It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

I have a pillow out on my patio until I get around to buying patio furniture. Patton likes to go out and knows the routine. I brush him and he watches the birds and lays in the sun. I'm so glad I got an apartment with a balcony!

The courtyard looks better green!

Hot child in the city, running wild and looking and pretty. - Nick Gilder, Hot Child In The City

This was at the corner market in greenville, dallas. They had dublin dr pepper and amazing food!

Small things are big, huge things are small, tiny acts have huge effects, everything counts, nothing is lost. - Project Pitchfork, Alpha Omega

Old Cowboys stadium in Irving. Yuck. Nasty roof. Bad design...there was a hole in the roof. There was no air conditioning because it wasn't closed, but it would trap the heat in...so it was always crazy hot!

New cowboys stadium in Arlington!!! Woo hoo! Dude. This place is MASSIVE. Beautiful, too.

These are just some random shots of downtown while riding with Courtney. I think Dallas is so pretty. I spent some quality time with Courtney and Shelley. I haven't seen either of them in almost a year. Way too long. I wish we could do this every weekend. They showed me some cute places in Dallas. We sat outside and enjoyed coffee, sun and good friends. I miss Texas.

Just look at this skyline...

I don't have pictures of Fort Worth this time. Everyone I know now lives here in Arlington or the Dallas side. We did stop by the Main Street Arts Festival in Sundance Square in Fort Worth, but my legs really hurt so I went home to ice and rest.

That was the beginning of the trip. It was weird. Today, I didn't even think about the fact that I had surgery almost 3 weeks ago. This was the first day, I hopped out of bed and was walking around and didn't even notice pain. They still feel "tight" and I can't move certain ways because of that, but no real pain anymore! It's been getting better and better every day. Thank you, Lord!

Going back home to DC tomorrow. Mixed feelings about that, but less sad than I have been in the past. I miss my friends in Maryland. They are good people. At least, I know I will be moving to Jacksonville in October and that makes it easier to go back too. I won't be there too long. I'm just not happy on my floor. I'm not challenged. I don't like the kind of work. Monotonous. It's all checklists, but no real "bedside" nursing. Ah well. This all makes me well rounded, right?? haha.

sign said beer bait and ammo - Kevin Fow

Hell of a Friday night in Texas. Sonic and the gun range. I've been really stuck in a rut with the leg stuff. Haven't done much of anything in the past two weeks, so it felt good to get out.

All the stores and even the gun range were sold out of the ammo Jeff needed. Wonder if it's the fear of a new administration, taxes, or the talk (possibly joking? Can't be sure) of Texas seceding. Chuck Norris has even stated he would run for President too! (That's no joke)

Applause, applause, life is our cause. - Joni Mitchell, All I Want

This groundbreaking occurred when I was in Kuwait, but I watched it this morning. Gives me chills when he talks about the caregivers of the armed forces and how special they are. Things like this always remind me how extraordinary it is to be a navy nurse.

It's a long video, but you can just skip through and scan parts of it. The President starts talking right about 8 min in. It's the groundbreaking of the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda. (Done at our campus tower) At 18:30 in the video a cute presentation happens as they are getting ready to do the groundbreaking. Makes all the guests laugh a bit. You might look at that part.

They are closing the current Walter Reed hospital in 2 years and will be moved over to join with the Navy at Bethesda. There's a lot of craziness going on around the campus, but it's kinda exciting.

When the working day is done, girls they just want to have fun. - Cyndi Lauper, Girls Just Want To Have Fun

The past week I've sat around and iced my legs. Grew annoyed with not being able to walk and watched tons of TLC. I also realized that I've lost all the fun in blogging. my posts in college used to include stick pictures of my nursing exams killing me.

So, I'm going to bring the fun back. Before the navy. Before having a career. Before bills, metro, DC, and leaving to explore the world.

Other short news. My mom left today. It's kinda boring without her here now. I'll be going to Texas on wednesday though, so I'll see her soon. I don't know what I would have done without her. She even would straighten my rug when I got OCD and was going crazy staring at it. Mom's are the best.

We all have pain, we all have sorrow, but if we are wise we know that there's always tomorrow. - Bill Withers, Lean On Me

I had my surgery last Thursday. Thursday and Friday it was pretty painful to get up and I could barely put weight on my legs. Saturday was much better and Sunday was great. I walked a LOT on Sunday.

The more I got my legs going, the better it felt, so I thought it was good that I was walking. Then, I woke up Monday and it was like I had stepped back a day. My right leg seems to be getting worse since then. I'm back to not being able to put weight on that leg. My left one is okay. Just a little sore. I woke up last night in pain, which was the first time that had happened.

My mom still had to come in and help me stand to get on my crutches. Realizing that she was leaving today, I knew I had to learn how to do it without her. The sad thing is. I couldn't. I would get my weight up and then fall forward and have to step on my left leg and yelp in pain. I keep trying to mentally tell myself the pain isn't there and just try and put weight on it, but it's not working. I'm just getting frustrated. I was teased. Sunday was great. I was almost walking normal and since then I'm just getting more and more sore.

I've had more calf pain on the right leg, so I've been wondering if I could have a DVT, but I don't know. I may call the clinic tomorrow if it's not better.

I thought maybe some of my friends could come by and keep me company, but I was realizing that most of my friends are working or doing stuff this weekend for easter, etc. I'm kinda glad my mom is here. She can help get stuff for me and get me up to get to the bathroom, etc.

I hate not being independent. I hate pain meds. I'm mad I was better and I think I made it worse by doing too much.

I am a rock, I am an island. And a rock feels no pain. And an island never cries. - Simon and Garfunkel, I Am A Rock

Wednesday night, I picked my mom up from the airport. She flew in to help out with me after my surgery. For a while, I kept telling her I was okay and had friends and she didn't need to come, but I'm really glad she did. I have amazing friends that would all be there if they needed to be, but I just never want to call and put them out.

Thursday morning we headed to the hospital to check in. I got changed and sat in the APU waiting for the OR to call for me. Dr. Dickens came by and checked in. That was nice. I didn't think I'd see any of the docs that day. Tanya came by to check on me on her way into work. Eventually, it was time to head over to the OR. Thankfully, it was nice and warm in the pre-op area. We all got in our beds and got warm blankets. My anesthesiologist and nurse came over and we started going through all the paperwork and getting me ready for the OR. I loved the anesthesiologist. He was pretty cool. He asked me if I drink beer, wine or hard liquor. I asked him, "what are you buying?" haha. He liked that. I told him I drink beer more than anything these days and he told me he was giving me my 12 pack and injected something into my IV. They unlocked the bed and asked me to tell them when I felt something. They pulled the bed away from the wall and I told them I was starting to feel something and that anything I said after that point could not be used against me! I vaguely remember getting in the room and getting strapped down and hooked into all the machines and the face mask on and that's it.

I woke up in the PACU with the nurse poking my toes. I could feel it. I woke up pretty easily. No nausea. No spinning feeling. I drank a whole can of ginger ale and felt pretty good. I got back over to the APU and had to have a lot of help getting to the chair. My legs were starting to hurt pretty bad, but I wanted to wait until I got some food in my stomach to take pain meds. Andrew stopped by to see me after the surgery, which was nice to see him.

After I got changed and my meds were picked up, I was ready to go. My momma wheeled me out to my car and we headed home. It took me a LONG time to get all the way to my apartment from my front door. It hurt really bad and I was going very slow.

I haven't really moved from my sleeper sofa or bed much. Only to go to the bathroom and back. It's feeling better than the first day, but still hurts pretty bad to get up. My calves are very swollen and bruised, but it's expected. I'm just so glad to have this part out of the way. A few weeks from now I hope to be up walking more and eventually running without any pain!

I have some great friends! Thank you all for checking in on me and stopping by!