Weekend update

Ben and his gang from ALPS (plus some stragglers) played in the Mud Volleyball Tourney this weekend again. This was our 4th or 5th year doing it. I couldn’t play because of my knee, but I did have fun watching and taking photos. It was probably the hottest it’s ever been since we’ve been participating, but I think they all still had fun. I’ll attach some photos below.

Sunday afternoon was my grandfather’s 90th birthday party. We had a nice relaxing BBQ at my aunt and uncle’s house. We had way too much yummy food and cake. We were all commenting on how great G’pa looked and how self sufficient he still is even at 90! Still living alone and taking care of himself!

Other than that, we spent our weekend trying to find more houses for rent to take a look at. We are finding that most of them are either way out of our price range, or way too crappy to even consider. We didn’t have this issue in January when we were looking and found our current house….not sure what the deal is. It’s already Aug. 4 (I can’t believe it…), so we need to move on this pretty quickly. We were able to reach an amicable termination agreement with our landlord on Friday, so it’s a definite now. We’ll have to be out by noon on September 1 – way to spend our Labor Day weekend! But oh well, life is life. Nothing can be done now….here’s to finding a new place soon! And thanks to everyone for the well wishes in doing so. We appreciate it.

Any comments?

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We are definitely moving….

We are very sad to report that our landlord has found a buyer for her house and we will be moving, likely around the beginning of September. So…that means in less than 30 days Ben and I need to find a new place to live, put down a deposit and sign a new lease, pack and move. I’m really not looking forward to it at all, but nothing we can do. Our landlord is offering a lease buyout to us, so we can’t really pass that up, but the hassle and inconvenience is enough to make my not want to do it. And we finally felt that we had settled in the place (we only moved Feb. 1 this year), and now we have to do it all over again. Plus, with my surgery, we have to hire movers – I cannot lift and move things like I used to at least for another couple of months. Plus, we will be out of town for 7 days in the middle of August, which adds a bit more stress, but I think we’ll be okay. Still….wish it wasn’t happening. I just hope we can find a place as neat as where we are now. We’re a bit spoiled, so nothing will compare, but I just hope we can find something nice.

Other than that news, nothing else going on. We are so tired of the heat (13 or 14 days with 90+ weather sucks!). I know, I know, we don’t have humidity, but still, the heat is almost unbearable at times. We don’t have central AC so neither of us are getting decent sleep. They say the rest of the week is mid- to upper-90s. I can’t fricking wait. When will it end???

OMG – I’ve been bad, shame on me…

So I’ve been really, really, really bad about blogging. But my excuse – my dad was here for 11 days so we were busy spending time with him! We did lots of great stuff, had tons of fun and quite honestly just got wiped out by all the goings on that I just didn’t feel like logging on to the computer at all. My apologies…

First and foremost – rehab. Still doing well, I think. I still have some of that bursitis which Brandi massaged again last week and PT. Not comfortable, but getting better. Riding the bike more and more and continuing with my exercises as diligently as I can. I did take last Wednesday night off since Brandi and Kate had me do tons of hamstring exercises during PT – I was sore before I got home at the end of the day. But for now, that’s our focus, strengthening the hamstrings and quads. I still do my range of motion exercises at home in the morning to get me loose after sleeping, but at night it’s all strengthening exercises. Sometimes I feel like its working, other times I don’t. I still see a difference in the size of my quads, so I know I’m not there yet, but each day is better, I think. Back to PT tomorrow, more strength stuff. I need to get a list from Kate of any exercises I can do at home. Sometimes when I’m doing them I literally draw a blank as to what I can do next…..I’m losing it. I remember like 4-5 of them and just repeating those over and over, and I’m getting bored with them, so I need to see them all and pick and choose and give myself some variety. Note to self – get that list tomorrow!

So, back to my dad’s visit. On the second day he was here we went to the Mile High Nationals for some good old fashioned drag racing. It was so hot, but we had a great time. I forgot my camera, so no photos….sorry. Then on Sunday we went to the US v. Brazil (women’s soccer game). Ben wasn’t really into it, so I took my friend Ann and we headed out with Dad and Kari to the game. HOW FUN! I’d never seen a national game before and we all really got into it. US won 1-0. Photos of that day are below. Sadly, the very next game, Abby Wambach (#12), the US’s leading scorer and top forward broke her leg in two places so she’ll miss the Olympics! I feel so bad for her; I can’t even imagine training for your whole life, with World Cup or Olympics as a goal and then getting hurt three weeks prior. Very sad….The following weekend we headed to Lake Granby to camp with Anthony, Lisa and Hugh and the kids. So even up in the mountains, it was fricking HOT!!! Luckily we had a boat (thanks, Jason) and we were able to get out on the water. Ben tubed with Kari and the kiddos, and he tried wakeboarding. It looks hard. He wasn’t able to get up, but he tried his best until he was just exhausted and couldn’t do anymore. He’ll try again, I’m sure. We all hung out, drank some beer, eat too much food, and roasted in the sun. Overall, a very fun weekend! Dad left yesterday, the house is quiet without him….he’ll be back in September for Kassidy and Brian’s wedding, so it’ll be good to see him again.

So that’s it for now. Here are the photos from the soccer game. I will try to post more often, just no promises……it’s hard when you sit at a computer all day and then go home and think about sitting there again. I guess if I do the mini-updates more often, it won’t be so bad. Adios!

Pes Anserine Bursitis - I have it...

Yea, say that three times really fast! Basically, I have some irritation in the bursa sack on the inside side of my knee, where the three muscles that come from the hamstring connect into my tibia. The bursa sack is full of fluid and keeps everything moving smooth in thru there, but mine is really irritated and we think that's the cause of most of my pain on the inside part of my knee. Well, that and my MCL. Brandi got back from Alaska, so on Monday I was back with her. She did some manipulations with my sacrum (the lower part of your back) and then started to massage on the side of my knee that hurts the most....and the second she started I could tell it was not going to be fun. I hadn't cried in a while at PT, and before I knew it huge tears were rolling down my cheeks. There was this nice lady on the bed next to me and she was trying to talk to me and make me laugh, which kinda worked. So imagine me crying, laughing and squirming all at the same time. Fun stuff....luckily Brandi could see how bad it hurt, so she didn't go for too long, and then it was off to more exercises. I did a lot of work with balance and strengthening Monday and again today (Wednesday). I still cannot believe how tired I get after the exercises that I do there. Mentally I know it's not a lot, but physically, I get so drained. I know it's working though - after each session, I start to get sore in my butt, hammies, groin, and hip flexor, which means I'm working the things that I haven't worked in a long time. Getting all of those stronger will help my knee and leg get stronger overall. Today Brandi couldn't get a muscle near my knee to contract at all, so she hooked me up for some good old fashioned shock therapy! Seriously, it's these electrode pads that as the intensity is increased, whatever the power source/mechanism is is, it shocks your muscles into contracting. Such a weird feeling and even weirder to look at. She is going to see about sending me home with one so I can contract that muscle as much as I need to. We'll see how that goes. So, other than the bursitis, a really good week at PT. Oh, Brandi also gave me the go ahead to ride the bike as often as I want and as long as I like. Very excited about that!!


We were in Estes this weekend at Connie's place. We had such a great time, very relaxing, quiet. It's always too much food, but we enjoy it! We watched the fireworks over the lake on Friday, and then spent Saturday on scooters tooling around Estes Park and Rocky Mtn. National Park. We had so much fun! Here are some photos from our weekend:

This is how Tanner and Ben roll...

Tanner living it up at Lake Estes Dog Park

Handsome fella

My two boysStacey and I on our scooters
Ben in Moraine Park
Just a pose, we really didn't ride together
Lookin' hot!
Danny getting ready to peel out
Ben showing off
I literally ate this dust

Happy 4th of July!

We are heading up to Estes Park tonight to stay with Connie, Stacey and Danny at their cabin. I cannot wait to get there. Today dragged at work, no one is here, just doing clean up stuff now, wasting away time. Half hour to go....

Went to PT as scheduled on Wednesday. Had another really good session doing exercises with Kate (biking, shuffles, more weight machine mixed with balance stuff, good stretches, wall sits - holy cow, I kept realizing there is no quad muscles left when I got to 15 seconds of a 30 second sit). Then Erika did all my measurements (got to 132 degrees flexion; still need 2 more degrees for full extension) and then she stretched and massaged me. Her little trick with the plunger is awesome! It doesn't hurt like the regular massages, but I know that it's completely necessary to do that. It can only help me, so I try to just go to my happy place and relax. One of these days I will be dropping down to once PT session a week, just not sure when...

Have a great 4th of July!

Weekend and more PT (it's my life folks!)

Ben and had a pretty chill Friday night, met up with some friends for happy hour and then went out to dinner with them. It was nice - low key and good company. Saturday we had lunch at our fave restaurant, Cherry Creek Grille, and shared their tuna burger - yummy! Then I went and got a pedicure - it was FANTASTIC! I hadn't been able to do my own toes since before surgery and they were in dire need of some help! Believe it or not, I couldn't get my knee/leg bent enough to paint my toes without throwing a kink in my back, so they polish was totally worn off and my feet were looking pitiful. Mom and Kari got me a gift card to use for after surgery and it came in handy - thank you to them for a wonderful post-surgery gift.

Saturday afternoon Ben went to a BBQ with some work buddies and Kari and I picked up Shelley and we were off to Colleen's to begin the festivities for Kate's bachelorette party. I can't share many details, after all this is a family site, but we had such a great time! We drank champagne, shared some naughty cake, went out for drinks and shared a bunch of food, went dancing, and I took about 160 photos - I went a little nuts at the end of the night. Part of the reason was that Kate said she didn't want to go dancing, so when she started to tear up the dance floor, I felt like I needed some proof. I'll post a few photos at the end of this post, but they will be the tamer ones. We closed the bars down! It was seriously a good time, and we are all so excited for Kate and Matt we just wanted to celebrate some with just the girls. Really, everyone was on their best behavior. I've found as I've gotten older, yes, these are some words of wisdom, that you can have more fun hanging with the girls than dealing with drunk, random guys. Congrats Kate and Matt!

Sunday was recovery day - I was a tad hungover. Kari and I went to get some breakfast, then we came home to veg out. We watched the Euro Cup soccer finals, Spain v. Germany. Spain looked awesome. The entire second half they just pounded at Germany's goal, and Germany looked as if they were just completely beat. Spain won 1-0 (goal scored in the first half), but Germany is lucky they didn't get completely blown out. Ben took off on Sunday morning for Milwaukee to meet with some clients. Really, they are just going for fun - a concert and cruising on someone's boat, but I guess it still does help his client relationship. I'm just jealous!

Monday -- back to work. But I did go to PT today and saw Erika. Brandi is on vacation in Alaska this week, so I was a bit worried today because I'd not seen anyone but her. But Erika was wonderful! I did all my exercises with Kate before I saw Erika. I did the bike, more shuffles, some new stretches for my hip flexor (oh my gosh, those felt awesome), and then I did some balance exercises using a weight machine. The more the better, I feel! Then Erika did some massage for me and stretched me out really good. I measured just TWO (!!) degrees short of full extension today, but I was still around 130 degrees for flexion. Only 11 more degrees to go on that -- I CAN DO IT! Soon, hopefully. The best part of PT today was the way Erika massaged my IT band. She could still see bruising from where Brandi pummelled me on my IT band last week (I'm told by everyone that works at my PT it's completely normal to bruise, so don't anyone freak out), so she decided to take it easy on me. She slathered on some baby oil on the side of my quad, then got out a plunger. Yes, a plunger! She got it all suctioned on my skin, then gently pulled away from the skin without breaking the suction seal, and just kept pulling up a little bit and moving it all around. It felt so good, and I was so relieved not to be squirming. I am still tight there and in my hammies, so I know once Brandi gets back she'll be all over those again. I am telling myself the easier massages this week is a reward for living through brutal ones!

Okay, here are some photos from Kate's party:

The start of the night at dinner (L to R: Kate, Lauren, Shelley, Colleen, me, Kari)

Peace out...notice the shirt? I made that...
Shelley and Kate
Kari and Kate fooling around at Spill
I knew the night was only going to get better when Kate left Spill with her beer in hand and no one stopped her...she's mighty proud of herself as you can see.
I can't tell if she's smiling or grimicing at the sight of more shots?

Nearing the end of the night. We don't look too hideous.
Kate said she didn't want to go dancing. Yea, I didn't believe her either. Do you see that look on her face - she's totally rocking out! (And she managed to keep her "straw" all night!)
Still standing...and smiling...
Friends help friends stand up (actually, I think they are only barely standing up)

I truly love this girl and am so happy for her!

Surgery pics

I finally got a CD of my sugery pics: (here are some of the better ones, and the ones of which I can remember what it actually is...)

My torn ACL (ugly, huh?) - I couldn't even begin to tell you what is what in this photo.

My new ACL (Apparenlty, I received a really good, solid, thick cadaver graft, so thick in fact they had to take shave down bit of bone off my femur - you can see the reddish brown part where they shaved off where the graft goes into the bone at the top of the photo.)

Smooth bone, no fractures

Undamaged meniscus (smooth surfaces)

Damaged medial meniscus (look for fraying)

Damaged lateral (I think) menicus

Damaged medial meniscus

More damaged meniscus (not sure which one)

And still swollen after 20 days, but you can only see one scar (I have five total)

Dr. follow up, more PT, and weekend plans

Thank goodness it’s Friday! I’ve had such a long week - I think because I’m still having trouble getting a good night’s sleep. If I lay on my side (either side), even with a pillow between my legs, I get sore right on the inside of my knee (I think I found out the cause…more about that later). The only way to not be sore sleeping is to lay on my back, and I’m really not a back sleeper.

I had my follow up with Dr. Gonzales on Tuesday. He was on vacation immediately after my surgery, so I hadn’t seen him since June 4. He said everything is looking really good, scars healed nicely. He was impressed by my flexibility and extension and just told me to keep plugging away at physical therapy. I told him that my only concern was the amount of pain I had on the inside side of my knee, and he said, “Oh, well that’s not really uncommon considering you sprained your MCL as well.” I was kinda dumbfounded – NO ONE had mentioned that to me since I’d been seen this whole time. So he pulled up my MRI report from the radiologist and it was right there, clear as day, “Grade 1 Sprain of MCL.” (Grade 1 is the lowest amount of injury.) Hmmm…the only thing I can possibly think of was that with tears to two meniscus and my ACL, but no tear to the MCL, they just overlooked it. Or maybe he thought he’d mentioned it. I have no idea…Regardless, he said that my pain is likely from that. I asked how long before it gets better and he said a while. I was thinking maybe a couple more weeks, he said a couple more months….wonderful. Eh, nothing I can do at this point. More Advil, I think.

I went to PT on Wednesday as scheduled, and man oh man, what a day – highs and lows. Wednesday was also three weeks since I had surgery. I rode the bike for 15 minutes when I got there since Brandi was finishing with another patient. Kate got me started on some more shuffles with the resistance band around my ankles. Hello, tired! Then I did some squats and calf raises on the total body machine, along with some hamstring curls. Absolutely love doing all of those. I’ve really, really been craving doing stuff since I’ve been so limited since I hurt myself. Then I went over to the table of death. It really is I’m convinced. Brandi flipped my on my stomach and noticed that I had some bruising where she “massaged” my hamstring on Monday. So she conceded that she didn’t need to do that again at least for Wednesday’s appointment, so I lay on my side and she got right to work on my IT band. How do I explain this – bluntly, she was killing me!!! No tears though…still, she kneaded and pushed, over and over. My leg was all red by the time she finished, I’m not kidding. She did some massage around my knee itself and also on my scars (stellar feeling too…). Then back to more stretches and exercises. I love everything there except those frickin' massages. I remind myself that it’s all for the good of my rehab, but it’s tougher to buy that each time. Especially when I woke up on Thursday morning and had a bruise from just above mid-thigh all the way down to my knee. Yes, a really big bruise from that massage. I have a photo at home to upload later.

So, Ben and I are going to dinner and movie tonight. I think we’ll hit the Cherry Creek Grille and then maybe see “Wall-E” the new animated movie. It got good reviews. I wanted to see “Wanted” but Ben wasn’t too into that. Weird – action flick, Angelina Jolie….yea, weird. I’m sure I can convince him to go see it with me sometime. Saturday we are taking Kate out for her bachelorette party with her Denver friends - I’m very excited for that. It’ll be my first night out since surgery. We’ll see how it goes. I may be the girl crashing someone else’s party just to have a place to sit by the end of the night. Ben leaves for Milwaukee on Sunday, and I’ll be watching the finals of Euro Cup ’08 (Spain v. Germany). Have a good weekend everyone!

Democratic National Convention is coming...

Last week we had like a million helicopters in and around our house, training for what they called Urban Combat Missions. They said (which is a complete load of horse$hit) that the training exercises were not related to the upcoming DNC.....yea right. Anyway, they were flying super low in Blackhawks and some other kind of helicopter, practicing landing on building roofs and parking lots around the old Children's Hospital (which is currently under demolition) and some other downtown locations. It wasn't terribly annoying, except when they started the training exercises at 10 p.m.! Thank goodness for our A/C unit in the bedroom, it drowned out the noise almost entirely. I still find it ironic that in as long as I can remember, Denver's never been home to such training missions...and they still claim it's not in preparation for the DNC.

Then today I'm just working away and two guys walk off the elevator into my office. And then, like straight out of a movie, both of them flip out their wallet things, flap them open and say, "We're from the Secret Service Sniper Squad and we're here to check out your building's windows that face the Pepsi Center." Staring right up at me is their Secret Service ID badges, all official and such. They had this color aerial map of our area and said they had to investigate each and every window facing the Pepsi Center that is not obstructed. They also needed contact information for each person who sits in the office with said windows, in order to be able to contact that person on a moment's notice should they need to come in our office and take positions in the windows. I'm not sure I see them contacting people - I figured if something were to happen and they'd need in a particular window they would just bust on it and make themselves at home. Who's going to argue with that??!! So yea, them being in our offices was the most exciting thing that's happened around here in a while. Kinda makes you wish for a more exciting career...