Follow up dr. appointment

Today I had a second follow up visit. The dr. said it looked like my jaw will heal without needing to be wired shut. This is a huge relief and it was news that Jeff and I were very grateful to hear. At one point the dr. said I was lucky to have only broken my left jaw and not both. Between you and me…I hadn’t considered myself lucky, but when he put it that way I had to agree. The break occured in my upper jaw by my ear.

When people see me for the first time after hearing the news they are surprised to see I look the same. The stitches are out, the swelling has gone down, and there aren’t any bruises on my face. I was also surprised to not have the bruising. When I say I landed on my chin, I really did land smack on my chin. I suppose since it is just bone there wasn’t anything to be bruised. (?)

The fall did knock some sense into me (and scared the crap-O-la out of me). I’m now significantly more cautious in general, and now wear my leg braces from when I wake up, all day, until bedtime.

I’m REALLY looking forward to adding soft food to my current pureed food/smoothie diet.

Nasty Fall

The little red circle shows where the break occured on my upper left jawbone.

I had a nasty fall on Friday, Dec 3, which resulted in a couple of chipped teeth, cut on my chin, and a broken jaw.

It happened around 11:30am. Megan was sitting in a chair in the kitchen and I was combing her hair. (Quit wondering why it took me until 11:30 to comb my daughter’s hair. Shush…I’m telling my story.) While I was walking from the right side of the chair to the left side my toe caught on the chair leg and I lost my balance. In that second it took to fall I was thinking “Janae get your arms up!” But I still lacked the strength to break the fall and landed on my chin.

As I lifted up my head, I could see the blood start to drip onto the tile floor and heard Megan in the background repeating, “I’m sorry mommy!” I tried going into mom mode by saying, “It’s not your fault Megan, I tripped by myself. Will you go get me a towel from the kitchen drawer?” She ran and got a towel for the bleeding. I then asked, “Meggie, will you now get me the phone so I can call daddy.” She brought me the phone. Jeff’s office is about a mile from our house was able to get home quickly.

After our friend and neighbor, Andrea, came over to pick up Megan, Jeff and I went to the E.R. The Dr. put 4 stitches inside the laceration on my chin to pull the muscle together and then 10 stitches on top. The x-rays didn’t show any broken bones so they did a CT scan. This time the fracture was visible in the upper left jawbone.

The person we need to meet with next is the plastic surgeon. He actually called here today saying he can meet on Wednesday. He reviewed the CT scan and said there is a chance that the brake can heal without my jaw needing surgery. It may take two weeks to know if this is an option so we have to wait and see if my jaw realigns as the swelling goes down. If I do need surgery and my jaw is wired shut, then there is a chance that I would also need a feeding tube put in (because of potential ALS related problems). A glimmer of hope is good enough for me, so I’ll hang onto that. I will post an update when we know more.

I describe the pain as a dull ache but whenever I swallow it hurts because the motion moves my jaw. Yawning is quite painful. I can open my mouth wide enough to fit in a spoon, but if I can use a straw to slurp up food that is preferred over a spoon. I am so happy that I can still speak!

People have been so kind in offering help and to bring by soup and food. When Amy and Angie showed up this afternoon with an amazing blender I thought I might cry. (A happy, appreciative type cry.) This blender can probably puree a computer if it wanted to. I will be doing a lot of blending over the next few weeks.

If you had to pick between a) snow or b) poisonous creatures...

The taunting phone calls usually start in October when the weather turns chilly in Utah. My two sisters will let us know what the weather is like where they live. We hear reports such as 90 degrees from Kristen. While from Heidi it might be 78 and partly cloudy skies.

The weather here right now? 27 degrees but feels like 19 because of the wind chill.

Yesterday the phone call I received from Kristen, who lives in the D.R. Congo, wasn't about the weather, it was about snakes. It was to tell me about a 5 1/2 foot Forest Cobra. It was found on their back patio near the hutch containing her sons pet guinea pigs. In the past few months in their yard they have found one Gabon Viper and now two cobras.

Eeek!

From snakes we now go to spiders. I have heard Heidi talk about how where she lives there are A LOT of Black Widow spiders and just a few months ago she was bit by one.

Again, Eeek!

I LOVE my sisters. A gal couldn't ask for better sisters. But ladies, you can take your warm weather and poisonous creatures, and I'll stick with my snow.

(To be fair, the taunting phones are a two way deal. We call Heidi to tell her about our 82 degrees when it is a smokin' 113 in her back yard. Oh and I do see an occasional Black Widow outside, but I haven't been bit yet.)

Here are some recent photos...



Snow!

On this particular morning my kids had eaten their breakfast, put on their snow clothes and were out the door to go sledding by 7:15am. Yes, they are nuts. And I love them for it.

Thankful for...

My family and Jeff's are a bit too spread out for my tastes. You will find us in 6 different states and two different (soon-to-be three) countries. We just don't see family as often as we would like!

With Thanksgiving coming up: Today I am thankful for the visit from my brother Steve. He stayed with us for 2 days before heading out for training and then on to Iraq.

We love you Steve!

grOw

(photo from 2009)

Finding the caterpillars which become Monarch butterflies is a favorite September activity for our kids. We put the caterpillars in a little cage and over the next 3 weeks we watch them eat away at milkweed leaves, form their chrysalis, and emerge as a butterfly.

This year Erik found just one caterpillar and named it Catty. One morning Erik decided to clean out the cage. He carefully put Catty, and the leaf she was having for breakfast, on a plate to keep her safe. Megan wanted to get a better look and moved the plate to the floor (a bad idea). Well, Jeff came walking around the corner (from here it goes from bad to worse) and accidentally stepped on Erik's beloved caterpillar.

Squashed. Dead. The End.

Over the next 2 days when the kids got home from school I drove them around as they searched for milkweed plants and inspected them for caterpillars. We never found any, but Erik and Claire did collect milkweed seeds to plant on the south side of our house.

Here is the plan: It is to convince Monarch butterflies that our yard would be a wonderful place to raise a family. Just think; all sorts of perennials and flowering shrubs for mom and dad, and milkweed for the kids. They will love it here. Okay, maybe not. We will just have to wait and see if the seeds actually grow!

(another 2009 photo)

Onto other plant news...our annual Christmas Amaryllis planting project is under way. This year Jeff and the kids planted 20.

I'm saying it is always a good time to grOw.

All in the name of Accessibility

September 2009 was a rough month. Fast forward a year to September 2010 and I spent a good chunk of the month in an irritable mood.

If I were to be compared to an animal, I would have been Mango. Imagine a large fluffy orange cat. Now imagine that cat crouched on the doorstep with its fur wet from the rain, its ears laid back and body tense, a ticked off expression on its face, and all the while you hear that angry cat growl.

I don't think I portrayed that image to everyone I came in contact with, but that is how I felt inside. It was a result of my anticipation of some upcoming home improvement projects.

It is a cycle that I have come to recognize. As more of my physical abilities are lost, adaptations need to be made. And I get angry about the changes. It would have been nice if the diagnosis could have been given and I could have gotten out all of my grieving in the early stages and then moved on anticipating and making needed changes as I go...anger free. But like I said, it is a cycle I recognize, and it is how I mourn. I mourn incrementally as needed, and then move on.

This time the adaptations were big; Improving and increasing accessibility. We added a handrail down the steps into our backyard and remodeled our bathroom. The counter has been lowered, the shower is now a walk-in and a wall was partially removed and the doorway widened to be (someday when needed) wheelchair accessible. Everything was wrapped up in October.

With the big changes came a lot of sadness and it seemed to drag on much longer than normal. One morning, after Erik and Claire left for school and Jeff had gone to work, all I wanted to do was stare at the old nail hole in the wall. Do you know what I mean, where you want everything and everyone to just go away. Even if it is only for a couple of hours.

All of a sudden my wake-up call came. It was like there was a voice in my head saying, "Janae, this has gone on long enough. Get over yourself!" (There wasn't really a voice in my head...because that would present a another set of problems!) I had passed the point of grief to where it became unproductive self pity. Feeling sorry for myself consumes a surprisingly large amount of energy. So the wake-up call was a welcomed kick to get my a*s moving.

I got up and walked down the hall and just started laughing at Megan. She was dancing in the middle of our family room rug, wearing a bunch of medals around her neck and singing into a crayon. Her song went something like, "I'm a rock star, every day...God gave us fam-ilies...O' yah, I'm a really good singer!"

Thank heavens for my young children, they keep me sane.

October has had some blah, but it has been mostly good.

Enough of me. Now back to my kids...

ALS update

It looks like I'm doing some sort of pose from the movie "Titanic." Haha. At the time I was trying to walk into some crazy wind on top of the Wellsvilles. The photo dating back to 1995 was from another lifetime.

Background: The first ALS symptom was 3 1/2 years ago. Diagnosis was 2 years 3 months ago.

I think we will start at the top and work down.

Speech is continuing to slow down. Not a lot of power in projecting my voice.

My hair gives a thank you to my sister-in-laws, Sandi and Erin. This summer they gave Jeff lessons in how to put my hair in a ponytail. He is such a good sport in so many ways.

My arms and shoulders are weak. If I need to reach sometime that is eye level, I go on my tiptoes because then I am a bit taller and it means 3 less inches I have to lift my arms up. Everything is heavy.

My hands. The fingers are starting to curl in. Some fingers I can't extend all the way. It makes for an funny wave. My right thumb barely moves and for the most part it stays curled next to my palm. I do try to stretch it throughout the day. If I want to grip a glass in my right hand I will use my left hand to position my right thumb and then wrap the rest of the fingers around to grip. Drinking straws have become handy to eliminate the need to lift a glass all of the way. There is concentrated effort to keep my hand steady while using utensils in general. I use my left hand to pick up small objects. When taking my meds. often I will dip the tip of my finger in water and then when I dab at a tiny pill it will stick. From there I just have to lift it to my mouth. For all the zippers on my pants, there are now attached loops where I can hook my finger in and pull up. There is no way I can button my pants and so I use my fastened belt to keep things flat. At church picking up the sacrament bread and tiny water cups is difficult. Trying to shake hands with someone when my thumb doesn't lift up is awkward.

My legs. Balance is an ongoing problem with the result being more falls and more bruises. The real eye opener was when I tripped on a gravel path and went down. I was able to get my arms out in front to break the fall. But there was not enough strength to prevent me from grazing my chin and nose on the gravel. Braces and my hiking pole should be the norm when I'm out. When I don't use them it's because I am being stubborn or stupid. Probably both.

Walking. The heel to toe walking motion has been gone for some time. When I walk in the house without braces I concentrate to get my foot flat because my toes want to land first. It turns into more of a shuffle.

I sound repetitive from previous posts. I think back to a year ago on what I was complaining about then and in comparison to today...back then I had it good! That must mean that I better enjoy today.

(Are these updates helpful? Yes? No? I'll do one more "me" after this and then get back to the kids.)