Using Other People's Bathrooms

In my normal (aka not post op) life I don't have any anxiety about using the facilities anywhere I go. I don't often even use the handicapped stall when I'm out and about and not freshly healing from something. As I started venturing out to visit friends, enjoy family events and so on it became clear not all bathrooms are created equal.

At home I cane wheel right up to one toilet and there's a conveniently located washing machine to brace myself on, beside it. The other bathroom's doorway is too narrow. I pull as far in as I can manage, brace myself on the door frame, lean in and use the counter to lower myself onto the potty. At home I can always choose to just walk in with my walker too.

I'm not usually picky about where I do my business with one exception, I will walk over hot coals to avoid the (SHUDDER) bed pan. I digress when I'm out and about I rarely have my wheelchair and walker. Usually, I just bring my chair erring on the side of caution especially if Riley's with me.

I was was at someone elses's house a few weeks ago. I was able to wheel in and close the bathroom door, but the height of the counter and toilet were different. I was having trouble spinning around. I knocked the paper onto the floor and couldn't bend to pick it up. It was as I was dropping myself onto the toilet seat that Riley barged in and left again without even helping me reach the toilet paper. Sigh. I broke the bending rule because I didn't have a choice.

I managed to do what I needed to do, replace the paper and get out of there, but it was a sobering experience. Just because I can hobble around the house doesn't mean the world's my oyster. Thank God this challenge will fade as I heal.

Ring Around the Sofa

A Look At Last Christmas

Riley was 15mo old and all see could say were a handful of words and lots of animal sounds.

Miscellaneous Merriment

Candy Cane Nails by: Me

Christmas Tree (Kiss-mas Twee) Sandwiches

Jingle Riley (Prepping for the race that we didn't end up attending)

Jingle All the Way!!

Christmas-y Cute

Hello Kitty, Christmas tree shirt + holly barrette+ lounging in front of a Christmas movie= Cuuuuuuute.

Peaking out from behind the Christmas tree at Dr. B's office. She thought it was so pretty. She kept saying "I not gonna touch it. I not gonna touch it, Just look." She even pointed to ornaments with her fist to prove she wasn't going to touch.

Isaac's Modern Art

Stuffed Animal Christmas Party

That's Baby Bob, Mickey and Minnie enjoying a feast Riley prepared. She's sitting next to them in her Christmas Tinkerbell jammies "reading" them a kiss-mas story from Daddy's Kindle.

Cookie Party Prep

I made Oatmeal Jam-ups from my 365 Cookie Recipes book.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Crisco Butter Shortening
• 1 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons almond extract
• 2 cup All Purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 1/2 cups quick rolled oats
• 1 cup finely chopped pecans
1 (12 oz.) jar Smucker's Seedless Jelly

I couldn't get finely chopped pecans so I spend the morning chopping. I was instructed to make a "rocking horse motion" to chop more effieciently.

COMBINE shortening and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat at medium speed until well blended. Beat in eggs and almond extract. The Crisco butter flavor shortening come in these little plastic tubs. One stick per tub. I made this recipe twice to get four dozen cookies for the party so I saved the plastic tubs for crafting. Also, God Bless Mike's dad for upgrading his standing electric mixer and passing his old one one. Standing mixers are amazing. It was my first time using it since we got it (Mike uses it all the time).

COMBINE flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl. Gradually add to creamed mixture at low speed just until blended. Just a note here, I do not recommend doubling your recipe. I made two separate batches of dough to get my 4 dozen cookies. There's a alot of dividing and rolling out dough later. Yay, mixer (it bears repeating)!

STIR in oats and chopped nuts. Divide dough in half. Wrap in plastic wrap; refrigerate 1 hour.This where your toned upper from weeks of physical therapy and walker use comes in handy. I refrigerated overnight while I waited for Mike to do some dishes. Cookies were a good motivator my kitchen was spotless in the morning (for a few hours).

HEAT oven to 350ºF. Grease baking sheet. I just used a non stick baking sheet. They're pretty hardy cookies. More like tiny pies than cookies. We didn't have any issues popping them off.

ROLL one half of dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/4-inch thickness. A WELL FLOURED surface. Do not mess around, flour the heck out of your counter and rolling pin. This dough is stick-yyyyyy!

Cut out with 2 1/2-inch round cookie cutter.I used a cup to cut circles. We got 12-14 each half of dough.

Place 1 teaspoonful of jelly in the center of half the rounds. Top with remaining rounds. Press edges to seal. Prick center. Place 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining half of dough. We used Strawberry for half and blackberry for half.

BAKE 12 to 15 minutes, or until lightly browned. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet. Remove to cooling rack to cool completely They were to heavy and copious for my meager cooling racks so we put them on foil on the cool counter.

Once they cooled it was time to package them up. I used regular ziploc bags. I punches two hole above the zipper with my crop-a-dile. Then I threaded curling ribbon through. I used glittered red and green star buttons I had left over from Riley's Halloween Rainbow Brtie hair bow. I used a large embroidery needle to thread the curling ribbon through the button holes. Then I added a small tag: Love, Katie Oatmeal Jam-ups. I tied a bow and curled the ends. I glued the small buttons to tags when I ran out of large ones. Alternating green ribbon with red button and the reverse.

Cookies all packed up and ready to go.

All done baking. Riley took this one. Don't worry I shook the flour off my pants before I left.

What's Up Doc

The screws will have to come out, but we're not in any hurry. The popping should stop on it's own. It was never in the joint it was always on the outside. It's sore when you push on it, but I'll probably live. They tell me it's the tendon sliding over the screw heads. Yuck.

He did give me the green light to bear weight as tolerated. Hurray! I've yet to try though as I am wrecked from not sleeping well three nights in a row. I still have to go back just before Christmas. Chances are he'll green light me for everything else by then.

Being Stuck

Forgive me for not being a ray of sunshine today, but sometimes it just becomes overwhelming. I had been planning since last year to go to this event with my friend and her family and have Mike meet us. That way we'd be early, get good parking, pick up our shirts and have a little dinner picnic. I picked out Christmasy clothes for Riley and I to wear and spent the morning making turkey and cheese sandwiches shaped like Christmas trees. It was the first cooking I'd done in a month.

As soon as I'd put the food away it was time for PT. There's a lot of being stuck in my life right now. Physical therapy is one way. Three days a week he'll come sometime between 8am-5pm and I never know more than hour ahead. It's not like I can go anywhere very often, but it's annoying when I do have plans and a ride. So, we got started and I mentioned the popping. He got a concerned look and said "If it happens again call the doctor, you'll need an X-ray." Well, moments later with my therapist as a witness it starting happening again. He called the doctor's office they're seeing me at 1pm tomorrow because he's in surgery today.

It could be anything from not enough bone growth to keep the hardware from moving around to the muscle rubbing over the top of the screw (like a cheese grater). Both ends of the spectrum indicate another surgery to remove the screw God*&^% it to H$%&. I was hoping to bear weight early since I was doing so well and now it'll be extra weeks off of it. Stuck longer! For *&^%s sake!

Stuck. stuck. stuck. Stupid body, stupid surgeries...grr. Ok, I laid down iced my hip and tried to regroup. It would be ok I'd go have so much fun. Take the kids to see the real deal Santa and pretty lights and I'd deal with tomorrow when it came. Wrong. I got dropped of and my friends house and it begun to pour rain. It let up, but people kept reporting a cold mist and she has a small baby so she was ready to call it off. I was bummed, but persisted in getting Riley ready and packing us up to go. I kept telling everyone "I'm afraid of what the cold will do to my body, but I'm so much more afraid of what missing this with do to me emotionally."

I called Mike because I was stuck there without a ride. I rejected her offer to take the kids to the mall instead, but I understood why she didn't want to venture out. I had Riley packed up, shoes on and eating her Christmas tree sandwich when Mike got there. He decided to give the baby a bottle and someone took off Riley's shoes. Stuck. I couldn't put the shoes back on anymore than I could drive downtown by myself. Then my friend got a long distance call and I went to corral my kids. She had a step down into her playroom. I can get down that step, but not back up by myself. Stuck.

That's when I started crying discreetly. I called for help, but the adults were occupied. Riley, bless her little heart, tried to help me. Stuck. By the time the baby finished her bottle I was openly crying and asking to leave. The frustration and pain were overwhelming.

We finally got in the car to go home. Mike decided even though EVERYONE else had been fed he wanted to go through the drive thru. Ten more miserable minutes in the car. Stuck. No hope of even making it down town late. Stuck. I laid in my bed and cried. Not only had I wasted money at a time when that's a real problem, but I was stuck in bed in pain with the TV not working to distract me. Bad night. I was so worried about what Dr. B would say/do, but more so just irritated at all the relying on other people.

I want to decide to leave a room and go. I want to decide to take my kids somewhere and go. I want to drop something and pick it up myself. I'm so frustrated. I don't want this event to be the first of all the December events I miss without any say in the matter. It's too depressing.

Santa, if you're reading I'd like a way to cope for Christmas, please!