Frisbee?!?! Are you kidding me?

Okay so the past couple of days have been wild. Saturday and Sunday were great! The weather was nice and warm and I got a lot of stuff done. Saturday night Stephen, David and I all browsed walmart for a while and hit up some Taco Bell. We then went over to Stephen's and watched Inside Man. Good movie, btw. Sunday I went to church and got some yummy Burger King for lunch.

Around 2:30 I headed to the park to play some much missed ultimate frisbee. We had a good crew of 8 or so with some cheerleaders. The team I was on was up 3-2 and we were moving the frisbee quite well. I got a pass that was a bit out there and I took off at a sprint. I stuck my right leg out and that is when it hit the roof. I landed wrong on it and it buckled backwards, popping about five times. I hit the ground in the most horrible pain ever. It hurt so bad I was rolling around and moaning. One of the guys on the other team (I won't name any names Stephen) thought I was just mad at myself for missing the pass and told them to keep playing. They got in a toss or two before figuring out that I really was in pain. Since we were at the park, there was no way to get a vehicle to the field and everytime I stood on my right leg and it straightened it out, it buckled (read: lots of pain). I could apply some weight on it if it was bent but not much. We found a chalker and I loaded myself onto it to be hauled to a vehicle. I climbed in back of Stephen's rodeo and we went to Eldorado's ER.

The ER was quite full. I filled out all the paperwork and just chilled in my wheelchair. I needed some ice because my knee was swelling, but the receptionist kept giving me the run-around. After sitting for about two hours, I was starting to get into some real pain. I asked the receptionist if she knew when I would be seen, she said there was no way to know that. Needless to say, she was a not-nice person. I finally got into the ER and the doctor was like "oh man, this is bad. How long has it been this swollen?". He left and came back in about 20 minutes. I went in and got an xray and then waited again. I finally got some ice at this point. NExt they took me to the CT room and pumped me full of this crazy hot stuff. It was wild feeling it going through my veins. They said the swelling was bad and they couldn't tell much. I then got moved to a bed and sat there for another hour or two or three. I got to the ER at 4:40 and left at 11:40, with nothing but some pain pills and a bag of ice.

Monday morning, I got a call from the ER that I needed to get there immediately because due to the swelling they were concerned about complications. I had kept it straight, elevated and iced and the swelling had gone down. It mostly felt okay. The doctor gave it the look over before sending me to my appointment with the sports medicine doctor. Enter extreme pain! I wheeled into the clinic and about 5 minutes later, the pain hit. My toes felt like they were on fire and my entire foot was going numb. I couldn't move my toes and my calf started to burn. I was shaking, crying and my arms and face were twitching. I got into a room and the doctor came in and said, "I was looking at some of your scans, I will be right back." At this point I am on the verge of screaming and I'm hitting my face and squirming and rolling around. The doctor comes back in (it's about 2:45 by now) and says "we need to get you into surgery now. Go back to the hospital". UGH! I get in the truck, still in extreme pain and put the ice back on my knee. The pain goes away. I'm not even kidding. It felt instantly better. I was talking on the phone and everything. I get to the hospital and they're not sure where I am supposed to go but I end up in a child's room with a baby bed and fishes on the walls. I went in for surgery at 4:30, way past my pain meds wearing off.

Surgery went quick and then I was back in recovery and then in my room with dad. Oh yeah, I should mention that when Stephen took me home Sunday night at midnight, dad was there to help me. He's been a life-saver, as was Stephen. The surgery consisted of the doctor slitting my leg on both sides and letting the pressure relieve itself. What happened is that my leg had swollen so much I was getting compartment syndrome. Essentially my skin wouldn't stretch anymore and the swelling was crushing my internals (veins, arteries, nerves). So now I am chilling at the hospital with this huge brace on my leg and a full wrap. I have to get my sheets changed every now and then due to the bleedout from my leg. My doctor was not in today, but he'll be back tomorrow to check it out and see when he can "sew it back up". I'm not sure if that means my leg is still split open or what, but I do know that my morphine pump has been a miracle. AMAZING!

So that is the story of how I got here. I have had a ton of people come by, call me, text me and post messaged on facebook. They have all been huge helps knowing they are concerned. I am hoping to be out of here by Friday and heading home. Luckily we are off after Thursday, so I'm not missing much work. I will probably have to apply for short-term disability but that depends on how I heal over the break. Needless to say, I won't be using my vacation days to go boarding with the RFCs. That's the biggest letdown of the year for me. I had been counting down...

One last thing, at one point Sunday night, one of the doctors mentioned that I could possibly lose my foot. You want to talk about praying...oh yeah I did it lots and lots.

He's a maniac, maniac...

Today was good. I went to Bible class and learned about self-control, which currently I have none of. I sat next to a really nice lady who's in her 30s and has a cute little kid. She comes to our singles class and I really think she's nice. It was nice to have someone to sit close to. After church, the preacher invited me to eat. That was fun...and free.

I came home and cleaned house some. I mostly did laundry and ironed. I then did something I am super proud of: I ran almost 2 miles. Yeah, that's right. I strapped on my camelback and took off running. It took about 20minutes, but that's okay. I am not going for the land speed record, just endurance and calorie burns. I showered and went to a small group Bible study and although the actual discussion was lame, the people there were nice. One guy is younger and a coach and he invited me to a ball game Tuesday. It's nice to have something to do that I dont have to plan myself. I will probably see if the guys want to go and maybe this girl I met at work. Her name is Katie, she's 25 and has a kid ( I think). She's pretty cool and a little wild, but that's okay. I am trying to bring her into the circle of friends so we have some female presence. I miss hanging out with girls (especially one in particular whose name will not be mentioned here but begins with a V).

Other than that I was a wreck today. I've been really lonely or something lately. I just feel like my life goals and ambitions are crap. I worked for four hard years and I am not using a single bit of my education. That's aggravating when you sweat blood in a degree program only to not use it. I graduated cum lade with honors and I am writing planning and looking up stuff in an inventory system that makes dewey decimal look like a genius (he's the one that came up with the numbering system on books, FYI). Plus my friends are hard to get together (there's only about 4 of them), so we don't do a whole lot anymore. When it was warm, we were hitting the frisbee and golf course. Not so much now. Boo! I am ready to move out to somewhere awesome. I just need to get through the next...um...20 months. I could have fathered two kids and have one on the way in that amount of time. Here's a big no to that one. Ugh. I am random because a recent decision (a small, trivial decision) has gotten me stirred up. I will leave it up to you to figure it out. Whomever "you" is. There's not a whole lot of "you's" anymore. Oh well.

what a N-E-R-D

That's what my cousin said about my mentor at work. He's a nice guy, but such a dork. He cracks me up by his ability to laugh at his own jokes. That makes me laugh just thinking about it. While we're on the topic of work, I had my year-end review with my manager today. I got a "successful contributor" rating which apparently makes me eligible for a big(er) raise. I don't know what we're talking about but I am hoping for 100%. Wouldn't that be nice? "Blair, you work really hard and always dress so nice. I think we're going to double your salary. Would that be okay?" Dreaming is great. Speaking of dreaming, I am not going to get the extra that I was hoping for tomorrow. We're working the next two Fridays so we don't have to work the 22nd and 23rd. Woohoo! I get a full two weeks off, plus my week of vacation on the slopes. I am already counting down the days.

I am really down right now about work, though. It just makes me so mad to know I worked my tail off in such a hard major to come here and not use it. people keep telling me that is how life is, but I refuse to accept it. I've been thinking more and more about going back to grad school in Fayetteville in a year and half when/if Vanessa goes up there for pharm school. I just enrolled in a master's degree operations management program from the U of A, but it is mostly for the business side of my work. I think it'll be useful, but I really want that MSME. Any comments on my plan?

I love my church here. It is so much fun and the preacher is the coolest guy ever! We're talking about Christian finance and how to invest wisely. He took us on the web last night and showed us all these cool sites for investing. As soon as xmas is over, I might try to scrounge up some loose change and invest a little on my own. It's exciting! Also exciting is that fact that I am about to start working with the middle school here on the LEGO robotics competition. I was supposed to go get the kit tomorrow, but since I am working I don't know when I will get to go by. Ugh...work on a Friday. How lame?

Time for a shower and to read some more of the book the preacher gave me. It's called "How not to marry a jerk". It is really good so far, although most of it I have heard before when I was on the prepare-for-marriage-even-though-it's-far-away spell I was on last summer. I read some cool self-help marriage books in Joplin. I am a D-O-R-K, I know. Peace out.