Don't Poke the Bear

I am happy and relieved to say that I have completed my first semester after a year and a half of surgeries. I finished my last final on Tuesday morning! Thank you to everyone for your support throughout the semester. To say it was difficult is an understatement but I pushed through and feel so accomplished!

I am in Boston for surgery! The first surgery is my right knee. I am having a Tibial Tubercle Transfer Osteotomy (TTT Osteotomy) and a MPFL Reconstruction (same procedure as left knee). I will probably be in the hospital for 3 days if all goes well and will stay with family in New Hampshire until Christmas Eve. We always celebrate Christmas in CT so it's convenient in that we don't have to travel back to PA after the first surgery and can spend more time with family for the holidays. There is nothing better than being with family on Christmas.

I will be spending most of the beginning part of this recovery in a wheelchair to hopefully preserve my shoulders for when I return to campus for the Spring semester. My right sholder dislocated several months ago on crutches and I spent 6 weeks in a pillow sling. I need my shoulder to support me because I would like to avoid having to use a wheelchair at school. However, if necessary the lift has been installed in my car and is ready if needed.

My head is not getting any better. I am scheduled for craniocervical manipulations in January. There is a study going on for Chiari 0 patients that shows that these manipulations can actually reduce the herniation. Hopefully this works for me too because I need these headaches to go away!

I haven't started weaning off of Neurontin yet, as pre-op told me to maintain the same dosage until after my surgeries. Although this is longer than I had hoped to stay on Neurontin it is understandable. I will start the weaning off process in January! My CRPS is controlled on 2400mg so I am hoping that it doesn't come back when I start to decrease the dosage.

Not much more to report on. Surgeries this month and then a long recovery! Need the surgeries to work on fixing everything else.

The Bruins have won their last 3 games and I was very excited that I got to watch it on TV last night as I was in New England. I like to believe that Bergeron (my favorite Bruins player)scored a good luck goal for me :)! And of course, if you're a Bruins fan, you gotta love Jack Edwards!

In the words of Jack Edwards, "Don't. Poke. the. Bear."
...and another one of my favorites, "How much wood would a Boychuck chuck?"

Love my Bruins!

I will post an update when I can! I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season!