Sunday, March 20, 2011

Escape!!!!

On March 7th I had all my reproductive parts removed. It has been a weird and wild ride. Evidently I had quite a mess inside; endometriosis, fibroids, cysts, and adhesions all wrapped and twisted around my intestines and organs. I really do not remember much of the first few days. I spent one night in the hospital and then Nancy brought me home. The morphine totally messed me up. I was shaking uncontrollably and really anxious. It is weird to think about being completely sedated and have people do things to you. I remember rolling into the surgery room and looking around and thinking, "This place is a dump." Then the next thing I knew I was in another room trying to remove my oxygen, then rolling through some other doors to a hallway and Nancy was there, then magically in another room and being slid onto another bed. I was given a spinal block before surgery so I was not in too much pain from the waist down, but my throat felt like I had swallowed fire from being intubated.

It has been almost 2 weeks and I am feeling a bit sore. I pulled something a few days ago and went in to make sure I had not done any big damage. Everything is fine but I need to keep taking it easy. I have a very hard time staying in one place for long and if I am not able to get outside I start feeling a bit insane. Yesterday I was able to get out in the sunshine for a bit. Nancy and I drove to her friend Ron's house in Springdale to look at an old barn he wants torn down. Nancy and her brother and I might make it a project this summer. There is a ton of salvageable lumber and we are going to build a garage this summer. The barn is huge and half of it has collapsed so I am not sure how safe I feel about taking it apart. But after we left the barn we took the long way home and checked out some access spots along the Spokane River.

I found a couple of good put-in spots just upstream from Little Falls Dam. There is a good one up river at Long Lake dam but often the current right there looks problematic for paddling against it. If I am going to do an out and back on moving water that I am not familiar with, even with a slow current, I prefer to start downstream and paddle up, then paddle with the current on the way back. The distance between Long Lake and Little Falls dams is 4 miles and it looks beautiful. This summer Walter and I are going to check out more of the lower Spokane River and Lake Roosevelt. We drove back to the highway from Little Falls Dam on the Spokane Reservation side. It was very cool. We crossed a really cool creek with ducks and two heron in it. I tried to get a picture of the heron as it was flying but missed it. The water in the rivers and the creeks is really high. We have been having a lot of rain and mountain snow melt.

I figured the snow would be crappy by the time I was able to ski so a few days before my surgery Nancy and I had a lovely 12k trip up at Mt. Spokane. It seems as if this winter has gone quickly. I am feeling very anxious to take off with Walter on a camping trip. Nancy and I have also talked about a spring trip to the Olympic Peninsula. There never seems to be enough time. Oh, and Walter just turned 9 last week!!!!!! He was the world's cutest puppy and we fell in love with each other instantly. Or at least I fell in love with him. He got too chilled after birth and we thought we were going to lose him. I carried him around in my bra for two days to warm him up and get his strength back so he could nurse (on his mother....not me!!).

I will probably be able to drive in a few days so I think Walter and I will go exploring around Lake Roosevelt if I am feeling up to it. I also have some sewing projects I am working on. I finished Walter's new coat last night. He looks so cute in purple!!! Anyway, here are some pictures from my outing yesterday. Being out in the woods by the river, even if it was in a car, lifted my spirits tremendously. I did not realize how much I needed it until I got it.



Ducks


Pool above Little Falls Dam


The other part of the pool above Little Falls Dam


Condom Tree



Long Lake Dam


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