Small Sewing Project and Nursery Progress

Pregnancy

I will be 35 weeks pregnant this Tuesday! Time sure is flying! Here is the most recent photo of my "bump." Ignore the mess in the background, our neighbor was cleaning out his garage at the time. Besides exhaustion and lack of sleep, this week has actually been better than the past couple were! The problems come and go, but I only have about 6 more weeks and then it'll be baby problems instead of pregnancy problems ;) The exhaustion and sleep deprivation are just going to continue, of course. I did end up in the hospital a couple weeks ago due to some issues they were worried may be related to my epilepsy. They kept me for observation and monitoring of the baby for a few hours and some meds. Once everything improved, I was sent home with the meds in case it happens again. Hopefully not, though, I felt terrible for two days after from the meds. I think this issue was they made me sleep all day - which ended up leading to me getting really dehydrated. This made the ongoing circulation, swelling, and cramping issues worse. The monitoring did show I was already having some contractions, so we will see if I make it all the way to 40 weeks. I know I've been having a lot of false labor contractions, but the monitors showed some real ones that were weak (I didn't even know I was having them). They did an exam though, and everything seems to be going well. 

Nursery

We finally got the nursery painted! We painted it Sherwin Williams "Balmy" blue (SW 6512) , it is a calming sky blue color. My "plan" is to put up some cute tree and woodland creature vinyls, but we will see if that actually happens. 

Here is the "before" picture of the nursery in the color it was previously as well as all of our not-yet-assembled nursery furniture. 

Here are the "progress" pictures from yesterday and today. Yesterday we did the first coat of paint, and today we did the second final coat and worked on assembling the big items. 

We still have a few things in boxes - nothing major. One musical swing, a bath seat, and a pack n play. Then it's on to figuring out storage, furniture arrangement and decorations! We don't have much in the way of decorations, yet. By not much, I mean nothing ;) So I may need to paint some cute little woodland creatures to hang up in there!

Once we finish all of that, we have another huge project to take on: my sewing room. It will no longer just be my sewing/craft room, but also a guestroom. Complete with TV, games, futon, bookcases, as well as all of my sewing and craft stuff. Dealing with that this week is going to be "fun." We also need to order another baby gate to put on the bathroom door so that we can move the litter box out of my sewing room (who wants that in their guestroom, right?) and into the bathroom. Why a gate? Bruce is gross and eats cat poop. What a problem pup. 

Baby Shower

Yesterday, TJ's squadron made me cry (darn pregnancy hormones!). I was told to take the day off work for his squadron's barbecue. I just thought it was a good time to be social, eat free food, and enjoy the beautiful weather we've been having. I even cooked up some cornbread for it! When we arrived I was greeted with his entire squadron and their families surprising me with a baby shower! 

This made me feel so grateful and overwhelmed. I have been so far from close friends and all of our family members this entire pregnancy in this new place. Knowing the military really steps up to provide this kind of support is so amazing and appreciated!

I was asked quite a few times at the "barbecue" and I have also been asked at work, via text, and messages on Facebook about the baby's sex and name. Well, we have not found out whether we are having a boy or a girl, but we DO have names picked out. Here is my post on the names from Facebook: 

"If we have a boy, his name will be Theodore Edwin Dalen. He would be named after my great-grandfather on my dad's side, Walter Theodore Boyett, and TJ's grandfather on his dad's side, Edwin Olai Dalen.

If we have a girl, her name will be Valera Kate Dalen. She would be named after TJ's great-grandmother on his mom's side, Valeria Varna (Koerner) Bridges (with a slight spelling change), and my great-grandmother on my mom's side, Kate Rhea (Peckens) Slaughter."

Small Sewing Project

I forgot to post this little project a while ago. I found the pattern on pinterest and thought it was brilliant. Just a quick, afternoon project. So far I have only made one for the master bath, but I need to find some fabric to make one for the guest bath as well. Behold the awesome toilet paper holder: 

I used the exact fabric from the shower curtain my mom made for TJ's birthday. We are going with a "space" theme for the master bath. So far all we have are the shower curtain and now this, but we'll get around to decorating this house eventually....I plan on making a teal/purple/pink one for the guest bath, which is decorated in flamingos.

Next Blog

My next blog will likely feature all of the awesome baby quilts and baby gear my mom and I have made (so far). It is so much fun sewing cute baby things! I am also on the last block of TJ's double-sided T-Shirt Quilt. I took a hiatus on it while working on other things, mostly because it is huge and the T-shirt fabric has been a pain to hand quilt. Just have the last block and then the binding and I will finally be finished with it. Still have enough T-Shirts for two more quilts, but I may make one of them my first "rag" quilt so I won't be hand quilting the entire thing - which takes time from more important projects ;) 

My parents will be visiting in November and my mother-in-law and possibly sister-in-law will be coming Dec-Jan. I plan on working on the baby book I received at the baby shower and the family tree book while they are all visiting. I love those types of things!

Baby Registries
For those who have asked, we are registered at Target and Amazon. Just look up my name "Stephanie Dalen" and due date of "November 24, 2015" and they should pop right up.
 Our Target registry
Our Amazon Registry

Leg Recovery, Learning to Sew

Hello! Long time no blog! :)

Broken Fibula Recovery
My leg recovery is going really well, though I am really impatient. I have been walking without the boot for three weeks now. I have occasionally had to put it back on after over-doing it. The air boot helps it feel a lot better if I've been using it too much but still need to stand or walk more than I already have. I've been wearing a pedometer to keep track of how much I am walking and it seems if I walk more than about 3000 steps a day (it sounds like a lot but it definitely is not) my leg gets really sore. It seems to swell up by the end of the day everyday still too. I am able to do chores around the house and get around without limping now, so that's progress! I still have not regained full ankle motions (I can't point my foot all the way or move it in all the directions the other one can). I am working on that by 'writing the alphabet' with my foot, as my doctor suggested. I have not gone to physical therapy. My doctor wrote me a prescription for it but said that it's really up to me. It can help, but with this type of break is not necessary. I just have to take it slow and work the alphabet and do everything gradually. I won't be running for a long time. My next goal is to be able to squat and sit down on the ground/get up without pain. Slowly working towards that. It may seem like a weird goal, but this is what happened to my poor, neglected garden after I broke my leg:

It upsets me every time I go outside, but there really isn't much I can do about it at this point. Kneeling down, crawling, etc. just is NOT happening with my foot right now. All of the muscles from my knee to my toes still need slow exercises and are not making as much progress as I would like. I'm sure it is the kind of progress that is expected at this point. For the most part (if I don't overdo it) I can sleep without any pain at all while moving throughout the night. Just looking at my pedometer, if I go over about 7000 steps a day I regret it by bed time and need ibuprofen. 

The good news is, starting about a week ago I've been using stairs again! At first it was much easier to go up them than go down them. My goal at the beginning of the year was to be able to run an entire 5k without walking, so I've had to obviously readjust that goal. 

My Education
I am getting so close to my degree I can hardly believe it. I don't actually think I will believe it until I have it in hand. I am taking three classes right now, two online and one in person. I am really liking doing chemistry in four weeks, I feel like I am learning so much more. It definitely is a lot of work though and ideally I wouldn't have wanted such an intensive course to overlap with the ones I am taking online. They are all going really well, though! Last week was my chemistry midterm and I aced it. By aced I actually mean a 100%. I was in shock. That has definitely not happened to me in any college chem classes before. It really shows that the intensive four week course really keeps me focused on it (I have to work on chem every night since there are quizzes every day, so that helps!). My other two classes are getting pretty intense too. I've been working on my final paper for my composition class (it will be about 10 pages when finished) and it is on the topic of the founding fathers' views on the separation of church and state. It sounds really boring, but the research has actually been really interesting. I just need to set some time aside to finish this bad boy. I had a paper last weekend for meteorology and an exam in there this weekend, so wish me luck! In about a month I will have my bachelor's degree! It's only about three semesters late, but at least I am finally getting it done! I had to take two semesters off for severe illness and one for the move so I'm still happy with it even though it is delayed. I definitely need some time off from school though. Hopefully this degree will help me find a decent-paying job around here! One can always hope...

Speaking of jobs, I have actually temporarily quit applying. With these three classes overlapping I am focusing entirely on school to finish up this degree. I do NOT want something going badly at this point. In about a month though, it will be nothing but job hunting! Luckily with our cuts in spending we haven't had issues with living on one paycheck. It's not like I have any time to be spending money anyways! It will be nice when we have spending money again, though.

Hobbies!
I did do one fun thing during all of this craziness! Yesterday I took a beginning sewing class! It helped me get to know my machine (my mother-in-law gave it to me while we were visiting home in June) and I sewed a pillowcase! Basically, it was a project where we had to sew a lot of straight lines. I'll be trying to duplicate it sometime this weekend. That will be the test to see if I actually learned and can sew without the instructor helping me the whole way. Speaking of, Selinda was absolutely amazing! I feel like I really learned a lot even if it was only two and a half hours. You can check out her blog here. She specializes in sewing children's clothes, but don't be surprised if you see more info from her future classes on here. I may try to take her pattern reading class in the future and possibly her Christmas stocking one! I took the class at a really cute store in Shreveport called Lil Miss Priss. It was a great location for a class. There were two other ladies in the class and they were both beginner's as well. I highly recommend Selinda's class to anybody in the area who is wanting to learn how to use their sewing machine or just learn how to sew.

At the beginning of the night I was completely stumped as to the settings, needles, thread, etc and by the end I had made this:

Here is a close-up of the fabrics/colors:

In case you couldn't tell, I was trying to match the curtains in my bedroom. I posted those in a previous blog, my mom made the curtains for me. I'll be attempting to make another pillowcase on my own with the brown as the main fabric and yellow on the outside. First I need to pick up an acrylic ruler because that made it SO much easier to cut fabric. Luckily Hancock Fabrics has a 40% off coupon right now, so I'll be using that!

I'm not sure what my next sewing project after that will be, but I definitely need to sew a lot and make sure I don't forget what I am doing. I am so happy my mother-in-law had a sewing machine she wasn't using (thank you again). It's a simple one, but that is PERFECT for a confused beginner such as myself. This is my machine:

It is a brother VX-1010 and I don't have a manual for it, but luckily there was a manual online for threading it. I cleaned the machine today with an air duster and that has made some improvements but my instructor also suggested I go get it serviced soon. The instructor in the class even had a sticker-measuring tape to make the measurements on the machine from the needle easier to see! Magic!

Other News

In other news, we finally bought a second vehicle. It became much more necessary when I was taking classes. We bought a barely-used motorcycle from another airman here on base. He had it for a few years and basically never used it, so it was a great deal! We finally got it registered (was a bit complicated being non-residents, it was previously registered in another state, loan paperwork and insurance made it a paperwork nightmare), so it now has valid plates and my husband is using it as his commuting vehicle for work. I am not sure how I feel about riding it, and I know I won't be riding it for a while with my leg as weak as it is. Who knows, I might actually like it and need to take the motorcycle course myself. 

We also just got a brand-spanking new and improved battery in our car. Our last one had a cell die and it was way before it was supposed to happen. Turns out, the dealer put the wrong size in last time. They gave us the upgraded one for free due to the warranty! The whole situation before we got it sorted out though was pretty frustrating. Luckily, the battery just had to be switched out at any place that sold that brand of battery. We had a WONDERFUL experience at ABC Auto Parts. Especially after the previous experiences elsewhere. We bought new wiper blades while we were there-which we realized quickly we should have done sooner. I also plan on going back to pick up an air filter for the car at that store since they were so awesome. I got the oil changed yesterday and they showed me the filter....gross. Unfortunately they couldn't switch it out then and there since they were out of that particular size filter. 

For the next two weeks I am watching an adorable fuzzball aka a husky puppy. He is about 8 weeks old (I believe) and still working on potty training so we have our hands full! His owners are in the process of moving and while they are getting everything in order we are taking care of their furbaby. I don't mind at all :) 

Hopefully I'll have another sewing project completed for the next blog or possibly have more decorations on my walls (a goal of mine--our living room walls are still pretty bare). I hope you are all having a wonderful summer! 

P.S. Don't be surprised if everybody gets pillowcases for Christmas!

Updates - Week 7

Broken Leg
Last Thursday I had my sixth-week follow-up at the specialist. My leg is healing really well! I can start moving it (well, trying to move it--it doesn't really move much), and put some weight on it when standing with support. I can't walk with it yet, at least not without support or putting my full body weight on it. However, I can tell that just working with it for one week has made a huge difference. Yes, it is sore, but I am making some progress.

My favorite part of this is I do not have to wear the air cast any longer. I still wear it if I am going to be going to a crowded place or somewhere where I think I may be in danger of being pushed or tripping. The biggest bonus though is that since I no longer have to wear that tight air cast I am sleeping SO much better. I have to keep the pets out of the room though so they don't jump on my leg. It seems to be their favorite thing to try to do, especially the cat.

The full recovery is obviously going to take a while. The muscles in my left leg are basically no longer existent. That happens when you can't use them for over a month. In fact, it kind of grosses me out. My left leg looks like nothing but bone, especially from the knee down. The calf is about half the size of my right one. It looks....wrong. This is also why I said I am 'trying' to move it. I actually physically cannot move my foot much. I was told to 'write the cursive alphabet' with my foot as often as possible. It is easier in the bath as well, but it is definitely some sloppy cursive. I do not have the full range of motion in my ankle, so I can't fully move it in any direction. I feel like I'm mostly 'writing' in the air with my toes instead of my foot. So, progress is a bit slow. It is a really weird sensation though feeling like you are doing the same thing with both feet but only one of them moving. For example, when I try to point my feet my right one points all the way down and my left one lowers about an inch, maybe less.

Over the course of the next week I am supposed to continue 'writing in the air' with my foot--basically this forces all the muscles to move in all directions. In addition to that, I am supposed to keep putting more and more weight on my left foot until I am comfortable standing on it without support and gradually move to walking without support.

The specialist also recommended I go to physical therapy, but since I am on military insurance I had to go to my PCM. I did that yesterday and got the referral to physical therapy done up and that should get processed by the end of next week. So, hopefully in two weeks I can actually start doing physical therapy with a professional. I hope that speeds up my recovery. Especially since I was working towards being able to run a 5k before this all happened. I obviously won't be able to do that too quickly.

Sorry, no pictures this week! Hopefully at my next appointment in a couple of weeks I will acquire some of my x-rays from throughout the whole process to show you the changes that have occurred since the original fracture!

Broken Leg Timeline April 15th-May 25th

Sorry about the delay with updating my blog, some online classes have started for me and I've been a bit busy working on those whenever I am on the computer. I am in the home stretch of finishing my degree! I was planning on graduating this Spring, but postponed taking my final classes to this summer due to the craziness involved with moving. The timing for the start of classes in Spring really did not work out. I only have an online English class and a chemistry class to take and I am DONE. Luckily, LSUS offers in-state tuition to military dependents so my chem class is actually LESS expensive than it would have been back home at the college where I am getting my degree. I found that pretty ironic!

Anyways, here is a bit of the story of the follow-up with my leg. On April 13th, a Saturday, I went to the ER. Since my fibula was broken all the way through they were not sure if I would need surgery or pins put in to ensure a proper recovery. A specialist would have to determine this, so on my paperwork they wrote that I needed to see an orthopedic specialist ASAP, first thing Monday morning. Those exact words. They also only put a short-term temporary cast on my leg.

Well, I am on military insurance. Nothing ever works smoothly on military insurance. Ever. Here is the timeline of what has been done so far.

April 15th-16th
Monday morning, I called the base clinic as soon as they opened and they said I would have to see my primary care manager (my main doctor) before I could get a referral to see an ortho. She couldn't see me until the afternoon. They also required me to get the exact same x-rays done at the base hospital due to procedure even though I got a copy of mine from the ER. This is the original x-ray of my leg:

The x-ray above is basically looking straight at my ankle, so the bone on the upper right (the broken one) is my fibula. No, that "S"-shaped crack going all the way through it is NOT supposed to be there. I highly recommend against doing this. The S-shape is basically indicative of a severe twist.

After going through this entire process with the base clinic, they decided that yes, I did have a broken leg (really?) and that I needed to see a specialist. Tuesday afternoon, they put in the referral to see the on-base ortho. Yes, another 24 hours after seeing my PCM they provided the referral. The base specialist's earliest appointment available was the following Monday. Yes, nine days after I broke my leg before a specialist would make sure that it is lined up properly and put in a protective and long-term cast.

On Tuesday night, April 16th, I actually returned to the ER because I completely lost feeling in my toes and they turned bright blue. This was even while elevating my foot above my heart. The ER was worried I might have compartment syndrome, so they took the cast off and did more xrays. Fortunately, I did not have compartment syndrome. The temporary cast they had put on my leg on Saturday was actually wrapped too tightly and was cutting off the circulation. So, that night they gave me a new temporary cast that was tight, but not AS tight and more painkillers. The xrays basically indicated that my leg was swelling pretty badly, and that was why the cast became too tight. Really confusingly, the ER provided me paperwork that basically said all the symptoms I had were reasons to return to the ER.

April 17th
On the 17th, we found out the reason I could NOT get a referral off base was because the ortho specialist on base accepted my case. Since he chose to see me even though I couldn't fit in right away, that meant I could not go elsewhere. If he had decline the case, I would have been given a referral off base right away. My doctor basically told me to go to the ER in hopes that they had a specialist on duty. I feel like that would be a purposeful waste of the ER's time when I should just be getting a referral to go elsewhere.

My husband's commander was really confused as to why I hadn't seen a specialist yet and my husband worked with him to get me through the system throughout the 17th. By the end of the work day, I finally received a referral to go off base. Unfortunately, it was two days AFTER the ER wanted me to go and I received the referral in the afternoon. So, I could not get an appointment until Thursday afternoon. I feel like this would have been a less expensive (for my insurance), less stressful experience if they had just followed the instructions on the ER's paperwork and let me go on Monday. At this point I had been to the ER three times in a few days: the original visit, a visit that night due to a reaction to the painkiller (switched my meds), and the visit on Tuesday (we spent about 6 hours there because they were busy). My husband would have missed a lot less work, too.

April 18th
Of course the day of my appointment it was POURING. So, I had to wrap my temporary cast in plastic bags and TJ had to run into a CVS and get me knee-highs to hold all the bags in place for my appointment.

Lovely, right? It's called improvising! I was lucky in the fact we had a ton of plastic shopping bags in the car we had earlier planned on taking to recycling. 

My doctor at Highland was super nice, but he was really confused as to why it took so long for me to get in to see a specialist. The temporary cast I was in also had my foot turned in slightly and could have led to improper positioning/healing if left on longer. Luckily, he decided I did not need surgery. He put me in a hard cast to protect my leg and keep me from bending my ankle. He then told me to keep my leg elevated above my heart as close to 24/7 as possible and to come back in two weeks. I was only allowed to move around on crutches and only to do things like go from a chair to the bathroom, to the bed, etc. Swelling from keeping it down would slow down the healing process, cut off circulation, and generally be painful. The first week or so really sucked because my leg would swell up in the short time it took to go to the bathroom, etc. The hard cast was SO much more comfortable than the temporary cast. I never thought a cast would feel comfortable, but compared to the original, it was a pillow. He basically told me I'd likely be stuck keeping my foot up for eight weeks along with doing nothing due to the break. He was happy that it was lined up still and the 'gap' was pretty small. Both good news for healing properly. The pain went down significantly from putting it in the temporary cast and I actually got some sleep that night. Obviously it isn't very easy to sleep with pain from a fractured limb combined with weird sleeping positions  involving keeping your leg elevated...

The cast was even a pretty emerald green color!

April 24th

I ended up needed to return to the ortho specialist on the 24th (much sooner than the two week follow-up), because my skin under the cast felt like it was on FIRE. It burned and itched so bad that I couldn't sleep. Well, when the doc put the cast on I had some scrapes that needed patched up and he had applied antibiotic ointment and band-aids to them prior to putting on the cast. I developed a reaction to the adhesive in the band-aids. Little itchy red welts on the front and side of my leg where the band-aids were. No big deal, nothing major. He did remove the cast and put me in an air cast. Most of the time, they do not put you in an air cast until you can put weight on your foot. Some people refer to them as 'walking boots.' It was pretty neat though, because he wrote a prescription for it and then I had to go to this little 'store' in the hospital that had all sorts of casts, crutches, walkers, wheelchairs, etc. The lady working there was super nice dealing with a ton of paperwork for us and fitted me into a boot. I greatly prefer this to the hard cast, it makes it SO much easier to bathe since I can actually remove it for that. I can also open it up and ice my leg (as long as I'm not moving or in danger of being bumped, etc.). So I've been in the air cast for a month now. I've gotta say though, if I go outside on hot days the black, thickly padded cast REALLY soaks up the sun. Good thing I can take it off and clean the inside....

Here's a pic outside the hospital on the 24th with the aircast. I appreciated the close parking for those of us who are temporarily impaired and don't qualify for the handicapped spots...

May 8th

My last doctor appointment was on May 8th as a follow-up. I was given the good news/bad news on the recovery thus far. They took new x-rays, which I got to look at. I do not have a copy of them to share with you, but basically my leg looked a lot like that original x-ray at the top of the blog except the crack was much narrower/almost closed. It was obviously 'filling in' but you could still distinctly see the crack. Which meant I am still helpless. I still cannot start putting any weight on it and have to keep it elevated as much as possible. 

The past couple of days my leg has actually been hurting worse than it has in the past couple of weeks. This is probably due to the bone-growth healing stage. The swelling is down significantly and my foot no longer looks like a bruise rainbow. I can't seem to find the picture I took of my foot when it was really nasty but for a few weeks there from my toes up to above my ankle was a range of colors from jaundice yellow to black. This is a pic of it on April 24th, but it actually got some darker colors around that time as well:

 Most of those colors have faded. I still have a little bit of the yellowing and a couple red spots (I think from pressure from the cast) but other than that it looks a lot better. My ankle is also looking more 'defined' and ankle-like, though the swelling is not entirely gone. 

I had gone without ANY narcotics from about May 5th until yesterday. They help a lot with the pain but I really hate the intestinal and mental side effects I get with them. I even have some strong anti-nausea meds I take with them and they still make me feel terrible at low doses. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to sleep the past two nights without them (even with melatonin and tylenol PM-what I had been taking for sleep). The pain has made my leg way too uncomfortable to continue refusing to take them. Hopefully that is a good healing sign though (the increased discomfort) and my bone is finally really closing up that gap. The pain is much different than it was previously, too. It is mostly discomfort instead of the shooting pain and it isn't from swelling like before. My toes also don't hurt anymore to wiggle around in my cast--so that's exciting! It's the little things ;) 

My next follow-up is next week and I'll make sure to post an update from the doctor on my recovery time. Hopefully I'll at least have a good idea by then of when I can start physical therapy and putting weight on my foot. It will probably be in the air cast for quite a while more. I'm just hoping to be slightly more helpful around the house and able to enjoy summer a little bit more. I also can't wait to get back into working out--but that will definitely have to wait. 

Mud Fears Me + Broken Leg

It has been a while since I posted an update, but that is because it is incredibly uncomfortable to sit at my computer. I broke my leg and have to keep it elevated pretty high so I am currently in this weird position at my desk where I am sitting in one chair and have a stack of pillows in another chair to rest my leg on. This leads to me sitting at a weird angle with my body turned one way and my leg another. I felt I should let everybody know why I haven't posted, cooked, or done any gardening though.

On April 13th, my husband and I participated in Mud Fears Me.You can read more about it at here.Basically, it is a 5 kilometer long course of mud and muddy obstacles. It was a load of fun--despite the fact that I literally 'broke a leg'! The reason I wanted to do it was because it looked like a blast, I had recently gotten into much better shape than I had been (since January I had lost 5 pounds and was running regularly), and it was something TJ (my husband) could do with me.

The initial challenge was a swim in FREEZING mud water. What a way to get things started! I actually ended up swimming to the side and walking about half the length after I got kicked in the chest by a swimmer in front of me. It knocked the air out of me, and swimming in freezing water is difficult already without the muddy water with shoes and about three layers of clothes. I wore a swimsuit, capris, a long sleeved shirt, plus shorts and a tank top since the morning of the event was cold and I knew I was gonna get wet. It was an incredibly unflattering outfit, but I wasn't really there to look good.

Pre-race photo.

Ready, set, go!

Everybody realizing how cold the water is, but having to jump right in anyways!

The swim!

The next set of challenges showed how important it is to run this event with a partner or team, or at least help out strangers. There was probably a kilometer or so of mud trenches of varying depths (which you could not tell the depth until you took the plunge since they were opaque and muddy). There was a lot of slipping and sliding going on, and the occasional person yelling "Help, I'm stuck!" I got stuck a couple times, and TJ had to help pull me out. One person who ran along us got stuck up to his waist and we both had to help yank him out! It was pretty hilarious. After that stretch there were some obstacles that you would think of as more typical of an obstacle course -- rope climbs, wooden ladders, monkey bars, balance beams, tire climbs, one steep hill 'run' climb, and a few crawling through/under obstacles. All, obviously, covered in mud. There was one steep trench that was really long in the middle of the course that had me doing some 'high knees' to pull my legs up out of the mud. The water went up to my neck and the mud was a little deeper than my knees and probably 30 yards long. That was quite the workout, but that mud was warm so it felt great that morning! Between all the obstacles there was jogging and a few water stations.

I'm in the upper left, and TJ is jumping down on this obstacle. We had to climb up on top of this container and then jump into an 8 foot deep mudwater pit -- then climb out of the pit.

After a tire pile climb, we came over a crest in the course and could see the tents at the finish line, we were almost done! We had once obstacle to crawl under barbed wire - army crawl. I think the purpose of the obstacle was to ensure we were covered in mud head to toe. Then, we had to climb a ramp and slide down into a pit of mud.

The slide -- with the end in sight!

Then there were only two obstacle left after climbing out of that pit: the bridge and another army crawl under nets. The bridge reminded me of those lily pads you see at water parks. Except a bit trickier. They were over a mud 'pond' and were wooden platforms attached to each other by rope and to either end of the pond. You had to really have momentum to run across (a lot of people wiped out in the water). I was basically rockin the bridge, I kept my momentum up running and jumping from each one until I got to the very end.

The fateful bridge.

I jumped off the last platform heading to the land and my foot did not find solid ground. I landed hard on my left foot and slid into the water--I had hit either the edge of the ground or the mud gave way, but either way it came with a severe twist to my ankle. I could not put ANY weight on it and had to be helped up by a lifeguard and my husband who sprinted across that bridge behind me when he saw me fall. I was probably less than 50 feet from the finish line, and only one easy obstacle was between me and it, but I could not finish. The on-site paramedics insisted that I don't move, but they gave my shoe with the timer on it to my husband so he could run it over the finish line (I had already practically finished, right?).

TJ crossing the finish line.

They put my leg in a temporary splint and lifted me onto a golf cart. They then took me to the car, where TJ met us and we then mapped on the GPS the nearest ER: Willis Knighton South. Pretty far from home, but close to the event. Since we obviously could not take advantage of the showers at the end of the race at this point, the car got muddy both inside and out and we were both still soaking wet since we could not change our outfits. TJ put my nice finisher's medal around my neck though, to make me feel better. The entire time the paramedics assumed  I had sprained my ankle. I don't show pain well, but I told them it hurt a lot pretty matter of factually. I am a HUGE baby when I'm nauseous or vomiting and will cry but when I'm in pain all emotion just shuts down and I tend to appear more angry/frustrated or matter-of-factual. My dad actually has accused me in the past of doing this on purpose so the doctors never believe me when I'm in pain. I guess when you just look at them and tell them you are at a level 9 of pain or something they don't take you seriously unless you have tears streaming down your face?

Well, this theme continued in the ER. I went in laughing about it, but when they asked how much pain I was in I said 9 and the nurse basically said if it were that bad I probably wouldn't be laughing, but she gave me some strong painkillers anyways. Then I sent TJ to find a store nearby and buy me some dry clothes because I was FREEZING and the shivering was making me feel worse. When he brought them and helped me change they actually had to change all the bedding in my room because it was soaked through and muddy. I looked like a mud monster or something.

The nurse basically thought I had sprained my ankle until she took off the temporary splint the on-site paramedics had put on me. Her diagnosis of my ankle after unwrapping it (imagine this with a thick southern accent): "Well, honey, that just don't look right!"

I think we can all agree with the nurse that the left ankle does not look right.

TJ had a laugh at that since I basically told him in the car in the past I had torn ligaments, sprained, and fractured bones and I could feel the pain of this was on the end of fracture or worse. I basically 'called it.'

Well, the x-rays came back and the doctor basically asked what the heck I had been doing and agreed that at least the story was good. I had found the perfectly wrong way to land while jumping and managed to fracture my left fibula. Clean break, all the way through.

Since it was a Saturday and they did not think I really needed surgery, though they said it was borderline for some pins, they wanted me to see an Orthopedic specialist FIRST thing the following Monday (i.e. in two days). I believe the discharge papers said "ASAP Monday." I was given crutches, a copy of my x-rays, painkillers, and told to keep my leg elevated above my heart. I also could not get the temporary cast they put on my leg wet at all. So, TJ had to help me wash all the mud out of my hair when we got home.

The temporary cast.

Overall, the Mud Fears Me race was a blast and the money went to a good cause. I would be willing to try another mud obstacle race at some point (there are many different versions with different companies), but I do not think I'll be doing the Mud Fears Me one again. It was fun, but I don't think I should tempt fate with it. Also, some of the climbing obstacles were nearly impossible with the spacing for somebody of my height (5'0"). I couldn't even reach the monkey bars from the top ladder rung. I am looking at a long recovery with the leg though, so I am going to have to basically start over with the getting back in shape and everything. My next goal is to do a color run 5k. In September my husband will be running the Air Force Marathon, and I definitely won't be able to run the marathon but I'll be able to cheer him on. When I told my dad I had a distal fibula fracture his response was "Jeeze, you'd do anything to get out of that marathon!"

I'll continue the story of the misadventures with dealing with military insurance the following week in my next blog post, along with the specialist visits and recovery so far.