Maggiepaws

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

DogPants: Cleared for takeoff!!

DogPants: Cleared for takeoff!!

Friday, June 16, 2006


Just when Chris thought he was done being a couch potato...

Second Time's the Charm!

Hi everybody,

Well, the surgery is over and done with and everything went really well. The original plan was to pull a tendon out of Chris's wrist and put it in his thumb. What happens when tendons usually rupture is that they fray which makes it hard to just re-attach them. When the doctor got in there and looked at Chris's tendon, that wasn't the case. There was scar tissue around it which kept it together pretty well. He cleaned it up and re-attached it. So...no need to go into his wrist! That was a releif to hear. There is only one small incision, and from the sounds of it, Chris should heal from this nicely! At first doctor was unsure as to when Chris's tendon ruptured. Apparently, with a trauma like this, it can happen weeks afterwards. The doctor said that from the looks of it, it definately happened when Chris had his accident. It looked like it had gotten mixed up in the damage there. When they did the surgery today, he had to file the bone down a little where Chris's tendon runs over the top of his wrist so that it would move smoothly over that bone. I'm sure that won't feel so good once all of the good drugs wear off... They did a "nerve block" where they basically completely numb his right arm. It lasts for 12 hours, and Chris is a BIG fan of this option after having it done in the hospital when he went though this before! He is feeling no pain. They did a local anesthetic on top of that. He spent most of the afternoon sleeping it all off. Now he is awake and looks to be feeling pretty good. This is so much less traumatic from the last time he had surgery. They have every hope that he will be ready to go back to work Monday. He may be a little slowed down in what he can do, but he should be feeling well enough. Thanks for all of the good wishes and prayers. We both REALLY appreciate it. We hope that this is the beginning of the end. Just physical therapy to go through for a while, and then Chris can get on with life as usual!

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Chris' Recovery Blog

I've remade my maps and GPS blog into a place to document my recovery. It's still at DogPants.blogspot.com. I hope you come and visit!

Tuesday, June 06, 2006


Since Chris's hands are swollen enough it is hard to see, I took a picture of my own hand to show what tendon has ruptured.


Chris, demonstrating the same thing. You can see that that tendon is missing.

More Surgery...

Chris went back to the doctor today to get more x-rays done and see how things are healing. He has done about a month of physical therapy, and all seems to be going well except his right thumb has been causing him problems. He has not been able to get much movement back in it, and has had a lot of pain. His physical therapist thought right away that maybe he had ruptured a tendon. We mentioned this to the doctor today, and sure enough, after thoroughly checking Chris out, that is in fact what has happened. He will never get his dexterity back in that thumb unless they operate on it and repair the damage. The surgery will be next Friday (June 16) at 10:45am. Please pray for him! They will take a tendon from his wrist and put it in his thumb. There is a muscle in your arm that attaches to this particular tendon that will have to be stretched back in place. Fortunately, it is an out-patient surgery, so no more nights in the hospital. The goal is for him to have the surgery Friday, recover over the weekend, and then hopefully be back at work on Monday. They had a physical therapist in the office that talked with us and the doctor. The doctor was pretty set on Chris having to wear another cast for a while as he heals after the surgery. The physical therapist talked him down to a splint so he can keep on with his physical therapy and not lose all the hard work he has put into his other fingers/wrist. Chris is pretty disappointed over all. We both really thought we were on the downhill side of all of this. Hopefully this will be it though as far as the major things go. Check back on Friday or Saturday of next week. I will post after he gets back home so you can hear how it went.


Here is Maggo enjoying the new garden!


Perennials we planted...

"Nobody's grass is as green as ours..." - Unknown

We had a fun weekend putting some major finishing touches on the back yard. Chris has marked off the whole back corner of the yard for a seating area and perennial garden. We finally put it all together, and we are just so excited with how it turned out!! The neighbors keep coming over to check it out, which totally boosts our egos. We put in a firepit, a bench and two chairs, and got a great start on a perennial garden. We went to Lowes and Wal Mart and went through the rows and rows of plants to find only those that are perennials, and that require little to no mositure (PERFECT for Colorado!) We found lots of interesting thinks like Phlox, Bishop's Bush, Juniper, Navajo Butterfly Bush, and Rosie's favorite: Catmint! We still have a ways to go with filling out the space, but it feels good to have a strong start on it. We plan to continue to add plants, and maybe some of the torch lanterns. (I think someone should talk to my husband becuase he seems to be obsessed with the fire things...) Anyhoo, enjoy the pictures, and feel free to stop by sometime to have a beer out of the kegerator and sit and enjoy it in the garden!

And PS - Our grass is coming up like you would not belive! You can see a little of it in the picture!

Monday, June 05, 2006

RSS Feeds

I just figured out that our blog supports RSS feeds. This allows you to make a bookmark, or "favorite" for you Internet Explorer users, that will update itself to show you the latest posts. It sounds confusing until you try it. It works really well in Firefox; I don't use IE so I can't comment on that. To create the bookmark/favorite, click the RSS icon in the address bar. It looks like one of these:



Also, I restored the custom template to it's former glory! Yea paws! If you still get the old green background, try reloading/refreshing the page.

Saturday, June 03, 2006

We're bad bloggers :(

Since we don't update this with any regularity, anyone who would like to be notified via e-mail when the site is updated should send an e-mail address to either Sarah or me.

SarahMo10 (at) Aol.com
chris (at) chriswilkerson.net

doing our best to keep you informed

The Before Pictures

Short post. These are the xrays from April 11 when I crashed. I hadn't seen the inside pictures until about a week ago, so it was pretty shocking. Penrose Hospital provided these to me on a cd; I had to promise our first born to the other doctor to get those xrays. Scanned them in with dissapointing results. These are much better. Enjoy!




























Checkout the Livestrong bracelet. How cool is that?

Scene of the Crime


While mark was out here visiting, we decided to hike the trail that I crashed my bike on. I don't think we could have picked a hotter day to hike in the desert (which Colorado pretty-much is, don't let the green license plates fool you). Sarah and Maggie went too. We took lots of water, but Maggs still seemed to get too hot. We think she burned her feet also, as she was limping later that evening. Anyway, it was quite a climb up to where the downhill started, about a mile and a half. It was good to start downhill, except that I was beginning to feel a little anxious. When we got to the place where I crashed, my heart was beating pretty fast. I kept playing what I could remember back in my mind. I was relieved to move past that section.
We were all grateful to get back to the car and the air-conditioning. Especially Maggie. I told her not to wear black.

Congratulations Mark!

My brother Mark graduated from high school a little while ago! Sarah and I drove out to Kansas City to see everyone and to attend the ceremony. It was a lot of fun being back at home and getting to see the grandparents. Maggie even got to go for a swim at the lake. We could hardly get her out of the water.















We came back to Colorado the day after the graduation, and brought Mark back with us. It was fun having him out. We took a hike on the trail where I crashed my bike, and Sarah's parents had us up to their house for a really nice dinner one night.




















Mark was selected to play in the US Army band, and he leaves for boot-camp on the 29th. Best wishes and luck to Mark; take care of yourself and keep us posted.