Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!! As I sit in my best friend Rachelle's house watching the ball drop...There were celebrations, toasts and is it really 2012 already??

I reflect back to last year at this time... the nurses all filed into my room at Kessler Institute for Rehabilitiation! Just 1 minute before 12... so they could watch the show and so I would not be alone. I was one of the only patients still awake (I was considerably younger than the typical patient on that floor.) I was in a wheelchair, and in 2 full leg braces. I had a cast on my arm and there were still months of inpatient recovery ahead of me. When I was in the hospital it felt endless and as though I would never recover to the point where I would be declared healthy enough to go home.

Just 10 months after being discharged from inpatient rehabilitation... I am walking and I have no knee braces, crutches, or casts! I am thankful everyday for how far I have come and how hard I have worked. I am still facing surgeries... I am still facing a life-long degenerating condition but I am happy and as "healthy" as I can be at the moment. It is hard to believe how far I have come in just 10 months since coming home.

Update: I continue to recover my extensive wrist/arm surgeries from the summer. I go for "aggressive" (as the doctors have written on the prescriptions for the therapists) occupational therapy (OT) 4 days a week and I am still rehabilitating my knees at Physical therapy (PT) 3 days a week. Unfortunately, I am having some complications but my surgeon is active in helping find a solution! Due to the vitamin-C deficiency and the laxity of ligaments in the knee, my kneecap has fallen off track again so we are trying all methods again before surgery to fix this.

My port was exchanged 2 months ago (in the same spot in my chest) and unfortunately it did not fix the lumps on the line but I have come to terms with just living with it and doing the nightly 2 1/2 hour infusions to keep my body together. I had a rude awakening during the October snow storm when I lost power for 6 days and my IV medication that needs to be kept cool as well. Both knee incision and my arm opened up-- so that ruled out ever being able to stop the stuff (I only missed 5 days of medicine)!

My Nephew Andrew is doing well! I can't believe he is 8 months old already and he's growing, happy and thriving!! Such a blessing after his rough first few months into this world!

So when I look back at my 2011 it was hard, lonely, painful and horrible being away from home for about 8 months but without that year, I would not be who I am today (down 60+ pounds) and I would not have found out how strong of a person I really am!
Here is to a wonderful 2012!
Love, Stacy