November was busy too

In November, I won tickets for Kent and me to attend a gala for the Veterans Community Project. We bid on tickets for the Hip Hop Nutcracker and kept bidding long enough to get the tickets. We also bought a slew of raffle tickets for a quilt—there were several quilts, but I was only interested in the one you see here. Yes, we won the quilt too.

And we made our last trip to Yuma for Thanksgiving. We knew we were going to go for a hike so I (finally) replaced my hiking boots. Dad had bought me an amazing pair years ago, but they were destroyed when we flooded in Boston. These are the same brand, although not quite as nice.

Alison has taught herself acrobatics and flexibility moves. She is truly a pretzel (and didn’t get that from me, that’s for sure).

Kent, Ben and Jordan finally finished out their customized game of Risk Legacy. Jordan got that a couple of years ago and as you play, you settle the rules, and there are only so many games you can play until the board is full. This was the final year. Kent says it was a really great gift and I know he’s enjoyed playing it with Jordan and Ben.

We had our usual amazing food for Thanksgiving, made even more amazing by the fact that Ben and Jen and the family were moving to California the very next week. So we enjoyed the food, the fire pit, seeing all my family together again, and especially enjoying having Amanda as our daughter-in-law now. It was a great trip.

We got back late the Saturday after Thanksgiving, just in time for the blizzard the very next day. Yes, a real blizzard. But things cleared up enough for us to go to that Hip Hop Nutcracker I mentioned earlier—and it was amazing!

The physiatrist

You might remember that my orthopedist ordered a second MRI of my pelvis, since I continued to have nagging pain at the exact same place as the fracture. I didn't know what the pain was, only that it was at the same spot. Since I managed to ignore everything my body tried to tell me until I couldn't walk any more, I was mostly nervous that I might do that again, only perhaps with worse results.

The MRI showed that the fracture is healed, and that I have some mild hamstring tendonosis in both legs, which I knew about and do feel. But that's not where the nagging pain is. So he referred me to a physiatrist because, as he said, the issue was no longer bone so I was out of his area of expertise. I'm really grateful to have had a good orthopedist who's also pleasant but I still hope I never need to see him again.

I'd never heard of a physiatrist before, so I checked with Dr. Google and here's what I found:

First, it's pronounced fizz-EYE-a-trist. I have a hard time remembering how to pronounce it, and Kent just gives up and calls it pianist, and then we both laugh.

Second, they look at the big picture and focus on the entire body rather than just one organ. To put it in more dictionary-like terms, this is a branch of medicine that aims to enhance and restore functional ability and quality of life to those with physical impairments or disabilities.  They use a head to toe approach, which they believe is especially good for hard-to-diagnose problems like spine pain, which may be caused by anything from muscle strain to osteoarthritis. Or my case, nagging pain at the fracture site.

Third, they use a team approach and I can validate that. At one point, I had the physiatrist, plus a med student, plus an intern and two others who were part of the team only I didn't catch what they did, plus the PA was supposed to be in there but was with another patient. But I loved that Dr. Khadavi used my situation to help train his interns etc. How else will they learn if they don't see patients with all sorts of different issues?

During the exam, he would ask them what they would do next as they assessed me. I had to touch my toes, and then while lying on my back, they manipulated my legs in different positions while asking me when and how this pain occurred (all the time? only during the day? during what kinds of activities?). 

Finally he did a physical exam. Keep in mind, the inferior pubic ramus (what I broke) is in a very personal spot, right by my crotch. Really close, in fact there's just no way to show where it hurts without things getting up close and personal. Which is fine, I was there for his diagnosis, but I think it was a good learning experience for his team. And yes, he found the spot and the nagging pain got more nagging.

Here's what he told me:

• This kind of a break is fairly rare. He sees just a couple a year.
• Fractures like mine really don't heal any faster than 9 months, they just don't. I'm not at 9 months yet, got the month of February to get through.
• I have a callus on the bone and that's what the pain is from.
• In fact, I will probably always have this pain.
• The good news is that I'm not damaging myself by running with this pain.
• My flexibility is great (I laughed at that, and he told me me no, he was serious, I've got good flexibility).
• I should cross train like crazy.
• I should run shorter distances more frequently. So aim for a 2 mile run 4 to 5 times a week, rather than trying to knock out a 6 mile run.

A year ago
I'll be back!

He also got an x-ray for baseline, and I'll see him again in two months. He thoroughly approved of my physical therapist (and she equally approved of me seeing him, said he was the best in the city). That's always nice when your health care providers at two different practices approve and are glad you're seeing them.

I'm relieved, to be honest. I was so afraid that I was hurting myself again or that somehow I'd turned into a big whiny baby in the last few months. Knowing that the recovery time is much longer than I realized helps so much. I'm focused on my long-term goal of full recovery and ability to run races again. I still want to get just one marathon done and in the books. It may take a little longer than I realized. 

Quick post

First, I made progress on the skirt I mentioned in this post. It's not finished and won't be finished in time for our trip next weekend, but that's OK. I'll also need to remove about a foot from the length of the skirt. Let's face it, 80s clothing were nothing if not voluminous.

Second, my folks sent me this lovely addition to my kitty collection. I love it.

Getting things done

I started making this skirt just over two years ago. It’s a vintage Vogue pattern by Perry Ellis (this link will take you to an Etsy shop that gives more details). I thought it might be fun to make the skirt and top out of some lovely cotton linen blend I have on hand. The skirt has pockets but no zipper, so you pull it on and then button the waist band, that’s how it closes. It’s pretty clever.

I struggled with the pleats—marked and pinned and pinned and marked but could not get the waistband on the skirt properly. Rather than screw it up, I set it aside.

However, Kent and I are taking a short trip to Key West in a couple of weeks, and I remembered this skirt. I figured it would be nice in the warm weather, so I decided to try, try again. Last weekend I got it out, took the waistband off again, remarked the pleats again, repined everything again, and resewed but no. It still didn’t line up properly.

Saturday, I tried again for the third time. This time, I just pinned pleats and ignored the markings. And finally, it all went together—hurrah! I tried it on . . . not so hurrah. That’s a whole lot of fabric and the skirt was wearing me. I felt like any moment I’d hear the theme song from Little House on the Prairie.

Yesterday, I tried a different approach.

This time I cut a lot of fabric from the center back, and from the center front. Those two panels are what I cut off the skirt. The skirt is still fairly voluminous, but it’s more 1.5 x the needed circumference rather than 3 times. I’ve sewn a gathering stitch and started gathering the fabric. By that time, though, I was tired and cranky, and I’ve learned the hard way that I should stop sewing when I reach that point. Otherwise things go south in a hurry.



Long story not so long, I haven’t finished the skirt but things are moving along.

Still without internet plus a tiny rant

We lost internet but thankfully not power last Saturday when we got eight plus inches of heavy snow. In my neighborhood, if a squirrel farts we lose power so this is overall a good thing. Supposedly we will get reconnected this afternoon, although I'm dubious.

In the meantime, let me just go on record as saying I hate ankle pants especially in the winter. They may look cute in the summer with sandals and bare ankles and all that. But screw that in the winter, I want socks, and then that just looks stupid. Plus I get pulled back to something that happened in fifth grade while I attended the base elementary school at McConnell Air Force Base.

I'd gone through a growth spurt as kids do, so all my pants were now high water (aka ankle) pants. My class was lined up in the hallway for something or other, don't remember that detail, when one of my classmates pointed out my fashion faux pas. I mumbled something or other and put on my best "don't care" face in hopes things would stop after the one comment. Well you know it didn't, the rest of the class got into the act and it was just a miserable few minutes there in that hallway.

I've been pretty self-conscious about that sort of thing ever since and generally refuse to wear ankle pants in the winter. However, it's practically impossible to find trousers or anything other than skinny ankle pants that aren't frumptastic. Which is a rant for another day because I do think this fashion trend is one that (a) should die and (b) was created merely to save fabric costs when making women's clothing. Same thing with the ridiculous necklines on everything.

PS: Want to know why women are colder than men in the winter? Look at the shirts we can buy and see how much skin is exposed. Men, you'd be cold too if those were your options.

October

I’m sure glad I take photos with my phone—it helps me remember what the heck I did.

In October, Kent and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary. We had dinner at Freshwater, which is in Midtown. We opted for their tasting menu with wine pairing, and enjoyed it very much.

Also in October, I did what I do every few years and got a make up do over. I like to do that periodically because I think it’s easy to fall in a rut and then look dated. If you’re going to wear make up (and I am), then why not stay current?

Toward the end of October, Kent and I went to Choir Bar with a friend. He and I had dinner first at Le Fou Frog, which was good but too rich for my tummy. If you’re not familiar with Choir Bar, you can read about it here.

Since that session was the Friday before Halloween, people were encouraged to wear costumes. Kent went as a cow, and I went as Mia Wallace from Pulp Fiction sans the hypodermic needle in the chest. Much to our surprise, we had a ton of fun. Here’s the video from that evening. Honestly the only downside was that we both had that song in our heads for weeks.

Then on the actual day of Halloween, a co-worker and I dressed the same on purpose. Even though we don’t really look like each other all that much, we get called by each other’s names, so we thought it would be hilarious to dress alike.

Kent made an amazing butternut squash recipe for dinner—the butternut squash “steak” is sautéed in butter, sage and a little bit of garlic and is absolutely incredible.

I resolutely did not observe the 9th anniversary of us getting flooded in Boston. But I remembered.

Finally, we both voted early and (yay!) some of our candidates won.

Been pondering

While in Yuma for what’s probably the last time (I mean really, I think we’ve seen just about all there is to see in Yuma and besides Ben and Jen have moved), Amanda and I were heading somewhere with Jen and the kids. We both complimented Jen on their new van, and she said something that’s stuck with me. She said that deciding what kind of van to buy to replace their very old, decrepit van led to far deeper conversations about what kind of people they wanted to be and how they wanted to live their lives.

I don’t know about you, but my car buying criteria has usually been along the lines of whether the car is reliable, carries what I need it to carry, etc. I’ve never thought about a car, or really any purchase (large or small) in terms of who I want to be. But I think that I should have been doing that all along, and I definitely have been thinking like that since Thanksgiving.

Figuring out who I want to be, what kind of woman I want to be is a little exhilarating and a lot freeing. So much of what I’ve done in the past has been more of a rehab rather than prehab approach. Think of it this way—I’m in rehab right now as a result of that fractured pelvis. At some point, that rehab will be done, and I have a choice. I can stop the rehab exercises, or I can stick with them to keep developing strength and flexibility in the muscles around my pelvis. Or here’s another way to think of it. I want to pursue things rather than do something as a fix. I realize that’s pretty subtle and maybe I’m the only one that will resonant with but boy do I. 

So here’s a partial list of the woman I want to be—think of this as the 2019 kick off if you will.
I want to be the woman who:

• Trains appropriately. I’m still horrified that I trained enough and ignored the pain enough that my bone split. 
• Lives a balanced life. By balanced, I mean I want to choose carefully and deliberately where I spend my free time. I don’t have much of it and I get so frustrated when at the end of a weekend I look back and think I didn’t get to do the things I really like to do.
• Builds friendships. Moving so much has made this one pretty tough. It’s hard to build friendships if I’m not there. I carefully tend the friends from Boston and I would love to have those kinds of friends here.
• Devotes as much time to my faith as I do to hobbies (and yes, that includes running). 
• Has great posture. I know my mom is probably laughing at this one. She used to tell me all the time as a kid that I needed to stand up straight. You were right, Mom.
• Stays strong and active, regardless of my age. I’ll be 59 in less than a month and 60 is just around the bed. I cannot overstate how important it is to me to stay mobile and active.
• Advocates for victims of sexual violence. I’m looking forward to volunteering more with MOCSA this year. 
• Regularly blogs. I’ve been blogging for nearly 11 years, and while pretty much no one reads what I write, that’s never been why I write. I write for me and since that’s the case, I need to write for me more regularly.
• Grooms my old kitty. This may sound insignificant, but Chloe doesn’t groom herself much these days. I suspect she’s got a fair amount of arthritis and it’s painful for her. Consequently, her fur has little mats, not enough to shave but probably enough to annoy her. We bathed her last weekend and I’ve been using the Furminator on her a little bit most days this week, and it seems to help. 

I still have a lot of catch up posting to do from this fall. I find that when the work/personal life balance tips heavily one way or the other, something gives. In this case, the balance tipped heavily toward work and that sapped all the energy I had for writing or sewing or really much of anything else.

This video is of a house pretty near us. They go all out at Christmas with their lights and while the video quality isn't best, you can get a sense of the fun and over the top display. They've got flying pigs everywhere although I'm not sure you can see them in this video.