The Family

Therapy for the Soul…

kanniduba3 Comments

In just a matter of days, we will be returning to one of my favorite places to vacation—Ocean City, NJ.

Interestingly, I found our blog friend Scott Thomas by following Ocean City photos back to their source quite a few years ago, way back at “View 32.” 🙂

My family discovered Ocean City when I was about 15 years old, and we have all returned regularly ever since. This year we will return for the third summer in a row with my Mom and Dad, and my Sister, Brother-in-Law and their two girls. We share a house directly on the beach, and you couldn’t ask for a more relaxing setting to get away from it all. There is something very comforting about returning year after year to the same location to vacation. We already know the lay of the land, where to go for groceries and sundries, and of course we can look forward to all the favorite food joints we’ve come to love over the years: fried scallop takeout from Mike’s, ice cream sundaes from A’La Mode, salt water taffy and fudge from Shriver’s, and of course my very favorite thing from the Boardwalk, chocolate macaroons from George’s.

I cannot wait to live in a bathing suit for a week, and sit in the water with my feet buried in the sand. Not sure who is more excited this year, Zan and me, or the kids!

I leave you with a few shots from last year’s trip…nothing beats the sunrise over the ocean.

Another One Bites the Dust

kanniduba6 Comments

I went to tidy up my kitchen counter today, but before I did I noted this scene.

I thought it mirrored the medical situation in my house perfectly!

See in the background? There’s my bottles of meds shoved to the back, knocked over, and forgotten.

In the forefront are the bandages, ointment, and bottle of antibiotics that are all out because of my daughter. You remember this girl?

Yes, well…this girl decided to go out and play basketball last night on the newly sealed driveway…shoeless and sockless (and brainless.)

She came in bloody and limping with a round chunk of skin about an inch and a quarter in diameter torn off the outside edge of the ball of her foot, filled with filth from the freshly tarred driveway. I will spare you a photo of the damage.

We soaked it, cleaned it the best we could, and treated it with antibiotic ointment, but this morning it was angry and reaching an arm of infection that was heading for her inside ankle. The infection had travelled 5 inches in less than 12 hours. Having dealt with cellulitis infections before, I knew we were in trouble.

As it stands, her doctors are quite taken aback by the speed and intensity of the infection and are treating her with aggressive antibiotics. Problem being, she is allergic to the first choice antibiotic and all it’s relatives. If she doesn’t improve within 24 hours we will be looking at hospital admission for IV antibiotics. Never a dull moment!

As all Mothers know, when one of your babies is sick, your own ailments get shoved to the back of the counter, forgotten, unimportant, until that baby is out of danger. Hence, the photo.

Aaaaaaand……cue music.

Acupuncture-The Other White Meat

kanniduba4 Comments

Don’t ask me where that title came from.  It popped into my head out of nowhere and insists on staying there, so stay it will.

So, it has been one week since I restarted  Acupuncture treatments in earnest, and have hesitated posting about them because I keep waiting for the setback to happen.  But, I suppose it’s time to tell my story.

My first experience with Acupuncture came about 5 weeks ago, when I was better, but not really.  I had plateaued in my recovery, my insurance company had kicked me out of PT, and I was managing to get through my days with gritted teeth.  I had even begun to walk a bit more, and felt that I was climbing at a snails pace toward betterness.  That’s when I went to Acupuncture the first time.  I told you all about it in this post.  The very next day, I experienced my massive setback which led to the MRI and pain meds, yadda yadda yadda.

So here I was, four weeks later, and reentering the realm of Acupuncture as recommended by my Doctor.  Meds have kept me functional, but no one, including my PT,  seemed to be able to understand why I wasn’t improving.  So off to the Needle Man I went last Tuesday, frightened to death of another setback, but very nearly at the end of my proverbial rope.  I explained what had happened to me last time I had a treatment.  He cringed a little and said, “Yeah…I think I did that to you.”  He had warned me at that first appointment that things might get worse before they improved, however, being a skeptic, I really thought my setback had everything to do with my overdoing it, not with those little pins he had stuck in me.  Apparently there is something called a “Healing Crisis.” You can read about it here.  This is what I believe happened to me.  And of course, in my panic, I left Acupuncture behind (not thinking I could even SIT through an hour long treatment) and went the way of pain meds and more tests.

So, after explaining that the same thing could happen again, but should it, I was to return to him immediately for more treatments, we forged ahead with my first of a series of treatments last Tuesday.  Pins in, I tried to relax.  Within ten minutes my body started twitching.  First a little twitch in the bottom of my foot where the nerve usually shoots out.  Then my thigh, then my other calf, then my butt cheek…then my face cheek, then my stomach…soon I felt like every muscle in my body was twitching.  It was a tad unsettling, but my Needle Man assured me it was a VERY good sign.

I woke up Wednesday with the usual stiffness and shooting nerve pain, nothing worse, and by Noon it left me.  It did not come back.  Not that day.  Not Thursday.  Not Friday.  I had another treatment Friday.  I wanted to kiss his feet!  More twitching, though less than the time before.

The nerve pain did not return Saturday, nor through the day Sunday.  I even dropped my afternoon doses of pain meds Saturday and Sunday, did a little shopping, did a little vacuuming, pretended for the weekend that I was a normal person.  And the pain returned Sunday night full on.

I was discouraged, but not surprised.  I woke Monday with a quiet settled nerve once again.  At this, I WAS surprised.

Then Monday’s treatment…he says my body is re-learning how to heal itself.  And he says flare-ups will happen throughout the process but each flare-up should be less intense and last a shorter amount of time.  He likened it to a Rubiks Cube.  The first time is extremely difficult, nearly impossible.  But each successive attempt is easier and easier.  Your body recognizes the problem, says, “I’ve seen this before—I know how to deal with this.” And it does.

Today is Tuesday, and I am virtually pain free.  Every now and then the bottom of my foot wants to pinch, but I am taking it as a little reminder not to vacuum.  Maybe next week I will make an attempt to wean off those pain meds again.

The skeptic in me keeps waiting for the treatment failure…for the day I can say, “See…it didn’t work.”

But the new believer in me is amazed at this wonder treatment that has begun to give me my life back, and has me wanting to run out and begin Acupuncturist Training so I can bring this miracle to the masses.

I will keep you posted.  In the meantime, I am off to continue balancing my Qi, one day at a time.