, a few of the interns were hanging out around the pool area. A family with three boys came down with the youngest being maybe 2 at best. We were all kind of worried for him because he didn't have floaties or anything on. Well, 20 or so minutes later I see this little blonde, curly-haired, blue-eyed cutie running full blast to the hot-tub. I was going to get up to just be like "Hey there, let's not run around here," and guide him away from the hot-tub. But the next second, I realized he was not stopping and was going in.

Here is what I remember: Jumping up out of my chair and then pulling the kid out of the water! I don't remember how many steps it took or what I was thinking. I remember seeing his face under water and making sure he was breathing as I pulled him up - my CPR training was starting to come back to me in the heat of the moment if I needed to use it, but as I pulled him straight up, he was coughing/spitting up water which meant he was breathing as well.

His mom was right there to take him from me and it was as I was getting out of the hot-tub that I realized I was sopping wet from toe to chest. My poor Justin boots and Express jeans didn't have a chance with as fast as I reacted. I think they'll be ok though, the boots took about two full days to dry but I should be able to work out the chlorine stains in them. The parents insisted on thanking me in some way and came back about 30 minutes later with a fresh bottle of the same wine we had already finished. Completely unnecessary, but nice.

3- ACL surgery this Wednesday! So the Black Knight will be fully on the way to complete recovery! My surgeon has chosen the route to take a part of my hamstring to make my new ACL. Apparently it's the best way to do it according to him because it is how Tiger Woods' surgeon did his. So if Tiger Woods did it - it must be the best right? I mean, it has always been my dream to immolate Tiger Woods. Ok, I'll quit being sarcastic and mean, I wish the man the best really on his road to recovery and back to grace and hope he starts playing better than he has this season.

4- I had a blast designing a business card for my family friend/ Aunt Sylvia for her business pursuit into a small sewing company after she retires - so feels good to have to have those creative juices flowing.

Erika, Mariel and Alyssa - fear not - BK is back!