isn't that awesome??

I was doing pretty good after resting for an entire week after my accident. Alot of my many sore muscles were no longer sore. My knees although still sore and swollen were giving me more mobility, walking was getting easier. So a little bit on Sat and Sunday (7-8 days post accident) I spent some time picking up the house and vacuuming. I didn't feel I over did it, and even got a little crabby with myself because I wasn't able to do what I wanted. The kids were pitching in when I needed them too, Bailey has been cutting the grass and Hannah cleaning litter boxes and feeding pets, fetching things when I couldn't get up, etc. but there were still lots of little messes.

Sunday I was able to get out of the house for the first time. We barrowed a truck from our brother in law, and I took the kids to sunday school and church. Steve has been working non stop though all this too, so to a point I had to stop resting and try to do a few things. Driving was tough, both emotionally and physically...it was hard to get behind a wheel of a big truck that I wasn't used to driving, all I could see was the crash in front of me and so very cautious of every car around me. On the way to church had to pass over the crash site on Hwy 12, everything was still marked up on the road, and some tire tracks visable.

My knees were very sore and my back started hurting more and more. Sitting hurts more than standing. I guess the stuff I was doing set my back into motion, because up until then I had no back or neck pain to speak of.

Saturday night I even had what I guess I'll call an anxiety attack. The house was suddenly very noisey, kids and animals running all over, husband antagonizing everyone. I was thinking of the next day and driving and needing to get out of the house like NOW. I just couldn't take it anymore and was sick of resting and being able to keep the house clean, and things orderly....everything suddenly felt caotic. I had a hard time breathing, my chest hurt, tears were coming uncontrollably...I was trying so hard to just relax and couldn't. It took several more hours before I finally was able to go to bed and sleep. Even though I was mentally exhausted, I was physically unable to relax. It eventually happened, I did relax and fell asleep, but not without alot of tossing and turning which probably didn't help my back.

Felt less stressed on the actual day I was to get out of the house and drive, Sunday morning came and that's all I needed, to be in the Lord's house instead of my own...it was heaven...besides the fact I still hurt:( I praised the Lord for being healthy enough to be there and tried to control my complaining for the rest of the day.

By Monday I was in so much pain in my lower back it hurt to move, sit, get up from sitting or laying, pretty much any movement was painful. I bought a heating pad and loaded up on the ibruprofen and finished my last few pills of vicodin. None of it seemed to help much...so Tuesday morning I called the chiropractor thinking that had to be my next option. Wasn't going back to the doctor I had last Monday since he was absolutly no help. I am so glad I called a chiropractor, because it was a big help.
I was so nervous, since I have never been to a chiropractor. I went to a office right next to where I work. The building is only a few years old and have seen people come and go from there like crazy, since I only work next door and out our hotel front door is a view of the clinic. It is owned by a dad and his 2 sons... all chiropractors. I got one of the sons, I believe the older one, still probably younger than me. He was very nice, easy going, and had an obvious attitude of excitment for his work and profession. I liked him right off the bat. That eased my worries. He talked me through everything, explained things in detail and then made sure I understood, by asking me every time if it made sense to me.

Basicly he could tell without xrays what my issues were just by listening to me and looking at my legs and back.

They are good that way.

He started with my head and neck, and although those areas didn't hurt, he did manage to find some sore spots. He did say they don't hurt NOW, but could in the future. I've heard that before too. 6 months down the road I could have severe neck pain.

He adjusted my neck by just having me turn my head each way and the table I was on certain parts of it jumped up and down. It didn't hurt at all. He also went from my ankles to my neck with me laying both on my stomach and my back, and adjusted my knees, hips, back and neck again. My right leg was 1/2" shorter than my left leg. He said my whole right side was really "jammed up" pretty good. My knee was looking pretty pushed up and that affects everything as well, like my hips back and neck. He used some sort of instrument to do something with my legs and knees as well...couldn't see that well, and I forgot what he said that was for, probably for nerves and muscles so things could straighten/loosen up.
Seriously after all that, my pain was better almost instantly. A little sore from the adjusting but definatly better. Was told to put ice on my back and knees, and stop the heat for now. Ice will calm and relax already heated up and inflammed discs that are pressing on nerves better.
He also reommended soemthing called Arnica Montana 30c, it's a natual remedy for stress, swelling and inflammation. He said he lived on it as a kid playing in sports. Haven't picked any of that up yet, but plan to once I get to a place that has some. Just sticking to ibuprofen for now....but plan to cut that out soon.

I still pride myself on being medication free, I do not take anything on a daily basis. I need to watch my weight though, because I forsee blood pressure medication in my future if I don't figure out how to control my weight. I do want to take supplements and vitamins as soon as I start to workout again, but for now taking nothing is kinda nice and I'm enjoying it.

I go back to the chiropractor tomorrow morning and still nervous, but excited too that my pain level has decreased significantly. Monday all day, and Tuesday morning I would say I was at about a 7-8 pain level on movement, and today it is at about 2-3

....isn't that awesome??


These are my knees 6 days after the accident...I will have to remember to post a pic of my knees once they are healed. Besides the bruises it's hard to tell the swelling and how my knees looked before. But these are swollen knees-- trust me.

Kittens

These kittens wandered into our lives this summer. Bailey was in the garage and came to tell me that there were 2 kittens in there. Hannah bolted out the door to see. AWWWWW. They were so cute and so lost. They looked very healthy, so we played with them for a bit. We decided to keep them in the porch for the night. Hannah has been wanting a kitten for awhile, and even the day before we were at PetSmart looking at the cats and kittens for adoption. Just a little too much money and wasn't keen on more cats in the house. We do have 2 cats already, so it wasn't like she was being deprived. She dreamt of a kitten for her own, and we left it at that...a dream.

Kinda funny how we did end up keeping these kittens, and the whole family has enjoyed their presence. Hannah named them both. They are both girls, and she already had a named picked out, she always wanted to name her kitten, Stella, if it was a girl....so Stella it was. We went though alot of names trying to pick one out for the other kitten, and Hannah also came up with Bamboo for the other one. Bailey wanted Selena for her name, and I agreed with Bailey, but guess who won the name game???
They are very rambunctious especially at night and in the early morning hours, running all over the place...and are sleepy all day...pretty typical for a kitten I guess.
They are special in that they are sisters, we are pretty sure of it since they wandered away together, and that they BOTH have 5 toes on each paw. It is pretty silly and unique. Stella has 4 toes seperated by 1 toe which looks like a thumb, and Bamboo has 3 toes seperated by 2 toes which makes for one huge paw-- Normal cat paws have 4 toes.

These are Stella's paws....( didn't get a pic of Bamboo's yet but can kinda see her paws in all the pictures)



We took them to the vet for a checkup after we found them and they had ear mites and Stella had an upper respiratory infection...so we treated both kittens for both issues....they were about 2 months old when we found them. They are healthy now, and got their first shots a few weeks ago. They are gonna be spayed, declawed and get the 2nd set of shots in a few weeks or as soon as we get the money together :)


2 months old (taken after we found them)


3 1/2 months old (taken 9-17-10)


Bamboo




Stella

CRASH :(

I figured my last post was called "Stung" and an appropriate post name for the next one would be a simple one word too.. "Crash"

I was in a car accident on Saturday, Sept 11. Pretty scary! I was driving to work around 3:45pm. I live off of hwy 12, and work off of hwy 12....its a 2 lane country highway. I go though one town (Darwin) on my way and takes about 12 min to get to work-- straight shot....seems simple and the least likely place to get into an accident...but accidents can happen anytime anywhere. I had God on my side and came though relatively unharmed.

I was following a SUV- big Suburban type though Darwin. The SUV slowed through town-- posted speed limit is 45, and then stayed on Hwy 12 and started to speed back up to the posted 55mph, but then had her left blinker on almost like she wanted to turn but missed her turn??? We were just out of Darwin now and there was no turns, just corn fields LOL. So I slowed and then she sped up again and turned blinker off. Thought it was weird, but kept on my path to work.

I was back up to about 60 mph, and far enough behind her not to really think anything else was up....all of a sudden as I got closer to her, I realized she was slowing and almost at a stop on hwy, but it was too late, I must have glanced down or looked out my side window for a second because I never saw her slow or brake or signal or anything, and slammed into the back of the SUV at about 50-60 mph...I think I did realize she was too close at the last second and might of braked but it happened so fast there wasn't anything I could do once I realized she was there. I think she was attepting to make a u turn on the highway and didn't see any cars around her, because when I hit her, my van stayed pretty much in the lane, went slightly towards center line, and her SUV was across the opposite lane facing the other direction on the side of the road as if her wheel was planned to turn that u turn when I hit her. I think if I hit her dead on from the back, her SUV would have moved forward, not in a big circle. I guess it depends on how her wheel was, but anyway....I never did her story on why she stopped in the middle of the road, but did hear her daughter who was 11, tell the nurse her mom missed a turn-- they were gonna stop in Darwin to see the "Ball of Twine" (historic attraction in the town), which is why I believe she was gonna make a u turn later down the road.

There were 3 people in the SUV-- the mom (in her 50's) and her 11 yr old daughter and her daughters friend, also 11. It was my fault for not paying attention in those last seconds, but also her's for slowing in her lane/ almost to a stop and attempting a u turn...no citations were given and it was determined 50-50 fault.


The air bag went off in the van and it was smokey or something in the van from it, so I got out instinctively right away, my door did open, with a push and I just plopped down next to the van in the middle of the road, which is when I saw their SUV on the other side of the road kinda behind- across from me. I thought they'd be in front of me. I was coughing from all the smoke or whatever was in the van when I hit.

Almost instantly witnesses came and a lady stayed by my side till paramedics got there. This lady was really nice and kept me calm, and said she was from Dassel too-- It's gonna bug me, but I thnk I knew her, just wasn't for sure. She also said she would stop by my work and tell them what happened. Many others helped with traffic as my van and myself were in the middle of the hwy. Volunteer firefighter/rescue people were there first, then police, then about 2-3 ambulances.....there were 4 of us to transport. Myself-- it was my knees, and the other car was their necks-back it seemed. They were all strapped on the hard board with neck braces, and I got lifted on a stretcher cuz of my knees. They cut my pants to assess my knees. My neck or back wasn't a concern at that time. The only time my neck /back hurt was the next morning...when I woke up EVERYTHING HURT. I got an IV in the ambulance which was interesting cuz the ride was so bumpy, I'm not sure how she hit a vein. I was on oxygen too, cause of my coughing.

Xrays were taken on my legs and everything came back ok, nothing broken. The Dr that took care of me in the ER was very comforting. I was shaking so bad, had very high blood pressure, oxygen made me cold, ice packs on my knees felt cold... I just felt cold regardless,(temp was 98.1) so he kept bringing me warmed up blankets. I thought it was nice the first time and it felt so nice and warm....but he did it for me about 3 more times. Even the nurses were saying he must be on a warm blanket kick. Anyway I appreciated it. I got pain meds through my IV and that also relaxed me more, I even got the giggles at the end. Steve came back after going to fill my Rx and the doctor told him last I checked she has a case of the giggles. After about 3 hours in the ER I was discharged and Steve took me home in his truck....yup his messy green work truck...surprised there was room for me in there.

The mom and one of the girls was up walking around at this time too, the other girl was still strapped down with neck and back pain. She was only 11, and seemed to be in good spirits talking and such, and as the nurses were asking her pain level she would consistantly say a 9 or 10 out of 10. The nurses tried to explain to her if they cut off her arm would be the worst pain you ever had would you still rate your pain now a 9 or 10, and she said yes...although her attitude didn't indicate excruciaing pain they were being cautious with her. I bet it's hard to acess kids and them not having gone though many things like this, every plain owie is a pain level of 5-7 and something this tramatic would obviously be a 9-10 in their eyes.

I hope it wasn't anything serious, but will probably never know.

I am healing, and taking it easy-- Sunday was the worst day waking up with everything hurting....on 800mg of Ibruprofn and Vicodin every 4-6 hrs.

My knees were iced for the first few hours but havn't been doing anything else for them except rest.

It's mostly soft tissue damage, swelling, and bruising in my knees and should heal in a few weeks. My seat belt brusied my left shoulder-chest and stomach pretty good and the air bag left me with abrasions on both arms and under my chin. My neck and back have been doing surprisingly good and haven't had any pain in those areas, just some stiffness and soreness the first day, and some crackling when I turn my head side to side. I will keep a chiropractor in mind if anything more comes up later with that.

Mostly just want my knees and sore muscles to heal now. Each day it seems to be getting better.

My van which was a total loss...:(