Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Anne Lamott on The Colbert Report
One of my absolute favorite writers was a guest on The Colbert Report last night. Seeing Anne Lamott discuss theology with Steven's right wing Christian persona is definitely worth a watch if you missed it. (Her dreads are pretty awesome too).
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Beautiful Gifts
This past week marked one year since my maternal grandmother passed away. To mark the occation my parents went to York this Thursday to visit and dine with my mom's two brothers and their wives.
Shortly after arriving my Uncle Mike, the youngest of the three, invited the others into the next room where he had a gift prepared for each of the families, including all seven grandchildren.
When my parents, aunts and uncles cleaned out grandma's house and decided what to save and what to auction off, one of the items that Uncle Mike saved was a book about birds. Within its pages he discovered that my grandmother had been using this book to press various flowers between sheets of wax paper.
Martha Stebbins was an amazing woman who was (among many many other things) a wonderful gardener and very creative when it came to the art of arranging dried flowers. She was very adept at taking something beautiful with a rather limited lifespan and preserving it in a way that it could be enjoyed and passed on for much longer than you would expect.
Without anyone in the family knowing, including his wife, Mike framed ten of grandma's creations, named them and decided which couple each piece would belong to.
Below are photos of those creations grouped by family-
These four were made for Uncle Steve & Aunt Barb, Crystal & Mark, Rachael & Steve, and Amanda & Rob
These were created for Uncle Mike & Aunt Sue, Jeni & Rick, and Michelle & Rod.
And these were created for my parents(Judi & Joe), Danielle & I, and Becky & Jesko.
The one on the top is aptly named "Mother and Daughter" and will hang in my parent's home. The one on the bottom left is entitled "Considering the Options" and will hang in my home and Becky's is called "Pristine".
So obviously my grandmother not only found a way to preserve something fragile and beautiful, but she passed that gift on to my uncle. He has given each of us something very tangible to remember my grandmother by and also a beautiful symbol of our common connection to her and the beauty that was her life.
Shortly after arriving my Uncle Mike, the youngest of the three, invited the others into the next room where he had a gift prepared for each of the families, including all seven grandchildren.
When my parents, aunts and uncles cleaned out grandma's house and decided what to save and what to auction off, one of the items that Uncle Mike saved was a book about birds. Within its pages he discovered that my grandmother had been using this book to press various flowers between sheets of wax paper.
Martha Stebbins was an amazing woman who was (among many many other things) a wonderful gardener and very creative when it came to the art of arranging dried flowers. She was very adept at taking something beautiful with a rather limited lifespan and preserving it in a way that it could be enjoyed and passed on for much longer than you would expect.
Without anyone in the family knowing, including his wife, Mike framed ten of grandma's creations, named them and decided which couple each piece would belong to.
Below are photos of those creations grouped by family-
These four were made for Uncle Steve & Aunt Barb, Crystal & Mark, Rachael & Steve, and Amanda & Rob
These were created for Uncle Mike & Aunt Sue, Jeni & Rick, and Michelle & Rod.
And these were created for my parents(Judi & Joe), Danielle & I, and Becky & Jesko.
The one on the top is aptly named "Mother and Daughter" and will hang in my parent's home. The one on the bottom left is entitled "Considering the Options" and will hang in my home and Becky's is called "Pristine".
So obviously my grandmother not only found a way to preserve something fragile and beautiful, but she passed that gift on to my uncle. He has given each of us something very tangible to remember my grandmother by and also a beautiful symbol of our common connection to her and the beauty that was her life.
Youth Sunday
Last Sunday the youth group at First Presbyterian Annapolis lead both worship services as they do once every spring. This is the second year that I have been Youth Director and gone through this process with them. I thought I couldn't have been prouder last year, but this year's group really did an amazing job. The process of preparing for the service starts in late January with brainstorming and deciding on a theme. Then once the theme is chosen the youth chose what scriptures will be read, what songs will be sung, write prayers, a call to worship and decide how they will present a sermon about the theme and the readings. Its a huge undertaking and takes 10-12 planning sessions and a fair amount of homework for many.
Due to my injury I missed a few of the planning sessions. The youth actually called me at the end of one of their gatherings on speaker phone and shared with me some of their ideas and I knew that they were on to something good. However seeing it on Youth Sunday and hearing all that they had written while worshipping with the whole congregation was more than I had imagined.
The theme that they chose was "Water." They picked 6 stories that water plays a key part in to connect the dots from creation, through the Old Testament, and into the New Testament with Christ's teachings. After each reading a different youth gave a reflection on the story talking about water's role both literally and figuratively and how that continues to play out in the present day. To further emphasize this point the youth that were doing the reflections were stationed around the congregation at windows. After the first reading water was taken from the baptismal font at the front of the sanctuary and poured into a vase at the window by the youth reading the reflection. With each reading, the water was moved to the next window by the next youth for a very visual and auditory representation of the connection in the stories and in our lives. They talked about water as a gift, a destructive force, a means of liberation, an equalizing force, a commodity to be bottled, even unfortunately a means of torture, but ultimately a symbol for how we are all bound together. Bringing things full circle the water was finally poured back into the baptismal font.
Framing this center-piece were hymns they had chosen to go along with their theme, an A Capella performance of the song "Down in the River to Pray" (best know for its use in O Brother Where Art Thou?), two youth playing piano pieces, one playing the basson and another who played several of the hymns on the organ.
One other part that was really cool was when three high school students who last year traveled to the Czech Republic got to commission and bless the adult tutors that were leaving this week to visit Letohrad. When it was discovered that last Sunday would be the service before the tutors left and our pastor asked me if the youth could include that in the service their response was priceless - "Can we do that!?"
These youth can do that and more! I am so very proud of them and grateful that I get to work with such talented, thoughtful, and faithful youth. I am truly blessed to get to be a part of this ministry.
Due to my injury I missed a few of the planning sessions. The youth actually called me at the end of one of their gatherings on speaker phone and shared with me some of their ideas and I knew that they were on to something good. However seeing it on Youth Sunday and hearing all that they had written while worshipping with the whole congregation was more than I had imagined.
The theme that they chose was "Water." They picked 6 stories that water plays a key part in to connect the dots from creation, through the Old Testament, and into the New Testament with Christ's teachings. After each reading a different youth gave a reflection on the story talking about water's role both literally and figuratively and how that continues to play out in the present day. To further emphasize this point the youth that were doing the reflections were stationed around the congregation at windows. After the first reading water was taken from the baptismal font at the front of the sanctuary and poured into a vase at the window by the youth reading the reflection. With each reading, the water was moved to the next window by the next youth for a very visual and auditory representation of the connection in the stories and in our lives. They talked about water as a gift, a destructive force, a means of liberation, an equalizing force, a commodity to be bottled, even unfortunately a means of torture, but ultimately a symbol for how we are all bound together. Bringing things full circle the water was finally poured back into the baptismal font.
Framing this center-piece were hymns they had chosen to go along with their theme, an A Capella performance of the song "Down in the River to Pray" (best know for its use in O Brother Where Art Thou?), two youth playing piano pieces, one playing the basson and another who played several of the hymns on the organ.
One other part that was really cool was when three high school students who last year traveled to the Czech Republic got to commission and bless the adult tutors that were leaving this week to visit Letohrad. When it was discovered that last Sunday would be the service before the tutors left and our pastor asked me if the youth could include that in the service their response was priceless - "Can we do that!?"
These youth can do that and more! I am so very proud of them and grateful that I get to work with such talented, thoughtful, and faithful youth. I am truly blessed to get to be a part of this ministry.
Insult to injury
On top of my leg and the limitations that come with my recovery, this week I've also been dealing with being sick. I'm not sure exactly what is up, but I've either got a stomach bug (which has apparently been making the rounds) or I'm dealing with symptoms of withdrawal since I stopped taking any pain medication on Monday morning. Or a third possibility is that my stomach is reacting to the large doses of Ibuprofen that I've taken for the last month... Whatever it is I've felt crappy since Tuesday morning, am hungry but nothing appeals to me, I haven't been sleeping well and I'm spending far too much time in the bathroom. Whatever I've got, I sure hope that I'm nearing the end of it. I can't imagine either a bug or withdrawal symptoms lasting more than 5 days. Actually, I thought I was nearing the end of it yesterday, but this morning has proven me wrong. And don't get me started on the pollen count! I'm attributing the headaches that have come and gone this last week to that, although they could just as easily be part of whatever it is that I was first griping about.
OK, I'm done whining now.
OK, I'm done whining now.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Physical Therapy Begins
I just got back from my second Physical Therapy appointment (first one was on Monday) and have been doing my exercises twice a day for the last four days and am seeing a good bit of improvement already. My therapist's name is Jessica and until I'm cleared to put weight on my leg she said we are a bit limited in what exercises she can give me to do. That being said, she's got a lot of ideas and she has assigned me 8 different exercises to do twice a day.
Monday she did some measurements on the strength and flexibility of my good leg and then took some comparison measurements on my injured one. She showed me four exercises and had me do a little bit of each one and then finished off the appointment with 10 minutes of ice on my knee. All in all a pretty easy first appointment for which I was grateful. She gave me a printout of my homework with descriptions and pictures of the exercises that I did and it wasn't until I pulled the paperwork out that night to do them that I saw the numbers of repetitions and sets that she had assigned me. So I'm doing several sets of each exercise and most of them I have to hold for 10, 20, or 30 seconds depending on what the exercise is. Her first comment when I took the brace off was "well it kind of resembles a knee..." She told me that the swelling was one of the main things that we had to take care of because all of the fluid and swelling is making it too cramped for my knee joint to function properly. She said that the more I exercise and ice my leg, the more the blood will flow and that will help to move all the fluid and "junk" out of my knee so the swelling will go down and I will be able to bend more. The benefits of this became extremely apparent today when she added some new exercises to my routine and she re-measured how far I could bend my knee.
On Monday she measured that I could bend my knee about 25 degrees (it was only about 20 the week before when Dr. Ove took the staples out). After four days of exercising and icing twice a day this morning I was able to bend it 48 degrees. The amazing thing is that none of the exercises that she had me do until this morning had me bending my knee. So obviously her explanation about getting the blood flowing to reduce the swelling was correct. Now my brace is set on 45 degrees and I have one exercise that deals directly with me bending the knee. The other seven are helping to strengthen the rest of my leg muscles and working to keep the blood flowing and continuing to reduce the swelling.
One of the therapist working with another patient told me that when she first started in PT that they used to put fractures like mine in a cast for 2 months. When they cut the cast off and made the patient start bending their knee it was absolutely horrible and she can still remember one lady's scream to this day. So that is why I'm not in a cast. They have found that the joint is much harder to work with when it has been immobilized for that long. So they use a brace and start working on the joint before the bone is completely set because it makes for a better recovery.
Monday she did some measurements on the strength and flexibility of my good leg and then took some comparison measurements on my injured one. She showed me four exercises and had me do a little bit of each one and then finished off the appointment with 10 minutes of ice on my knee. All in all a pretty easy first appointment for which I was grateful. She gave me a printout of my homework with descriptions and pictures of the exercises that I did and it wasn't until I pulled the paperwork out that night to do them that I saw the numbers of repetitions and sets that she had assigned me. So I'm doing several sets of each exercise and most of them I have to hold for 10, 20, or 30 seconds depending on what the exercise is. Her first comment when I took the brace off was "well it kind of resembles a knee..." She told me that the swelling was one of the main things that we had to take care of because all of the fluid and swelling is making it too cramped for my knee joint to function properly. She said that the more I exercise and ice my leg, the more the blood will flow and that will help to move all the fluid and "junk" out of my knee so the swelling will go down and I will be able to bend more. The benefits of this became extremely apparent today when she added some new exercises to my routine and she re-measured how far I could bend my knee.
On Monday she measured that I could bend my knee about 25 degrees (it was only about 20 the week before when Dr. Ove took the staples out). After four days of exercising and icing twice a day this morning I was able to bend it 48 degrees. The amazing thing is that none of the exercises that she had me do until this morning had me bending my knee. So obviously her explanation about getting the blood flowing to reduce the swelling was correct. Now my brace is set on 45 degrees and I have one exercise that deals directly with me bending the knee. The other seven are helping to strengthen the rest of my leg muscles and working to keep the blood flowing and continuing to reduce the swelling.
One of the therapist working with another patient told me that when she first started in PT that they used to put fractures like mine in a cast for 2 months. When they cut the cast off and made the patient start bending their knee it was absolutely horrible and she can still remember one lady's scream to this day. So that is why I'm not in a cast. They have found that the joint is much harder to work with when it has been immobilized for that long. So they use a brace and start working on the joint before the bone is completely set because it makes for a better recovery.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
My New Hardware
These are pictures that were taken during my surgery of the plate and pins/screws that are now holding my bone together. I'm not positive, but I think that there are seven screws in all. The top of the plate looks like there are two screws side by side and there are four that go into my shin below the lowest part of the break to anchor it into solid bone. I'm still going to try to get the full xray from them, but they gave me these this week.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
My Big Outing
Ever since Danielle heard that you can borrow wheelchairs from the customer service desk at the mall she's been pushing for us to do that to get me out of the house. We've got 3 family birthdays in April, so we've had some errands that needed run and I definitely need a change of scenery. So we set out for the mall at 1 o'clock with the plan to meet fellow youth directors August and Dan for coffee (my usual Wednesday afternoon ritual). We got to the mall and Danielle left me in the car at the curb to run in to get a chair. Unfortunately she finds out that although they have many available, none of them have the leg rest that I need in order to keep my leg straight out in front of me and somewhat elevated.
Disappointed I call Dan and cancel our meeting. Danielle and I decide that since we are out it makes sense to see about getting a chair of my own. So we end up driving to medical supply shops and by the third one find exactly what we need at a very reasonable rate. The folks at Annapolis Health Care on Gibraltar Avenue (by the Dunkin Donuts on West Street) were fantastic. They got me set up with a chair for the month and gave Danielle a lesson on breaking it down and putting it in the trunk and visa versa.
So a few hours later and with my new wheels we headed back to the mall to take care of the errands that we originally intended to do.
I've never been so happy to be at the mall. It was great to be out in public, eating in the food court and not feel like a patient for a change.
We got the two birthday presents that we needed for this week's birthdays, I got a book with a gift card that I received (Thanks Aunt Ruth and Uncle Ed!) and Danielle picked up a pair of Crocs.
Danielle was a bit self conscious of the fact that I wanted to wheel myself, but I need the exercise and its a pretty good workout. So we "strolled" together through the mall and I am anxiously awaiting future trips out into the world, especially to Allison's birthday party Saturday, church this Sunday and Youth Fellowship on Sunday night.
Disappointed I call Dan and cancel our meeting. Danielle and I decide that since we are out it makes sense to see about getting a chair of my own. So we end up driving to medical supply shops and by the third one find exactly what we need at a very reasonable rate. The folks at Annapolis Health Care on Gibraltar Avenue (by the Dunkin Donuts on West Street) were fantastic. They got me set up with a chair for the month and gave Danielle a lesson on breaking it down and putting it in the trunk and visa versa.
So a few hours later and with my new wheels we headed back to the mall to take care of the errands that we originally intended to do.
I've never been so happy to be at the mall. It was great to be out in public, eating in the food court and not feel like a patient for a change.
We got the two birthday presents that we needed for this week's birthdays, I got a book with a gift card that I received (Thanks Aunt Ruth and Uncle Ed!) and Danielle picked up a pair of Crocs.
Danielle was a bit self conscious of the fact that I wanted to wheel myself, but I need the exercise and its a pretty good workout. So we "strolled" together through the mall and I am anxiously awaiting future trips out into the world, especially to Allison's birthday party Saturday, church this Sunday and Youth Fellowship on Sunday night.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Progress, not a lot, but progress..
Well, last week had several days of pain and discomfort, but I feel like I've made it over a major hurdle and am slowly getting better and even into a bit of a comfortable routine with my new limitations. I had lots of visitors and so many meals delivered that Danielle and I actually hosted a family get-together on Friday night and had a buffet style meal of leftovers with all the amazing food that people brought. Mom, Dad, Becky, Jesko, Rachel, Allison and our friend Taffy came over and we had a great time together. I can't thank everyone enough for the care and comfort that have been given to us and we wanted to share it.
Visits and food continued to pour in over the weekend and was topped off with the Young Adult Fellowship Group viewing of The Asphalt Gospel taking place in my living room. Danielle said if she knew how much food and love we would get from me being hurt she would have taken a baseball bat to my knee years ago!
Monday was a really big day - Danielle went back to work this week (she only worked one 5 hour shift the first two weeks that I've been home), starting with a full day on Monday, so she was out of the house by 8:45. Mom and Dad came to get me at 10 and I spent the morning in their living room for a little change of scenery. Becky and Allison came over and we got a chance to catch up with what's going on with the youth group and Youth Sunday planning. Allison is also quite entertaining. She'll be four this week.
I had a follow up appointment with Dr. Ove in the afternoon and expected to simply get my staples out and be sent home, but the visit turned out to be quite a bit more than that. We didn't have to wait quite as long and the pain wasn't nearly as bad as last week, but it was still a big outing. A nurse got me and had all the staples out in 2 or 3 minutes. The contraption that she used to do it with was pretty cool. It worked like a pair of scissors, but instead of two parallel blades there were three prongs. Two low and one high. She slid the bottom two under the staple and when she squeezed the handle the top one pushed down on the middle of the staple and the bottom two pulled up. It bent the staple into an "m" shape and didn't hurt at all. Which is good since there were about 35 staples to take out. The doctor came in looked at the incision and was pleased, but thought my knee was too swollen still and recommended I take a lot more Ibuprofen and back off of the pain pills. Now that the staples are out I'm cleared to take a bath or get in a pool. He sent me for more x-rays to see how the bones are mending and like the waiting room it was still uncomfortable, but no where near as bad as last week. He was pleased with the x-rays too and then came the big surprise of the day. He asks me "How far can you bend your knee?"
I looked at him square in the eyes and said "I have no idea. Its been locked straight in this brace for over 2 weeks and frankly I'm terrified of what bending it is going to feel like."
His response, "Well let's find out"
So he gets the nurse to cut the zip ties that had been put in to keep me from accidentally moving the brace from the locked straight position and has me lying on the table. He puts his hands under my knee and says that he is going to lift up and for me to just relax and let my knee bend as much as it will. I again told him that I was really afraid to bend it, but I trusted him since he knows more about the inner workings of my knee than I'll ever know. He lifted gently and after I reminded myself to relax and let it happen my knee bent ever so slightly without any pain. When it started to resist he said that it had gotten to about 20 degrees. So he set the brace for 30 degrees and told me to work on getting some movement each day. Once I can bend it 90 degrees then sitting at a table or in a car become much easier and life moves closer to normal. So little by little I'm making progress.
Visits and food continued to pour in over the weekend and was topped off with the Young Adult Fellowship Group viewing of The Asphalt Gospel taking place in my living room. Danielle said if she knew how much food and love we would get from me being hurt she would have taken a baseball bat to my knee years ago!
Monday was a really big day - Danielle went back to work this week (she only worked one 5 hour shift the first two weeks that I've been home), starting with a full day on Monday, so she was out of the house by 8:45. Mom and Dad came to get me at 10 and I spent the morning in their living room for a little change of scenery. Becky and Allison came over and we got a chance to catch up with what's going on with the youth group and Youth Sunday planning. Allison is also quite entertaining. She'll be four this week.
I had a follow up appointment with Dr. Ove in the afternoon and expected to simply get my staples out and be sent home, but the visit turned out to be quite a bit more than that. We didn't have to wait quite as long and the pain wasn't nearly as bad as last week, but it was still a big outing. A nurse got me and had all the staples out in 2 or 3 minutes. The contraption that she used to do it with was pretty cool. It worked like a pair of scissors, but instead of two parallel blades there were three prongs. Two low and one high. She slid the bottom two under the staple and when she squeezed the handle the top one pushed down on the middle of the staple and the bottom two pulled up. It bent the staple into an "m" shape and didn't hurt at all. Which is good since there were about 35 staples to take out. The doctor came in looked at the incision and was pleased, but thought my knee was too swollen still and recommended I take a lot more Ibuprofen and back off of the pain pills. Now that the staples are out I'm cleared to take a bath or get in a pool. He sent me for more x-rays to see how the bones are mending and like the waiting room it was still uncomfortable, but no where near as bad as last week. He was pleased with the x-rays too and then came the big surprise of the day. He asks me "How far can you bend your knee?"
I looked at him square in the eyes and said "I have no idea. Its been locked straight in this brace for over 2 weeks and frankly I'm terrified of what bending it is going to feel like."
His response, "Well let's find out"
So he gets the nurse to cut the zip ties that had been put in to keep me from accidentally moving the brace from the locked straight position and has me lying on the table. He puts his hands under my knee and says that he is going to lift up and for me to just relax and let my knee bend as much as it will. I again told him that I was really afraid to bend it, but I trusted him since he knows more about the inner workings of my knee than I'll ever know. He lifted gently and after I reminded myself to relax and let it happen my knee bent ever so slightly without any pain. When it started to resist he said that it had gotten to about 20 degrees. So he set the brace for 30 degrees and told me to work on getting some movement each day. Once I can bend it 90 degrees then sitting at a table or in a car become much easier and life moves closer to normal. So little by little I'm making progress.
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