June 1-4

Michigan City, MI for the beach!


Travis, Veronica, Miranda and Megan making a sand castle at the beach.


Nica enjoying her towel under the umbrella. She HATED the water! Too cold!



Zoe inside a big hole she was digging. It's kind of hard to tell.

June 2 & 3, Indianapolis Zoo


The girls in front of the tropical fish aquarium.


Saying CHEESE! to the CHEETAH!



Miranda going deep! This picture made me laugh so I had to include it.


Nadine and Miranda in front of the walrus!


Travis & Miranda singing "My Hands" for me. I love all the motions of the song and she tried to do them, despite being buckled into her seat. (Sorry about the cell phone interferance.)


Petting the elephant after the show. I've never done that before so I think I was more excited than Zoe and Miranda.


The elephants showing off.


"Going over the Ribber!" Miranda would say this every time we went over a river! Loved it-as you can see Travis and Nadine aided me in getting her to say it.
"Are we invisible" is from one of Miranda's favorite movies.

May 29-31

Chicago Skyline


First time meeting Veronica! She is such a happy baby and she LOVES her daddy!


Pretty tree!


Megan and the bears at the quilt garden.



The girls and the large mushrooms!


Nica! Told you she was a happy baby! Love those chubby thighs. Why can't that be attractive on adults?

Start of Summer-May 28th

The day after school got out for the year, I went to South Bend, Indiana to visit Travis, Nadine, Zoe, Megan, Miranda and Veronica. Before I left though, I went over to Mom and Dad's because Amy, Greg, Andrew and Ella came into town. It was fun to see them before I left, but I wish I could have spent more time with them.


Bath time. I love everyone's expression.


Ella's name


Ella and the bears. Doesn't she look comfortable?


Love that giggle!

Back Surgery #4

Although I was at home for a month and really didn't have a ton to do...which means I could have caught this blog up....I didn't. When you're on narcotic medication and muscle relaxants every time you sit down, you want to fall asleep. The other reason, the only thing I was allowed to do was walk, and walk, and walk. So I did that and tried to get some reading done. I was finally able to catch up on some of my professional journals, although reading for me is a Pavlov's dog for sleeping.

On February 19, I got to go back to UVRMC and have my back fused. I was the first surgery of the day so we had to be there early (5:30 if I'm remembering right) to finish paperwork, bloodwork, urinalysis etc. It always makes me laugh that they can't take my word for it on the final urinalysis, which tests for pregnancy. Dad came with me to the hospital. Mom had come down with a cough/cold so she stayed home. By the time I saw the anesthesiologist I had answered the questions "What is your name?, When is your birthday? and "What procedure is being done today?" at least 10 times. Dr. Reichman gave the OK for my physical therapist, Seth Kelson, to come and watch the surgery. Hopefully, it will allow us to be a little more aggressive with my therapy. Dr. R's son James works at the therapy office.


Going in. The markers showing that they were in the correct spot. I'm laying on my stomach.


Close up of the previous x-ray. You can see how narrow my disc space had become and the bone spurs on my L4-5 vertebrae.

The fusion is from my 3rd lumbar vertebrae to my sacrum. In short it was an L3-S1 fusion. The whole surgery took about 4 hours to do. In a fusion, screws are placed into the vertebrae and then they are connected to rods that run down the back of the vertebrae. They rod length is specific to the amount of disc space that they're trying to restore. There are also disc spacers that are put in, in between each vertebrae. The thickness of the Peek spacers is also specific to the amount of gapping that they want. Dr. Reichman said that I would lose about half of my flexion with how many levels I had fused.


The actual fusion. I was amazed at how much disc space Dr. Reichman was able to put back in my spine.


Almost normal. My new hardware.


Back staples. They closed me up with staples rather than stitches. I was surprised how much I couldn't really feel them, although they itched and I was more than happy to get them out.

I spent 3 days in the hospital. I felt bad for dad because whenever he'd come to see me, I'd be able to talk for about 10 minutes and then I'd get so sleepy I'd fall asleep mid conversation. Dr. Reichman came in each morning to check on me and I know that I talked to him, but I don't remember much since I was drugged and he would come in early in the morning just as I was waking up. He said that it had gone as expected. My nurses were awesome, especially the two I had the first night there. They had the privilege of getting me up and walking with me. I thought I'd pull them over when I stood up because I wasn't ready for how weak my legs were. I've never been that shaky in my entire life. It was strange to feel like I didn't have that much control over my legs.

Dr. Reichman and the PT that came in both tested my strength and sensations. The strength was still slightly diminished and my foot was still buzzing, which I think surprised Dr. R a little. I got another corset to wear while I'm recovering. They are a little uncomfortable but nice at the same time because they can be tightened in the spots where I need the most support.

My first night home, went to mom and dad's, I did ok but that morning I was in so much pain, I wanted to go back to the hospital. Luckily, dad gave me a blessing and it eased off a bit. I also read my post-op information and it said that days 4-6 were usually the worst. I'm guessing it's because you aren't as drugged up as in the hospital and are in a different bed.

For the first three months all I could do was walk. It has been really hard to not be able to do anything physically active and even walking would send my back into spasms so I've had to be really cautious.
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At my follow-up visit with David Glassford, Dr. Reichman's LPN, he told me that it could take up to 2 years for all the feeling to come back in my foot and shin. That wasn't what I needed to hear but it is what it is. Nerves take a long time to regenerate.

As a motivator, I am taking a photography class from one of my favorite photographers, Willie Holdman. www.willieholdman.com It's an on-site class, up in the Wasatch mountains. I asked David if he thought I would be ready for it and he said he didn't see why not. I guess we'll find out soon enough....the class is this weekend.

Awesome portable diaper changing stations!

Many of you are mothers of diaper age children, so I thought you all might be interested in these AWESOME diaper changing stations that my sister-in-law makes, and is now selling. I've posted one design but she has a few others. Go to the website and the information is there if you're interested in ordering one.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/nb692451

Make sure you click on the different photos so you can see how they fold out. They fold up to the size of a few diapers (it depends on how much you put inside) but one side holds diapers (you can mix the sizes if you have 2 in diapers) and the other side holds the wipes. They all fold together and then velcro closed. The velcro accommodates the thickness of how many diapers are stored.

My family LOVES these and get many, many compliments on them. People are always asking where they can get them....and now you can.

Happy Changing!

Lumbar fusion

As many of you know (and if you didn't you do now) I had a lumbar discectomy back in July. The first couple of weeks after my surgery everything seemed to be healing well. I wasn't in a lot of pain and the hip pain that I had had before the surgery was gone.

Unfortunately, about 3 weeks after my surgery, the bottom of my foot started to go numb. It isn't the same numb feeling that I feel in my shin, where I really can't feel anything, more of a buzzy feeing, like when your foot goes to sleep from sitting in one position too long. In addition to the "buzzy" feeling, I also started experiencing sharp pains in the sole of my foot and into my arch and heel, especially if I sat too long.

To make a really long story short, I have been put on medication, I've been going to physical therapy and 2 weeks ago I had a lumbar nerve block to see if it would alleviate the numbness and associated pain. The nerve block didn't work at all (in fact I think it made me worse for a few days) and so I was put on an "emergency open" list to get in to see Dr. Reichman. His "open" schedule is when he comes in and opens up an afternoon which is normally booked solid, and sees extra patients. They called me yesterday and told me that I could see Dr. Reichman today. Hallellujiah! I've been trying to see him personally for 6 months.

I met with him this afternoon and he said that after all my back has been through (Back surgeries in 1993, 2002 and most recently, July) that he felt that my only option for relief and the only real solution to the problem is to fuse my vertebra from my third lumbar vertebrae down to my last (L5) lumbar vertebrae--a 3 level fusion.

As of right now, this surgery is scheduled for February 19. I need to meet with my principal to work out my substitute, and athletic training situation. I'm supposed to supervise 2 student athletic trainer from BYU and co-supervise a student teacher from UVU's science program as well. Dr. Reichman said I could be out of work anywhere from 2 weeks to a month.

I just pray that this is a more successful surgery and that it is my last surgery. With fusions, there is a time span of about a decade before you'll need to do something again. Hopefully, I'll break that mold.

Thank you for all of your prayers on my behalf. I really appreciate them and know I will continue to need them in the upcoming months.

For all you teachers out there...

For all you teachers out there….

I have 4 weeks of the year that I absolutely hate. Four weeks where my email and voicemail fill up with the begging, pleading, bargaining, apologizing, "next-time-he/she'll do better, excuses of no....not my students....their parents! I abhor the end of the term.

I go crazy with parents who decide that their halo toting students, who haven't done half of the work that they're supposed to do, nor who have put forth even a slight bit of effort to succeed, suddenly want me to offer them extra credit and break every one of my policies to allow their student to pass. Why should I give your kid extra credit when they haven't even attempted to do the assignments that were required. The assignments which would allow them to review the concepts that we discussed in class, that would allow them to do better on their exams, which in turn would bring their grade up.

What has happened to accepting personal responsibility? What has happened to meeting deadlines and due dates, studying for tests and using the notes you take in class? You wouldn't expect an employer to pay you for work that wasn't done...or would you?

I especially want to scream when I get all of these emails 2 days before the end of the term when, in the days now of 24/7 grade posting on the internet, there is really nothing their student can do to raise their grade. Why don't I see these parents at parent teacher conferences discussing concerns they have with their kid, why haven't they emailed me prior to this time, why don't they tell me about struggles their student might have on disclosure document sheet that they return to me at the beginning of the year that specifically asks, "Is there anything about your student that I should know." Why do they insist on making me feel like I'm the bad guy for not "working with" their kid to "make-up" the work they never did. My favorite phrase is, "I know that you have policies and deadlines. I am/was a teacher too ......" (fill in the rest) but I want you to make an exception for my kid.

These 4 weeks make me ornery. They make me tired. They give me headaches. They lower my self-esteem level at least 4 points because I'm the mean teacher who is being unreasonable....at least that's how I feel by the end. The worst ones of all, however, are the parents of athletes, who I have to see at each game after I've tried to stick to my guns and they don't agree.

The one consolation...I am trying to instill in my students one of the 3 main goals of our school. When students leave dear 'ol AF High we want them to be critical thinkers, lifelong learners and responsible citizens.

Doesn't becoming a responsible citizen, however, start with oneself?