Shoulder Surgery

So, apparently I had a bit more damage to my shoulder than we thought. About six months ago, while lifting weights, I felt a sudden pain in my left shoulder and dropped the weight. I waited for around four months to go to the doctor because I thought it would heal and stop hurting soon enough. Well, it didn't.

The x-rays showed the damage to the AC joint that I had done when I separated it while playing football in 9th grade. After several potential solutions failed, the doctor decided that I would need surgery to fix the problem. The surgery would consist of removing .5 inches of the collar bone to eliminate the friction that was caused as a result of the separation.

While in surgery, the doctor realized that I had actually torn my labrum, probably while lifting weights several months earlier. In order to fix the problem, the doctor put a pin/anchor in my shoulder in order to hold it in place while the labrum heals.

Unfortunately for me, it takes 4-6 months for the labrum to heal. So, instead of wearing a brace for one week and being 100 percent after 6-8 weeks, I will have this annoying brace on for a total of six weeks, after which I will have several months of therapy. If I would have known this, I would have had it fixed in the Fall, not the Spring. So much for the Summer of Dave...

Now, for those of you who like this kind of stuff (and I know you are out there), here is part of the surgery in which they install the anchor and tie it off (maybe you want to sit down before you watch this...)



In case you want to see more, here is part of the AC joint resection (same warning applies here):

Memorial Day Weekend

Our Memorial Day festivities started on Sunday with a drive down to the Springville/Mapleton Cemetery. We visited the graves of Dave's dad's family. While Dave was busy placing flowers by the headstones, Ryan was busy running around, of course, and checking out all of the flags and making them wave. After Springville, we went to Provo to visit Dave's aunt. It was her birthday and I think she enjoyed having some visitors. On Monday, we went to Tooele for the annual Memorial Day Barbecue at Dave's grandma's house. It was fun to see all the family and Ryan had a great time with all of his cousins. After the barbecue, we walked to the cemetery and Ry had some more fun running around and climbing on all of the headstones. Nice. We finished off the day with a barbecue at my parents' house. It was a very busy, but fun, weekend.

My first cricket-hunting experience: unsuccessful

Yesterday, I woke up feeling like I didn't sleep well, but couldn't figure out why. Then I remembered at 10:00 last night when this stupid cricket starting chirping. It was so loud I thought it was in our house. I was determined to not let it ruin another night of sleep, so I went hunting for it. I found it on the little concrete ledge in our window well, just sitting ever so still. I just stared at it for a few minutes. Was this a cricket or some spider? I didn't know what a cricket looked like and it was really dark outside. The window well was looking awfully deep. Would I be able to get out if I jumped in? I think so. So I checked for any other bugs or poisonous spiders. All clear. If I jumped in, would the cricket freak out and fly around and attack me? I wouldn't want the neighbors to come outside and find me in the window well screaming, they might think I am crazy. Better check. There were no rocks around to throw at it, so I went for the next best thing - the bark chips from our flower bed. So I threw a couple pieces at it, hopefully trying to kill it. Duh. Throwing wood chips at a cricket is not going to kill it, especially if you miss! The wood chips must have scared it, so it started to crawl into the rock/leaves/rubble in the window well. I had to act quickly, so I jumped in and just started stomping and jumping on the rubble, hoping to smash the cricket. But it was too late, the cricket got away and started to chirp again. Sorry for wasting your time with this stupid story, but I thought I should let you know that if you see a cricket, don't think about it, just kill it or you will lose sleep! I'll keep you updated if I find it again. Next time, it will be dead!

Our new cripple

Yesterday was Dave's much dreaded/much needed shoulder surgery. It was quite the ordeal. Lots and lots of waiting around. We went in at noon and he was dressed and ready to go, IV in and everything, by 12:45. Apparently, the people ahead of him had unanticipated problems (and Dave was the last surgery of the day), so he didn't get in until 4:00. We finally left the hospital at 8:45. Crazy! Everything went well, but there was more damage to his shoulder than what was expected, so his recovery time will be about 3-6 months instead of 6-8 weeks and he'll have to wear this nice sling for 4 weeks instead of just 1 week. Bummer! No more softball or water skiing this summer.

He was so funny when he was waking up from the surgery! It's difficult to explain and to remember all of the funny things he said, but if you've ever hung out with people as they're coming to, then you know it's pretty darn hilarious. He's feeling all right today. His shoulder is quite sore, but the rest of him feels much better. I think it helped when we finally got to put a shirt on him. The hardest part for Dave is just sitting there. He doesn't like to sit still. I'm glad his shoulder is finally fixed, but let's hope that we all survive the next few months! Get well soon!

Happy Mother's Day

I had such a fun Mother's Day! It started out with some yummy waffles with strawberries made by Dave. Then of course, church is always fun ;) Then the Jazz won. After the game we went to my Aunt Liz's house for a family party. She always makes such delicious food! It was fun to see the rest of the family and play with Ryan. Dave and Ryan played a lot! It is so fun to watch them play and wrestle. They both have such a good time. I really enjoy being a mom and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. It is so rewarding to have little Ry smile at me and I love to see him learn new things. Here's some pictures from the day.

Congratulations, Miss Jenny!

On Thursday, we attended Jenny's graduation ceremony. I can't believe she's finished with school already. She graduated with her bachelor's degree in nursing from the University of Utah. Now she will work at Huntsman Cancer Institute. We're so proud of her!

Goodluck in AK (or is it AS, AL?)

On Friday we made the trek down to Provo for Emily & Derek's graduation/goodbye party. It was fun to see my gals to reminisce about the good ol' days and to catch up on current events. Congratulations, Derek & Emily and good luck to your little family. We'll miss you guys, even though we didn't see you too much. Even though Alaska is cold and there's no warm, white sand beaches, I'll still put Alaska on my "places to go" list.

The girls

Ryan loves to hug!

Hunter, Ryan, & Ry's girlfriend of the day

Emily took this one. It is so cute!