peas get to climb

Saturday will be a "dog condo" building party (we'll be building some kind of shelter for the dogs to get in out of the rain when we leave them out and a storm pops up before we can get home...there will be at least two different structures) at our house so I told Adam I would be going over to the garden to weed last night instead. He told me he'd come with me. We stopped at Ace to buy some poles and twine to string up some lines for the peas to climb. I throught the green beans would need it to but they don't have any tendrils so we didn't put any up for them...seems weird to me.

While Adam and James were pounding the poles into the ground and tieing up the twine, I got busy with the "claw" a weeding implement. It is circular with twisted blades. You punch it in to the ground and twist it. It loosens the dirt and makes it much easier to pull the weeds out since the roots are already loosened.

At one point, Adam was walking around holding his hand funny. He hit his finger with the mallet while putting a pole in. A couple minutes later, he was back to work...but James was now doing the pounding while Adam was the one handing him the poles. When they were done pounding, James started tying off the twine and propping the peas up on the lowest tier. Adam took the claw from me and I got to work pulling the weeds while he clawed the dirt.

The misquitos were everywhere! I was down there with them and they were loving it! A picture of an elephant covering itself in dirt came to mind...from a nature show I watched once. They do that to keep the bugs at bay. So I took my gloves off and started rubbing dirt all over my arms. It worked pretty well too.

Adam only did a certain amount of rows since we were running out of time before the storm was moving in. He finished clawing and took some pictures before we completely lost our light.



The garden in the foreground is the smaller of the two. That one got completely weeded and it looks great! The garden I'm kneeling in is about twice the size of the front one and the furrows are run different directions from each other. You can see all the grass and weeds popping up between the furrows. We'll have to go back on Moday after work to finish up.




Because Adam was so calm and continued working, I had no idea that he had really hurt himself with the mallet. This is what he did. OUCH!! He kept his hand out of the dirt so it didn't get dirty. When we got home, he soaked it in peroxide and cleaned it up. It still hurts my stomach thinking about it. I hope he heals up fast, poor guy!

Jas had another visit to the vet

I noticed this big lump on both sides of Jasmine's incision that I hadn't seen before and I got worried about it. It was very hard. So I took Jasmine in and the vet said it is the new ligament they put in. The leg had been swollen so I hadn't seen it. The swelling has gone down and made it noticable. She checked Jasmine's knee for stability. Everything felt great. Jasmine got up and showed off her walking skills for the vet. The vet thought she was doing well and looked at her chart and saw that it hadn't been a month yet and she said that in that case, Jasmine was doing really well and was impressed. Jasmine still hopps on her one good leg in back but she puts weight on it more and more now. She didn't hop once while we were there or limp at all. Actually, she hasn't really limped when using that leg in a couple of weeks now. The incision looks really good. A couple more weeks and her life can return to normal (i.e. she'll be allowed outside as long/often as she wants with the other dogs and she can start running again). She's lost some of her conditioning though since this all started so we'll have to work a bit to bring her back up to where she was then she can join the pack on a group walk. It will be nice since it's a timesaver and everyone seems to walk better (but Jack especially) when she's along. She seems to be a calming influence on everyone.

Jasmine's recovery starts

Well, Jasmine started out healing well. But I guess the pain or itchiness started to get to her and while we were away, she pulled her stitches out. I tried bandaging it up but in the end, the knee is an impossible place to bandage so we took her in to get restitched. They put 7 staples in and gave us an Elizabethan collar.

She hates the collar. She bumps into everything and it's hard to manuver in! Poor thing was trapped behind the loveseat when I got home. I'm not really sure how she got there in the first place.

She's supposed to wear it when she's not being supervised. So I put it on her when I went to bed and Adam took it off while I slept. I put it back on right before I left for work. Adam took it off after he woke up and let her in the back yard. She came back in missing some staples. So he took her back to the vet and now she has even more staples than before. Poor girl! They don't numb her for the staples! Well, I think Adam learned his lesson (I HOPE) and she'll be in the cone when he's not watching her. They put her back on the pain medicine so she'll sleep more until she's more healed up.

Assaulted again...

Bear's claws healed fast so we didn't take any breaks from walking the next day. And again, on Wednesday, we were back out on a walk. We hadn't gotten much further than 1/4 mile when we were merrily walking down the road. Suddenly, a dog charges down his driveway. The dogs see him as he's coming at them full force and start barking and growling. He comes in for the kill...I guess Bear seems like a good target since he's putting on the best show. He and Bear were fighting it out with Jack trying to help Bear out and Tucker and Jasmine just barking. The owner, a woman, comes running when she hears the commotion. She was screaming at her dog and I was oddly calm...by that I mean I wasn't screaming my head off like a maniac as I had done on Monday. The husband comes running out to see what's going on and yells at the dog and their dog starts running to evade being captured by his owner. I am managing to keep my dogs from catching his as he circles around and around and around us and even keeping them from getting tangled around me as the dance continues. The man looked at me and said "Go and et your dogs out of here." I didn't say anything to him at first. I didn't want a smart remark to come out and make things worse. But I was thinking about how he was just lucky that I was able to hold my dogs back from charging his...after all, they had two people and one dog. I was one person with 4 dogs and mine were, under the circumstances, behaving much better than his. And he expected me to just mosey on by like I hadn't a care in the world. I finally said, "I can't." At long last, I was able to pull the dogs backward while the other dog contiuned his evasive dance around us. We finally made it far enough away from his territory that he let his guard down for a second and was captured. The dog and people quickly went inside and slammed the door shut behind them. Neither of them came back out to see if we were ok or to apologize and that made me even madder. The dogs and I were in someone's yard trying to catch our breath and settle trembling legs. Bear started holding his rear legs funny. I inspected his legs and he had ripped the rear pads up pretty good and reopened his claws. So we had a very short walk and poor Bear was too heavy for me to carry home so he had to walk. I was really mad that the

Look at how tiny his feet actually are under all that fur!

Back at home, I put Neosporin on Bear's feet and covered them up with baby socks (which we keep around for this purpose) so he couldn't lick or gnaw at his pads. With Bear, this is a neccessary thing. When he was a puppy and he was neutered, he got stitches. A couple of days later, I had him out in the yard and he was running around. I heard a yip of pain from him. The next thing I know, he is ripping out his stitches right in front of me and I couldn't get him to stop. But he was healed enough at that point that the vet didn't have to put any new ones in, lucky him.

I went to the pet store and picked up a spray can of citronella. It's in a tube like pepper spray. It sprays up to 10 feet away. So now I am armed and no more dogs had better try anything funny or I will use my new weapon...regardless of whether an owner is around or not.

We took a day off of walking last night to give him an extra day to heal. This morning, his pads were looking really good so we'll try a walk today.

Jasmine's day at the office

Jasmine's vet apopintment was for early Tuesday morning. She was walking with only a slight limp. The vet took a look at her paw and thought he could get it out easily so he would try first, then numb it if he had to do more work to get it out. It turned out to be a very easy pull and he inspected and felt around. He felt satisfied that he got it all. She got her rabies shot while she was there.

I asked him to do a quick once over on her to make sure she was still in good enough shape to be running with my bike. He listened to her heart and lungs and said they sounded great. He felt her body and was impressed by the fact that she is the perfect weight. Somehow, all our dogs have the ability to stop eating when they are full. So many dogs never learn self control when it comes to food. Recon, the police dog in Wanship, ate about 4 cups of food twice a day and he acted like he was starving every time he got food. So besides the fact that we run almost every day, Jasmine only eats what she needs so she really is the one responsible for her girlish figure. I could learn something from her...but I don't think I ever will!




The fog and sunrise made for some pretty driving to the vet's office. I love atmospheric perspective.

I didn't want Jasmine hurting her foot by jumping and running with the dogs so I took her to work with me. She laid on some blankets under my desk for a while but soon, she was bored and wanted nothing more than to go outside. She wandered into the main hall, in front of my office, and laid in front of the door for most of the rest of the day. She did get to go outside a few times for short walks and had lunch with me.

This morning, I was getting ready to leave and she actually ran upstairs, afraid she was going to have to come with me again today for another ultra boring day. I let her and Tucker outside to play and enjoy the warm morning weather.

The awful, unexpected, horrible, terrible surprise

I got home from work and let the dogs inside. We were getting ready for a walk when I noticed Jasmine wouldn't stop gnawing at her foot. I watched har walk and she seemed ok. I glanced at her foot and I didn't noticeanything off hand. So I went ahead and got everyone's harnesses on. We stepped oiutside and just a few steps into the walk ,Jasmine lifted her foot and didn't want to put any weight on it. That is no good! I lifted her paw and looked at it again. Something brown and lumpy. I thought it looked like a splinter ut I could't tll for sure. Adam came home and checked it out. Yes, a giant splinter going from one end of her big pad to the other. You could see its form under the skin of her pad. He pulled out a piece of it but it broke. The piece he got was only half of it and it was so big...way bigger than any other splinter I've ever had. Unfortunately, the vet is colsed. I put neosporin on it and wrapped it up so she can't gnaw at it and make it worse. The vet had better numb her because I was almost crying with how much pain she seemed to be in when Adam pulled the one piece out.

I took off everyone's harnesses and put them away. All the dogs are very upset that we only went to the edge of the yard and back in. They don't understand at all. Poor dogs. I wish I could take the other dogs out but I don't want Jasmine to be running around like crazy, upset she didn't get to go too....which is what happens with any of the dogs when they get left behind. No, tonight is R&R for Jasmine, and by default, the rest of them.

6 months since my accident

Well, in just a couple of days, it will be six months since my accident. I'm really happy that I no longer have any pain associated with this. A nice side effect has been that hair no longer grows in the scar...although I'm sure that will change somewhere down the line. Also, the scar is the smoothest spot of skin on me.


This picture is from the day after the accident. It was much more painful than it looks here. Adam had just finished cleaning all four of my wounds out and I was in SOOOOOO much pain. I laid down in bed and my whole body was shaking from the pain. Adam called a pharmacist after about an hour. They said I could take more pain medicine. I did and was out pretty quick. Luckily, each day, the pain got easier to bear.


I think this one was about 2 months after the accident. I was still having to wash it every day and it was still bandagedall but 2 hours a day for a little airing out. This was just after the infection was finally taken care of.


This was taken today. While it's quite big, it's not nearly as big as it was in the beginning. I am sure I'll be scarred for the rest of my life but it doesn't look as bad as I thought it was going to. Of course, when I go out into the sun to bike or walk it will become very dark, like all my scars do and will be even more noticable. Skin is greatly unappreciated but I don't think I'll evr take mine for granted again.

Leg Update

I took off my bandages and cleaned off my wound. It's shrinking and looking pretty good. I like the orange color much better than the green it used to be. The purple skin is all the damaged skin (my future scar at work). I've heard that scar tisse has a reflective quality so my leg may rival and glow stick soon. I drove out to Orem on Saturday and by the time I got home, I was really hurting. I think it has more to do with the shape of the seat. It really puts a lot of pressure on my hip/thigh knot. My calf was fine though.

I can sit and roll over

I am definitely getting better. I can sit for a short amount of time without any blankets or towels to elevate the unhurt parts. I can sit elevated for as long as I have to...20 hours in the last couple of days alone. I have woken up the last two mornings as I am rolling over onto my right side. I can't stay on it, which is why I wake up but I can stand it, it's not excruciating anymore. Even my calf seems to be doing better now. It is shrinking. I didn't think it was getting any better but then I remembered that when I first put on the 2nd skin, it almost didn't fit the length of the wound but now I can overlap the two bandages and there's still a little room. I haven't been putting the ace bandages on while I sleep or am sitting down, just while I'm walking around since my pants rub my skin and irritates everything. My leg appreciates not being constricted now. It may be taking a long time, but I am getting there.

I went out and pulled weeds for awhile today. I got to the poppy bed and decided that they would make a good decoration so I was pulling them out as softly as I could so I wouldn't break any stems. (By the way, did you know that poppy seed oil is the best oil for oil lamps? It burns clean and odorless.) I got a nice big pile of them laying in the driveway. While I was pulling them out, I noticed a large swarm of bees on the pump house next to me. They were crawling all over each other. I glanced at them every few seconds and they never seemed too bothered by me. I would watch one fly away and make sure it wasn't coming after me before I would get back to work. I didn't have the heart to kill them...I just can't do it knowing the problems bee colonies are having in recent years. And besides, someday I may have a bee skep or two of my own so I may as well get used to working close to them. Oh and in the process of gathering the poppies, I got lots of teeny, tiny little thorns stuck in my arms. I had to soak them in hot water to get them out. I already learned my lesson last year while pulling them out but it was hot so I thought I'd just be as careful as I could be....and I was. Somehow they managed to find me anyway.

Since my injury, I've been relying on the tv to alleviate boredom and every waking hour, it has been on. It got really bad. There really aren't many good shows on, ever. So, today I decided that unless there was something on that I actually cared about seeing, I would keep the tv off. I reintroduced the radio into the house. Adam found a good radio station that we could get in the house while working on the suburban this past week. Since we've moved here, I haven't been able to listen to the radio. All the clear stations I found were not my kind of music. It's so great to have the radio back again. I love music and it's so much better than the tv. Right now though, I have neither on.

I cleaned the living/kitchen area this week. I haven't done much cleaning this past month and a half and it has been driving me nuts but I just couldn't motivate myself to tackle it. I set a timer for 20 minutes. I got as much done in those 20 minutes as possible then moved to another area for anther 20 minutes. I cleaned 4 areas that way. Everything that didn't belong in those areas, I put in one big pile. The next day, I gave myself 20 minutes to put everything away. Now I'm so pleased (Adam bought and replaced the belt in the vacuum while he was here, it broke the same time I did). Even the carpets have been vacuumed and rugs have been beat clean. And since I'm alone right now, it's very easy to maintain!

Should you blindly trust your doctor?

When I went to my doctor 2 weeks ago, I told him what I was doing. I scrub every night with a sodium chloride solution, letit dry for a little while, put on some neosporion and bandage it back up until the next night when I do it again. Despite the infection that had set in in the surrounding tissue, he said it looked great and that I was doing everything just right. "Keep doing what you're doing, take the antibioticsa and come back in two weeks so I can make sure everything is healing properly." So I have an appointment for Monday. I got the information on how to take care of the wounds from the nurse at the doctor's office, the pharmacist (on what to use to clean it) and my knowledge of basic treatment so I can't blame it all on the doctor but I have been doing exactly as I had been since it was "perfect".

Adam told all his coworkers about my accident and a woman from Boise called him on Friday and talked to him. 6 months ago, she fell off of a ladder and cracked her leg open to the bone. They told her to do pretty much what I've been doing and she was doing it. It got infected so they put her on antibiotics but told her to keep doing what she was doing. And she did, for a while. But the infection got so bad, the doctor started talking about the need for amputation. So she found a wound specialist (I have never heard of sucha thing) and told him what she had been doing to take care of it. He said that basically, it was he wrong thing to be doing. He told her what she needed to do. She's still wounded but it's no longer infected. So Adam came home and talked to me about it and told me I should do some online research about how to treat road rash.

I looked a number of sites and they all agreed that letting it scab over is outdated...that's one of the worst things to do because it results in scarring and it takes longer to heal and it's what causes all the itching during healing. Also, they all agreed that scrubbing is also outdated as it aggrivates the wound and does more damage and it takes longer to heal.

So what AM I suposed to do?

Treat it more like burn than a scratch. Initially, you have to do as much scrubbing as it takes to get the road grit and everything else out of it but that should be the only hard scrubbing you ever do on it.

So here is what should have been doing all along and I would be healed by now:
1. Clean wound with a Sodium Chloride solution (yeah me) lightly removing, with a guaze pad, the tissue trying to form a scab (exudites I think they're called).
2. Blot dry with surgical guaze sponges.
3. Apply Carrasyn V gel or Silver Sulfadiazine (both are burn creams).
4. Cover with burn treatment pads (2nd Skin, Tegaderm and Bioclusive are the ones named and 2nd Skin was rated the best)
5. Hold in place with some conforming guaze roll.
6. Use surgilast to hold it all in place.

The wounds need to be cleaned daily. Followig this from the beginning, most road rash heals in 10 days, more severe rash can take 2-3 weeks to heal...with minimum scarring.

I trust doctors pretty well. But I really need to take a more active part in my own medical care...get myself informed and make sure I'm doing the best thing for my body.


Oh,oh, oh...one more thing. I learned a handy tip from the best site I found. Leave your bandagig on and wrap the site with saran wrap and take a quick shower. Dry off, then remove the sarn wrap. I can take a shower again!!!! :o)

Discouraged...and bored

I'm getting really discouraged about my leg. It's been just over three weeks since my accident and I still have a large knot on my right hip. Both my hip and calf are infected and I'm not sure, despite being on my second round of antibiotics for over a week now, that it's going away. I am so sick of laying on my left side that I gingerly tried laying on my right side but the big bruised knot wouldn't allow it. I still have to scrub them every night and though my hip is getting much better, the calf stings more than ever when I do it. I've gone through over $200 in medical supplies and I'm not finished yet. The most annoying part is that I have all this forced free time and I can't even go visit anyone or go window shopping. I wish I could just hop on my bike and take a nice, leisurely ride. But I can't...I have to stay home.

When Adam came back, he brought along an afghan I started working on a year ago and haven't really touched in almost as long. I started working on it again and it's helping to aleviate some of my boredom. It's really just in the beginning stages. It's going to be large enough to be on a king sized bed if I ever finish it so I have a very long way to go....it'll will surely still be a work in progress when I am up and about again.

Adam is having some medical problems too. When he was in GA, he went to his oncologist for his yearly check up and it was discovered that his thyroid is hyperactive so he needs an ultrasound of his thyroid to figure out what's going on. He's going to try to schedule an appointment for that while he's still in UT with me.

Other than that, Adam cooked dinner and bought ice cream for dessert last night so I guess life isn't all bad.

Crash and burn at Soldier Hollow

The ride started off well enough. I parked behind the visitor's center in Heber and rode out toward Midway. I really had no idea where I was headed. I found Old Town Heber which had some art galleries, an antique shop and a restaurant made from old looking buildings...my kind of place. I had nice views of the mountains. I was going to try to make it to Cascade Sprnigs but the road was steep and turned into gravel. I had no traction at all so I gave up on that idea and headed to Wasatch Mountain State Park. I ended up in Soldier Hollow (where they held the 2002 winter Olympics). I made my way onto the paved cross country ski trails. There was a very cute one-room cabin in the center (if I could buy it and live there, I think I would). I finished one loop and decided to do one more loop to see if I could get a good picture of the cabin. No such luck. :o( I was almost back to the gate when I took a sharp turn going too fast and ended up sliding down the asphalt getting a good case of road rash and a huge bruise on my hip. 2 weeks later, I can now walk around, sit (in a chair crowded with towels and blankets to let my right leg float) and I even drove a short distance last night just to see. It was very uncomfortable but I could do it. A bad ending to am otherwise beautiful ride which may end my riding in Utah...we'll see.